Rome

History is full of nations and even whole civilizations that have fallen from the heights to destitution and disintegration.

The Roman Empire is a classic example, but the great ancient Chinese dynasties, the Ottoman Empire and many others have met the same fate.

These were not just political "changes." They were historic catastrophes from which whole peoples did not recover for centuries.

It has been estimated that it was a thousand years before Europeans again achieved as high a standard of living as they had in Roman times. The Dark Ages were called dark for a reason.

— Thomas Sowell; Dismantling America

The fall of the Roman Empire was not just a matter of changing rulers or political systems. It was the collapse of a whole civilization— the destruction of an economy, the breakdown of law and order, the disappearance of many educational institutions.

— Thomas Sowell; Dismantling America