Goldsworthy how rome fell6/12/2023 ![]() Once the middle of the fifth century is reached, the treatment of events becomes thinner, especially in the east, and after 476 there is a very swift progression to the reign of Justinian, treated very much as an epilogue to Roman history, rather than a part of it. This is not easy, and Goldsworthy does as well as can be done. There is an admirable attempt, as the narrative becomes more complex in the fourth century, to maintain the story of a single political body. He then proceeds reign by reign as far as Justinian. Like Gibbon, Goldsworthy starts with the death of Marcus Aurelius. Opening and closing sections discussing Rome in relation to the US and to modern Britain, as well as regular analogies throughout to the modern period, give the work topicality, though mean it will not age well. Like all of his work, it reads well, but I suspect that the majority of BMCR readers are not the target audience who instead would seem to be the (almost mythical) general reader. Adrian Goldsworthy, however, does know why Rome fell, and describes the process in over 500 pages. I often tell my students that I don't know why Rome fell, but I can talk about it for a long time. ![]() ![]() New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009. Adrian Goldsworthy, How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower. ![]()
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