This book containes a certain amount of information about the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, but, it is a sad production from the point of view of the historian. It seems to me that if we had a working time machine, "The Gothic History" by Cassiodorus would have been a far better book to have nabbed. This dimly recollected precis makes it very hard work to discover a clear chronology of events, or the nature of the events it attempts to describe. I read this book for completeness, and it did not add much to my stock of knowledge. ( )