This paper, functioning as a general introduction to the proposed Workshop, is going to deal with some literary representations of Rome during Late Antiquity that emphasize either the notion of “decline and fall” or that of “endless empire”. The former one, recurring quite often in historical sources, involves the idea of a perishable empire, which, like almost every human event, is doomed to an end. At the same time, the constructive and, so to say, optimistic attitude is far more widespread. Sanctioned by the famous line of Virgil’s Aeneid, when Jupiter grants Rome with the promise of an imperium sine fine, this idea constituted the ground and the justification of the subsequent Roman imperialism. These verses constitute a sort of Leitmotiv and are constantly used to reassert the theme of an eternal empire, established by virtue of a divine providence. Many writers, both pagan and Christian, could still admire the grandeur of the empire and celebrate the Christian princes as the guarantors of the Roman heritage, thanks to whose firmness the barbarian menace is averted. Albeit threatened on different fronts, both external and intestine, Rome could find in herself the force to stand up and survive. The notion of the eternity of Rome seems, therefore, a standard one, at least in poetical sources. The way they deal with it can be labelled as strongly conservative: rulers may change, but the state is destined to last eternally. The imperial idea and its everlasting character functions as both a wish and an expectation. At the same time it endows encomiastic patterns, which result in the celebration of the new emperor or sovereign.
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