"the end of the world" is usually a subjective opinion.

the etruscans thought they had a set period to "thrive in"...and then it would all end.

a similar situation can be applied to the roman empire if "revelations" is taken as being predictive of their fate.

at the end of the day..the world didn't really end...just "civilisation as they knew it".

ie: there's still plenty of italians around...just no roman empire.

these "end of the world predictions are a perrenial"...lol.

if you take a space-science perspective...you could envision that "the end of the world" (around 2012) could be the end of being limited to just one world.