This book describes the tragic and bloody collapse of Roman civilization in the West in the fifth century and the near ruin of the Eastern Roman Empire. The hundred years from the death of Theodosius I to the conquest of Italy by Theodoric the Ostrogoth were years of chaos, havoc, and destruction. In the East we see the confusion of the imperial government, the palace intrigues, and the sinister role of the palace eunuchs--but survival. The events are dramatically described by eyewitnesses to the disasters--the Byzantine historians Priscus, Malchus, Olympiodorus, John of Antioch, and...