Some Books of the Week
TEE late Professor Bury was justly famous for his work on the history of the later Roman Empire. Much interest therefore attaches to the volume of his Cambridge lectures on The Invasion of Europe by the Barbarians (Macmillan, 12s. 6d.), which Professor Hearnshaw has edited. For in his lectures Professor Bury stated his mature views on many contro- versial questions more freely and definitely than in his well-known books. For example, he did not regard the defeat of Attila and his Huns at Chalons—or, rather, Troyes —as one of the decisive battles of the world. Attila's invasion of Gaul had failed before the battle began ; his conqueror Aetius fought so as to emphasize the lesson of Attila's retreat. Again, Professor Bury thought that the Huns, by crushing the Eastern Germans on their westward path, gave the tottering Empire a long breathing-space ; but for Attila, the Germans might have overrun Italy much sooner, before they had become partly Romanized and thus prepared to accept rather than destroy the civilization which they found in the Roman lands. There is thus something to be said for the Huns, though Professor Bury thought little of Attila as a general in comparison with Genghis Khan or Tamerlane. The lectures are admirably written, like all Professor Bury's works.
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