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The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians | 
 enlarge | Author: Peter Heather
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $45.00
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Rating:  42 reviews
Sales Rank: 254043
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 608
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.8
ISBN: 0195159543
Dewey Decimal Number: 937.09
EAN: 9780195159547
ASIN: 0195159543
Publication Date: December 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Contains some highlighting. Has a sticker on it. Expedited shipping is not available for this item. Items are mailed via USPS media mail within 2 business days and should arrive 4-14 business days later.
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Product Description
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. br 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.br 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 37 more reviews...
 Barbarian influences in late Roman civ November 18, 2008
Christophe Pandolfo (Erie, Pa.)
A very detailed and insightful analysis of the influences and br /complex interactions of various outside groups entering and br /mixing with the classical Roman pop. The author apparently has br /a superior knowledge about the Tribal migrations, and how they br /impacted the overstretched Bureaucracy of the late Empire. I br /especially liked the focus on some of the more interesting and br /important characters of this period, ie., Stilicho,Constantius br /and Aetius, but I would have liked more detail about the role br /Theodosius played post Adrianople in keeping the wolves at bay, br /Also his relationship with Ambrose and the rising br /power of chrisyianity. I also thought the influence of br /christianity in weakening the Empire was downplayed a bit. br /
Great Book, but some niggling details November 4, 2008
Elizabeth McBrearty (Tucson, AZ USA)
While in general I share the high praises for this book piled up by other reviewers, I do have problems with editors/map makers. Map 8, page 207, in particular is problematic. While Heather, in his text, correctly refers to two German cities as Trier and Mainz, this map uses the French names Treves and Mayence. I don't know how these errors crept onto the map, but they certainly spell confusion. In addition, one thing I would like to correct in the glossary is on page 490. What should be "cursus honorum" is spelled "cursus honorem." These criticisms apply to the hard cover edition. br / br /Otherwise this book is indeed a splendid revision of historical material for the 21st century.
 absolutely first rate historical inquiry September 4, 2008
Robert J. Crawford (Balmette Talloires, France)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a truly wonderful book, of the kind that I wish I had had when I studied this stuff in school. Unlike the dry textbook that I suffered through, this book brings the process of discovery alive as well as tells a great story. You follow an inspired scholarly mind as he puts together a compelling narrative with loads of delicious detail. I was utterly riveted by this for more than a month. br / br /Heather begins with a description of the Empire as it stood about 300 A.D. Rome itself had become a religious and ceremonial capital, far from the frontier, where the real political power had migrated to serve military necessity. It was a vast and integrated world, unified not just by military power, economic activity, and the most advanced administrative system to have yet existed, but it had a literate culture that, once mastered, allowed indigenous (conquered) populations to make their own careers within it. Heather describes this culture in sensuous detail, relying largely on the words of its most illustrious citizens, many of whom were accomplished letter writers and poets - you get to know them. Of course, they were all super-rich landowners, but then Rome represented them aboveall, which became the model for the European aristocratic states that arose and lasted until the 19C. He also describes both the brutality of life at the top - losing a political battle meant losing not only your head but those of your entire family - and the limits of administrative reach across such a huge expanse of territory. br / br /He then shifts to the barbarians. After centuries of contacts with Rome, they had adopted many of the economic methods of the empire. This led to an extraordinary increase in population among the Germanic tribes with more diversified economies and societies; they were also uniting politically into far greater groups and better organized as war machines. Even worse, there was a major empire - the Huns - who were pushing the Germans into the Roman Empire, first as refugees and then as roaming pillagers. As one of the world's experts on them, Heather offers a wealth of detail on their cultures, war techniques, and origins. There are many surprises: Alaric, the first sacker of Rome in 410, was a Christian and hence reluctant to sack the capital; Theodoric the Great was bought up in Byzantium and hence classically educated and trained. He also describes their technology, such as the Hunnic bow, of uniquely lethal power. br / br /This is his way of refuting the arguments that the Roman EMpire was in some kind of inexorable moral decline, from the adoption of Christianity to demographic stagnation and economic exhaustion. To strengthen his case, Heather relies on new archeological evidence of the economic prosperity, particularly in African and the Near East, but also within the graves of germanic tribes, who "taxed" the empire by the threat of pillage. While I found his treatment of the impact of its christianization a bit too quick, he makes a solid and fascinating case that is very very fun to read. br / br /If you accept his premise - that the empire's fall was not at all inevitable - then the author's argument becomes entirely geo-political. Once certain Germanic tribes were inside its borders, they undermined the fragile structure of the huge economy: Vandals captured the North African breadbasket provinces, which lessened tax revenues and food exports to Italy, fatally weakening it as the pressure from the Huns was greatest. Thus, while the Huns never invaded Rome the city, their actions did lead indirectly to Rome's fall. br / br /Heather also incorporates fascinating theories on empires and how they evolve. Rome was different: it unified and co-opted local elites, which enabled it to survive 500 years. In contrast, the others were based on plunder by their troops, requiring continual victories (via charismatic leaders like Attila, who was viewed as infallible) that eventually stretched their supply lines too far. After the failures began, the troops (often multi-ethnic) fell to fighting eachother; no unifying culture and economy could channel their energies, leading to quick collapse. I had never thought of this so succinctly, but this is only one of the many details that Heather explains and examines in the course of his argument. br / br /What is amazing about this book is what a pleasure it is to read. Heather is a master stylist, has the erudition you expect from Oxford scholars without the stuffiness, and can transmit his love of the subject on every page. While my interest began to flag towards the end, the book left me very hungry for more. br / br /Warmly recommended.
Excellent Narrative, Excellent Analysis August 31, 2008
R. Albin (Ann Arbor, Michigan United States)
This cogent book is an excellent description and analysis of the fall of the Roman Empire. The collapse of the Roman Empire posseses enduring interest, partly because of its continued use in contemporary debates. Enthusiasts for supply-side economics, for example, point to excessive taxation as a cause of the fall of Rome. Use of Roman history in this way is not new. Gibbon, the greatest historian of the fall of Rome, used Roman history as part of an attack on Christianity. br /Peter Heather, drawing on almost 2 generations of scholarship and archaeology of the late Roman Empire, now produces a synthesis aimed at a non-anachronistic understanding of the collapse of the western Roman Empire. Heather discards old notions of the Roman Empire fatally weakened by internal flaws. While describing significant limitations of the Roman state, particularly chronic instability regarding Imperial successions, Heather argues well that the Roman state of 375 AD was no more or less stable than the Rome of preceding centuries. Heather points out the flaws of prior arguments. Drawing on archaeological evidence, he argues for the economic vigor of the later Roman Empire. Excessive taxation did not doom Rome. Ideological arguments such as Gibbon's are disposed of easily. br /What changed in the later 4th century and 5th century was not the capacity of the Roman state but rather the strategic demands placed on the state. Under Augustus and his successors, the Empire developed into the most powerful state in western Eurasia. The growth of the Empire, however, elicited responses in surrounding societies that placed new stresses on Rome. The first of these was the emergence of Sassanian Persia as a major power in the 3rd century. The Sassanian challenge provoked a major crisis in the Roman state and required a greatly increased commitment of Roman resources to the Middle Eastern frontiers of the Empire. In Heather's reconstruction of events, an analogous series of events occurred on the Northern frontiers of the Empire. Drawing on archaeological evidence, Heather argues that the Germanic societies of Central and Eastern Europe underwent tremendous change from the time of Augustus to the Fall of the western Empire, with more intensive agriculture, considerably increased populations, more complex/hierarchial political structures, and larger political units capable of challenging the Roman armies. br /By the end of the 4th century, then, Rome faced not one but two major strategic challenges, one from the the Sassanian Empire, and a second from the Germanic peoples of Europe. The latter became an actual, as opposed to potential threat, to Rome because of large scale population displacements provoked by the Hunnish invasion of western Eurasia. Heather devotes a large part of this book to a very nice narrative of the recurrent invasions of the Empire by displaced Germanic peoples (and some similar non-Germanic speaking groups like the Alans), and the direct effects of the Huns themselves. Heather demonstrates the cumulative destructive effect of these events. In the western Roman Empire, successive barbarian invasions and occupations resulted in progressive loss of Roman control over the provinces, leading to declining tax income and ability to support the Army and bureaucracy. Even when provinces/territory could be recovered, the ensuing destruction eroded the tax base of the Empire. Heather is careful to show the very contingent nature of this process. Military success in a few campaigns or a period of stable leadership for a couple of generations might well have changed the outcome. It was against this background of severe systemic stress that the structural defects of the Empire really mattered. Its clear from Heather's narrative that the chronic instability provoked by recurrent Imperial succession crises was a major factor in the inability of the western Roman Empire to cope with the problems of the late 4th and 5th centuries. br /Heather includes a really interesting discussion of why the fall of the western Empire resulted not just in political dissolution of the Empire but loss of continuity in classical culture in the regions of the western Empire. Heather argues nicely that the Empire itself was the keystone of Classical culture in these regions. With loss of Imperial authority, long distance trade dwindled. Many of the institutions on which classical culture depended on the existence of the Empire. A rigorous Classical education, for example, was a sine qua non for rising in the Empire. With the disappearance of the Empire, many of the institutions and incentives that sustained "Romaness" vanished. br /Heather's analysis is convincing but leaves open some interesting questions. The settling of Germanic speaking peoples in the Empire and recruitment of Germanic troops into Imperial armies suggests that demographic factors may have played a role in the Roman collapse. This is quite difficult to assess. Heather's account raises some interesting comparative questions as well. Why did Chinese society maintain continuity of its historic culture after similar events when Rome did not. br /This book can be read profitably by anyone with a modest knowledge of Roman history. To get maximum benefit, however, a bit more knowledge of the later Roman Empire is helpful. I recommend David Potter's recent and very readable survey to provide background for reading Heather.
Every CEO's Manual May 24, 2008
Francis McInerney (Katonah, NY United States)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Most company failures come as a surprise to management and shareholders alike. The downdraft is often sudden and devastating -- think Bear Stearns -- but Peter Heather shows C-Level executives everywhere a new way to think about what can happen and the ways it can happen. br / br /The collapse of Rome is like the failure of so many high-cost companies today under assault from many small, low-cost alternatives. They don't often see it coming until its too late, like the recording industry (Rome) so quickly dismembered by Apple (Goths etc). br / br /Heather's great book is every CEO's necessary book. A super lesson in what can happen if you don't understand the structure of your markets. Don't manage your company without it.
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