"Excellent." --The Reader's Review
"Thomas Burns takes us thoroughly through this moment of crisis, giving
us a precise analysis of the principal players in this period of
transition." --Military Illustrated
"The book is well-written and throws new light on the events in the West
a short while before the Fall of the Empire. Highly recommended!" --The
Journal of Indo-European Studies
"With this impressive study Burns has greatly enriched late antique
scholarship." --Religious Studies Review
"This is a substantial and well documented book which has reminded me
that the importance of reading is not so much to absorb facts, but to
take in new ideas." --Besprechungen und Anzeigen
"What Burns has accomplished here is a thoroughly interesting and
compelling study of late-medieval piety in one diocese. It may well
serve as a model for other local historians willing to engage in this
important inquiry." --Speculum
A major work on Roman policy toward the barbarians during one of the
most exciting and challenging periods in the history of the Roman
Empire, when barbarian soldiers became part of the forces defending the
Roman frontier and gradually its rulers. By the close of these five
decades, the Western Empire--hence Western Civilization--had changed
forever.