A big shout-out to /u/iguana_on_a_stick, who has just written a superb answer on the causes of the 'fall' of Rome. This is a huge topic and I think that he did a great job summing the various 'schools' of thoughts involved. A quick comparison to the answers in the FAQ would show that this answer is more than double the length of all the existing responses, so thank you so much for writing this. I've thought about doing something like this before, but the prospect of dealing with such a complicated topic is always so daunting!

I really look forward to discussing this more with him in the future - I'm very much of a proponent of the idea that Rome never fell, so this should be interesting :)

A Day late, but...

• /u/the_howling_cow answered "When did B-17 bombers meet up with their escorts in WWII?" and on "I'm painting WWII US Infantry miniatures and I'm just wondering what the official color scheme is? I'm always seeing pants and tops varying from green, khaki and brown."

• /u/Erft on "Marie Curie named the element Polonium at a time when Poland was not an independent country. Was this a radical political statement? How was the naming of Polonium received by the international community?"

• /u/drylaw on "What did Native Americans think of rainbows?"