Peter Heather

Elsewhere, the landowners survived.

But I think one thing that's really important to know and notice is that although they keep their Latin and they keep their landed estates, the major pattern of their life changes in that they become liable for military service.

So already in the great confrontation between the Visigoths and Clovis the Frank in 507, Roman aristocrats of Southern Gaul are having to turn up and fight.

So we see a militarization of the landed aristocracies in the post-Roman world.

Yes, it changes things in some very fundamental ways.

Going into the 500s, so Rome does not fall.

Yeah, absolutely.

The Roman system is alive and kicking in the Eastern Empire.

I mean, it's one of the things that makes it clear that there's nothing wrong with the kind of structural mechanisms of the empire inherently, and that the Eastern Empire has run on the same ones as the Western Empire.

But the Eastern Empire is able to protect its tax base or its tax base is not threatened.

And it is the unraveling of the West's control of its tax base and hence its ability to fund its armies, which undermines the West.

For the moment, they are in shock at having seen the Western Empire go.

It's my pleasure.

Absolutely.