The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire – was written ""with a tiny bit of cribbin' / from the works of Edward Gibbon"". In 1995, an established journal of classical scholarship, "Classics Ireland", published punk musician's Iggy Pop's reflections on the applicability of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" to the modern world in a short article, "Caesar Lives", (vol. 2, 1995) in which he notedAmerica is Rome. Of course, why shouldn't it be? We are all Roman children, for better or worse ... I learn much about the way our society really works, because the system-origins – military, religious, political, colonial, agricultural, financial –
Historiography of the fall of the Western Roman Empire argues that the severe fall in population left the state apparatus and army too large for the population to support, leading to further economic and social decline that eventually killed the Western Empire. The Eastern half survived due to its larger population, which even after the plagues was sufficient for an effective state apparatus. Archaeology has revealed that from the 2nd century onward, the inhabited area in most Roman towns and cities grew smaller and smaller. Imperial laws concerning "agri deserti", or deserted lands, became increasingly common and desperate. The economic collapse of the 3rd century may also be evidence