>>513159263
>while mainland Europeans live like niggers
Tell you what, the average citizen of the roman empire had a worse life than people not on the roman empire, or on any other empire. An empire is just a pyramidal system of taxation where local lords collect taxes and pass along some percentage, concentrating wealth in one class (the roman patricians) who could have luxury. You need a high ratio of slaves/patrician for it to work.
Free peoples in contrast could keep 100% of their productivity. Things like aqueducts dont make your life better when you could simply live near a river, but then you cant be controlled so easily. All roman works were just a system of control and exploitation, and made things worse for everyone except patricians.
Its not like roman citizens had antibiotics or electricity or any modern material comfort. They lived with the same tech as "barbarians" but had to pay taxes