I don’t see many lefties talk about pre-modern history outside of colonialism so I am curious as to how Marxists view it.
The fall of the Roman Empire wasn’t one singular event but a series of events spanning from what I can tell starts at Third Century Crisis to its final climax at Constinantinople in 1453.
Parenti’s book is excellent and I think feeds well into the theories that Hudson has about this topic, though I havent delved into his books specifically on it yet.
I think the main gist of it though is that the rise of Greek/Roman society marked the end of pro-debtor economic practices such as debt jubilees and regular land reform. Someone smarter and more well read than me should correct if I’m wrong but I believe he tries to detail a common thread of pro-creditor policy becoming dominate to the point of ruin in western society. The Roman Empire did not fall due to any specific events but rather the accumulation of economic mismanagement in service to the ruling classes that rotted the very core of the superstructure of these societies, to which there are obvious parallels to today.
Right, Hudson covered the transition away from debt jubilees in his pre-Roman-era book, …and forgive them their debts: Lending, Foreclosure and Redemption — From Bronze Age Finance to the Jubilee Year