The Portable Gibbon

A useful abridgment of approximately the first, and most important, half of the great work. Running from the origins of the Roman Empire in the Augustan reforms through to Alaric's reduction of the ‘Eternal' City in 410 CE - focusing, of course, on the latter part of that span -this book is an invaluable resource in setting out the sweep of the decline of antiquity's most powerful empire. One day, I shall bite the bullet and read the original, but until I have a month or so spare to set aside, this will do very nicely