title: Immoderate Greatness: Why Civilizations Fail
author:  William Ophuls 
description: Ophuls clear writing, thorough research and elegant logic make his treatise a thoughtful, discussing-provoking work.
zlib_text: ![](Images/image00395.jpeg)
  
  ![](Images/image00272.jpeg)
  
  **CONTENTS**
  
    1.  **HOW TO USE THIS EBOOK**
    2.  **INTRODUCTION**
    3. >  **ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS 6000** **BCE** **–500** **CE**
  
      1.  **All the lands have fallen prostrate beneath his sandals for eternity** • The temples of Abu Simbel
      2.  **Attachment is the root of suffering** • Siddhartha Gautama preaches Buddhism
      3.  **Administration is in the hands of the many and not of the few** • Athenian democracy
      4.  **There is nothing impossible to he who will try** • The conquests of Alexander the Great
      5.  **If the Qin should ever get his way with the world, then the whole world will end up his prisoner** • The First Emperor unifies China
      6.  **Thus perish all tyrants** • The assassination of Julius Caesar
      7.  **By this sign conquer** • The Battle of Milvian Bridge
    4. >  **THE MEDIEVAL WORLD 500–1492**
  
      1.  **Truth has come and falsehood has vanished** • Muhammad receives the divine revelation
     