On: Lead poisoning probably did not cause the downfall...

[thaumasiotes]

> It’s not like everyone died or disappeared.

Except it's exactly like that. Huge numbers of people died; population cratered.

[panick21_ → thaumasiotes]

That actually happened 100s of years after the political fall of the empire and it also happened to a large extent in the East where the empire persisted.

So the political fall of the West as the primary factor in de-urbanization is not really a good argument.

[thaumasiotes → panick21_]

> it also happened to a large extent in the East where the empire persisted.

This would be a stronger argument if the Eastern and Western Empires had been economically segregated from each other.