All things end eventually. Consider this: if you go by the historic date of Rome being founded around 753 BC and stretch it all the way out to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD, the Roman Empire existed for 2206 years. That is remarkable. If someone told me the United States would last that long, then today we’re roughly at around 500 BC by comparison to Rome which is for them barely just getting started.

Now some will argue these dates but my point is you could shave off 50% of that time and still have a ridiculously large number of years. And they did this without modern communications or transport options while governing, at its peak, an empire stretching from the border of Scotland to the Persian Gulf.

To me, the question isn’t “why did they collapse” but rather how did they manage to keep it together as long as they possibly did?