Forecasting the Fall of an Empire

Artist Tucker Nichols pokes fun at erstwhile predictions of empires collapsing with this illustration published with The Times Opinion article, “Like Rome Before the Fall? Not Yet,” February 24, 2010. The image is part of our collection of editorial illustrations being offered for the first time ever to the public as unframed or framed fine-art prints. The article was written by Piers Brendon, author of “The Decline and Fall of the British Empire.” “All too often, however, students of the past succumb to the temptation to foretell the future,” wrote Brendon in The Times. “The past is a map, not a compass. It charts human experience, stops at the present and gives no clear sense of direction. History does not repeat itself nor, as Arnold Toynbee would have it, does it proceed in rhythms or cycles. Events buck trends. Everything, as (Edward) Gibbon said, is subject to ‘the vicissitudes of fortune.’” Tucker Nichols is an artist based in Northern California. His work has been featured at