“The Fall of the West” The Death of the Roman Superpower, by Adrian Goldsworthy. It is written for the layman but it still is dense with a huge amount of material and cast of characters. Essentially Rome was a military state that thrived and grew by conquest and by extending its' “Pax Romana” as far as possible. The more it grew, the richer it became and the larger an army it could support to defend its borders against barbarians. Those inside the Empire thrived economically.  The decline was a slow painful process, taking over 200 years - hence the books length. But what comes through is what destroyed the Empire more than anything was endless internal squabbling, civil wars and general political instability caused by weak leaders leading to a weak economy that helped to weaken all else.
 
Now perhaps all empires inevitably decline and fall but I guess the question is not how long it takes but the why of it. I am of course somewhat simplifying the books premise, it being 415 pages long.  
 
It is a fascinating read with innumerable interesting observations & precedents that bear great relevance for today.  The other major power was Persia (roughly contiguous to modern day Iran), while Persia could damage the Roman Empire it was in no way a threat to its existence while the converse was not true. Rome could and did invade Persia regularly often reeking great devastation while Persian attacks we really minor annoyances. Persia just was never big enough, powerful enough, nor rich enough to seriously threaten Rome’s existence. America vs. Iran is similar – unfortunately I am not sure that Iran realizes it.
 
What is interesting is that in the early & greatest years of the Empire – the time of  Julius and Augustus Cesar – it  had a very small bureaucracy, (60 BCE – 100 CE).  In the later years of the Empire’s decline and fall (200- 400 CE) the bureaucracy had grown bloated, by some estimates 10-15 times as large, sounds familiar.  Simply the bureaucracy had grown larger while the size of the Empire to administer had grown smaller. Obviously one of causes contributing to its decline. Government bureaucracy does not generate wealth, its eats it like locusts on a wheat field.  This is very similar to the situation of today’s bloated Western government bureaucracy, except it is not the empire that has grown smaller just the overall economy, especially in Europe.
 
Overall a worthwhile read with many lessons & analogies relating to today's’ geo-political situation. Albeit leaders seem to refrain these days from assassinating each other, with rare exceptions.  So perhaps we have made some progress in our political processes.

Maxim