Note 251 — Chapter XXIII · THE RETURN OF THE EMPEROR

Well known, of course, is the famous dictum of Gibbon (“Decline and Fall of Roman Empire”: vol. i, chap. 2. Bury edition, p. 78): “If a man were called to fix the period during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus.” From the standpoint of a believer in aristocracy or monarchy this opinion is largely justifiable.