In an article published by the German newspaper Die Welt, commentator Daniel Eckert said that Europe is witnessing a decadence similar to the fall and collapse of the Roman Empire.
According to him, there are many consecutive coincidences that combine the history of the collapse of ancient Rome and the crisis of the European Union, which is deepening and developing.
The first of these signs, according to the author of the article, is a period of inflation that has hit a previously stable currency. “In the Roman Empire, money did not depreciate for about two and a half centuries,” the article stated, “but then devaluation turned the social order upside down.” Currency devaluation began in the second century AD, almost immediately after the epidemic. Before that, the Roman currency, the dinar, had been very stable in value over the centuries.
The author believes that “epidemics in particular constitute the second factor – the Antonine plague spread throughout the Roman Empire and beyond its borders, before the period of inflation arrived.”
He added: “It is difficult to determine exactly how the plague affected the growth of prices in the empire, just as it is difficult to determine the number of victims. According to available data, one in ten people died in urban centers. The empire, And the army lost a third of those in its field camps.”
He continued: “It is certain and leaves no doubt that the monetary and economic system is no longer the same after the Antonine epidemic, and perhaps because politicians were increasingly trying to regulate prices.”
Source: Lebanon Debate
