>>62267394Basically a combination of:
1) Migrating tribes fucking up the Western Roman Empire
2) A bunch of plauges
3) (Admittedly later) Cetnuries of devastating war with the Sassanids that left both the Eastern Romans and the Sassinids open to a strong, coordinated assault by an unexpected new enemy (the Muslims)
And fuck off, the Romans were mega jews. One of the original triumvirate (Crassus) got rich by going to houses on fire, buying the place and then putting out the fire and renting it back to the old owners. The only Mediterranean culture you could conceivably argue that for would be the Spartans, and they got bum fucked out of existence long before the rise of Rome