more significantly in the mother city, added another
aspect to the many sided pressures. As there was no legal
means of determining the succession, the end of each
imperial reign offered the probability of military intervention.

7. Deification of emperors, during the era of the Caesars,
led to the denigration and degradation of the common
man. The fact that the common men of Rome were more
and more likely to be poor slaves furthered the process
and deepened the abyss between the haves and have-nots.

8. Among the forces of disintegration operating in Rome
none was more potent and more decisive than the numerical
growth of the military and the increasing probability
that any one of the growing contradictions and conflicts
would lead to intervention by the military. Roman emperors
were dictators and their retention of authority
was increasingly decided by the legions which were
willing and able to fight for the perpetuation and extension
of their authority.

9. The extensive, complicated, elaborate structure of Roman
civilization involved a persistent and implacable rise of
overhead costs of food and raw materials, of production,
of transportation, of the bureaucracy, including the military.
The area of Roman civilization increased arithmetically.
Overhead costs rose geometrically. They were
expressed in an empty treasury, rising taxes, inflation,
expropriation, the degradation of the currency.