How Rome Fell

How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpowe

2009 Yale University Press book jacket
Author	Adrian Goldsworthy
Audio read by	Derek Perkins
Subject	Rome military and political history 30 B.C.- 476 A.D;; Civil wars.
Genre	History
Set in	the Roman Empire 180 AD - 476 AD
Published	2009
Publisher	Yale University Press
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print, eBook, Audio book
Pages	531
ISBN	9780300137194 9780300164268
OCLC	262432329
Website	Official website

How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower is a nonfiction book by Adrian Goldsworthy. The book was published in 2009 by Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. In his book, Goldsworthy posits what he believes to be the causes for the end of the Roman empire in West. The narrative discusses the politics and military history of the late Roman empire to underscore Goldsworthy's arguments.

Synopsis

Goldsworthy says that the fall of the Roman Empire happened gradually, over a long period. He begins at the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180 A.D, when the empire was at its strongest and had the most going for it. From there, he follows the outstanding developments that led to the empire’s split in 395 into western and eastern halves. He then chronicles and explains the developments that led to the eventual collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the overthrow of its final emperor in 476. Meanwhile the Eastern Empire endured for another millennium, becoming the Byzantine Empire.

Goldsworthy also contends that Rome’s problems or distress related to its eventual demise were not contemporaneously apparent during its gradual decline. Afterall, the empire was gargantuan with a complex civil society. Goldsworthy believes that the true source of the empire’s vulnerability to "barbarian" groups like the Goths, Huns, and Vandals lay in its internal instability, particularly the numerous civil wars. He shows that from 235 until the Western Empire’s collapse, most decades saw significant internal conflict. During the short period between 235 and 285, more than 60 individuals attempted to seize the throne averaging more than one claimant per year. As a result, emperors were focused on surviving, and much less on governance of the empire.

Hence, Goldsworthy believes that, over time, constant chaos such as civil wars, seizing power, murders, betrayals, and poor leadership, badly damaged Rome’s government. The empire spent its energy and resources fighting itself until it was too weak to handle outside threats. So when barbarian invasions ended the Western Empire in 476, they were really finishing off something already weakened by long term decline.

About the Book

The narrative of this book is divided into several main parts:

• Introduction - "The Big Question"
• Part 1 - "Crisis? The Third Century"
• Part 2 - "Recovery? The Fourth Century"
• Part 3 - "Fall? The Fifth and Sixth Centuries"
• Conclusion - "A Simple Answer"
• Epilogue - "An Even Simpler Moral"

There is also a Glossary, an extensive Bibliography, a forty-four page Notes section, and a seventeen page Index.

Reception

Below is commentary by reviewers about this book.

Diana Preston, writing for The Washington Post says this book is "meticulously researched, complex and thought-provoking." Also she says that Goldsworthy "finds some disturbing messages about inefficiency and corruption... selfish desire for personal advancement [overriding] thoughts of the common good, bureaucracies... [losing] touch with their overall purpose and when... [large and powerful] institutions conceal their errors and inefficiencies."

Marc Tracy, writing for The New York Times says that Goldsworthy tediously narrates every "instance of succession" to prove his thesis. Tracy also says, "Meanwhile, when Golds­worthy notes, 'There is something very depressing about the collapse of Roman power,' one leaps to agree, and wishes he’d spent more time exploring why the thoroughly not-analogous Rome still stirs our passions."

Scott Alan Metzger, writing for the academic journal, The History Teacher, says that this book is "fascinating and retable." He also concludes that "Despite minor weakness, How Rome Fell is an excellent, approachable new account of the late Roman World."

Carolyn Nelson, writing for the academic journal, The Journal of Military History, says that "Goldsworthy's writing is easy to follow, sometimes almost conversational in tone without being overly colloquial. How Rome Fell is both enjoyable and thought-provoking.

See also

• The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
• Caesar, Life of a Colossus by Adrian Goldsworthy
• Crisis of the Third Century
• Fall of the Western Roman Empire

External links

• Official website
• ISBN 978-0-300164268
• Guest Lecture. "The Fall of the Roman Empire." Adrian Goldsworthy. Kansas City Library. Audio. YouTube. 2010.
• Rome's Greatness and First Crises. Yale Courses. Video. YouTube. 2012.

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Further reading

• Peter Heather. The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians. Oxford University Press. 2006. ISBN 978-0-195-15954-7.
• Bryan Ward-Perkin.The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization. Oxford University Press. 2006. ISBN 978-0-192-80564-5.
• Adrian Goldsworthy. Pax Romana: War, Peace and Conquest in the Roman World. Yale University Press, 2016. ISBN 978-0-300-17882-1.
• Callie Williamson. The Laws of the Roman People: . Michigan University Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-472-11053-7
• Charles Freedman. The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason. A.A. Knopf, 2003. ISBN 978-1-400-04085-8