I seem to remember a lecture by Michael Parenti where he pointed out that, towards the end of the Empire, a lot of the Germanic tribes had evolved a higher stage of production (feudalism) than the Romans. In other words, the “barbarians” who conquered Rome were in some ways more advanced than the Romans with their outdated and inefficient slave state.
The “Barbarians” were often defined by simply being “not Roman,” similar to how the modern west describes other nations as “uncivilised” simply because they aren’t western enough.
I seem to remember a lecture by Michael Parenti where he pointed out that, towards the end of the Empire, a lot of the Germanic tribes had evolved a higher stage of production (feudalism) than the Romans. In other words, the “barbarians” who conquered Rome were in some ways more advanced than the Romans with their outdated and inefficient slave state.
The “Barbarians” were often defined by simply being “not Roman,” similar to how the modern west describes other nations as “uncivilised” simply because they aren’t western enough.