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
Historiography of the British Empire the first British Empire" (2008); Piers Brendon, "The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781–1997" (2008), and Phillip J. Smith, "The Rise And Fall Of The British Empire: Mercantilism, Diplomacy and the Colonies" (2015). There were also large-scale popular histories, such as those by Winston Churchill, "A History of the English-Speaking Peoples" (4 vol. 1956–58) and Arthur Bryant, "The History of Britain and the British Peoples" (3 vols. 1984–90). Obviously from their titles a number of writers have been inspired by the famous "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (6 vols 1776–1781) by Edward