this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2026
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RoughRomanMemes

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A place to meme about the glorious ROMAN EMPIRE (and Roman Republic, and Roman Kingdom)! Byzantines tolerated! The HRE is not.

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Brexit: The Prequel (infosec.pub)
submitted 2 days ago by PugJesus@piefed.social to c/roughromanmemes@piefed.social
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[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 27 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Explanation: Just memeing! Roman Britain was actually abandoned by the Late Roman Empire in 410 AD, despite Briton pleas for them to, you know, NOT abandon them to the migrating barbarian tribes.

... the Roman Empire in 410 AD was not in good straits, and would finish its total collapse even in Italy in 476 AD.

Britain, for its part, did revert to a pretty brutally low level of subsistence with the oncoming waves of Germanic invaders. Same as in much of the rest of the former Western Roman Empire, the collapse of material technology and social complexity was near-total, with even common and necessary things like pottery reverting to pre-iron age standard of quality and quantity, and not recovering for several centuries.

The "Dark Ages" is no longer preferred as a term, because the name itself prejudices examination, and the fact that it was by no means a lack of intelligence or spirit of innovation which made the period fall so far. But make no mistake - the fall of the Roman Empire, even in its late, most degraded form, was disastrous for nearly everyone involved.

[–] TachyonTele@piefed.social 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

"Dark" just means we don't have any records from that era, doesn't it?

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 18 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Both usages ("backwards/ignorant" and "literally obscured") are common and have a long history, but both usages are generally avoided in modern academia because of how ingrained the prejudice of "Dark Ages" as a time of aggressive ignorance is in popular cultural conception.

[–] TachyonTele@piefed.social 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Makes sense. That's true too, we do associate ignorance with the dark ages.
Probably because we don't know much about the time.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

We know much more than we did, tbf! There are still a lot of gaps compared to before-and-after, but the study of the Early Middle Ages is quite dynamic and fascinating these days!

[–] TachyonTele@piefed.social 3 points 2 days ago

I've seen Bill and Teds Excellent homework assignment, lots of good lessons and history in that one

[–] Akasazh@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm what manner was it disastrous? I meant a couple of plagues happened, but the romans themselves weren't immune.

But for the regular farmer, did the Rexit bring disaster?

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 5 points 2 days ago

But for the regular farmer, did the Rexit bring disaster?

Yes, actually! This used to be a more debated point, with a strong (if still minority) view arguing for material stagnation (or even improvement) rather than decline after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, but since the 80s that's been largely quieted by archeological data. Even taking just the transition from the immensely degraded Late Empire (4th-5th century AD), and not the more-prosperous-and-functional Principate (1st-3rd century AD), there was a massive and sustained decrease in living standards.

As the above comment mentions, even things as basic as pottery were set back - imagine going from owning iron and bronze cookware (valuable, of course!) and eating off of terracotta plates, to having one clay pot for cooking. And you can't heat it too much, or it'll crack. And the pot leaks if the soup is left in too long, because the only place still making non-porous pottery is halfway across (what-used-to-be) the province and doing so with much reduced supply and demand, no other supply sources/competitors, increased prices, and the ever-lingering uncertainty of the existence of a stable market in your little corner of, say, Spain.

This works for everything from tools to building materials to architectural design to furniture to hunting equipment. Not even getting into questions of abstracts, like road maintenance, security, or the luxuries market.