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The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome: The History of a Dangerous Idea

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 91 ratings

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For more than 2000 years, those wishing to rule Rome and leaders inspired by their example have claimed they, and only they, could restore their society's past glory and make it great again. They left millions of victims in their wake. The decline of Rome has been a constant source of discussion for more than 2200 years. Everyone from American journalists in the twenty-first century AD to Roman politicians at the turn of the third century BC have used it as a tool to illustrate the negative consequences of changes in their world. Because Roman history is so long, it provides a buffet of ready-made stories of decline that can help develop the context around any snapshot. And Rome did, in fact, decline and, eventually, fall. An empire that once controlled all or part of more than 40 modern European, Asian, and African countries no longer exists. Roman prophets of decline were, ultimately, proven correct-a fact that makes their modern invocations all the more powerful. If it happened then, it could happen now.

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. Each chapter offers the historical context necessary to understand a moment or a series of moments in which Romans, aspiring Romans, and non--Romans used ideas of Roman decline and restoration to seize power and remake the world around them. 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 then follows Roman history as it runs through the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) until its fall in 1453. The final two chapters look at ideas of Roman decline and renewal from the fifteenth century until today. If Rome illustrates the profound danger of the rhetoric of decline, it also demonstrates the rehabilitative potential of a rhetoric that focuses on collaborative restoration, a lesson of great relevance to our world today.
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From the Publisher

"...a powerful lens through which to view teh past..." - Wall Street Journal

"...one of Watts's most significant books." - World History Encyclopedia

The stories of the people who built their careers around promises of Roman renewal...

"...clearly...covers 2,000 years of political and intellectual history." - CHOICE

"A fresh, complex story of how historical preceptions come into being..." - Kirkus

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Edward J. Watts, a professor of history at the University of California, San Diego, is a scholar of the later ancient world, who takes his readers from republican Rome to Republican Washington with a resounding theme that anyone promising to restore lost greatness is probably up to no good...This is a powerful lens through which to view the past, both for those who already think they know it well and those who have practical uses for it...He gives a masterly account of the complex family who founded the Roman empire's last and longest-lasting dynasty, and of its principal figure, Michael Palaeologus (1261-82), who restored Constantinople to its capital status while committing "sins so great that even
his successors hesitated to embrace his legacy too closely."
-
Peter Stothard, Wall Street Journal

About the Author

Edward J. Watts is Alkiviadis Vassiliadis Endowed Chair and Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego. His previous books include Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny, The Final Pagan Generation, and Hypatia: The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press (August 3, 2021)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0190076712
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0190076719
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.4 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.2 x 1.2 x 6.4 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 91 ratings

About the author

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Edward Jay Watts
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Edward Watts is the Alkiviadis Vassiliadis Endowed Chair in Byzantine History at UC San Diego. He writes about political and religious change in the Roman Republic, Roman Empire, and Byzantine Empire. His work has been featured in the Economist, the New York Times, the New Yorker, Time, Smithsonian, and NPR. He also maintains a YouTube channel, Rome's Eternal Decline, featuring videos devoted to Roman and Byzantine history.

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4.3 out of 5 stars
91 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book insightful and well-researched. They describe it as an interesting read for historians, though some feel the history is superficially presented.

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5 customers mention "Reading quality"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book well-researched and insightful. They describe it as a good read for historians. However, some readers feel the discussion is repetitive.

"Good read for perhaps historians. A bit droll but, it identifies the Roman empire great and foolish throughout its history. The point of the book." Read more

"A brilliant discussion. Rome and the USA both had leaders who lied and promised miracles. And the ordinary man believed them!" Read more

"...on the strength of the author's The Last Pagan Generation, which was insightful and interesting...." Read more

"Edward Watts’ work is well-researched and highlights the major characters in the long history of Rome...." Read more

3 customers mention "History"2 positive1 negative

Customers have different views on the history of the Roman Empire. Some find it comprehensive and well-researched, highlighting major characters. Others feel it provides a superficial treatment of the long history of Rome.

"Good read for perhaps historians. A bit droll but, it identifies the Roman empire great and foolish throughout its history. The point of the book." Read more

"...skimmed over or omitted, and so generally this is just an extremely short history of Rome that includes the Byzantine period and has a few pages of..." Read more

"Edward Watts’ work is well-researched and highlights the major characters in the long history of Rome...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2021
    Good read for perhaps historians. A bit droll but, it identifies the Roman empire great and foolish throughout its history. The point of the book.
    7 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2021
    A brilliant discussion. Rome and the USA both had leaders who lied and promised miracles. And the ordinary man believed them!
    9 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2025
    I bought this book as a gift, so I've not read it myself.
  • Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2022
    I bought this book on the strength of the author's The Last Pagan Generation, which was insightful and interesting. This book, by contrast, was essentially a very cursory overview of Roman history with an ostensible political point shoehorned in to make it seem topical. First, the author was extremely one-sided in his treatment of how "decline and renewal" stories are used (though this was only developed in the last 8 pages of the book), when politicians of many different political persuasions have employed the theme. More importantly, however, he failed to demonstrate why there is anything unique about narratives of specifically *Roman* decline and renewal. Although famous and popular due to Gibbon and others, the concept of decline as an ideological position is worthy of more in-depth treatment, drawing on writers like Oswald Spengler or Jacques Barzun.

    This book does not provide that. It instead tells a highly abbreviated version of Roman history with a minor emphasis on narratives of decline and/or renewal. Anyone who has read Gibbon, or even just a breezy history of Rome before, will find almost nothing new. Many nuances are missing, facts that might contradict the narrative are skimmed over or omitted, and so generally this is just an extremely short history of Rome that includes the Byzantine period and has a few pages of throwaway information about a very select few authors who were interested in the decline and fall of Rome, followed by an extremely short political point at the end.

    If you don't have time to read a major history of Rome and want to read something short and "big picture", this book isn't terrible. If you want something with more depth, read Gibbon (well worth the time and don't skip the footnotes whatever you do!). Read Judith Herrin's The Formation of Christendom if you want to read about post-Fall of the Western Empire Rome. Read The Fate of Rome by Kyle Harper for a great analysis of the empire's weaknesses. Read Luttwak's analyses of Western and Byzantine military strategy. Read Mommsen. Or go to the sources and read Livy, Tacitus, Ammianus Marcellinus and others.
    12 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2023
    Edward Watts’ work is well-researched and highlights the major characters in the long history of Rome. More importantly, it traces a central theme - the rise and fall of the empire - as it played out over the millennia.
  • Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2021
    You really have to be deeply interested in the intricacies of Roman leadership to stay with this study as the detailed violence becomes overwhelming and the names lose their identity. It's not a book intended for casual readership.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2024
    Great idea but I lost the author somewhere in the 8th century. I would have preferred to keep the analysis to the Republic and post Republic period.
  • Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2024
    In the Acknowledgments section of this book, Watts explains that it was originally conceived of as an essay. It should have remained one, because over the course of the next 242 pages - the bulk of which is a rather dull catalogue of Roman emperors whose names you cannot retain (unless you already know them), and whose assassinations are mostly unremarkable (except for the Et tu Brute? one, which Watts does not mention), and whose accomplishments are all exactly the same (they built some big stuff, codified some laws, won some wars) - you will be bored to tears. The problem Watts faces in this tome is that when one bases a book on a thesis, one has to actually prove the thesis, which Watts doesn't do.

    The thesis of this overblown essay is this: The decline and fall of Rome is a dangerous idea because it draws on the past to destabilize the present. It's a good thesis, but Watts didn't need to go through 2000 years of Roman history to prove it, because the idea was, in fact, largely irrelevant to Rome itself.

    The idea that Rome was falling into decline because of "decadence and sin" was used as a rhetorical strategy by various Roman emperors to seek support for their rule, during which they promised Rome would be be restored to its former greatness. (If Romans had worn red caps, they would have been emblazoned with MRGA.) However, the decline and renewal rhetoric wasn't actually dangerous during the 2000 years of Roman rule.

    At what point did this idea become dangerous? Clearly not in ancient times. It became dangerous in modern times, when notions about the decline of a glorious imperial past have been used to "destabilize the present." That is indeed a worthy thesis on which to base an essay. But - and I can't state this enough - it needs to be PROVEN.

    A few quotes by Phyllis Schlafly about the fall of Rome (however entertainingly ridiculous they may be), or a speech by Ronald Reagan claiming that Rome fell because of welfare queens, or even Trump's "American carnage" speech do not in themselves prove the point. Not even Mussolini's attempt at restoring the glory of Rome through fascism proves the point. What might have proven the point would have been a cogent analysis of why the mythology surrounding the Roman Empire's fall still resonates with people today and exactly how that myth is currently used to disrupt present day political institutions and societies.

    But in order to do that, Watts would have needed a vision that encompassed more of modern history than he was willing to take on. The enduring power of the "decline and fall" myth is undeniable, I just wish this analysis had fallen into the hands of someone more capable of fully exploring it.

    My recommendation to readers who do not want to be bored to death is to read the Introduction and the final two chapters. Skip the middle.
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Malcolm Redfellow
    5.0 out of 5 stars An inspiring, and acerbic approach
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 5, 2022
    This is not a history of Rome (though it includes many insights). It is a history, told through the literature of the culture, of Romanitas — the idea of what Rome and Romans thought themselves to be, or what they ought to be.

    Watts applies that to our later civilisation, and its insecurities.
  • Johannes Marian
    3.0 out of 5 stars Eine amerikanische Blase
    Reviewed in Germany on November 13, 2021
    Das Buch ist grundsätzlich lesenswert und enthält viele richtige Beobachtungen. Es hat aber einen offensichtlichen Mangel, der sich leider an immer mehr amerikanischen und britischen Publikationen beobachten lässt: Watts nimmt fast (!) ausschließlich englischsprachige Literatur zur Kenntnis. Das ist natürlich in vielen Wissenschaften längst die Regel; in den Altertumswissenschaften gilt aber, dass man einschlägige Arbeiten in den vier modernen Sprachen des Faches (Englisch, Französisch, Deutsch und Italienisch) zur Kenntnis nehmen muss, wenn man seriös mitreden will, denn anders als in vielen anderen Disziplinen werden wichtige und zentrale Arbeiten bis heute in all diesen Sprachen publiziert. Die besten amerikanischen Historiker zur Spätantike (Peter Brown, Michael Kulikowski, Noel Lenski, Geoffrey Greatrex etc.) rezipieren daher selbstverständlich auch aktuelle Arbeiten, die auf Deutsch oder Französisch verfasst werden. Watts, eigentlich ein guter Historiker, hat es sich hier hingegen zu leicht gemacht; was umso bedauerlicher ist, als das Narrativ vom "Untergang des Römischen Reiches" natürlich in ganz Europa bis heute sehr wirkmächtig ist. Das deutlichste Beispiel für dieses Manko ist sicher, dass Watts das grundlegende Werk "Der Fall Roms" von Demandt ebensowenig zu kennen scheint wie Lancons "La chute de l'empire romain". Dadurch wird sein Blick sehr eingeschränkt. In einem Wort: Wenn ein Buch drei Viertel der relevanten Forschungsliteratur nicht verarbeitet, dann ist das ein ziemliches Manko.