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The End of Empire: Attila the Hun & the Fall of Rome by [Kelly, Christopher]

The End of Empire: Attila the Hun & the Fall of Rome Kindle Edition

by Christopher Kelly (Author)

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"A thoughtful and sophisticated account of a notoriously complicated and controversial period." —R. I. Moore, Times Literary Supplement

History remembers Attila, the leader of the Huns, as the Romans perceived him: a savage barbarian brutally inflicting terror on whoever crossed his path. Following Attila and the Huns from the steppes of Kazakhstan to the court of Constantinople, Christopher Kelly portrays Attila in a compelling new light, uncovering an unlikely marriage proposal, a long-standing relationship with a treacherous Roman general, and a thwarted assassination plot. We see Attila as both a master warrior and an astute strategist whose rule was threatening but whose sudden loss of power was even more so. The End of Empire is an original exploration of the clash between empire and barbarity in the ancient world, full of contemporary resonance.

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Product details

File Size: 859 KB
Print Length: 369 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (May 22, 2009)
Publication Date: June 14, 2010
Language: English
ASIN: B002ASFPQE
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

X-Ray:

Not Enabled

Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Screen Reader: Supported

Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #338,846 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #83 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > Europe > Italy & Rome
- #162 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > Europe > Rome
- #344 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Ancient Civilizations > Rome

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Good info if you can make it through the book

September 26, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I had an interest in who Attila the Hun was, and this book did a good job of portraying his charachter with as much factual history as there is available. I found some very iteresting facts about that era, and the vague history of the Huns. Descriptions of Attila's interaction with Roman officials was particularly fascinating.
This book is not an easy read - not because of "big" words or lack of interesting info, but because the story lines could be very hard to follow with all the unfamiliar names and segmented timelines. If you perservere, you'll find some very interesting information.

15 people found this helpful

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Content: 70% Romans, 20% Goths and Vandals, 10% Huns - Fascinating Nevertheless

October 16, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I had zero background about Atilla except for the PC game campaigns, so I was really looking forward to reading about his life. Now imagine my disappointment that the information about Atilla and even the Hun civilization is very meager and almost all in the eyes of the Romans. So I guess the real protagonist in preserving Atilla was Priscus, whose brief but detailed encounter, I think was the best part of the book. This is well written and arranged nevertheless, a good mixture of academic and entertainment for history buffs.

3 people found this helpful

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Attila the Hun revisited, a most enjoyable read.

October 11, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

An amazing story, educational as well as pleasant to read. Scholarly in its detail and extent in the depth of its analysis it makes a unique impression on the historical minded persons. The barbaric etiquette put on the Huns must be revisited by many historians and admit that more people have been eliminated by the Romans in their conquests at the time and during many subsequent wars for better or worth purposes. The more recent wars are no exception; just as barbaric.

2 people found this helpful

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February 26, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I generally agree with the 4 and 5 star reviews. I have read the contemporary cannon concerning the Steppes (Kurgan) Culture, the Goths and their friends, the Völkerwanderung and the late Roman Empire by our English and, chiefly in translation, German, Danish and Swedish historians, ethnologists and archeologists.

What I want to say is that Part III, "Dinner With Attila," (pp. 151-208) is worth the price of this book for a general reader who has no particular interest in the twilight of the Roman Empire. I first read this book in 2010 and I have just re-read it. I did a lot of reading in between. As a piece of speculative history, the kind of history based on a very incomplete record but a sound understanding of what the available evidence shows about the people who accomplished what we understand actually happened, it does not get any better than this.

Maybe HBO or Showtime will give us something like Game of Thrones or the Borgia's based on "Dinner With Attila." I hope so.

9 people found this helpful

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Freemont DelRay

October 9, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Excellent review of the fall of the Roman empire and the importance of the Huns in the destabilization of the entire area, not just Italy, but Spain, France, the Balkans and north Africa. Wonderfully inventive uses of documentation in pointing out inconsistencies and parallels. Well worth the time.

One person found this helpful

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Interesting book on Attila

October 28, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The author does a good job of piecing together a well rounded look at this legendary figure. I think that books on ancient history must be difficult to write for an arm chair history buffs like me, but this book is very readable.

One person found this helpful

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An easy read, well written and very deep

March 14, 2014

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

What I liked about this book is that the theres a great well narrated story that decorates a fascinating and complex historical analysis. The writer includes just the right amounts of historiography, archeology, philosophy, and political theory to describe the rise of the Huns and the consequences for the Roman Empire(s). Who has time to read The Game of Thrones when there are books like this available? Inspired- its on to Gibbon! We'll see if I can do it...

4 people found this helpful

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What the Librarian Saw

October 14, 2009

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

The Fall of Rome is one of those rare event that demonstrates that even when history is written by the losers the truth can be in short supply. For a man whose name can still inspire visions of terror Attila the Hun is poorly understood. When he's depicted as a barbarian (see most histories of the Roman Empire written before 1850) Attila seems more Neanderthal Frat Boy than brilliant military leader. When he's shown as a worthy adversary to the crumbling Empire, Attila seems more like Alexander the Great without the fancy tutors.

Christopher Kelly aims to show us Attila as he was - the leader of a civilization that the Romans dismissed out of arrogance, ready to play power politics with Roman, Constantinople, and Persia. This is genuine popular history that draws on the latest archaeological research to show us a society with laws, elites, fools, geniuses, and above all pride. Kelly places the old stories about the Huns in the context of their times, explaining what all that hyperbolic language really meant. He doesn't glorify the Huns any more or less than the Romans or Byzantines. He shows them all acting with honor, lying, conniving, breaking treaties, and upholding right as they understand it.

Best of all, Kelly has a sense of humor and he knows a good story. The story of the Roman librarian on a diplomatic mission is half farce, half James Bond and wholly entertaining. Where else are you going to find scheming eunuchs, Dudley DoRight-esque Roman soldiers, gossipy librarians, stuttering love-sick con men and day long dinner parties? Attila did not bring about the collapse of the western half of the Roman Empire but his story exposes the weaknesses, corruption and rot that did.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in ancient/Roman history.

Kindle note: photographs not included even though they are (annoyingly) referenced in the text.

13 people found this helpful

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