> opting for authoritarianism before eventually the center can't hold any more and it all collapses in on itself It all depends on what you define as the colla

> opting for authoritarianism before eventually the center can't hold any more and it all collapses in on itself It all depends on what you define as the collapse of the Roman Empire, but the earliest sensible candidate date would be about four and a half centuries after the population 'opted' for authoritarianism (which wasn't much of a choice for anyone btw). People need to stop making senseless historical comparisons.