Professor Haywood challenges the theses of Gibbon, Spengler, and Toynbee who claim to have found "causes" of the Decline of Rome. On examination of a vast amount of recent facts -- especially those dug up from archeology -- Haywood finds "there is no evidence of the working out of a vast overarching causation..." responsible for the "fall of Rome". [6]

Haywood looks at five "persistent problems" of Governance -- (1) Authority, (2) Succession, (3) Finance, (4) Foreign Affairs/invasion, and (5) Army. He notes that for a century, after Augustus, and under the "five good emperors", all five management issues were solved.

The author notes that "the Empire" began when Augustus won the Battle of Actium and took Cleopatra's kingdom in 30 B.C. Egypt, the breadbasket of the world, became an immense private fortune for Octavian, known as "Augustus". [16-31] His policies and rule inaugurate the "Golden Age", and he maintained the forms of the Republic.

The author refers to the abundant evidence which documents the Imperial Cults--worship of the Roman emperors [29], and "one of the great ideas of all time": Universal citizenship. [26-27] In the 2d century, a movement toward a "commonwealth" uniting the world "under the rule of law" with citizenship. A "flood of evidence" of enthusiasm for this idea of participation, instead of naked exploitation, is seen in eager petitions, building programs, and beautification--appropriate to call it the "age of display". Truly a Golden Age.

By the third century, demographic and accumulated changes were occuring "about which Rome could do nothing". By the crucial fourth century, central governance became difficult: Powerful landowners and mutually-jealous wealthy aristocrats, an expanding bureaucracy, the division between the eastern and western Empire, the uncontrollable stream of the Germanic peoples from the north and Huns from the East overwhelmed all controls. The sixth century saw the end of central authority and its traceable succession. We see the spectacle of a great Republic finally torn to pieces by small feudal lords, satraps, and a militant Church with its own troops.

Professor Haywood defends the position that Rome's collapse, the failure of the Empire of the West, could have been avoided -- indeed it almost was. Rome itself continues to exist. ( )