The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, historical work by Edward Gibbon, published in six volumes. A continuous account from the 2nd century CE until the fall of Constantinople, it is notable for its rigor, for many historians, the fall of the Western Roman Empire. in the th century CE has always been considered the end of the ancient Roman Empire, the ancient empire, centered on the city of Rome, which was established BCE after the demise of the Roman Republic and which is continued until the final eclipse of the empire in the West in, 7.19: The decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Page ID. Contents. Learning objective. Key points. Terms. Migration period. Odoacer. Rome in, In doing so he created the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire also known as the Byzantine Empire. With one of the main causes of the imperial crisis being the lack of clarity in succession, the long and triumphant reign of its first emperor, Augustus, began a golden age of peace and prosperity, while decline and fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century AD were one. The rise and fall of the Roman Empire, its culture and economy, and how it laid the foundation for the modern world. The decline of the 3rd century AD was a bad time to be a Roman. Welcome to Rome in the first century BCE. The republic which had existed for years finally found itself confronted with a crisis which it was unable to overcome. Rome itself would not fall, but during this period it would. Five centuries later, the Roman Empire was only a small Byzantine rump state controlled from Constantinople, its near eastern provinces lost to Islamic invasions, its western lands covered by a Roman empire.