Peter Heather

A New History of Rome and the Barbarians

The Fall of the Roman Empire

Jeni Enjaian

This book was much larger than I thought it would be. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Heather deals with an immense amount of information, most of it unfamiliar to the average reader, and does so with an easy style. He also manages to avoid condescending to the readers. At times I wondered why he included certain information because the narratives did not necessarily connect. However, Heather's concluding chapter is a masterpiece in summary. He reviews all the information he presented earlier in the book in a concise, well-structured manner that helps the reader put all the pieces of Heather's narrative together in a way that can do nothing else than support Heather's thesis that the barbarian invasions were the cause of the fall of the Western Roman empire. (It's hard to be convinced otherwise after reading this book.)

Bryan Alexander

A fine history of the Roman empire during the 300s and 400s. Heather offers a clear, engaging narrative account of the western empire's defeat and the east's success.

Arguing about the fall of (western!) Rome is an old historical chestnut, and Heather makes a passionate case for one school of thought. You see, there are two broad interpretations. Either Rome died a natural death, due to internal problems and decay, or it was murdered by outside forces, notably barbarians from central Europe and the Asian steppe. 

Heather belongs to the latter group, and specifically blames the Huns for directly and indirectly bringing down the western Roman empire. To make this case he first builds a convincing argument for the west's strength and resilience right into the 400s, then extensively documents the sheer destruction wrought by Huns and Goths. On the one hand Rome appeared quite able to maintain itself (for nearly five centuries!) in its imperial mode, and dealt with many threats up to the existential level. Its economy was working well, at least in terms of producing enough to support a far-flung military and political apparatus. Taxes kept flowing, and population wasn't declining (the opposite of what I learned at university, back in the 1980s).

On the other, the barbarians were much more effective than previous over-the-Rhine and -Danube challengers. Earlier invaders, like the ones who famously took the eagles of Varus, were local, not well organized, and ultimately quashed - Heather has a devastating line about the early Germans' main point being not military strength, but poverty (58). Later on, successor tribes and nations evolved, partly in response to Roman pressures. Each of their 4th and 5th century successes - installing themselves as mini-nations within the empire, wresting provinces for themselves - tore off crucial chunks of Rome's ability to keep itself going. 
[T]he western empire broke up because too many outside groups established themselves n its territories and expanded themselves by warfare (436).

Heather focuses on the loss of North Africa, in particular, which interested me.

The book is especially focused on the Huns. Their direct impact under Attila tore up imperial resources, even though the Hunnic empire didn't ultimately succeed in winning territories. Their indirect impacts were powerful, as they drove other nations into more successful invasions of the west (and east, too, although not as much): Goths, in particular. The break-up of the Hun state also caused the Romans to expend precious resources in chasing down every subgroup and splinter tribe as they careened across Europe.

The book is well laid out, overall. Maps are clearly designed, consistently referred to, and generally useful. A glossary and timeline help. Above all, Heather's prose is clear, always engaging, and frequently funny (on Attila's death: "finally the scourge of God went to meet his employer", 342). He offers characters to anchor the broad story, from underappreciated generals (notably Flavius Constantius) to ignored emperors and very creative spin doctors. He does his best to relate major, signal events like the battle of Hadrianople (378) and the 468 defeat of a major trans-imperial naval expedition, which Heather sees as finally dooming the west (427).

In short, I strongly recommend Fall of the Roman Empire for anyone interested in the Roman world, and for readers generally.

The Fall of the Roman Empire A New History of Rome and the Barbarians

Reviews