In a world of ever expanding empires—the Egyptian, the Babylonian, the Assyrian, and the Macedonian—the ancient empire of Rome was territorially the largest and temporally the most enduring. From west to east it stretched over some three thousand miles and lasted for almost a millennium, achieving legendary success before finally succumbing to internal corruption and barbarian invasion. The study of both Rome’s rise to power and of its fall into impotence is indispensable for those who, like the American founders, seek to establish a lasting and limited government—a government that will also someday face its own decline. . . .