Gibbon listed the following five primary reasons for the collapse of the Roman Empire:

First: The rapid increase of divorce, with the undermining of the sanctity of the home, which is the basis of society.

Second: Higher and higher taxes; and the spending of public money on bread and circuses.

Third: The mad craze for pleasure, sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal.

Fourth: The building of gigantic armies to fight external enemies, when the most deadly enemy, the decadence of the people, lay within.

Fifth: The decay of religion; faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life, and becoming impotent to guide it.