PREFACE.

This little book owes its existence to an invitation addressed to me by the Durham Ladies’ Educational Association to deliver to them a short course of historical lectures. Being allowed to choose my own subject, I naturally chose that with which I was most familiar, the epoch of the fall of the Western Empire: but in order to prevent my very familiarity with that period from leading me into diffuseness, I took the precaution of writing the lectures, and thus, I believe, was preserved from in any case over-passing the prescribed limit of an hour and a quarter.

When my course was completed, I found that I had described in brief outline so many of the leading events recorded in the first two volumes of my book, Italy and her Invaders, that it seemed worth while to offer the result of my labours to those who might not care to peruse the larger work. In order to give a little more completeness to the book, I added a lecture (the Second) on the political and social condition of the Romans and barbarians, which was not included in the original course.

It will easily be understood that it is only by the rejection of many minor details that it is possible to reduce the picture of eighty eventful years within the limits of a compendium like the present. For most of these details, and for all discussion of the authorities on which the history of the period rests, I must refer to my larger work. Occasionally, however, I have touched upon some points not thoroughly discussed in Italy and her Invaders, and when I have done so, I have stated my authority in the notes.