From what I've read, the best years were during the "Five Good Emperors" period, so about a century, but even during the civil unrest periods things were OK if you stayed in your villa with your slaves and vineyards (OK relative to the poor, of course).

> but even during the civil unrest periods things were OK if you stayed in your villa with your slaves and vineyards

Well, I mean, this is if you happened to be very rich. Also, of course, for quite a bit of the period it put you in the firing line for proscription, and other Rich Roman Hazards. Particularly after the end of the Republic, the Roman Empire tended to be a fairly hazardous place for rich people; odds were good that you'd end up, at least passively, on the Wrong Side at some point.

Getting really strong "why dont they just eat cake" vibes from this post

This phraseology is still just barely disguised insinuation. Insinuation bad. Make a real, good faith point.

I was trying to make a joke, not a point. I guess I missed the mark.

Same here.

I'm currently listening around the final years of the Flavian dynasty and I'm wondering when these "couple hundred years of wine, revelry and decadence [in the post-Augustian Empire]" are supposed to arrive.