ORB Online Encyclopedia--Collapse of the Roman Empire

Late Antiquity in the Mediterranean. The Collapse of the Roman Empire--Military Aspects. Hugh Elton. Modern historians explain the collapse of the western Roman empire in the fourth and fifth centuries in one of two ways. One group follows an institutional approach, which finds the reasons in the long-term and looks closely at internal structures. A second group has adopted a political approach and looks at short term causes of collapse. [Warfare] [Rome]