The Fall of the Roman Empire: The Military Explanation

by Arther Ferrill

Book Overview

What caused the fall of Rome? Since Gibbon's day scholars have hotly debated the question and come up with answers ranging from blood poisoning to rampant immorality. In recent years, however, the most likely explanation has been neglected: was it not above all else a military collapse? Professor Ferrill believes it was, and puts forth his case in this provocative book. In the last decade of the fourth century AD one emperor-Theodosius-still ruled...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0500250952
• ISBN13: 9780500250952
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

I became obsessed . . .

I became obsessed with this book--and with Rome, as a result of this book. I could not put it down, and I give that to perhaps five books I've read. I think the more well read will find each paragraph to contain the distillation of an entire thesis. (Alas, the less patient will find only eight or so illustrations, and large text on the cover and title page to hold their attention.) I had to put it down every page or so to awe over the depth of what I'd just read. This process made my reading last weeks--almost as though I were reading scripture. My obvious emotional attachment to this book should make readers pause, of course. So to be balanced I should say that, as any academic work, Ferrill's must surely be matched by alternative scholarly conclusions somewhere. But it struck me as so expertly and thoroughly reasoned, that it is my chosen watershed on Rome's decline. I recommend this book as the best starting point I've found on Rome's decline, and . . . perhaps her persistence?

An original approach!

What did it really propitiate Rome `s fall ?. Since the days of Gibbons, diverse erudite men have debated this thorny question with vehemence and bravery with different answers that include from the racial decadence to the proclaimed immorality apart of an excessive bureaucratization. But lastly, the most probably explanation has focused about the slow process of raveling and cracking of the military establishment in all orders, product of an unlimited ambition and pernicious anxiety of rampant greed as expected result of the visible moral degradation and sinister corruption in the higher spheres of the power. In the last decade of the IV BC, the emperor Theodosius governed on a territory so extensive as August was then, leading an army of hundred thousand men. Nevertheless it was enough, due only eighty years later the Empire and the Army would be entirely destroyed. What happened on the road ? Undoubtedly, the inclusion of barbarians as reinforcement of the army permeated the moral of the soldiers and the discipline of the infantry; on the other hand the huge mobile reserve created by Constantine accented still more the vigor of the frontier forces, reinforcing the cavalry at expense of the infantry. That distortion o the real situation and the breakthrough of the infantry as vertebral column of the Roman Empire would eventually become its nemesis. This absorbing analysis will engage you from the first pages, introducing and making us to participate in this passionate subject. And far beyond, you may disagree or not around this perspective, the book maintains an febrile state of undeniable interest that will captive your attention all the way through.

Accessable yet Authoritive

I found the book refreshingly easy to read and understand, and it certainly kept my attention. For the first time the answer to the question "OK now we know why the Western Empire fell, why did the Eastern last another 1,000 years?"Simple, the Western armies weren't up to it. It was a military defeat or series of defeats and the nation could not withstand the invasions which followed.One quibble, probably unfair. There are indications now emerging from tree-rings and global climate indicators as well as historical records, that there was some sort of natural but global catastrophe in the sixth century that helped finish off the Western areas still with some elements of Roman culture eg Britannia. Of course though, the author of this book would not have been aware of those later findings.

What really happened, and why

There is a lot of nonsense in circulation about the Fall of the Western Empire. Ferrill gets past all of it by starting from one obvious but often neglected criterion: Any explanation of the Fall of the Western Roman Empire must also account for the survival of the Byzantine East. From there he goes on, in a very readable manner, to the military events, and their consequences.