Wilkie Collins
ANTONINA, OR THE FALL OF ROME
A romance of the fifth century
PREFACE OF THE FIRST EDITION
The remarkable historical events which have been chosen, to originate the following story, are amply and brilliantly detailed in the “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.” The origin and progress of the Gothic invasion of Italy under Alaric; those social and political convulsions within the Empire, which concurred with the attacks from without in ultimately producing the memorable overthrow of the whole Roman power; those occurrences attending the first barbarian siege of the Imperial City, which the present Romance is intended to reproduce, and which essentially mark the commencing epoch of the “Fall of Rome;” will all be found by the reader who may not be previously acquainted with the subject, in the pages of the great history already mentioned.
