Don't forget Colleen McCollough's "Masters of Rome" series on the fall of the Roman Republic. These magnificent books brought the period to life for me.
I don't know about your above reference but what I do know that technically the Roman Empire really didn't "fall" at least not as is commonly 'taught'.
The wildly held misconception is that Rome 'Fell' shortly after the sacking of Rome in 410 AD by Attila (but more accurately it would be 475 AD with the 'last' emperor Julius Nepos). However that's incorrect as by that time the empire was split into two parts1, Western and Eastern with two Emperors. The Eastern Roman Empire became the Byzantine Empire and lasted until 1453, when it fell to the Ottoman Turks.
So if one starts with the first emperor, Julius Caesar, "Rome" lasted 1500 years.
(Hitler's 1000 year Reich reference was to Rome and Julius Caesar and Heil Hitler was akin to Hail Caesar and Russian Czar is derived from 'Caesar')
Also, about the time when Rome was sacked in 410, the Visigoths who were then Roman 'citizens' moved almost en masse to present day Spain. So todays 'Spaniards' are really descendants of Eastern 'Europeans'. Oh, and Hungarians are descended from the Huns.
1- In 330 AD the Roman emperor Constantine I, in an attempt to strengthen the empire, refounded Byzantium as Constantinople, the 'New Rome' and capital of the eastern half of the empire.
At his death in 395 Emperor Theodosius I divided the empire between his two sons, and it was never reunited.
Theodosius also made Christianity the sole religion of the empire, and Constantinople assumed preeminence over other Christian centers in the East as Rome did in the West.
Note: I'm not trying to be a smart ___ or anything, I'm just slightly irked at the education system in general, in that 'we' were all taught incorrect history in school.