Since M. Ferdinand Lot’s vast survey of ‘the most difficult problem of history’ was begun, in 1913, and even since the completion of the French version, in 1921, the movement of events and thought has given it an actuality once suspected only by a few. M. Lot is at pains to discount facile comparisons, pointing out that an economy based on usury is the antithesis of an economy based on credit, that the organisation of the Roman Empire, developed from the city-state and over-ruled by the army, in spite of superficial resemblances, differs radically from any modern government, that the exhaustion of economic resources is not to be feared in the present world; and yet, one cannot read without a continual and uncomfortable sense of precedent and analogv. A footnote, c this was written in 1914,’ has to qualify the statement that progressive economic downfall ‘is a very surprising phenomenon to us, who are accustomed to an ever-growing prosperity.’

As M. Lot shows, even before the barbarian invasions of the fifth century, the Roman Empire was only a ‘ruin in repair,’ disintegrating, in spite of the herculean efforts of a Diocletian, a Constantine, a Theodosius, through ‘the dissolution of its vital forces’ . Wealth is drained away through the growth of ‘tentacular’ cities; the currency, thrice restored, grows increasinglv debased and scarce, and ends by disappearing altogether: taxation becomes a crushing burden, and Diocletian seeks in vain to fix maximum prices for provisions, salaries, and articles of common use.