began

A lot atten­tion has been paid to the autumn of the Roman Empire, by each­one from august his­to­ri­ans like Edward Gib­bon to mod­ern-day observers wring­ing their arms over the destiny of the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca. However as each Rome enthu­si­ast is aware of, that lengthy col­lapse con­sti­tutes only one chap­ter — or somewhat, a collection…