Referenced in: [[2021.12.15a Deserts are cool]] > Nomads were in general much better fed and led easier, longer lives than the inhabitants of the large agricultural states. There was a constant drain of peoples escaping from China to the realms of the eastern steppe, where they did not hesitate to proclaim the superiority of the nomad lifestyle. Similarly, many Greeks and Romans joined the Huns and other Central Eurasian peoples, where they lived better and were treated better than they had been back home. > <cite>— Christopher Beckwith</cite> <blockquote class=paraphrase>The purpose of the Great Wall(s) was as much to keep the Chinese taxpayers inside as to block barbarian incursions and that, nonetheless, a great many taxpaying Han cultivators had "distanced themselves" from state space — especially during times of political and economic disorder — and "attached themselves quite readily to barbarian rulers." <br><br> <cite>— Owen Lattimore</cite> </blockquote> ![[The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber & David Wengrow#Location 424]]