Status Updates From The Inheritance of Rome: Il...

This book is worth reading for the sections on the late Roman Empire and the Arab Caliphates alone. The latter are often neglected in European history, but should not be.

The rest is good, too, but Wickham really shines in these sections. Have to admit that I find Byzantium (ie the East Roman Empire) incredibly difficult to wrap my head around or remember the key figures/events. Something about it is rather alien…

It is interesting to note that Wickham attributes the rapid fragmentation of the Western Roman Empire largely to the massive disruption of the grain trade caused by the Vandal seizure of Roman Carthage… It wasn’t the only cause of Western imperial collapse, but it seems to have been the single largest — to the point where Rome itself lost around 80% of its population over the next ~century due to loss of grain

slow because it's soooo dense but interesting