YESTERDAY IN HISTORY: I forgot to post this yesterday. And maybe it’s fitting that I forgot. On September 4, 476 A.D., came the Fall of the Roman Empire (or rather the Western Roman Empire, the only Roman Empire to be headquartered in … wait for it … Rome). Here’s the crucial point: The September 4^th date is just a convention. It is the date Odoacer overthrew Romulus Augustulus. But one could make an argument for dating the fall earlier or later. It is very doubtful that average Romans understood on that exact date that they were witnessing the close of an epoch. Alas, history is like that. Civilizations fall inch by inch, not all at once.  It’s easy to miss.