Unmatched in its chronological sweep, and with an impressive and unusual geographical range, this ambitious history offers a new and vital interpretation of the post-Roman world. The decline and fall of the Roman Empire has transfixed historians for centuries. This important new account looks at what happened after the power of the once mighty empire was swept away. Smaller states founded by Slavs, Arabs, Germanic peoples and others moved in to fill the void and laid the foundations for the later histories of western Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East and north Africa. John Moorhead looks at how these fundamental changes were influenced by other social, economic and political developments taking place at the same time. Using a fascinating array of evidence he weaves the numerous threads into a convincing and lucid narrative and shows how, by the end of the eighth century, the civilization of the ancient world had been replaced by a series of units which had very little in common with each other.

McCaughey Professor of History at the University of Queesland