Financial crises and renewal of empires

Financial crises, which are currently perceived as the dark side of economic cycles, also represent one of the most obvious remedies to the decline of empires. Paradoxically, far-ranging economic crises have not necessarily accelerated the downfall of civilizations. The times of economic crises, whose apparent calamities weaken the Empires, can prove periods of renewal. In Hellenistic Greece and early modern Venice, the economic difficulties have not been sharp enough to favour the emergence of a new elite capable of slowing down the decline of the Empires. In Rome and Byzantium on the reverse, the spectacular financial crises have spawned the emergence of a new military elite. This new-born aristocracy, spared from nihilism thanks to its culture of realities and devoted to the protection of life, has skilfully exploited the difficulties generated by the crisis, thus enabling the renaissance of Empires.