Well, no, it was Cicero and the Roman Republic that came to an end. The Roman Empire went on for another 450 years, and their problem was not an unbalanced budget or foreign aid, it was millions of barbarians who were being driven west by the Mongols and the Huns spilling into the Roman Empire. I find Cicero's statement utterly irrelevent, never mind that it did not actually come to pass.

History has shown super powers come to an end over the need to maintain massive defense budgets to defend their over extended empires. We are certainly on that precipice.