The decline and fall of the Roman empire - Thomas F Madden

Overall no. Started promisingly - was there a Roman Empire, was there a decline, was there a fall? He problematised all 3 ideas and I thought great. It isn't a book as such btw, it's a lecture series. Anyway it then descended to a description of each emperor and such an emphasis on one person (each time) seemed to ridiculous to me. Trade wars and the emergence of other countries weren't even side shows, they were bare mentions. Got to hard to remember which emperor we were on. Gave up.