Good time of day, humans!
We’ve been talking a lot about current events, now it’s time to think about the empire.
Transcript:
Rat: — You know, I think it was people who didn’t return carts that brought down the Roman Empire.
Rat's Human: — That’s strange. How on earth could it have happened?
Rat: — First you get cart races, then hippodrome parties appear, and it’s only downhill from there.
To be honest, there’s not much evidence of Romans using shopping carts of any kind (cheap labor was abundant after all), but races were immensely important in Rome and Constantinople, and some say hippodrome parties gave rise to the modern political party system. And some would even say hippodrome parties never really went away.
Some reading:
Chariot Racing In The Roman Empire: Speed, Fame, and Politics
Blue versus Green: Rocking the Byzantine Empire
I had always thought the downfall of the Roman Empire occurred because the cart was placed in front of the horse.
The Roman Empire never fell, it simply went underground. All rats know this because that is what they did too.