It fell, (quite violently, in fact) in the third century. The rest was pretense.
The western half, sure. You're ignoring the eastern half which carried the mantle for another thousand years. And the concurrent existence of the Holy Roman Empire, which was also intertwined with the Roman Catholic church.
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The western half, sure. You're ignoring the eastern half which carried the mantle for another thousand years. And the concurrent existence of the Holy Roman Empire, which was also intertwined with the Roman Catholic church.