With the decline and fall of the Western Empire, Rome's classical era came to an end as disease, war, and corruption conspired to bring about the downfall of a struggling empire that had once conquered the known world. Where once enlightened despots ruled a profligate and cumbersome polity, barbarians now stood upon the ruins of a once-prosperous metropolis. In its absence, a new world would appear with new values ​​and new ideals. Turning their backs on a pagan past, the Christian children of these wild men of the North would father the greatest houses of future European nobility, and when they sought inheritance, they would not see their ancestors as plunderers gnawing on the bones of one desecrated Rome, but instead as trusted guardians, partnering with the Church to carry its legacy through the "dark ages." Greece, which had endured its own dark ages millennia before, became the cradle of the Western artistic ideal. His company was unlike any other. Organizationally, it preferred a single form of government called democracy, while other societies consisted of god-kings and despotic strongmen. His ambitions affirmed the perfection of man, his unique place in the world. As stories became myths and myths became legends, human (or human-like) gods began to appear in centers of religious worship. Unlike the Egyptian gods, whose physiology almost always had an animal component, the Greek gods looked like humans. Zeus had a human body, hands and feet; for all intents and purposes, he was the first superman. It was an epic reversal. Where once man had been relegated among the animals, the Greeks had now placed him above the natural and in the realm of the supernatural. The human form was illustrated in the sculpture...... middle of paper ...... prayer In these books we find illustrations of the peasant working in his fields throughout the seasons, alluding to work all year year needed to feed half a dozen almost starving children. In illuminated Bibles we see fabulous illustrations of the legendary kingdoms of the East and wild bestiaries of evil-men and exotic creatures believed to dwell in terras ingonito, encouraging men to venture once again into the unknown and to appeal to the court of Pryster John, Lord of all India. In cathedrals, some of the most spectacular mathematical aspirations were imagined in stone as cities and masons sought to outdo each other with brilliant feats of engineering never before attempted from the heights of Rome. It was a world trying to right itself after the fall of the greatest empire the world had ever known, a world that many wanted to see get a new acquisition on earth..