How did the Roman Empire perish? It was destroyed in the 5th century as a result of the invasion of the barbarian Ostrogoths. This is a historical fact. However, real life is always brighter and more multifaceted than a line from a textbook. The author of the novel “The Decline of an Empire” not only resurrects, convincingly and vividly, the images of people of the distant past, but also recreates a majestic panorama of the collision of two civilizations, unlike each other. And the point is not at all that “savagery” defeated “culture”: It’s just that the ancient world, in a difficult struggle, gave way to a new civilization that carried within itself the basis for the future flourishing of Christian Europe.