Dwarkesh

And do you think that we're not for –

this 60% mortality event, plus the fact that I think we haven't even discussed yet this super severe cold snap.

Do you think that the Roman Empire might have otherwise just kept going?

Because you discussed there were these two previous other big pandemics.

The empire still survives.

I think Will Durant had this quote that the Roman Empire fell for longer than most empires have lasted.

Right.

So do you think like, you know, be similar to China, maybe there were maybe a dynasty collapses, but fundamentally the same sort of cohesive nation reemerges?

Yeah.

Okay, so one of the things I found really interesting was you were discussing the firsthand accounts of

As this big – and by the way, feel free to explain the cold snap as well as it's happening.

But the first 10 accounts of people who are experiencing this, some of whom come from this burgeoning Christian faith, which already lends itself to millenarianism and apocalyptic thinking.

I'm curious basically how did different people try to make sense of –

Like this once-in-a-thousand-year event that's super kind of like just intense.

I found your early chapters in the book about what the Roman economy was like in this happy period quite interesting.

So –

There's a bunch of questions I have about this.

If you read Gibbon writing in the 1770s, I think he says in the 1770s that if you want to look at the happiest time in human history, you go back to this period you're talking about.

This is true, at least according to him, as of a couple centuries ago.

This is still peak civilization.