Edward Gibbon, an English historian, published The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in six volumes between 1776 and 1788. This is Chapter 55 of that work. He follows Rome from the prosperous age of Trajan and the Antonines, around the year 100, through the fall of the West and on to the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453.

Chapter 55 takes up the Bulgarians—Origin, migrations, and settlement of the Hungarians—Their inroads in the East and West—The monarchy of Russia—Geography and trade—Wars of the Russians against the Greek Empire—Conversion of the Barbarians. The footnotes are not in this reading; what you have is the narrative.