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Bryan Ward-Perkins The Fall Of Rome

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In the dialogue between Bryan Ward-Perkins and Peter Heather “The Fall of Rome” the two historians answer a few questions that relate to the fall of Rome. The one specific time the two authors both agree is when Ward-Perkins mentions “disappointingly (perhaps) I basically agree with Peter here – neither of us have much time for the theory that the empire was quietly ‘transformed’, by the peaceful ‘accommodation’ into it of some Germanic barbarians. We both believe in invasions that were violent and unpleasant” (Heather, Peter, and Bryan Ward-Perkins). This is the only time presently written that both historians agreed on a given point. Peter’s statement that Ward-Perkins followed up with the agreement is “I am entirely convinced by all the evidence that shows that the late Empire was not being torn apart by irrevocable processes of decline by the fourth century” (Heather, Peter, and Bryan Ward-Perkins). The two authors are convinced that the transition was not peaceful, and from the information provided from the different wars there would have had to have been violence and not peace. There are other parts in the dialogue where the two historians agree, but they do not …show more content…

There is something that can be distinguished between events such as wars that happen and chances for the Empire to take a new direction. Then there is structural change where per Ward-Perkins “individuals and concatenations of events, all of which might have gone differently, are seen as central to human history” (Heather, Peter, and Bryan Ward-Perkins). This is what Ward-Perkins has theorized as “modern thinking” where we are taught to remember names and

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