Glazed over eyes, thinning hairline; Mr. Pringle remembered back to when he first started as mascot all those years ago - life seemed so full of promise. Now he found himself stuck in middle age - his wife doesn’t listen to him anymore, he’s begun dying his graying mustache black. As he stared blankly out from the container, he wondered - can one ever really regain that which has been lost? Mr. Pringle had the experience - he just wished he had the answers…
Yea some of these are pretty cherry picked.
I mean “the Roman Empire” in the loosest term, from the beginning of Rome’s expansion out of Italy, to the fall of Constantinople in the east, was over 1700 years.
And the Ottoman Empire was still very much alive and threatening Europe into the 18th century before they began their terminal decline.