Table Of ContentTHE FALL OF ROME
AND THE END OF CIVILIZATION
Bryan Ward-Perkins teaches History at Trinity College,
Oxford. Born and brought up in Rome, he has excavated exten-
sively in Italy, primarily sites of the immediately post-Roman
period. His principal interests are in combining historical
and archaeological evidence, and in understanding the transi-
tion from Roman to post-Roman times. A joint editor of The
Cambridge Ancient History, vol. XIV, his previous publications
include From Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, also
published by Oxford University Press.
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THE FALL OF
ROME
AND THE END
OF CIVILIZATION
BRYAN WARD-PERKINS
1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford
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1
PREFACE
This book has taken an unconscionable time to write; but, as a result, it has
had the benefit of being discussed with a large number of colleagues, and
of being tried out in part on many different audiences in Britain and
abroad. I thank all these audiences and colleagues, who are too many to
name, for their advice and encouragement. I also thank the very many
students at Oxford, who, over the years, have helped make my thinking
clearer and more direct. The career structure and funding of universities
in the UK currently strongly discourages academics and faculties from
putting any investment into teaching—there are no career or financial
rewards in it. This is a great pity, because, in the Humanities at least, it is
the need to engage in dialogue, and to make things logical and clear, that is
the primary defence against obscurantism and abstraction.
I owe a particular debt of gratitude to Alison Cooley, Andrew Gillett,
Peter Heather, and Chris Wickham, for reading and commenting in detail
on parts of the text, and, above all, to Simon Loseby, who has read it all in
one draft or another and provided invaluable criticism and encourage-
ment. I have not followed all their various suggestions, and we disagree on
certain issues, but there is no doubt that this book would have been much
the worse without their contribution.
The first half of this book, on the fall of the western empire, was
researched and largely written while I held a Visiting Fellowship at the
Humanities Research Centre in Canberra; this was a wonderful experi-
ence, teaching me many things and providing the perfect environment in
which to write and think.
Katharine Reeve was my editor at OUP, and if this book is at all read-
able it is very much her doing. To work with a first-class editor has been a
painful but deeply rewarding experience. She made me prune many of the
subordinate clauses and qualifications that scholars love; and above all
forced me to say what I really mean, rather than hint at it through delphic
academic utterances. The book also benefited greatly from the very helpful
comments of two anonymous readers for OUP, and from the Press’
highly professional production team. Working with OUP has been a real
pleasure.
vi
My main debt inevitably is to my family, who have put up with this
book for much longer than should have been necessary, and above all to
Kate, who has been endlessly encouraging, a constructive critic of my
prose, and ever-helpful over difficult points.
Finally I would like to record my heartfelt gratitude to my friend Simon
Irvine, who always believed I would write this book, and to the three men
who, at different stages of my education, taught me a profound respect and
love of History, David Birt, Mark Stephenson, and the late Karl Leyser.
Bryan Ward-Perkins
January
CONTENTS
I. Did Rome Ever Fall?
PART ONE: THE FALL OF ROME
II. The Horrors of War
III. The Road to Defeat
IV. Living under the New Masters
PART TWO: THE END OF A CIVILIZATION
V. The Disappearance of Comfort
VI. Why the Demise of Comfort?
VII. The Death of a Civilization?
VIII. All for the Best in the Best of All Possible Worlds?
Appendix: From Potsherds to People
Chronology
Notes
Bibliography
Picture List
Index
