Talented. Most of those despots were corrupt Nero types by that point, but a few of those despots like Aurealis actually did some good. It just always went back to the corrupt officials. It always does.
Boomers. No one else trusts TV. Though Millennials and Zoomers probably need their favorite youtuber and tiktoker to tell them instead.
Rome should have collapsed in the third century but a few really talented people gave them another 200 years of life.
People want some big flashy thing that unfolds in a matter of days. Truth is that collapses are slow, ugly affairs that can happen over years, decades, in the case of Rome centuries.
Historians will look at this and argue about when the collapse started.
Notes by DePLORible Generate | export