Corruption and the decline of Rome

[Nathan Ross]

Nathan,

I don't recall anything that MacMullen writes that explains why the West collapsed and not the East.

That would seem to be a fatal flaw in any 'decline and fall' argument, I would think! If both east and west experienced the same problems, but the east endured them, then the cause of the west's collapse might lie in additional factors...

However, this looks to be a valuable book anyway, more for its analysis of late Roman (mis)government, perhaps.