Synopses & Reviews
The death of the Roman Empire is one of the perennial mysteries of world history. Now, in this groundbreaking book, Peter Heather proposes a stunning new solution: Rome generated its own nemesis. Centuries of imperialism turned the neighbors it called barbarians into an enemy capable of dismantling the Empire that had dominated their lives for so long.
Heather is a leading authority on the late Roman Empire and on the barbarians. In The Fall of the Roman Empire, he explores the extraordinary success story that was the Roman Empire and uses a new understanding of its continued strength and enduring limitations to show how Europe's barbarians, transformed by centuries of contact with Rome on every possible level, eventually pulled it apart. He shows first how the Huns overturned the existing strategic balance of power on Rome's European frontiers, to force the Goths and others to seek refuge inside the Empire. This prompted two generations of struggle, during which new barbarian coalitions, formed in response to Roman hostility, brought the Roman west to its knees. The Goths first destroyed a Roman army at the battle of Hadrianople in 378, and went on to sack Rome in 410. The Vandals spread devastation in Gaul and Spain, before conquering North Africa, the breadbasket of the Western Empire, in 439. We then meet Attila the Hun, whose reign of terror swept from Constantinople to Paris, but whose death in 453 ironically precipitated a final desperate phase of Roman collapse culminating in the Vandals' defeat of the massive Byzantine Armada: the west's last chance for survival.
Peter Heather convincingly argues that the Roman Empire was not on the brink of social or moral collapse. What brought it to an end were the barbarians.
Review
"Like a late Roman emperor, Heather is determined to impose order on a fabric that is always threatening to fragment and collapse into confusion; unlike most late Roman emperors, he succeeds triumphantly." The Times of London
Review
"A rich and dramatic synthesis of the latest research on Gibbon's old story....What Mr. Heather offers is not easy analogies but a realization of the complex strangeness of the past the achievement of a great historian." Adam Kirsch, New York Sun
Review
"Masterful, lucid....Always rewarding." ForeWord Magazine
Review
"It can be tough reading. Few figures of fourth- and fifth-century Rome are household names, and except for Attila the Hun, the chieftains beyond the frontier have remained even more obscure. Lists of names and tribes, a glossary and a timeline in the appendix help." Providence Journal
Review
"To a period that has often appeared as impenetrable as it is momentous, Peter Heather brings a rare combination of scholarship and flair for narrative. With this book, a powerful searchlight has been shone upon the shadow-dimmed end of Rome's western empire." Tom Holland, author of Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
Synopsis
In this groundbreaking book, a leading authority on the late Roman Empire proposes that centuries of imperialism turned the neighbors Rome called barbarians into an enemy capable of dismantling the Empire that had dominated their lives for so long.
About the Author
Peter Heather teaches at Worcester College, University of Oxford. A leading authority on the barbarians, he is the author of The Goths, Goths and Romans, and The Huns.
Table of Contents
Introduction
PART I
Chapter 1: Romans
Chapter 2: Barbarians
Chapter 3: The Limits of Empire
PART II
Chapter 4: War on the Danube
Chapter 5: The City of God
Chapter 6: Out of Africa
Chapter 7: Attila the Hun
Chapter 8: The Fall of the Hunnic Empire
PART III
Chapter 9: End of Empire
Chapter 10: The Fall of Rome
Notes / Bibliography
Dramatis Personae
Timeline / Glossary