Abstract
In this paper ancient topics about the end of the world are investigated: the eternity of the world according to the pagan philosophers, the eternity of Rome and its empire, the waiting for a new golden age according to the senatorial milieu of the Historia Augusta and, on the contrary, the waiting for the Antichrist and a next end of the world according to many Christian authors, the refusal of the Church (from Eusebius to Augustine) to accept this perspective and its reappearance in peripheral areas (Fulgentius in Africa, Hydatius in Spain) and also in Gaul (Sulpicius Severus), while the Roman empire was collapsing.