[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by cfg83

I'm not sure what *the* reason was but here is one nice one :

Ancient Digger Archaeology: Monday Ground Up: Why was the Roman Empire so long-lived?

Simplistic, and wrong about a lot of things. Most importantly, the Roman Empire actually endured for closer to 1500 years, finally ending with the fall of Constantople to Islamic invaders in 1453. Add in the Republic, and that's close to 2000 years of Roman civilization.