Gregory Aldrete

Just to interrupt you, I hate wishy-washy answers, which is what I kind of said. So I will give you this. I think by the end of the 5th century AD, the Western Roman Empire has transformed into something different. So I don't know what date I can pick for that, but I can say by around 500, I don't know that we can call whatever exists there the Roman Empire anymore.

Just to interrupt you, I hate wishy-washy answers, which is what I kind of said. So I will give you this. I think by the end of the 5th century AD, the Western Roman Empire has transformed into something different. So I don't know what date I can pick for that, but I can say by around 500, I don't know that we can call whatever exists there the Roman Empire anymore.

Just to interrupt you, I hate wishy-washy answers, which is what I kind of said. So I will give you this. I think by the end of the 5th century AD, the Western Roman Empire has transformed into something different. So I don't know what date I can pick for that, but I can say by around 500, I don't know that we can call whatever exists there the Roman Empire anymore.

really tricky to say, yeah, who's a Roman, who's not, and at which point did it, like— And barbarians have been forming large parts of the Roman army for centuries, you know. Yeah, it's extremely fluid and not at all just clear sides here. So it's a mess.

really tricky to say, yeah, who's a Roman, who's not, and at which point did it, like— And barbarians have been forming large parts of the Roman army for centuries, you know. Yeah, it's extremely fluid and not at all just clear sides here. So it's a mess.

really tricky to say, yeah, who's a Roman, who's not, and at which point did it, like— And barbarians have been forming large parts of the Roman army for centuries, you know. Yeah, it's extremely fluid and not at all just clear sides here. So it's a mess.

There was a military strategist, a guy named Edward Ludwock, who wrote this book, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire, which was basically about frontiers and how did the Romans define their frontier. And everybody's jumped on this and argued about it and says it's wrong and all, but started this debate among Roman historians about – Yeah. What does frontier mean to the Romans?

There was a military strategist, a guy named Edward Ludwock, who wrote this book, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire, which was basically about frontiers and how did the Romans define their frontier. And everybody's jumped on this and argued about it and says it's wrong and all, but started this debate among Roman historians about – Yeah. What does frontier mean to the Romans?

There was a military strategist, a guy named Edward Ludwock, who wrote this book, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire, which was basically about frontiers and how did the Romans define their frontier. And everybody's jumped on this and argued about it and says it's wrong and all, but started this debate among Roman historians about – Yeah. What does frontier mean to the Romans?

Did they conceive of their empires having a border or was it always expanding or what? And did they have a grand strategy? I mean, today, militaries have a strategy where we want to achieve this. We want to exert force here. We want to protect these areas. Did the Romans even visualize their empire in that sort of grand strategic way? Yeah. And it's a real debate.

Did they conceive of their empires having a border or was it always expanding or what? And did they have a grand strategy? I mean, today, militaries have a strategy where we want to achieve this. We want to exert force here. We want to protect these areas. Did the Romans even visualize their empire in that sort of grand strategic way? Yeah. And it's a real debate.

Did they conceive of their empires having a border or was it always expanding or what? And did they have a grand strategy? I mean, today, militaries have a strategy where we want to achieve this. We want to exert force here. We want to protect these areas. Did the Romans even visualize their empire in that sort of grand strategic way? Yeah. And it's a real debate.

I mean, there's some things that suggest, oh, here they tried to rationalize the border and shorten it by taking this territory. Other people see it as just kind of random. So that's an interesting take is how do the Romans conceive of empire? I mean, if you look back at someone like Virgil at the time of Augustus, he said, well, the gods granted Rome empire without end. Yeah.

I mean, there's some things that suggest, oh, here they tried to rationalize the border and shorten it by taking this territory. Other people see it as just kind of random. So that's an interesting take is how do the Romans conceive of empire? I mean, if you look back at someone like Virgil at the time of Augustus, he said, well, the gods granted Rome empire without end. Yeah.

I mean, there's some things that suggest, oh, here they tried to rationalize the border and shorten it by taking this territory. Other people see it as just kind of random. So that's an interesting take is how do the Romans conceive of empire? I mean, if you look back at someone like Virgil at the time of Augustus, he said, well, the gods granted Rome empire without end. Yeah.

So it's that open-ended thing. But even under Augustus, he seems to be pulling back and saying, well, I'm going to kind of stop at the Rhine. I'm going to kind of stop at the Danube. We don't need to keep expanding forever in the way we've been doing. So, I mean, that's an interesting concept of how do the Romans see their empire? Does it have a boundary? What are those boundaries?

So it's that open-ended thing. But even under Augustus, he seems to be pulling back and saying, well, I'm going to kind of stop at the Rhine. I'm going to kind of stop at the Danube. We don't need to keep expanding forever in the way we've been doing. So, I mean, that's an interesting concept of how do the Romans see their empire? Does it have a boundary? What are those boundaries?

So it's that open-ended thing. But even under Augustus, he seems to be pulling back and saying, well, I'm going to kind of stop at the Rhine. I'm going to kind of stop at the Danube. We don't need to keep expanding forever in the way we've been doing. So, I mean, that's an interesting concept of how do the Romans see their empire? Does it have a boundary? What are those boundaries?

What does that mean?

What does that mean?