Adrian Murdoch on The Cato Journal’s attempt to blame excessive government for Rome’s decline:
The corn crisis which hit Antioch in 362 had been two and a half years in the making and had nothing to do with a debased currency. The local economy had been under strain as emperors kept using the city as headquarters for campaigning in the east. The stress that army occupation placed on the city, was not eased by a series of bad harvests. It was scarcity and demand that caused prices to double that summer; the free market at work.