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The Restoration of Rome
- Barbarian Popes and Imperial Pretenders
- Narrated by: Allan Robertson
- Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins
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Publisher's summary
In AD 476, the last of Rome's emperors, known as "Augustulus", was deposed by a barbarian general, the son of one of Attila the Hun's henchmen. With the imperial vestments dispatched to Constantinople, the curtain fell on the Roman empire in Western Europe, its territories divided among successor kingdoms constructed around barbarian military manpower. But, if the Roman Empire was dead, Romans across much of the old empire still lived, holding on to their lands, their values, and their institutions. The conquering barbarians, responding to Rome's continuing psychological dominance and the practical value of many of its institutions, were ready to reignite the imperial flame and enjoy the benefits. As Peter Heather shows in dazzling biographical portraits, each of the three greatest immediate contenders for imperial power - Theoderic, Justinian, and Charlemagne - operated with a different power base but was astonishingly successful in his own way. Though each in turn managed to put back together enough of the old Roman West to stake a plausible claim to the Western imperial title, none of their empires long outlived their founders' deaths. Not until the reinvention of the papacy in the 11th century would Europe's barbarians find the means to establish a new kind of Roman Empire, one that has lasted 1,000 years.
A sequel to the best-selling Fall of the Roman Empire, The Restoration of Rome offers a captivating narrative of the death of an era and the birth of the Catholic Church.
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- A Captivating Guide to the History of Persia, Starting from the Ancient Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sassanian Empires to the Safavid, Afsharid, and Qajar Dynasties
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Desmond Manny
- Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the most shocking things about the Persians is how quickly they went from an obscure, powerless, and nomadic tribe to an immense empire that spanned across western Asia, Africa, and parts of Europe. The rise of Cyrus the great, considered the father of Persia, in the seventh century BCE, filled the power vacuum caused by the fall of the Assyrians, and it led to the formation of one of the most powerful empires of the ancient world.
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One of the top book from Captivating History.
- By Brittany C. McKinney on 01-30-19
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Sailing from Byzantium
- How a Lost Empire Shaped the World
- By: Colin Wells
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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A gripping intellectual adventure story, Sailing from Byzantium sweeps you from the deserts of Arabia to the dark forests of northern Russia, from the colorful towns of Renaissance Italy to the final moments of a millennial city under siege.
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The Missing Years
- By Nikoli Gogol on 12-29-07
By: Colin Wells
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A Concise History of Spain
- By: William Phillips Jr., Carla Rahn Phillips
- Narrated by: Luis Soto
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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This audiobook traces Spain's development from prehistoric times to the present, focusing particularly on culture, society, politics, and personalities. It introduces listeners to key themes that have shaped Spain's history and culture, including its varied landscapes and climates; the impact of waves of diverse human migrations; the importance of its location as a bridge between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and Europe and Africa; and religion, particularly militant Catholic Christianity and its centuries of conflict with Islam and Protestantism.
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Underwhelmed
- By Anonymous User on 02-20-20
By: William Phillips Jr., and others
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The Spartans
- By: Paul Cartledge
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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The Spartans of ancient Greece were a powerful and unique people, radically different from any civilization before or since. A society of warrior-heroes, they were living exemplars of self-sacrifice, community endeavor, and achievement against all odds, qualities that today signify the ultimate in heroism. Scholars even believe that Thomas More had Sparta specifically in mind when he coined the term "Utopia".
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Not a place to go to learn about the Spartans
- By James on 10-22-07
By: Paul Cartledge
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Heart of Europe
- A History of the Holy Roman Empire
- By: Peter H. Wilson
- Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
- Length: 34 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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The Holy Roman Empire lasted 1,000 years, far longer than ancient Rome. Yet this formidable dominion never inspired the awe of its predecessor. Voltaire quipped that it was neither holy, Roman, nor an empire. Yet as Peter H. Wilson shows, the Holy Roman Empire tells a millennial story of Europe better than the histories of individual nation-states.
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Mixed feelings on this one.
- By Stuart Seymour on 09-19-17
By: Peter H. Wilson
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The Norman Conquest
- The Battle of Hastings and the Fall of Anglo-Saxon England
- By: Marc Morris
- Narrated by: Frazer Douglas
- Length: 18 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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An upstart French duke who sets out to conquer the most powerful and unified kingdom in Christendom. An invasion force on a scale not seen since the days of the Romans. One of the bloodiest and most decisive battles ever fought.
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A Balanced, Entertaining, and Informative History
- By Jefferson on 06-01-14
By: Marc Morris
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Ancient China
- A Captivating Guide to the Ancient History of China and the Chinese Civilization Starting from the Shang Dynasty to the Fall of the Han Dynasty
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Desmond Manny
- Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In this audiobook, you will be led on a journey through almost 2,000 years of Chinese history, showing you all the ups and downs of those ancient times, the sufferings and joys of the Chinese people, along with their greatest achievements and failures. Dynasties will change, people will be killed and born, art made and destroyed, but the Chinese civilization will prevail, rising from humble beginnings to an empire that at some points outshined any other in the world at that time.
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Ancient China
- By Joey on 05-31-20
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Destiny Disrupted
- A History of the World through Islamic Eyes
- By: Tamim Ansary
- Narrated by: Tamim Ansary
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Until about 1800, the West and the Islamic realm were like two adjacent, parallel universes, each assuming itself to be the center of the world while ignoring the other. As Europeans colonized the globe, the two world histories intersected and the Western narrative drove the other one under. The West hardly noticed, but the Islamic world found the encounter profoundly disrupting.
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A history of the world before the West mattered
- By David on 05-05-14
By: Tamim Ansary
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A History of Japan
- Revised Edition
- By: R. H. P. Mason, J. G. Caiger
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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A classic of Japanese history, this audiobook is the preeminent work on the history of Japan. Newly revised and updated, A History of Japan is a single-volume complete history of the nation of Japan. Starting in ancient Japan during its early pre-history period, A History of Japan covers every important aspect of history and culture through feudal Japan to the post-Cold War period and collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s. Recent findings shed additional light on the origins of Japanese civilization and the birth of Japanese culture.
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Content great - pronunciation not so much
- By A. Weber on 03-08-19
By: R. H. P. Mason, and others
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The Civilization of the Middle Ages
- By: Norman F. Cantor
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 28 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The Civilization of the Middle Ages incorporates current research, recent trends in interpretation, and novel perspectives, especially on the foundations of the Middle Ages and the Later Middle Ages of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. A sharper focus on social history, Jewish history, women’s roles in society, and popular religion and heresy distinguish the book.
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Recommended for students
- By Delano on 12-18-11
By: Norman F. Cantor
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The Race for Paradise
- An Islamic History of the Crusades
- By: Paul M. Cobb
- Narrated by: Paul M. Cobb
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Race for Paradise, Paul M. Cobb offers a new history of the confrontations between Muslims and Franks we now call the "Crusades", one that emphasizes the diversity of Muslim experiences of the European holy war. There is more to the story than Jerusalem, the Templars, Saladin, and the Assassins. Cobb considers the Arab perspective on all shores of the Muslim Mediterranean, from Spain to Syria.
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A heady piece of history and a romp.
- By Meeno on 05-28-15
By: Paul M. Cobb
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The Rise of Western Christendom (10th Anniversary Revised Edition)
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The Poison King
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Heart of Europe
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The Holy Roman Empire lasted 1,000 years, far longer than ancient Rome. Yet this formidable dominion never inspired the awe of its predecessor. Voltaire quipped that it was neither holy, Roman, nor an empire. Yet as Peter H. Wilson shows, the Holy Roman Empire tells a millennial story of Europe better than the histories of individual nation-states.
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Ten Caesars
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Best-selling classical historian Barry Strauss tells the story of three-and-a-half centuries of the Roman Empire through the lives of 10 of the most important emperors, from Augustus to Constantine.
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Good for beginners
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Byzantium
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Byzantium. The name evokes grandeur and exoticism—gold, cunning, and complexity. In this unique book, Judith Herrin unveils the riches of a quite different civilization. Avoiding a standard chronological account of the Byzantine Empire's millennium-long history, she identifies the fundamental questions about Byzantium—what it was, and what special significance it holds for us today.
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Not a comprehensible history
- By kevin arsenault on 10-07-23
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The Story of China
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Michael Wood has travelled the length and breadth of China, the world's oldest civilization and longest lasting state, to tell a thrilling story of intense drama, fabulous creativity, and deep humanity that stretches back thousands of years.
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Well researched, balanced, and informative
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What listeners say about The Restoration of Rome
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- timbawolf
- 02-26-24
Informative and provocative, but with some obvious agendas
Heather is an entertaining writer and uses some fun pop culture references (notably the Godfather) to spice up what is otherwise a remote and opaque period of history. He does have several axes to grind (as another reviewer put it), notably on the ethnic character of Europe’s barbarian groups (in other words, that they were cultural groups with blood ties, not just large war bands) and his belief that religion is merely a disguise for political ambition. The former position is unobjectionable (his critics have an obvious modern political agenda of the own: legitimizing the EU) but the latter comes across as bigoted, especially when he boasts that he know nothing about theology, which is inexcusable for anyone writing about popes and bishops. So, just take his tendency to view all theological conflicts as political conflicts with a huge grain of salt. By his own admission, if he was missing the religious angle, he wouldn’t know it.
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- Heath Anderson
- 05-10-21
Informative Yet Tedious
I’ve enjoyed Peter Heather’s work and have read his works on the Fall of Rome. The man clearly knows his history and his attention to detail is remarkable. So remarkable that he goes on tangents upon tangents and soon we’re descending into a vortex of knowledge so deep that you’re left spinning and sinking into a Peter Heather aderrol fueled abyss of information that will have you hypnotized and numb once you pull through.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-19-16
Good and bad
I generally enjoyed the book but the author had some axes to grind, which was offputting.
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- John A. Manke
- 09-13-20
Excellent book
Very good work, perhaps not as good as Fall of Rome by the same author. The narrator is also good. He does not stumble over too many foreign words, which is the danger of audiobooks in ancient topics.
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- Mark L.
- 01-13-24
I like the narrator
I like the narrator Allan Robertson. He has great timbre in voice. His read provides the right level of measured tone and a modest inflection appropiate to the limited but manifest emotional meaning
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- ryley garrett
- 09-24-14
One of the best history books on audible!
Any additional comments?
This is the third book released on audible on the fall of the Roman Empire and the subsequent period by historian Peter Heather and by far my favorite though I enjoyed his other works as well. This book focused on Theodoric, Justinian, Charlemagne, and the Papacy in their various attempts to reassert imperial authority in the west after 476. I thought his comparison of Charlemagne and other feudal monarchs to the Godfather was both apt and entertaining and his analysis of Justinian was critical but fair.
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5 people found this helpful
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- fm2
- 02-09-15
Written for the college freshman
The author, although clearly knowledgeable and has studied the sources from several angles, writes as if he is teaching a lecture hall of 250 freshman, and is trying his best to get good student "reviews" or "ratings" at the end of the semester. Annoying for an adult.
The narrator is very competent but i don't like him. Not everyone will have the same problem of course. I listened to one other book which he narrated, and it is the same. He is best described as SMARMY sounding. I'm sure that he wont irritate many people, especially those who themselves are smarmy. But i find him irritating to listen to...not droll, but........
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- Gilbert M. Stack
- 11-22-22
This Is a Book about the Importance of Empire
Heather takes a look at the attempts by various leaders in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages to reestablish imperial power in the west. He examines the reigns of Theoderic, Justinian, Charlemagne and several of his heirs, and finally a series of popes whom he argues were the most successful at recreating the empire. It’s an interesting book which at the very least shows how important the concept of empire continued to be in the Middle Ages. For me, it was Heather’s account of the collapse of Charlemagne’s empire—rooted in Frankish customs that divided inheritance among all sons—that was most interesting. This is a long book, but worthwhile.
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- Placeholder
- 05-22-14
Byzantine Empire Stands Tall!
What made the experience of listening to The Restoration of Rome the most enjoyable?
After purchasing Prof. Heather's earlier two books, I felt I was up for the experience of round three. If you just plug in the earphones, or other device and press play, the narrator's voice will rather quickly fade into the background as your mind drifts into that fugue state of grocery lists or a replay of last night's nonsense. The next thing you know you are jerked back into the present as Mr. Robertson announces, "Chapter 3".
In order to fully be able to absorb the depth of the human drama and scope of empires competing on the battlefields of Eurasia that this book describes, you must maintain a low to mid level of physical exertion. Try this: get a map and find a hilly trail of some kind that will take several hours to walk. Listen to this audiobook as you meander along and you will quickly get into the story. My method was to go fishing, but I made sure that the spot I was going to fish was on the far side of the lake and required some effort to get to. Anyways, stay active and your mind / attention span will follow along.
What other book might you compare The Restoration of Rome to and why?
Probably Prof. Heather's earlier book about the Fall of Rome. As these two book's timelines somewhat overlap to a degree, this book reviewed and added some narrative to the last book's ending chapters.
Which scene was your favorite?
I really enjoyed Prof. Heather's coverage of the Byzantine Empire. I was amazed at the resiliency of the Byzantines as they responded politically when possible and militarily when necessary to the arrival of westward migrating ethnic groups like the Avars, Bulgars, various Slavs and others I cannot recall at the moment. Meanwhile old adversaries such as the Ostrogoths in Italy, Visigoths all the way out west in Spain, Serraphids (sp.?) in Persia / Mesopotamia in the east constantly trying to wrest Armenia and other Trans-Caucasian territories from Constantinople's rule, were a constant internal and external threat that required troops on the ground and their heads on a swivel. And don't forget the Vandals making mischief in North Africa!
The Byzantine's were flat out busy as hell trying to keep things together and nobody ever really seemed to want to help. Talk about death from a thousand wounds.
But through the waves of screaming Avar horse mounted spearmen, the masses of revenge crazed Vandal heavy infantry, and back stabbing, trash talking Serraphid archers the Byzantines dominated the scene with their detachments of uber warrior Varangian Guard studs and, straight out of a Bulgar commander's nightmare, heavily armored mounted cataphract warriors. If I only had a time machine! I would just about give anything to see a detachment of Varangian Guardsmen withstand an onrushing Avar cavalry charge and then once the melee really hots up, systematically "snick" off the hapless dismounted horsemen's helmeted heads with their heavy axes mounted on 5 foot wooden shafts. Sounds rather gory, but welcome to mid 600's world of post Roman Empire southern Europe. It just never seemed to stop, and the Byzantine's were right in the middle of the action with a big bull's eye on their heavily armored cuirasses.
When the Western Roman Empire went down the Byzantines stood up and stood like a cliff of righteous granite against wave after wave of determined and highly skilled horse peoples. The Byzantine Empire held firm. Their place of honor in the pages of history is forever secured.
As you by now can see, after listening to this book I have really upped my respect for the Byzantine Empire and what those people accomplished in the midst of a truly chaotic situation on a continental scale. Prof. Heather took this fur ball of information and laid out the story in a fashion I can only describe as masterful.
Kudos to Prof. Heather for reaffirming to this Cal Poly '92 history major why I chose my course of study! I loved this stuff back then and I still do today thanks to books like this. My Late Antiquity history "batteries" have been recharged.
I am truly a better person for listening to this audiobook.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
Varangian Guards - you want to see what armor and a warrior should look like? Look no further!
Any additional comments?
I loved this book! I can honestly say that before this review, through the hundreds and hundreds, maybe thousands, of pages of various reports and other essay-type endeavors I have written / typed, I never had the opportunity to type the words Varangian Guard before today. These guys, mostly from Denmark, Norway and England by the way, were flat out warriors who were game changers whenever they stepped onto the field. Go online and type in Varangian Guard (yeah! one more time...) go to images and check out the armor package these guys wore in battle. I have seen many variations on the armor theme over the years, and I can truly say that I am impressed x 6 with the protection these soldiers wore. What a sight they must have been!
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- Elizabeth
- 06-12-17
Well written, well read
Peter Heather knows what he is writing about very well. It's a fascinating period in history. And he's very funny, occasionally colloquial and generally a good time.
This narrator is worthy of his material. He knows when the author is being wry, playful, sarcastic etc and delivers the material appropriately.
I may well just go back to the beginning and listen to it all over again.
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