>During the fourth century, competing emperors fought each other in murderous civil wars. It was actually the third century that had the worst of the civil war

>During the fourth century, competing emperors fought each other in murderous civil wars. It was actually the third century that had the worst of the civil wars. By the fourth century, Diocletian and later Constantine had pretty much restored stability to the empire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_of_the_Third_Century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_of_the_Third_Century That being said, I think the thrust of the first book reviewed is correct, that it was the Roman Civil Wars more than the barbarian invasions that destroyed Rome.