Historical sources on the fall of the Western Roman Empire

Extract A

"Accordingly, under the command of their leader Alavivus, they occupied the banks of the Danube; and having sent ambassadors to Valens, they humbly [begged] to be received by him as his subjects, promising to live quietly, and to furnish a body of [extra] troops if any [need] for such a force should arise." 

Extract B

"[Soon after], as the belief in these [events] grew stronger, being confirmed, too, by the arrival of the foreign ambassadors, who, with prayers and earnest [requests], begged that the people thus driven from their homes and now encamped on the other side of the river, might be kindly received by us, the affair seemed a cause of joy rather than of fear, according to the [clever] flatterers who were always [praising] and [exaggerating] the good fortune of the emperor; [congratulating] him that an embassy had come from the furthest corners of the earth unexpectedly, offering him a large body of recruits." 

Extract C

"Moreover, having obtained permission of the emperor to cross the Danube and to [settle in] some districts in Thrace, they crossed the stream day and night, without ceasing, [boarding] troops on board ships and rafts, and canoes made of the hollow trunks of trees." 

Extract D

"And while arms and missiles of all kinds were meeting in fierce conflict, and Bellona [the goddess of war], blowing her mournful trumpet, was raging more fiercely than usual, to [cause] disaster on the Romans, our men began to retreat; but presently, roused by the [criticisms] of their officers, they made a fresh stand, and the battle increased like a [fire], terrifying our soldiers, numbers of whom were pierced by strokes from the javelins hurled at them, and from arrows." 

Extract E

"Then the two lines of battle dashed against each other, like the [rams] of ships, and [pushing] with all their might, were tossed to and fro, like the waves of the sea. Our left wing had advanced actually up to the waggons, with the intent to push on still further if they were properly supported; but they were deserted by the rest of the cavalry, and so pressed upon by the [greater] numbers of the enemy, that they were [crushed] and beaten down, like the ruin of a [great] rampart." 

Contextual information:

Ammianus Marcellinus (c. 330–400 AD) was a Roman soldier and historian who was born in Antioch and served in the imperial bodyguard (protectores domestici). He wrote his Res Gestae in Latin at Rome during the 380s and 390s, covering Roman history from 96 to 378 AD, and is considered the last great historian of the Roman Empire. Book XXXI, his final book, records events he lived through, including the Gothic request to cross the Danube in 376 AD and the catastrophic Roman defeat at the Battle of Adrianople on 9 August 378 AD. 

Bibliographical reference:

Ammianus Marcellinus. The Roman history of Ammianus Marcellinus (C. D. Yonge, Trans.). Bohn's Classical Library. (Original work written c. 390 AD). Extracts A–C from Book XXXI, Chapter IV, pp. 585–586; Extracts D–E from Book XXXI, Chapter XIII, pp. 612–613. 

Copyright: Public domain. 

Extract A

"Augustulus, who was called Romulus by his parents before he mounted the throne, was made emperor by his father, the [nobleman] Orestes. Then Odoacar made his appearance with a force of Sciri and killed the [nobleman] Orestes at Placentia, and his brother Paulus at the Pine Grove, outside the [harbour district] at Ravenna. Then he entered Ravenna, [removed] Augustulus from his throne, but in pity for his [young age], granted him his life; and because of his beauty he also gave him an income of six thousand gold-pieces and sent him to Campania, to live there a free man with his relatives." 

Extract B

"Odoacar, of whom we have made mention above, presently [removed] Augustulus from the rule and was made king; he remained on the throne for thirteen years." 

Contextual information:

The Anonymus Valesianus (Pars Posterior) is an anonymous Latin chronicle written around 540–550 AD, probably at Ravenna, covering events from the fall of the Western Empire through the reign of the Ostrogothic King Theodoric. It was first published in 1636 by the French scholar Henri de Valois alongside his edition of Ammianus Marcellinus, and survives in a single ninth-century manuscript held in Berlin. It is one of the most important primary sources for the deposition of Romulus Augustulus by Odoacer in 476 AD. 

Bibliographical reference:

Anonymus Valesianus. Excerpta Valesiana [The latter part] (J. C. Rolfe, Trans., 1939). In Ammianus Marcellinus: Roman history, Volume III (pp. 531–569). Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. (Original work written c. 540–550 AD). Extract A from §§37–38, p. 533; Extract B from §45, p. 537. 

Copyright: Public domain.

Extract A

"In the space of twenty years since the death of Valentinian, nine emperors had [one after the other] disappeared; and the son of Orestes, a youth [recommended] only by his beauty, would be the least entitled to the notice of [future generations], if his reign, which was marked by the [end] of the Roman empire in the West, did not leave a [famous] era in the history of mankind." 

"The [exact] year in which the Western empire was [ended], is not [certainly known]. The [commonly accepted] era of A.D. 476 appears to have the [support] of [reliable] chronicles."] 

Extract B

"The son of Orestes [took on] and disgraced the names of Romulus Augustus; but the first was [changed] into Momyllus, by the Greeks, and the second has been changed by the Latins into the [insulting] [nickname] Augustulus." 

Extract C

"Their military [cheers] saluted him with the title of king; but he [avoided], during his whole reign, from the use of the purple and [crown], lest he should offend those princes, whose subjects, by their [chance] mixture, had formed the victorious army, which time and [planning] might [gradually] unite into a great nation." 

Extract D

"The decline of Rome was the natural and [unavoidable] effect of [excessive] greatness. [Success] ripened the [seeds] of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the [size] of conquest; and as soon as time or accident had removed the [man-made] supports, the [enormous structure] yielded to the pressure of its own weight." 

Extract E

"The victorious legions, who, in distant wars, [picked up] the vices of strangers and [hired soldiers], first [crushed] the freedom of the republic, and afterwards violated the [authority] of the purple. The emperors, anxious for their personal safety and the public peace, were reduced to the [shameful] [trick] of corrupting the discipline which rendered them alike [frightening] to their [ruler] and to the enemy." 

Extract F

"The [wisdom] of Diocletian discovered that the empire, [attacked] on every side by the barbarians, required on every side the presence of a great army and of an emperor. With this view, he resolved once more to divide his [unmanageable] power, and, with the [lesser] title of Caesar, to [grant] on two generals of [proven] [ability] an equal share of the [ruling] authority." 

Extract G

"The throne of Constantinople was [set up] in the East; while the West was still possessed by a series of emperors who held their [home] in Italy, and claimed their equal [share] of the legions and provinces." 

Extract H

"During a long period of decay his [unconquerable] city [held back] the victorious armies of barbarians, protected the wealth of Asia, and commanded, both in peace and war, the important straits which connect the [Black Sea] and [the] Mediterranean [Sea]. The foundation of Constantinople more [importantly helped] the [survival] of the East than [it helped cause] the ruin of the West." 

Contextual information:

Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) was an English historian and Member of Parliament who wrote The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in six volumes between 1776 and 1788. The work covers Roman history from the height of the empire in 98 AD through to the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and it is one of the most important works of history ever published in the English language. Gibbon drew on primary sources in Latin and Greek and pioneered the use of critical, evidence-based historical methods. 

Bibliographical reference:

Gibbon, E. (1776–1788). The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire (Vols. 1–6). Strahan & Cadell. Extracts A–C from Chapter XXXVI (Vol. III); Extract D–E from "General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West" (Vol. IV); Extract F from Chapter XIII (Vol. I); Extracts G–H from "General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West" (Vol. IV).

Copyright: Public domain.

Extract A

"Fifty years ago the word 'Byzantine' was used as a [word meaning the same thing as] all that was corrupt and [declining], and the tale of the East-Roman Empire was dismissed by modern historians as depressing and [boring]." 

Extract B

"Since they have written, the Byzantines no longer need an [defender], and the great work of the East-Roman Empire in holding back the [Muslim Arab invaders], and in keeping alive throughout the Dark Ages the lamp of learning, is beginning to be [understood]." 

Contextual information:

Sir Charles Oman (1860–1946) was Chichele Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford. His The Byzantine Empire was published in 1892 as an early English-language survey that helped to improve the academic reputation of Byzantine studies in Britain. Oman used the terms "Byzantine Empire" and "East-Roman Empire" to mean the same thing throughout the book. 

Bibliographical reference:

Oman, C. (1892). The Byzantine Empire. T. Fisher Unwin. Extracts A–B from Preface; Extract C from Chapter II.

Copyright: Public domain.