
The Fall of the Roman Empire
A New History of Rome and the Barbarians
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Narrated by:
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Allan Robertson
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By:
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Peter Heather
About this listen
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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Story
As modern empires rise and fall, ancient Rome becomes ever more significant. We yearn for Rome's power but fear Rome's ruin—will we turn out like the Romans, we wonder, or can we escape their fate? That question has obsessed centuries of historians and leaders, who have explored diverse political, religious, and economic forces to explain Roman decline. In New Rome, Paul Stephenson looks beyond traditional texts and well-known artifacts to offer a novel, scientifically minded interpretation of antiquity's end.
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Full of fascinating details.
- By Amazon Customer on 02-14-24
By: Paul Stephenson
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Theoderic the Great
- King of Goths, Ruler of Romans
- By: Hans-Ulrich Wiemer, John Noel Dillon - translator
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 23 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In the year 493, the leader of a vast confederation of Gothic warriors, their wives, and children personally cut down Odoacer, the man famous for deposing the last Roman emperor in 476. That leader became Theoderic the Great (454-526). This engaging history of his life and reign immerses listeners in the world of the warrior-king who ushered in decades of peace and stability in Italy as king of Goths and Romans.
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More for historians than general readers
- By Bill Staley on 10-29-23
By: Hans-Ulrich Wiemer, and others
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Lost to the West
- The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization
- By: Lars Brownworth
- Narrated by: Lars Brownworth
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Filled with unforgettable stories of emperors, generals, and religious patriarchs, as well as fascinating glimpses into the life of the ordinary citizen, Lost to the West reveals how much we owe to the Byzantine Empire that was the equal of any in its achievements, appetites, and enduring legacy. For more than a millennium, Byzantium reigned as the glittering seat of Christian civilization.
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Just a delight for anyone interested in history !
- By Cinders on 05-28-13
By: Lars Brownworth
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The Tragedy of Empire
- From Constantine to the Destruction of Roman Italy
- By: Michael Kulikowski
- Narrated by: Simon Shepherd
- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The Tragedy of Empire begins in the late fourth century with the reign of Julian, the last non-Christian Roman emperor, and takes listeners to the final years of the Western Roman Empire at the end of the sixth century. Kulikowski traces 200 years of Roman history during which the Western Empire ceased to exist while the Eastern Empire remained politically strong and culturally vibrant.
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A Great History of the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity
- By Josh on 01-09-25
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Justinian
- Emperor, Soldier, Saint
- By: Peter Sarris
- Narrated by: Mark Elstob
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Justinian is a radical reassessment of an emperor and his times. In the sixth century CE, the emperor Justinian presided over nearly four decades of remarkable change, in an era of geopolitical threats, climate change, and plague. From the eastern Roman—or Byzantine—capital of Constantinople, Justinian’s armies reconquered lost territory in Africa, Italy, and Spain. But these military exploits, historian Peter Sarris shows, were just one part of a larger program of imperial renewal.
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Good telling of Justinian's reign
- By Amazon Customer on 02-04-24
By: Peter Sarris
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The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume I
- By: Edward Gibbon
- Narrated by: David Timson
- Length: 22 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Some 250 years after its first publication, Gibbon's Decline and Fall is still regarded as one of the greatest histories in Western literature. He reports on more than 1,000 years of an empire which extended from the most northern and western parts of Europe to deep into Asia and Africa and covers not only events but also the cultural and religious developments that effected change during that time.
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DAVID TIMSON IS AMAZING!
- By Allen L. Harris on 04-23-14
By: Edward Gibbon
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The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome
- The History of a Dangerous Idea
- By: Edward J. Watts
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome tells the stories of the people who built their political and literary careers around promises of Roman renewal as well as those of the victims they blamed for causing Rome's decline. The story begins during the Roman Republic just after 200 BC. It proceeds through the empire of Augustus and his successors, traces the Roman loss of much of western Europe in the fifth century AD, and follows Roman history until its fall in 1453.
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Exceptional
- By Ep on 12-17-24
By: Edward J. Watts
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The Classical World
- An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian
- By: Robin Lane Fox
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 23 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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The classical civilizations of Greece and Rome once dominated the world, and they continue to fascinate and inspire us. Classical art and architecture, drama and epic, philosophy and politics - these are the foundations of Western civilization. In The Classical World, eminent classicist Robin Lane Fox brilliantly chronicles this vast sweep of history from Homer to the reign of Augustus.
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Homo-erotic classical history
- By Gail Norman on 04-28-23
By: Robin Lane Fox
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Our Oriental Heritage
- The Story of Civilization, Volume 1
- By: Will Durant
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 50 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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The first volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume I chronicles the early history of Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia.
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Wonderful
- By Michael on 11-30-13
By: Will Durant
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Neptune
- The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings
- By: Craig L. Symonds
- Narrated by: Craig L. Symonds
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Seventy years ago, more than 6000 Allied ships carried more than a million soldiers across the English Channel to a 50-mile-wide strip of the Normandy coast in German-occupied France. It was the greatest sea-borne assault in human history. The code names given to the beaches where the ships landed the soldiers have become immortal: Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah, and especially Omaha, the scene of almost unimaginable human tragedy.
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The Whys of D-Day
- By Mike From Mesa on 02-09-15
By: Craig L. Symonds
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The Spartacus War
- By: Barry Strauss
- Narrated by: Ray Grover
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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The Spartacus War is the extraordinary story of the most famous slave rebellion in the ancient world, the fascinating true story behind a legend that has been the inspiration for novelists, filmmakers, and revolutionaries for 2,000 years. Starting with only 74 men, a gladiator named Spartacus incited a rebellion that threatened Rome itself.
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Interesting
- By Jean on 08-02-15
By: Barry Strauss
Lots of Roman History
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Excellent and Thorough
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Okay... but even with those large reservations, I am far better informed than ever before in my life of the causes for Rome's deterioration and collapse. And Heather's prose work hard against the academic historian's training to write in colorless code. This is not a text book, yet it is not a novel. I feel that a friend took the time to tell me what he's learned in useful detail about a grand puzzle. Like, "The Swerve" I recommend Heather's book and Allan Robertson's reading to anyone more than just modestly curious about how the greatest ancient civilization died.
And its meaning to us.
Enthralling
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Excellent overview
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Horrible Pronunciation!
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A good book not ideally suited to audiobook format
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In his recitation of the people, places, and events, Heather quite helpfully draws on his broad erudition to draw comparisons and contrasts with later periods—e.g., the Carolingian empire, the Spanish Armada, the Mongol invasion of China. These are unfailingly illuminating.
Particularly in the final chapter, Heather’s style approximates that of a well-crafted legal brief, both clearly establishing his own evidence and highlighting his disagreements with other scholars of yesteryear and today. I was particularly taken with his willingness to argue with the most charitably and strongly stated versions of the contrary views; he does not do battle with straw men, which speaks highly of his intellectual integrity.
The narrator has a friendly, easy to accommodate voice and generally handles the specialist vocabulary and classical Latin adeptly. In early chapters, his mispronunciation of “Trier” is somewhat distracting, but this is a fly in the ointment of an otherwise very worthwhile purchase.
Fine history, and well narrated
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brilliant
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very detailed
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Everything you need to know about the end of Rome
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