Hodgkin's Invaders of Italy.

This article presents information on the book "Italy and Her Invaders," vol. 1, "The Visigothic Invasion," vol. 2, "The Hunnish Invasion," by Thomas Hodgkin. It is informed that the period discussed in the above mentioned volumes is that of the hundred years preceding the event which one used to know as the Fall of the Western Empire. It is opined that the narrative is so continuous and so graphic, the relation of events is so well brought out, and the rottenness of the Empire made so clear, that at the end one hardly looks for a separate chapter upon the causes of the Fall. The Empire fell because it could not stand, the reader says to himself ; it is a wonder it did not fall before, and if the causes of anything need to be analyzed, one should wish rather to know why the Eastern Empire did not fall than why the Western Empire did fall. The persistence of the Byzantine Empire for another thousand years is one of the marvels of history.