"Romajin-no Monogatari (XI)" by SHIONO Nanami

This eleventh book of the "Roma-jin no Monogatari" series starts from the last 'Five Good Emperors' Aurelius Antoninus through the period of civil wars to Septimus Severus.

The subtitle of this book is 'Owari-no Hajimari' which means 'The beginning of the end'. As this subtitle shows, according to the author SHIONO Nanami, the fall of the Roman Empire had begun already during the period of 'Five Good Emperors'. The empire was too safe to gain experience of wars for Marcus Aurelius before he became the emperor.

And another important thing is the change of the Roman military system by Septimius Severus. With this change the military became very comfortable, and this lead to the separation of civilian people and military people. And later this caused the increase of the military budget and it became a reason of the fall of the Roman Empire. Of course Septimius Severus did this system change, thinking of the Roman military and the Roman Emperor...

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (Reigh: 7 Mar.161 - 17 Mar.180)
Lucius Aurelius Commodus Antoninus (Reigh: 18 Mar.180 - 31 Dec.192)
Publius Helvius Pertinax (Reigh: 1 Jan.193 - 28 Mar.193)
Marcus Didius Salvius Julianus Severus (Reigh: 29 Mar.193 - 1 Jun.193)
Lucius Septimius Severus (Reigh: 2 Jun.193 - 4 Feb.211)

(Finished reading on Jan.29, 2008)


The more detailed Japanese version of this article is here!

Japanese character(s) (kanji)
* SHIONO Nanami : 塩野七生
* Roma-jin no Monogatari : ローマ人の物語
* Owari-no Hajimari : 終わりの始まり