The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness…; the cause of the destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and, as soon as time or accident and removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric [the Roman government] yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of the ruin is simple and obvious: and instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed we should rather be surprised that it has subsisted for so long. ^[1]

 

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Page Notes:

^[1] Source: Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776.

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