[Instead] of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long.
Edward Gibbon (1840). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”
![[Instead] of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long.](http://cdn.quoteddaily.com/images/edward-gibbon/instead-of-inquiring-why-the-roman-empire-was-destroyed-we-should-rather-be-surprised-that-it-had-subsisted-so-long.jpg)
[Instead] of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long.