In the second century of the Christian era, the Empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and most civilised portion of mankind.... ....its genenius wa humbled in the dust; and armies of unknown Barbarians issuing from the frozen regions of the North, had established their victorious reign over the fairest provinces of Europe and Africa. ...the vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works...buries empires and cities in a common grave. ---------------Edward Gibbon