When did the Roman Empire fall (your thoughts)?

[Lyceum]

Horace Odes 3.30.6-9 identifies the durability (in his mind, permanent) of the Roman Empire with the ritual of worshipping the Capitoline gods:

Non omnis moriar multaque pars mei
vitabit Libitinam; usque ego postera
crescam laude recens, dum Capitolium
scandet cum tacita virgine pontifex.

I will not wholly die, and a large part of me
Will avoid the funeral pyre, with posterity's praise
Renewed I will grow, as long as the priest
Will climb the Capitol together with the silent maiden.

By Horace's reckoning, then, the Roman Empire ended in 391 when Theodosius proscribed the Vestal Virgins and ended support for the official cult.

Interesting but one can hardly take a single data point. I do think that the religious element is crucial and when you start losing things like the lustratio things go a bit awry. On the other hand one must bear in mind Rome's long standing habit to import cults and the prerogative of the "King" in handling religious matters. In that sense what you get in the East is just the inevitable extension.

Anyway, this isn't really my area, I just really wanted to say you have the best name on the site. I think I'm going to relax with my battered old Plautus text now....thanks for reminded me of one hell of a play.