How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower
Written by Adrian Goldsworthy
Narrated by Derek Perkins
4/5
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About this audiobook
This was a period of remarkable personalities, from the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius to emperors like Diocletian, who portrayed themselves as tough, even brutal, soldiers. It was a time of revolutionary ideas, especially in religion, as Christianity went from persecuted sect to the religion of state and emperors. Ultimately, this is the story of how an empire without a serious rival rotted from within, its rulers and institutions putting short-term ambition and personal survival over the greater good of the state.
Editor's Note
The Ides of March…
The “Ides of March” were significant well before the assassination of Caesar, as Romans considered it the deadline to settle debts. This poignancy notwithstanding, it's a great opportunity to revisit the fall of perhaps the greatest empire of all time.
Adrian Goldsworthy
Adrian Goldsworthy's doctoral thesis formed the basis for his first book, The Roman Army at War 100 BC–AD 200 (OUP, 1996), and his research has focused on aspects of warfare in the Graeco-Roman world. He is the bestselling author of many ancient world titles, including both military history and historical novels. He also consults on historical documentaries for the History Channel, National Geographic, and the BBC. Adrian Goldsworthy studied at Oxford, where his doctoral thesis examined the Roman army. He went on to become an acclaimed historian of Ancient Rome. He is the author of numerous works of non-fiction, including Philip and Alexander: Kings and Conquerors, Caesar, The Fall of the West, Pax Romana and Hadrian's Wall.
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Reviews for How Rome Fell
119 ratings9 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Everyone's heard all the wacky theories of why Rome fell, with the lead pipes leading the pack. This book starts off really boring with the slow and seemingly inconsequential succession of rulers but slowly builds into a reasonable explanation of the slow decline and disintegration of the Roman Empire.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is the third try I've had at this big question. Gibbon was, of course the first. Goldsworthy wants to understand the past in its own context and wants to downplay the "Lessons for modern America" approach. I'm in favour of this for as Adrian points out "Historians do not make the best prophets. Still, the lessons of the big collapse should be laid out for the present student. A fact that Goldsworthy wants us desperately to remember when consulting the records left by the Romans is that they did not know they were "Falling". It always seemed to them, that though the times were a bad patch, the empire had come through before, and odds were good it would again. Goldsworthy works on defining the long view, that serious flaws in the Roman method accumulated to the breaking point in the mid-four fifties. This is definitely a book to at least read along with Gibbon, and Peter Heather on the classical apocalypse!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent. Goldsworthy states that he is not an expert in this period, which actually makes the book better for the general reader as he examines a variety of perspectives on various controversies rather than presenting the reader with a neat analysis. I am working my way through Gibbon and found this to be the most helpful overview so far of the period and the debates surrounding it. Very readable for a non-specialist. It does focus mainly on politics and military issues. If you want something about the life and times of the ordinary person, there is not much here.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is both well-written and informative. The author provides a good narrative of the period from the golden age to the last years of the roman empire. He also does a good job of incorporating his thesis into the narrative to explain the age-old question of why and how the decline happened.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Goldsworthy's clarity brings a clear narrative line to his history of the Roman Empire through the sixth century. He offers pretty compelling evidence for his thesis that because emperors placed their survival above the good of the state, the state rotted from within.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An excellent telling of the decling years of Rome, with a thought provoking last chapter as to Goldsworthy's explanation of why the WEstern Empire collapsed.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a very informative and entertaining look at the long drawn out collapse of the Roman Empire. Adrian Goldsworthy makes two good points. First, that the Empire took a long time to collapse - it was not a sudden or noticeable thing. Second, that a self-serving and not very efficient bureaucracy played a role. What he didn't spend enough time on, and I think there is sufficient information out there now to have done so, is the impact of health and disease, especially large-scale epidemic disease, on the Empire.A ripping good read, really.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Goldsworthy is an exhaustive historian and there is very little drama in his history accounts. So many pages of this book were non-attention-holding. The final chapters, in which he attempts to tell why the western Roman Empire fell, are well-done and of interest. But the boring parts outweigh the non-bofing.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An insightful history of each stage in Rome's fall, from the catastrophes of the Third Century, through the transformation of the Fourth Century to the final dissolution of the Western Empire. An exceptional work of scholarship, yet effectively written of the informed lay. His focus on internal strife as the key explanation for Rome's fall well- argued but is subject to debate.