by Peter Heather
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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: Centuries of imperialism turned the neighbors Rome called barbarians into an enemy capable of dismantling an Empire that had dominated their lives for so long.
A leading authority on the late Roman Empire and on the barbarians, Heather relates the extraordinary story of how Europe's barbarians, transformed by centuries of contact with Rome on every possible level, eventually pulled the empire 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.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 A View on Why Rome fell, 2009-01-02
Author convincingly details the many issues surrounding the decline of Rome, especially the western empire, with the pivotal year noted as 476 AD (or CE). As detailed in the book's last chapter, it was not so much the external forces of invading barbarians, but the unparalleled aggression and imperialism of Rome that induced these responses from the frontier peoples: to pillage, plunder, and exhaust "the glory that was Rome".
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Inconvenient ommissions, 2008-12-23
Overall this book was very informative, educational, and presented very complex difficult material in a new light. I found the book enjoyable to read, even though I disagreed with much of it. My criticisms of this book--which is still worth reading--are as follows:
I'll start with the worst: Heather's inconvenient omissions. What disturbed me most about this book is Heather's deliberate attempt to downplay any evidence that conflicts with his thesis. While I appreciated the many moments when he acknowledges gaps in the historical record and when he theorizes, he simply omits so many relevant historical facts that this book is frustrating. For instance, according to Heather over 100 years of constant civil wars, "usurpations," foreign invasions, and the accumulation of wealth into the hands of a powerful few had little, if any, effect on Rome. Heather begins his account by boldly stating that after Diocletian "restored" the empire after the 3rd century crisis, Rome was back to its former glory. According to him, the Roman economy was plugging along fine. Heather fails to take into account the economic impact of the loss of a stable monetary system, edicts trying roman farmers to their lands and their father's profession. Heather is also guilty of extrapolation at too many points. He discusses archeological finds of a few large Roman villas from the time period in a particular region and then assumes this wealth is indicative of a good economy throughout Europa.
Also, he makes the bold assertion that Diocletian and Theodosius' legions and comitatenses were just as disciplined and effective as Caesar's Legio X. While I admit I do not have Heather's credentials, I am very well read in this area, and I have never seen anyone else make such bold, unfounded assertions. While Diocletian may have "restored" the empire by re-conquering it--one has to acknowledge the effects of 100 years of constant warfare, sieges, invasions, etc. Heather does not take into account the destruction of infrastructure, loss of human manpower or loss of effectiveness of the army that surely must have resulted after 100 years of constant infighting, civil wars, and foreign invasions. This pattern continued during the 5th century. Every generation involved a major campaign of east vs west or the west fighting off a so-called usurper. I cannot even begin to comprehend the loss of resources accompanied by this. Yet, Heather sees no fallout from Theodosius' "victory" over the west or the numerous other civil wars at the time.
A perfect example of this is the Battle of Adrianople. The roman legions in Caesar's time were renowned for their discipline and ability to follow orders. The mere fact that a portion of the army at Adrianople was "goaded" into attacking the goth's left flank before being ordered to do so and before the remainder of the army was fully formed speaks volumes as to the effectiveness and discipline of the army during this time.
Also, Heather has little discussion of the change in military equipment in this period--the change from the rectangular scutum to the oval shield, the change to cheaper, easier to produce armor and helmets, the gradual adoption of the spatha, etc. He also fails to mention or take into account the effect of Diocletian's military reforms on the micro level. I just cannot believe that troops garrisoned in watchtowers along the Danube that had wives and families in the nearby city and were responsible for growing their own food were anywhere near as effective as Caesar's hardened legions who slept in camp and drilled constantly.
Further, Heather seems to believe that anytime barbarian foederati were incorporated in a legion that they were just as effective as Rome's former troops. Again, he fails to even discuss whether battlefield tactics changed. The strength in Caesars legions was that the Romans fought as a unit with a solid shield wall that slowly and meticulously advanced while the front line used short "stabbing" thrusts to kill the enemy. Legions were disciplined enough to "substitute" and rotate out front line troops during a battle. This took an incredible amount of training. While Rome's legions always relied heavily on "barbarian" conscripts--in the past they were dispersed into small groups, assimilated into the legion and took part in the training, etc. The notion that the barbarians that were "incorporated" wholesale into the roman legions in the 5th century could perform these tasks and act as a unit with the same effectiveness as the legions of Caesar's time is quite absurd.
As mentioned by other reviewers, Heather's prose often degenerates into plebian clichés. At times you get the impression he could not decide on his intended audience.
In the end, I enjoyed this book as a great education on late empire Roman-barbarian relations and the structure and societies of the Germanic peoples who invaded the empire. No doubt Heather is the foremost expert in this field. However, as is all too often the case with books on this topic, the author tends to see everything through the prism of his or her specialty. It is no surprise that a study by an economist of the fall of the Roman Empire will attribute it solely to the economy. A specialist in early Byzantine history will attribute the fall solely to the acts of Justinian. Therefore it is no surprise that Heather, a specialist in the "barbarian" tribes finds them to be the primary cause of Rome's fall.
Despite my criticisms, this still is a good book and I found it very educational. However, you need to be well-read enough to separate fact from theory, and see through the bias. As such, I would not recommend this book to someone new to this area of scholarship. While I agree with Heather that Rome's demise was ultimately the result of "exogenous shock" from the multiple barbarian invasions--Heather never attempts explain WHY this occurred. I simply cannot believe that the change from a free market to a state-run economy, change in military structure and organization, constant civil warfare, loss of population, etc. had no role to play in this drama.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Barbarian influences in late Roman civ, 2008-11-18
A very detailed and insightful analysis of the influences and
complex interactions of various outside groups entering and
mixing with the classical Roman pop. The author apparently has
a superior knowledge about the Tribal migrations, and how they
impacted the overstretched Bureaucracy of the late Empire. I
especially liked the focus on some of the more interesting and
important characters of this period, ie., Stilicho,Constantius
and Aetius, but I would have liked more detail about the role
Theodosius played post Adrianople in keeping the wolves at bay,
Also his relationship with Ambrose and the rising
power of chrisyianity. I also thought the influence of
christianity in weakening the Empire was downplayed a bit.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Great Book, but some niggling details, 2008-11-04
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.
Otherwise this book is indeed a splendid revision of historical material for the 21st century.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 absolutely first rate historical inquiry, 2008-09-04
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Warmly recommended.
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