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The Fall of the West

by Adrian Goldsworthy

First published 2009

Amazon
4.3(193)

This nonfiction account examines how the western half of the Roman Empire lost the ability to maintain central authority, taxation and effective military control. It follows the pressures of civil war, frontier crisis, usurpation and reliance on powerful military leaders.

The book rejects a simple single-cause explanation for Rome’s collapse. Instead, it shows how repeated internal conflict weakened the state’s capacity to respond to external threats, culminating in the fifth-century loss of western imperial rule.

Historical Periods

Gothic War of Valens and Theodosius I376–382 CE Sack of Rome by the Visigoths410 CE Fall of the Western Roman Empirec. 395–476 CE

Genres

Court & Political Fiction

Historical people

Theodosius I347–395 Alaric Ic. 370–410 Constantine the Great272–337 Stilicho Romulus Augustusc. 460–after 507

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