The death of the Roman Empire is one of the perennial mysteries of world
history. Now, in this groundbreaking book, Peter Heather proposes a stunning
new solution: Centuries of imperialism turned the neighbors Rome called
barbarians into an enemy capable of dismantling an Empire that had dominated
their lives for so long. A leading authority on the late Roman Empire and on
the barbarians, Heather relates the extraordinary story of how Europe's
barbarians, transformed by centuries of contact with Rome on every possible
level, eventually pulled the empire apart. He shows first how the Huns
overturned the existing strategic balance of power on Rome's European
frontiers, to force the Goths and others to seek refuge inside the Empire.
This prompted two generations of struggle, during which new barbarian
coalitions, formed in response to Roman hostility, brought the Roman west
to its knees. The Goths first destroyed a Roman army at the battle of
Hadrianople in 378, and went on to sack Rome in 410. The Vandals spread
devastation in Gaul and Spain, before conquering North Africa, the breadbasket
of the Western Empire, in 439. We then meet Attila the Hun, whose reign of
terror swept from Constantinople to Paris, but whose death in 453 ironically
precipitated a final desperate phase of Roman collapse, culminating in the
Vandals' defeat of the massive Byzantine Armada: the west's last chance for
survival.

Peter Heather convincingly argues that the Roman Empire was not on the brink
of social or moral collapse. What brought it to an end were the barbarians.

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