ABSTRACT
Melancholy pervaded the last years of the Roman Empire and it never disappeared. The Empire gave future generations their sense of destiny. Rome shaped the past and the future of western Europeans and through them most of the world. After a dramatic entrance following the Second Punic War, Rome would teeter on the edge of collapse but always reemerged. Marius's reform of 107 B.C. made sense, for the ranks of the army were difficult to replenish as long as the old eligibility requirements were maintained. The third century A.D. was a most turbulent period. Barbarian tribes— more numerous, better organized, and more proficient in the art of war than in the past—pierced the empire's border. The end of the Roman Empire coincided with population decline, polarization of society, corruption at the highest levels, disappearance of the civic sense, and perhaps even the appearance of Christianity, which emphasized peace over military glory.
