text: According to Cassius Dio, the beginning of this thing occurred when Commodus ascended to the throne.
full_question: According to Cassius Dio, the beginning of this thing occurred when Commodus ascended to the throne. Other markers of the start of this process include the death of Julius Nepos and the Military Anarchy of the third century. This process continued until Romulus Augustulus was deposed by (*) Odoacer, and one writer notes that the spread of Christianity caused a loss of civic virtue that helped bring about this process. The recovery of the Balkans by Theodosius attempted to avert this process but only succeeded in delaying it. For 10 points, name this process chronicled in a 1776 work by the historian Edward Gibbon, in which a series of barbarian tribes warred against and destroyed the most powerful Empire in Europe.
first_sentence: According to Cassius Dio, the beginning of this thing occurred when Commodus ascended to the throne.