The impressive structure of the Roman Empire was white-anted by a vast slave population. The decline and decay of the Empire was accompanied by the increasing demand of the slave population for bread and circuses. Our own situation today is in some respects strangely parallel.

The Roman Empire was to all outward appearances an impregnable institution. Wherever the Roman armies had extended their sway, roads and aqueducts, law and order, had followed as a matter of course. The excavations at Pompeil, and more recent excavations elsewhere, have revealed the existence, of such modern amenities as plumbing and sanitation, running water, and internal heating.