... place, is perhaps the most fundamental lesson that history teaches.Historians sometimes seem to forget this principle, when they claim to begin and end their books at precisedates. We find histories ... immediatelypreceding the barbarian invasions, see BOTSFORD, History of Rome, WEST, Ancient History to the Death ofCharlemagne, MYERS, Rome: Its Rise and Fall, or MOREY, Outlines of Roman History, all with plenty ... nevercombined in any general alliance against it, is a very difficult question to answer satisfactorily. Theinhabitants of the Empire appear gradually to have lost their energy and self-reliance and to have...