Die like the previous empire with no leaders (6)
I believe the answer is:
expire
'die' is the definition.
(I know that die can be written as expire)
'the previous empire with no leaders' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'previous' could be 'ex' (prefix meaning former or onetime) and 'ex' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'like' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for expire that I've seen before include "Run out, exhale" , "Lose validity" , "Come to an end; die" , "Die, give out" , "Die or go out of date" .)