History of the Roman Empire founder of the brief Flavian dynasty, to be followed by the Nerva–Antonine dynasty which produced the "Five Good Emperors": Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and the philosophically inclined Marcus Aurelius. In the view of the Greek historian Dio Cassius, a contemporary observer, the accession of the emperor Commodus in 180 AD marked the descent "from a kingdom of gold to one of rust and iron"—a famous comment which has led some historians, notably Edward Gibbon, to take Commodus' reign as the beginning of the decline of the Roman Empire. In 212, during the reign of Caracalla, Roman citizenship was granted
The Fall of the American Empire (), Arcand announced in March that the film would be retitled "The Fall of the American Empire" to better reflect how the story developed. The new title was reminiscent of his 1986 "The Decline of the American Empire". Arcand said a theme would be how corruption can spread from the United States to Canada, which he said relies on "Pax Americana", a theme explored in "The Decline of the American Empire" and "The Barbarian Invasions" (2003). In his view, the U.S. had long been suffering and Quebec was affected. He analogized the current situation with the presidency of Donald Trump