The True and Unbending Stink of Destiny
The Romans, I'm guessing, probably thought that all of history up to that point had led to their ascension. It's likely that they could not see past their own dominance of the known world at the time to comprehend the idea that their empire had an inevitable shelf life. Like the jellyfish in Quinn's tale, the average Roman citizen couldn't see past the "lip of the vast bowl that holds the sea."
I'd hazard a guess that the Aztecs were no precognitive than the Romans. Neither were the Greeks. The Han Dynasty? Nope.
You Are a Jellyfish On the Lip of the Vast Bowl That Holds the Sea
A long time ago, it was commonly known that the Earth was both flat and that the sun revolved around it rather than the other way around. People believed that women who were too emotional needed to have primitive devices masturbate them to relieve their hysteria. Most diseases, it was believed, could be cured by bleeding out the illness or by placing leeches on the body to suck out the sickness. It was commonly held that if one reduced the taxes on the wealthiest, the savings would trickle down to the rest of us.
Today we can look back on all of this and giggle at our collective gullibility in believing absolute unvarnished horseshit.