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If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world, during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus.

— Edward Gibbon The History of the Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire (1776)

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Source: Chapter 3. (The period described is from AD 96 to 180.)
Work: The History of the Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire, 1776
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Edward Gibbon (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.