Dimensions
128 x 198 x 29mm
An Abridged Version
No other historian has so eloquently and penetratingly portrayed the terrible magnitude of the Roman Empire's descent into anarchy. Now, with Dero A Saunders' compact and literary masterpiece is within the grasp of ordinary readers and busy students.
Concentrating on the centuries from the age of the Antonines to the fall of the Empire in the West, this volume chronicles "the triumph of barbarism and religion" in the disruption of the unified Empire, the rise of Christianity, the progress of the Huns from China, and the revolt of the Goths. Never far below the surface of the magnificent narrative lies the sweeping Gibbonian irony, typified in Gibbon's famous definition of history as "little more than he register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind."
In his introduction, Dero A Saunders relates the author's life to his lifework, discussing in particular those events and influences that helped shape Gibbon's concept.
