The Fall of Rome: Origins
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What led to the fall of the Roman Empire?
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The Roman Empire, the beating heart of the ancient world. A dazzling expanse of marble and martial valour, of tow goods and trade routes that spanned three continents. It was constructed over the course of a thousand years and rose from a city that was once an overlooked backwater. Rome's sweeping imperium came to define the very concept of civilisation. But then the cracks started to emerge. Rome, once a dominion of glory and gold, in just two centuries would become synonymous with decay and collapse. And over the next two weeks, the question we're asking on The Ancients is how? How was the most illustrious empire the world had yet seen brought to doom and destitution? You're listening to The Ancients. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host, and this is the story of The Fall of Rome.
Today, in the first of four special episodes, we're starting at the beginning, casting the net wide to trace the origins of the Western Roman Empire's collapse. From civil wars that pitted emperor versus emperor to the contested rise of Christianity, we'll explore the swirling maelstrom of internal pressures and tensions that pushed Rome to breaking point.
How did internal conflicts contribute to Rome's decline?
Next, we'll journey north to the unruly borderlands along the rivers Rhine and Danube to mingle among the so-called barbarians who flooded across the empire's boundaries and carved out their own barbarian kingdoms from the husk of this fallen superpower. Then we'll travel east, past the lands of the Goths and the Huns, to the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia and the faraway lands of East Africa, tracing the origins of a series of indiscriminate deadly plagues that ripped through the empire's population. We'll ask, was disease the main factor that brought Rome to its knees? And finally, to bring things to a head, we'll tell the tale of Rome's last emperors, the rump Roman state they supposedly controlled, and we'll ask what happened next. Did Rome really fall, or did it evolve and continue by another name? Throughout it all, world-leading historians will bring their unique insights.
Together, we'll discover thrilling revelations and immerse ourselves in the world of ancient Rome to help us unpack its ultimate fate. But all of that is yet to come. First, let's wind back the clock and imagine Rome before its fall. Back to an empire that heralded the likes of Augustus and Trajan, Caesars who dripped with prestige and power. to a dominion that bounded the azure swells of the Mediterranean and stretched from the damp and drizzly marshes of Caledonia in modern-day Scotland to the parched deserts and wild badlands of Parthia in the Middle East. For those who experienced it, the majesty of Rome in the first and second centuries was undisputed. Its people were the mightiest of men and commanded the fairest portion of the earth, so claimed Salvian, a 5th century churchman looking back wistfully on the empire's greatest days. We can imagine a merchant vessel coming in to dock at the great lagoon port of Ostia, some 20 miles from Rome.
She is loaded with precious cargo, ceramic urns of aromatic spices from Arabia, oil and grain from Egypt, silk and pepper from the faraway lands of India and China. but also enslaved people captured on the battle-worn frontiers of the Empire. Built to be nimble and weave through the waves, the wooden ship with its red cloth sail is dwarfed by the great public buildings which line the shore and snake back inland to the capital. The skyline is crowded by the roofs of basilicas, temples, theatres and markets. Slavers and traders barter and haggle. The chains of bondage clink and clank. Gold coins, each stamped with the portrait of the reigning Augustus, are pulled from purses and change hands. The goods are distributed throughout the boot of Italy and beyond, along newly cobbled roads that slice through the empire into the lavish pantries of grand townhouses and country villas.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What led to the fall of the Roman Empire?
0:00–2:04
2
How did internal conflicts contribute to Rome's decline?
2:04–7:36
3
What role did Christianity play in the Roman Empire's transformation?
7:36–9:29
4
How did Diocletian and Constantine attempt to save the Empire?
9:29–12:54
5
What was the impact of the Third Century Crisis on Rome?
12:54–14:38
6
How did the structure of the Roman Empire evolve post-Constantine?
14:38–18:11
7
Can we define when and how the Roman Empire actually fell?
18:11–22:32
8
What was the significance of the sack of Rome in 410?
22:32–1:15:02