The idea that empires and cultures, having risen to power and greatness, must necessarily undergo decline, commonplace among ancient historians after Polybius, was revisited and reformulated by the Humanists. Until around 1800, “decadence” (also “decline”; Latin inclinatio, ruina, depravatio; Italian decadenza, declino,caduta; French déclin,décadence; German Verfall, Dekadenz) was therefore a basic category of political, …