In A.D. 200, the Roman Empire seemed unassailable. Its vast territory accounted for most of the known world. Yet by the end of the fifth century, Roman rule had vanished in western Europe and much of northern Africa, and only a shrunken Eastern Empire remained. What accounts for this improbable decline? Here, Adrian Goldsworthy applies the scholarship, perspective, and narrative skill that defined his monumental Caesar to address perhaps the greatest of all historical questions-how Rome fell.