Rome Et Les Barbares: Histoire Nouvelle De La Chute De l'Empire

From Scotland to Mesopotamia, from the mouth of the Rhine to the foothills of the Atlas Mountains, Rome dominated an immense territory for nearly five centuries. The rapid dismemberment of its western part was all the more striking given that the Empire achieved decisive successes right up to the end, notably against Attila in 451. To explain this paradox, Peter Heather reopens the file by shifting the point of view. Bringing together superb documentation with consummate narrative skill, he is as interested in the cultural, economic, and political life of the Empire as in that of the "barbarians." These, in fact, did not come from nowhere. Whether it was the Germanic peoples or, even more so, the Huns, Peter Heather brings to life from the inside the logic of Rome's adversaries. A logic which, just as much as that of Augustus's heirs, would shape the European Middle Ages. Here we discover the history of the end of the Western Empire as much as that of the beginnings of Europe, as well as that of the colorful characters who dot it: diplomats from Rome and Byzantium always on the road, generals, barbarian leaders, ambitious empresses, poets, philosophers, theologians... Considered a classic, this incisive "new history" marked a turning point in the analyses of the fall of the Roman Empire.