The influential historian Edward Gibbon, a favorite of our nation's founders, believed that the Western Empire fell in 476 AD with the departure of Romulus Augustus and the accession of King Odovacar of Italy.
But to come to those who, by their own ability and not through fortune, have risen to be princes, I say that Moses, Cyrus, Romulus, Theseus, and such like are the most excellent examples.