Lactantius (Early in the Fourth Century A. D.)

The subject itself declares that the fall and ruin of the world will shortly take place; except that while the city of Rome remains, it appears that nothing of this kind is to be feared. But when that capital of the world shall have fallen, and shall have begun to be a street, which the Sibyls say shall come to pass, who can doubt that the end has now arrived to the affairs of men and the whole world? It is that city, that only, which still sustains all things.—“The Divine Institutes,” book 7, chap. 25;; “Ante-Nicene Fathers,” Vol. VII, p. 220.HBS 10.2