The Fall of the Roman Empire

Peter Heather reconstructs the chaotic years from 376CE to 476CE and builds a convincing narrative of the collapse in 460 pages. He traces the rise and fall of the Huns north of the Danube and makes interesting conclusions concerning the effects of their empire on the Roman world. Throughout the book he follows the Roman emperors as they stagger from one crisis to another and challenges the traditional explanations for the decline of the empire. The author is up front about the paucity of information on certain topics but also explains why Gibbon and other historians have fallen short in their explanations and offers his own ideas based on new evidence. He uses sources ranging from the letters of Roman senators to glass wares in German territory to construct a coherent vision of the waves of immigration after 376 which destabilized the empire and led to its long decline. The book is well worth the read for someone interested in ancient history and the transition to medieval European feudalism.

Certain questions are perennial, and one of those is why the Roman Empire fell. Peter Heather provides an explanation that is detailed and nuanced, and surely better than Edward Gibbon's work. First of all, it was only the Western part that fell at the time he is writing about (5th century, basically), and there were certain accidents of fate that helped the outcome. At the same time, the Eastern part of the Empire remained strong and vibrant at least up until the rise of Islam in the 7th century, and technically the Easter empire did not fall until 1453 when the Ottoman Turks finally conquered Constantinople.

The fall of the western Empire was a complex phenomenon made possible primarily by changes in the political organization of the Germanic tribes (mostly Gothic) brought about by two different forces. One was the move of the Huns from the area to the east, who moved into the Hungarian plain in the 4th century and began absorbing Germanic groups into their own empire. And the other was the pressure from Rome itself. By its commerce, its military pressure, and its diplomacy, Rome essentially molded the Germanic tribes into larger and more effective political units that could seize the opportunities they were given as a result of military reverses Rome faced. And because the elite groups in the Empire held most of their wealth in the form of landed estates, once the balance of power began to shift they looked to transfer their allegiance to the new barbarian kingdoms. You can't pick up land and take it with you, after all.

All in all, a very good book on the subject