Fall of Rome - Documentary

hello and welcome the fire of learning I'm Justin in the previous video we discussed the rise of the Roman Empire from its legendary foundations all the way up to the reign of the Emperor Trajan you don't have to watch that video to keep up with this one but if you enjoy this I would recommend it as well as the related videos shown here in this video we will pick up with Trajan successor Hadrian and continue on to the fateful year of 476 ad and then ladies and gentlemen we will ask the important question was 476 ad truly the end of the Roman Empire well let's get to it before we begin I would like to once again thank sound wizard Pamela and Marc Jeff Smith Michael would Jonathan Jenson Jacob Wan's Stephen Lang and Max Jensen Brian Noonan and sunshine of your love for being our most recent supporters on patreon they join these supporters listed here who make these videos possible emperor trajan often considered one of Rome's greatest emperors died in 117 ad after a 19-year reign he ruled with the mentality originating at least as far back as augustus caesar that rome was destined to be an ever-expanding empire which would rule the world forever Trajan brought the Empire to its greatest territorial extent as he expanded into modern-day Romania that known as Tokyo and the Middle East the mighty Roman Empire still enjoying in skoland age now stretched from the borders of Scotland to the borders of Iran however Trajan successors would not necessarily share his perspective and while the Golden Age of parks Romana the Roman peace wouldn't be ending anytime soon its days were numbered upon becoming Emperor Hadrian looked upon the Roman Empire and feared that it was perhaps too big he would not only halt its expansion but would even relinquish many of Trajan's conquests Rome was remarkably organized and efficient for its day but running an empire of its size in that time was a daunting challenge in our modern age of airplanes and cell phones it's easy to forget that it took weeks if not months for people and information to travel around the Empire our revolts could be well underway in the Middle East before the Emperor and Italy even heard about it furthermore simply maintaining control over a vast diverse Empire was a nightmare of a challenge in itself regardless of travel time Hadrian recognized the situation as the Empire progressed however more drastic measures would be taken to save it much of his reign was spent traveling around the empire ensuring its defenses and internal stability perhaps his greatest construction still stands Hadrian's Wall in modern England this massive heavily fortified wall stretched from coast to coast over 100 kilometers and served the purpose of not only keeping foreign raiders out but also controlling trade between worlds and to serve as a shining symbol of Roman greatness while it was at it because of this strategy Hadrian's reign was relatively peaceful Hadrian died in 138 ad having more or less drawn the line on Rome expansion I say more or less because his successors did not abandon the idea of conquests in the same way by any means one such Emperor was Hadrian successor Antoninus Pius his adopted son shortly after Hadrian's death and 138 ad in fact one of Antoninus Pius his first moves was to make Hadrian's Wall obsolete as he ordered a military campaign to push northward into modern-day Scotland there another wall was constructed the Antonine wall a much less impressive wall in terms of architecture this wall and the Roman conquest had guarded would not last nearly as long as Hadrian's however as the region of Caledonia was distant and barren and thus difficult to govern apart from this invasion the reign of Antoninus Pius was one of the most peaceful and prosperous in Roman history and he was able to pass on rule to his successors in March of 161 ad reign would pass to two individuals unrelated by blood are both adopted by Antoninus Pius Luke Varys and the more senior Emperor Marcus Aurelius at this time a reserved and quiet middle-aged man in frail health Marcus Aurelius would in time come to be known as the philosopher Emperor and the fifth of what historians call the five good Emperor's Nerva Trajan Hadrian Antoninus Pius and now him however his reign would not be quite so tranquil nor was it always pleasant for the Roman people and it is during his reign that we begin to see that the road gets bumpy the same year as the Ascension of these two war broke out in the east with car Thea Rome is forced to draw forces from its European frontiers and Lucius verus led the army eastward while Marcus remained home in Rome why the way the Germanic tribes across the border happened to notice a reduced Roman presence and began occasionally raiding a territory however local forces were generally able to repel them at first Varys thanks more to his generals than his own efforts was able to claim a victory over Parthia in the year 166 yet as he and his soldiers returned to Rome what they carried would reverse any gains they had made the Antonine plague possibly smallpox broke out in Rome shortly after the armies returned it would last for around fifteen years and would kill around one tenth of the population of the empire and around a quarter of the city itself just as the war with Persia had finished and as his plague now began the grip Rome the Germanic tribes to the north were beginning to unleash larger attacks upon the Romans in 166 AD the Marco Manik Wars began and the Romans would have to counter Germanic and Sarmatian attacks along the length of the Danube River border attacks were not uncommon but these invasions as I mentioned were unusually intense and motivated the tranquility which Marcus's predecessors Antoninus Pius and Hadrian had enjoyed was crumbling and Marcus Aurelius would have to act in order to save his country in 169 ad Lucas varus died of illness likely the plague leaving Marcus as these sole emperor these barbarians he was facing are often portrayed as simply that barbarians but by this time they were likely much more advanced in warfare probably due to ironically regular contact with the Romans which is why they posed such a significant threat and was so hard to crush in the spring of 170 AD a massive coalition of Germanic tribes under the Marcomanni king valemar attacked the Romans at the Battle of Corinth 'm killing around 20,000 Romans the worst room in defeat since the Teutoburg forest following this the tribes even breached Roman defenses and began raiding northern Italy as various tribes crossed into Rome and raided all the way from Gaul to Greece Marcus Aurelius became obsessed with his duties it is during this war while attempting to orchestrate his campaigns in rugged conditions and poor health that he wrote his famous philosophical book meditations still in print today Marcus Aurelius would in total struggle with the invading tribes in the 1st 2nd and 3rd Marco Manik Wars for 14 years along with these conflicts in this time he would also quell insurrection in Egypt overcome crippling illness and prevent a usurpation by one of his most accomplished generals in the end he would save Rome from foreign invaders and even begin to carve out two new territories mark ammonia in Somalia through diligent efforts he would save the Empire however his efforts would not last nor would the prosperity he had returned to the Empire perhaps his greatest mistake would be in choosing a successor his son Commodus Marcus Aurelius and Commodus are portrayed in the famous 2000 film gladiator it is important to keep in mind that like Braveheart gladiator is a great film but largely fiction nevertheless the portrayal of his personality may not be all that inaccurate historians often consider the real communist to be as Casius Theo said the Emperor who turned Rome from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust Marcus Aurelius died in the year 180 while still campaigning his death marked the end of the period of the good emperors and of PAC's Romana the five good emperors had been chosen and adopted as sons by the past emperor based on marriage this wasn't part coincidence as the leaders themselves often did not have their own sons but historians tend to believe that this played a role in the prosperity of the aged communist was merely chosen because he was Marcus Aurelius his biological son Commodus soon proved to be uninterested and the responsibilities that come with being Emperor like Caligula though many outrageous stories about him were likely exaggerated and fabricated later on there is good evidence that he was mentally disturbed egotistical cruel and irresponsible first and foremost upon becoming Emperor on the cusp of victory he abandoned the conquests of his father and negotiated peace with the belligerent tribes he returned home and soon show he preferred a life of partying to one of duty and left administration to subordinate officials one of his favorite pastimes to the great amusement of the crowd but discussed the Senate was participating in mock gladiator fights in the Coliseum assassination attempts were made one even involving his own sister but he survived them as time passed he grew ever more corrupt and egotistical eventually claiming to be the reincarnation of Hercules he would even go so far as to rename the Roman Empire after himself Comeau dianna and renamed all the months after his long name after years of this sort of worse behavior the Senate had had enough and in December of 192 ad he was drowned while bathing the tyrannical reign of Communists had ended but Rome would not rebound into its former prosperity and the subsequent year of 193 ad would be known the history as the year of the five Emperor's commences memory was dammed and erased across the Empire and he was succeeded by a conspirator named pare - Knox pair - Knox was a known disciplinarian who had made his career in the army his first and last mistake however was refusing to pay an adequate bribe the Praetorian Guard thus they killed him only three months into his reign big surprise the guard had acted rashly and killed person ox without having a successor in mind in order to prevent Civil War acting quickly before news reached the rest of the provinces they decided to auction the position of Emperor off to the highest bidder the highest bidder was Dias Juliana's a former governor outside of the Praetorian Guard Juliana's was unpopular his ascension was somewhat of a joke to the Romans and as they opposed them three individuals used the opportunity to declare themselves Emperor for Scania Schneider Claudius albinus and septimius severus civil wars soon broke out and in June Severus killed Ely honest as well as petty Knox's murderers to maintain power Severus and albinus agreed to joint rule Albinus would handle administration while septimius focused on the civil war niger was defeated near modern-day Turkey and 194 ad at the Battle of Issus and beheaded shortly after following this another civil war broke out between Severus and his former ally albinus this would last three years finally ending in 197 was the Battle of Lube guru thus Severus gained full control of the Empire he would rule for 14 years embarking on a couple military campaigns one against Parthia and another in Caledonia he would die in Caledonia of old age in 211 AD his campaign there like the was once again a failure and after this in fact the Romans permanently moved the border back to behind Adrienne's wall still Severus slightly hoped at least that his two sons whom he had brought along had learned something from the experience before dying in his claim that he told his sons be harmonious and rich the soldiers and score and all the others the sons known to history as Caracalla and Gaeta would take this advice to heart almost Severus had left the world to both of them as joined rulers but their mutual animosity was no secret though attempts at reconciliation were made which even included a suggestion of splitting the Empire between them not even a year after their father's death Caracalla had his brother gaeda killed in front of their mother and became sole emperor this was only the first of many atrocities committed by yet another unfit emperor in his six-year reign until 217 AD amid a reign of intimidation and fear executions massacres and the like coracle as one lasting benevolent achievement may have been that he extended citizenship to all roman freeman across the empire was this benevolence or were there ulterior motives historians still debate that however curricula still had quickly angered a lot of important people and predictably he was assassinated killed by a soldier who approached him while urinating during a military campaign against parthia in 217 ad the man who is likely behind the plot Martinez succeeded Caracalla as Emperor that year inheriting an empire that was now beginning to feel the weight of scandals self-interest and improper governance adding to the political situation the war with parthia Caracalla had embarked on was not going well for Rome following a heavy defeat at the Battle of missable and Marcus is forced to negotiate peace as if political chaos military defeats and general unrest weren't enough at the same time slowly and quietly another issue was beginning to [ __ ] the Empire Rome was facing the threats posed by past emperors who had been gradually debasing its currency but is to say the silver content of Roman coins was gradually being reduced so that basically they could make more coins with less silver now because silver is the actual valuable part this doesn't always work that well and the coins became less valuable this inflation was preparing Rome for even greater economic crises now I don't mean to imply that this happened too quietly people especially the army had noticed the faults in the economy but it was a long-term issue that the past Emperor's had been ignoring mark onus would attempt to remedy the situation a little bit but he accomplished very little in his year-long reign he was assassinated by a Caracas aunt in favor of putting her grandson whom she claimed was an illegitimate son of Caracalla on the throne fifteen-year-old Elagabalus Elagabalus had been a priest of a god foreign for the Romans the Syrian Sun God and when he arrived to Rome seemed to show more concern for that position than that of Emperor the reign of Ln compliments is full of accounts of very strange behavior especially all kinds of sexual debauchery he was very effeminate he sometimes calls himself a queen he apparently engaged in sexual acts with men and women of all ages sometimes in public while it is always unclear what is and isn't true with these bad Emperor's the basics at least of their accounts are likely true the Romans quickly hated Allah godless and he was killed by the Praetorian who witnessed much of his behavior firsthand crackle is aunt Yulia MYSA had ordered the assassination of her grandson herself and saw to it that her other grandson a Legolas is 14 year old cousin Severus Alexander took the throne in 222 ad one could argue that Alexander's 13 year reign was the eye of the storm for Rome he with heavy influence from his grandmother and mother ruled stabili and responsibly at least relatively however it would only be momentary and Rome would plunge back into chaos when he died in Alexander's reign two old enemies had recuperated and were ready to attack Rome first in the East the Persians who had now become the assassin and Persians under artists sheer the unifier intended to undertake a glorious campaign into Rome taking all the eastern provinces which had formerly belonged to Persia encompassing this territory here while Alexander and his armies marched to deal with his threat the many tribes to the north of the empire seize the opportunity to once again cross the border and began large raids Alexander's sloppily and barely carved out a victory against Persia and when he returned was unprepared to deal with the barbarians effectively acting on his mother's wishes he attempted to bribe the tribes off his soldiers however had just marched back and forth around the world and some had come home to discover that they had lost their homes and families to the raiding while away negotiation was unacceptable they saw their Emperor as a cowardly boy unable to stand up to his mother let alone a foreign invader in the spring of 235 Alexander and his mother were both assassinated by the army and so another Emperor was claimed by the chaos of these tumultuous years and Rome would find herself under yet another usurper this time by the name of max minister axe however this situation had now lasted around 60 years and that was too long now the Empire was going to seriously begin to buckle under the weight of the instability Alexander's death marks the beginning of what is remembered as a crisis of the third century it would last for almost 50 years and it would see the empire fracture under the conflicts centered around what is likely over 30 different individuals claiming the position of Emperor within that time span it would nearly mark the end of the Empire itself had it not been for the reigns of two men who would eventually succeed in saving the day Maxo Minister X is remembered as the first of the soldier emperors these were emperors who owed their reign to the success in the military they basically acted as military dictators while probably seen as a relief in comparison to the spoiled teenage Emperor's who had wrecked the Empire the civil wars that were caused by military men vying for the throne were at least equally as destructive but 238 maksim minutes had been killed and that year became known as a year of the six Emperor's even when Gordy honest the third was able to secure reign it would last only for a few years before he too was killed by his successor and his successor killed by his successor in 250 the General Decca's was sent by the Emperor to put down an uprising upon arrival however he turned around and became his leader as the weakened Empire fell into economic crisis and was being closed in on by Germanic tribes to the north the Vandals alemanni franks and most destructive of all these groups the Goths and then to the east by the far more dangerous Persians the Romans took another devastating hit with the outbreak of these Cyprian play Rome grew fearful that this was all a punishment from the gods and in an attempt to appease them people such as the emperor decius targeted the growing population of Christians as well as all other non Roman religions with the exception of the Jews and the first major persecution in this era this was cut short however as deck es was cut down he died in combat against the Goths less than two years into his reign the first emperor to be killed by foreign invaders not long after his death the Persians were able to capture the famous city of Antioch one of the largest and most important cities in the Empire a few years later the Emperor valerian marched east to confront the Persians stopping the Persians was Rome's main priority they were much more powerful than any Germanic tribe under aggressive leadership and seeking almost the whole of the eastern empire valerian would not succeed however and became the first Roman Emperor to be captured in combat according to unconfirmed stories he was never released and was forced to bend over to be used as the Persian Shahs footstool when he was getting on his horse succession went to valerian son Gallienus but some of the other provinces had had enough many around the Roman province of Gaul felt it was time to fend for themselves and a leader named Poston was used this as an opportunity to declare himself Emperor but instead of invading Rome for the title he simply broke his territory off creating the Gallic Roman Empire centered in Gaul and including part of your maja Britain and for a while espana later on in the east a Roman governor named Oh Dinah --this managed to beat back the Persians but then used his newfound power to rural autonomously though he was later assassinated his power passed on to his wife as an obeah and their son the Roman Empire was simply falling apart it is interesting to note that in his time period society begins to foreshadow early medieval society Travel became dangerous long-distance trade ceased communities erected walls and became isolated people no longer looked to the government in Rome for leadership but rather the local landlords many Roman Fremen were forced to adopt a serf like lifestyle in order to survive but then the Sun began to shine again in 269 AD the Romans defeated the Goths at the Battle of nasus in modern Serbia later the Emperor Claudius defeated the allamani at the Battle of Lake baracus these were two victories against the Germanic tribes necessary to save the Empire however Claudius shortly after died of plague and zenobia split off the territory she had governed just as Postum was had done creating the POW marine Empire coming to the throne to inherit this situation was the Emperor or alien her alien had risen to become another soldier after defeating the Vandals and remnants of other tribes in the empire his main priority naturally became reunification starting by shifting his attention on the east where he invaded and reclaimed the territory of the Pao marine empire by 273 next aurelion had to focus on the Gallic Empire within a year his forces had defeated the gather Romans at the first battle of Chillon and lost territory was reincorporated into the empire aurelion was leading rome into a successful rebound but he was not a beloved Emperor he was strong but harsh he was assassinated by the praetorian guard 275 and Rome was plunged back into instability this instability would go on for another ten years but in 284 the crisis of the third century would begin to come to an end under the reign of an emperor whom we remember as Diocletian in November of to 84 the soldier Emperor Diocletian was proclaimed Emperor by the army his reign would last until 305 and the reforms he made to the Empire would alter it for the rest of its existence early in his rule Diocletian came to the conclusion that appointing a co Emperor was an effective way of stabilizing things to this position he appointed a Roman general named Maximian for the time-being diocletian's plan was to appoint Maximian to handle the West while he handled the East this arrangement of things was considered a very effective move and it later evolved into what is known as the Tetrarchy the rule of four when in 293 the West and East were further divided there would be two senior Emperor's called a gusty Diocletian and Maximian in this case who each adopted his son who would rule as a subordinate Emperor called a Caesar hilarious and Constantius Chlorus in diocletian's plan if one of the Agassi were to die the Caesars would replace him as heir and then select a new Caesar Diocletian would rule the wealthiest and most populace East with his capital of nickel media his adopted son Galerius would rule the Balkans and Pannonia from sirmium Maximian would rule the western Mediterranean provinces from Milan and Constantius would take the provinces of Gaul Gore Manya and Patania ruling from Trier these were considered to be four pieces of a single nation the administration was in theory separate the city of Rome would still serve as a kind of heart of the Empire but as you may have noticed no Emperor took residence there this was partly intentional Diocletian had felt that Rome's place in the empire had become obsolete and that reducing his importance would also remind the Senate that they were now also obsolete the Emperor's were no longer simply the first citizens and the idea that Rome was a republic was largely ignored beginning with our alien but continued by a Diocletian the Emperor's were to be referred to as go - meaning Lord and were appointed not by the Senate but by the gods under Diocletian the Senate's power barely reached outside of the city of Rome itself the Elysion and his Co emperors spent much of their reign in wars against foreigners as well as attempted usurpations there would also be many other administrative military and legal reforms to handle Rome's provinces were also divided to make administration easier and to prevent governor's from maintaining too much power the size of the legions changed and civil and military positions split attempts to reinvigorate the economy were made and another persecution of non Roman religions again largely Christianity with the exception of the Jews took place not all of Diocletian reforms would be successful however he is remembered as being one of Rome's greatest emperors and had in many ways saved his life the final move of Diocletian to stand out in history was his voluntary abdication entering his 60s in poor health and 305 he abdicated in forming the roman people that he was now too weak to govern and that the empire must be kept in strong hands in order to maintain the integrity of the Tetrarchy he asked Maximian to step down as well which he agreed to do reluctantly thus the two Caesars hilarious and Constantius set up to govern their predecessors territories as a gusty and appointed new Caesars however while this is remembered as a relatively bright moment in Roman history the Tetrarchy would not long outlive Diocletian and though he intended to retire to a quiet life of cabbage farming he would in his final years watch much of his work fall apart in the West the new Augustus constant his chorus was aging and in poor health despite his hopes constant his his son Constantine would not succeed his father to the rank of Caesar as he had hoped even though Diocletian had admired the young Constantine this was by his instruction and it is possible that Diocletian favored doing away with blood and heritance altogether instead a man named Valerius Severus became the new Caesar this would not be enough to halt the young and ambitious Constantine however for the time being however he followed his father into a campaign in Britannia against the pics in 306 constant he has decided to winter in a Borkum modern-day york it was here that he died upon his death the army who had grown fond of Constantine proclaimed him his successor Severus however claimed the title of Augustus despite Constantine's claim Severus reluctantly offered Constantine the position of Caesar to avoid conflict which he accepted but then came a third contender Maxentius the son of the former retired but still living Western Emperor Maximilian revolted in Rome and claimed the position for himself upon joining forces with his father Maximian and Maxentius rousted Severus the Tetrarchy was now falling apart and as I said Diocletian was still alive to view it as it crumbled he wouldn't die until 3:11 the Tetrarchy had worked wonderfully for him but it still had to pass the next test of whether it could work without him the almost immediate outbreak of rivalry and civil war suggested that well maybe not by 312 ad Constantine met Maxentius at the Milvian bridge to battle for the position of Augustus of the West here the odds were not greatly in Constantine's favor yet a powerful legend surrounds this event of how Constantine was able to tip the balance in his favour it is said that before the battle Constantine looked up at the Sun and had a vision in the sky he saw a cross appear and heard the Greek words and to tow Nika in Latin this is in hoc Signo winged case in English this is by this sign you shall conquer this was a message according to him possibly according to him not from the traditional gods but from the Christian God Constantine ordered his men to paint the Cairo symbol on their shields the first two letters of the name of Christ and Greek at the battle Constantine crushed his enemy and secured victory for himself now laying claim to all of the west and was set to become Rome's first Christian Emperor in the East all the while power was consolidating under Constantine's ally lakenya's Rome had gone from a Tetrarchy to now a dire key both lakenya's and Constantine remained suspicious of each other but for the moment the two were willing to work together one of the first great changes made by Emperor Constantine was to issue what is remembered as the Edict of Milan in 313 a common misconception is that this is when the Roman Empire officially converted to Christianity in truth it merely legalized its worship I mentioned that Constantine had converted to Christianity a year prior but how genuine was he it's hard to say throughout his rule he seems to have mixed both pagan and Christian elements of belief and practice he may have been truly into it he may have also just seen it as a tool and his plotting but either way the important takeaway here is that the Christian religion now has a much better footing within the Empire before long the facade between Constantine and lakenya's was over and around the Year 314 the two sides began a series of wars that would last for the next decade in 324 the conclusion of things became clear when the Kenya's lost three key battles to Constantine the battles of Adrianople the Hellespont and chrysalis he surrendered and would later be killed Constantine therefore now reigned as the Emperor of a once more united Rome that year another major event occurred as well the foundation of a city later called the city of Constantine Constantinople like Diocletian Constantine recognized the strategic irrelevance of the city of Rome and that the majority of Rome's wealth a larger portion of its population and its greatest enemy at the time Persia were in the East it simply made sense strategically for administrators to set up shop in the East and the site constantine chose was in this very convenient area here on top of a former very ancient greek city called Byzantium he intended for this say to be a Noah Roma a new Rome or the eastern Rome and a serve as a Christian capital this was more than just a change in perspective in the Republican days the Roman Empire was basically subject to the traditional capital despite its size it was the people in the city with the majority of the power now the Roman Empire was a little bit more flexible from was as they said where the Emperor was and this newfound flexibility would help it adapt to come and changes Constantine would do much to help Christianity come out from hiding and start establishing itself in daily life one of the most famous events related to this was the Council of Nicaea which he observed this council was subtle important debates regarding Christian worship and lay the foundation for modern Catholicism he would furthermore try to reinvigorate the Roman economy again by trying to fix the currency issue and made a number of administrative reforms he would place his sons and important positions around the Empire he would try to reduce famine and infanticide and unsuccessfully tried to outlaw gladiatorial combat yet he was not just solely a wonderful loveable ruler and though many of the events of his are very ambiguous there are tales of some corruption and selfishness one such issue with Constantine's reign was how many relatives he killed his quest for power it's possible he even killed his own son from his first marriage and second wife to defend it although there may be more to that story some evidence points to the possibility that this was done because his wife had lied about his son Crispus trying to seduce her thus causing Constantine who took a very harsh stance on adultery to order his son's execution now as according to plan her sons were in line for the throne if the story is true that unfortunately he didn't find out that it was a lie until after his son's execution and then his wife had to pay the price this is just one example of Constantine's reign where the details are murky and conflicting accounts exist while planning a invasion of Persia around the Year 337 ad Constantine died of illness Constantine's 31 year reign followed by equations as a prosperous and stable interlude between Rome's crisis and turmoil but it was simply only an interlude following the death of Constantine the Roman Empire was divided into three to be ruled by his three surviving sons Constantine a second Constance and constant hiss a second yeah I know Roman names make it really easy to keep track of things it was clear that the Constantinian apples did not fall far from the tree and the three brothers each vied for each other's domain after 13 years Constantius the second two brothers were dead and he had reunited the Empire again under a single ruler with this having been concluded Constantius got up to the other usual business for a roman emperor of the age fighting the Germanic tribes the north fighting assassin and Persians in the east and it's helping to sort out the internal issues piling up within the empire in the late 350 s Roman troops in Gaul led by his cousin Julian had secured a hard-won victory against the Franks following this the Emperor demanded her presence in the east against Persia as you may have noticed the army in his time period was not always keen on following directions they didn't like they didn't want to go to Persia so instead they made Julian their Emperor Constantius rushed to counter him but died of fever before he could and Julian then became Emperor in 361 Julian in the app estate as he has remembered app estate referring to the fact that he was a pagan who rejected Christianity came to the throne with big plans he first organized the forests of around seventy five thousand men and moved to invade Persia to settle the differences between the two empires once and for all the old-fashioned way by taking their capital of tes upon the Romans and Persians met outside the walls of the city and though they were victorious the Romans were unable to also penetrate the city walls Julian was forced to retreat and along the way was stabbed in the stomach by a Persian spear in battle dying a few days later the reign of Rome's second philosopher Emperor and final pagan Emperor was cut short and his army quickly appointed a new Emperor a commander named yo bian however you've e'en died of unknown causes before he can really get going and so then the army chose a new Emperor a commander known as Valentinian and 364 ad first things first he had to choose a co-emperor want to govern the East while he governed the more difficult West things were once again too unstable for everything to be in the hands of one man he naturally chose his younger brother balance this is very important apart from a brief interval this severing of east and west would be permanent it would have the benefit of two administrations with more focus but would also isolate the two halves of the Empire which were previously interdependent and create administration's which as time would show were not always cooperative within the first few years of his reign crises broke out across the empire a rebellion in the east and barbarian incursions in Britain and Gaul the allamani were a main threat along with other dramatic tribe and Valentinian was determined to extinguish them he assembled a large army and met them in battle in 368 at the Battle of Silicon iam it was a victory for the Romans but just barely they had taken heavy losses and conflict soon resumed in the 370 s Valentinian traveled Pannonia to negotiate with invading barbarians negotiations became very stressful however and Valentinian seems to have gotten so angry during a shouting match that he suffered from what seems to be an aneurysm or a stroke and died there in 375 AD throughout the video so far I've maybe sounded like a broken record we started off in some pretty good days for Rome and then things got worse and then things got worse and then things got worse and then things got worse and then things weren't too bad under Diocletian and Constantine things then got shaky under Constantine successors but now things will get worse but ladies and gentlemen I do want to emphasize that it is in the late 4th century AD up through the 5th century that things get really bad Germanic and sarmatian barbarians had been increasing their attacks along the whole border of the empire since Marcus Aurelius their motivations aren't entirely clear but it does seem that they were after land to settle at least some of them and had been pushed out of their old territories by climate fluctuations overpopulation and/or pressure with neighboring groups now from the east wrote a new enemy that would not only take on Rome but likely heavily influenced the dramatic migrations into Rome by displacing them these people we know as the Huns the Huns had no system of writing and leave behind very few clues of who they were so we don't know too much about them they were a nomadic people who came from the Eurasian steppes probably somewhere within or near modern Catholic Stan they were likely unable to penetrate the borders of China and thus began a slow march westward as skilled horse warriors they soon began causing havoc in the region as mentioned attacking and displacing the Germanic tribes in 376 AD the year after valentin ian's death his younger brother Valens began to feel the weight of the imbalance the Huns had now caused the Goths under a number of leaders such as one named fredag Aaron began across the danube in total as many as 100,000 may have moved into Roman territory seeking refuge Valens with the bulk of his forces distracted fighting Persia had little choice but to allow them to settle in Thrace he may have even welcomed the opportunity why because a large migration containing many young Germanic men meant low cost mercenaries to hold the border Valens allowed them entrance so long as they promised military service as well as conversion to Christianity this was not the first time barbarians were to be used as mercenaries nor even the first time that they were allowed to settle within the Roman Empire and form a kind of buffer state the Franks a few decades earlier settled in Gaul under Constantine for example but the repeated occurrence of it was a sign of the loss of Rome's and Burtie because of these mercenaries the army was becoming heavily dramatic as well these foreigners had little actual loyalty to the Empire which had taken two men certainly not above the welfare of their own people anyway they adopted Roman customs language many converted to Christianity and in many ways they became Romans but in other ways especially for now they would never fully assimilate and would eventually be a main cause of Rome's demise quite quickly however relations became tense the Goths were faced with some food shortages in Roman territory local officials took advantage of this in some circumstances the Goths had to sell their children into slavery simply to acquire dog meat in some cases one child for one dog the Romans likely didn't do a whole lot too rummy the situation and that year the Goths rose in rebellion thus beginning the Gothic war of 376 - 382 picking up support from some allens and Huns nearby the Goths easily over ran the limited Roman presence and began ravaging the countryside events culminated in the year 378 at the Battle of Adrianople here the Romans were crushed and Valens himself died in the fighting alongside Kani a ratio and the Teutoburg forest this Battle of Adrianople is remembered as one of Rome's greatest defeats now basically the entire region was exposed to raiding the only safe areas for the Romans were behind city walls the Western emperor gradian appointed a man named Theodosius to deal with the situation in the east by making him commander of the eastern army this basically paved the way for him to become Eastern Emperor very easily even with Western support the Goths and Romans stalemated and after peace negotiations it was a cited that the Goths were to be allowed to remain in the area as what are called Feder rowdy tribes which the Romans granted privileges like settlement within the Empire in exchange for military assistance while this war was only one of many with the barbarians in this age it was among the most profound because of all the changes it's signaled when the Western Emperor Valentinian a second was assassinated Emperor Theodosius marched West to confront these servers the two sides met at the Battle of Critias in September of 394 the significance of this battle is in its components both sides had a large share of barbarians in their service in some estimates state but around 1/4 of the Roman army in this time period consisted of barbarian federally the Emperor Theodosius his right-hand man in fact was a half barbarian named Stila KO who had organized the assistance of the Goths under a leader named Alaric Theodosius won the battle and thereby became emperor of a whole United Roman Empire once again as I previously hinted at however he would be the last regardless of treaties and alliances the Romans and dramatic barbarians were never true friends at the Battle of Frigga dos Theodosius his strategy became clear to Alaric and many other Goths he had sent them in first and intended them to endear a large share of the fighting and casualties in an attempt to reduce them a number anger spread among the Goths as they returned home and when Alaric was denied a position of general within the Roman army after his service he was proclaimed king of the Goths by his people and set off in rebellion plundering the Balkans in 395 Theodosius fell ill and died the empire was divided between his two sons penurious and Arcadius neither honora's nor Arcadius would prove to be remarkable emperors both of them were very out of touch with these circumstances of the day being frankly uninterested and therefore left the government to their courts but their egregious errors would only help to secure the downfall of the empire for the moment however penurious was only a boy being raised by his father's trust in general his cousin's husband and later also his father-in-law silico all the while barbarians of all kinds were on the move Alaric and his Goths continued to plunder the East effectively acting as an independent power within the Empire though not settling down long enough to form estate all the while the Huns had made direct contact and spelled as the borders in both Eastern Rome and Persia raiding modern Greece Turkey Syria and Iran their other conquests as well would continue to push the barbarians further into Rome still echo would clash with Alaric as well as other invading barbarians on multiple occasions dutifully defending the Empire and saving it twice from Alaric however as the Roman armies suffered and as potential civil war loomed between East and West still echo found the army was critically lacking in manpower to remedy this he would attempt to forge an alliance with his former foe and also former ally Alaric to secure the new alliance Alaric demanded a payment of four thousand pounds of gold still echo agreed and initially Emperor Honorius agreed however lightly influenced by his court pan aureus later changed his mind and in 408 ordered still echoes execution still echo a loyal servant to the empire went without a fight and thus fell a great Roman leader in an age where there was a critical lack this really was a very bad time for silico to die a few years prior the Rhine River had actually frozen over add on to this that silico had had most of the forces guarding that River moved to Italy to deal with barbarians there and the Germanic peoples essentially saw a wide-open door as for Alaric naturally was still a Cogan he once again became hostile to the Empire furthermore he now had an open route to the city of Rome itself wedged between 408 and 410 he would besiege three times in the first two he would not enter the city as he and his people received what he viewed as adequate tribute really a huge amount of wealth but on the third the city of Rome is sacked by the Goths on August 24th 410 AD for the first time in centuries Rome itself fell to the barbarians the Emperor was not present in a city during the sack he was stationed in his new capital of Ravenna to the northeast there was a legend that upon hearing the news that roma had fallen Western Emperor Honorius cried out and yet it had just eaten from my hands he evidently thought his court was referring to his pet chicken which he had named Roma when he was informed that it was instead of the city and not his beloved chicken he breathes a sigh of relief it's unlikely the story is actually true but it paints a picture of how detached the Emperor Honorius really was from things and how his people saw him it is in this time period that the province of Britannia was effectively abandoned as troops there were recalled to deal with the threats on the continent the Romans would never return leaving the island and its Romano brute inhabitants as well as some new inhabitants on the way to a new path in history other parts of the Empire in Gaul and hispania basically were relinquished as well that same decade and the decay began to become evident vandals Visigoths sway be Alan's Burgundians Franks and others took up permanent autonomous residence within the former borders of the Empire an aureus died of illness in 423 leaving behind an empire in pretty bad shape with no clear air the throne went to Valentinian the third on aureus his cousin he would be a weak ruler however and not long after this there are really no more strong Western emperors some in fact especially later on were just the puppets of barbarian warlords who couldn't be Emperor themselves and the 430's North Africa was conquered by a Germanic tribe called the Vandals who set up a kingdom in the region under a king named guys Erick this while being a huge loss of territory also cut off the food supply to Rome as North Africa had been a major breadbasket for the Empire in the 450s Rome received another devastating blow as the Huns finally launched a massive invasion the Western Empire now under a fearsome ruler named Attila the Huns had been harassing the eastern empire for years now Attila having received a marriage offer from a traitorous Roman princess was likely going for the heart of the dying Western Empire itself he would be stopped however by another of what historians call the last of the Romans Flavius itis a coalition of tribes such as he Franks Visigoths Alan's burgundians and Celts along with the Romans assembled under i2s and met the Huns at the Battle of the Catalonian claims in 451 ad Rome and his barbarian allies came out successful though the battle was very costly the following year in 452 attila invaded the empire again this time focusing on italy but for unknown reasons he turned back after meeting with Pope Leo we don't know what was said exactly in a meeting between Pope Leo and the tale of the Hun but likely either disease was ravaging until his forces or there was a lack of necessary supplies to continue the war shortly after the honeycomb higher collapsed the year after that I too was assassinated by Valentinian a third who feared his power and the year after that Valentinian was assassinated by its's former men following these events it is painfully clear that Rome was too weak to hold itself up the gradual loss of territory to foreign invaders began to pick up in 455 in fact the Vandals sailed across the Mediterranean and sacked Rome again as the foundations of the empire began to break down and 476 the stage was set the final act a general of the Roman federer do2 wacker / through Rome's last Western Emperor the young ironically named Romulus Augustus he spared the boy's life but did not claim the title of Roman Emperor instead he sent the Imperial regalia to the eastern emperor Zeno saying it was no longer necessary as the West no longer needed an emperor the Western Roman Empire which had stood for over a thousand years had fallen Otto Walker then began to form his own Kingdom and Italy amid all the others forming in the corpse of the former Western Empire it's easy for us to look back on wrong and look at 476 as the defining moment the Roman Empire fell almost as if one moment Rome was there the next that was gone but it is important to keep in mind that Rome did not fall in a day 476 is the accepted symbolic date the fall of the Western Empire but the influence of the Empire would continue on for quite a while afterward some would place the fall of Rome as late as the 8th century others argue it was a few decades earlier it depends on how you mean it in many ways the influence of the Empire lasts a day however it is important to note that many of these Germanic peoples who we see as overthrowing the Roman Empire were in their view simply integrating themselves into Rome and becoming Romans arguably both perspectives are true it's worth pointing out furthermore that the Roman Senate continued functioning until 603 and while they may not have wholeheartedly meant it many of the Germanic kings at first pledged fealty to the eastern Emperor thus the fall of Rome even looking at just the fall of the Western Roman Empire is a very murky subject speaking of the eastern empire one might expect it to at this point simply wither away after the fall of the West or something of that nature but it didn't as I've been mentioning throughout the video the East lived on not just for a little while but for another thousand years the eastern empire is known to us as the Byzantine Empire but they never stopped calling themselves Romans nor did they see themselves as anything different this brings quite a bit into question about the supposed fall of Rome that we will address in part 3 we often look back on the fall of Western Rome as an event where history may offer us some of its most important lessons some today place special attention on problems in our society that were shared by Rome and even make comparisons between Rome and the you Europe or the West in general while I of course won't share my opinions on those kinds of things I would say to anyone who asks why did Rome fall that it's complicated we can look at many different reasons and interpretations the main ones are the ones I've been highlighting here barbarian invasion and migration inflation and economic difficulties political corruption etc historian Alexander Demont actually has compiled over 200 theories attempting to explain why Rome fell from a change in values to the slave trade slowing down to lead poisoning regardless I think an important takeaway is that not all of Rome's problems came randomly out of the blue one day I mean sure some did but keep in mind how many other problems built up over the course of decades maybe even centuries some as far back as Commodus in the 180s in hindsight we understand these issues much better than the Romans who were living at the time many issues the Empire faced built up over lifetimes so slowly that the average person didn't really notice remember for example that the crisis of the third century lasted around fifty years that's easily enough time for people to view it as normal life if I could offer one of my own views here I would say that one important thing history is telling us is how important it is that society remember the big picture and think long term remember that our decisions affect not only us but mistakes may even build up and effect austerity as well if any of you have anything to add regarding the fall of Rome I would love to read it in the comment section below I would also like to add the words of Edward Gibbon here the famous Roman historian on his interpretation as to why Rome fell he said the story of its ruin is simple and obvious and instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed we should rather be surprised that it has subsisted so long maybe he makes a fair point how many other nations and people could lift themselves up from their hardships and overcome their problems in the same way the Romans had finally I would like to add that we shouldn't forget that Rome didn't and never did fully fall Roman culture lives on Roman language lives on Roman philosophy lives on Roman religion lives on the blood that flowed through the veins of the Romans also flows through their modern descendants the Roman Empire has lived on in the hearts and minds of Western civilization for millennia and though we have made a habit of idolizing them we also clearly see that they were far from perfect yet the fact that they were imperfect only makes them more interesting and only makes understanding their history more important though separated by ages we can easily see ourselves in them and by understanding their past and the lessons they offer we can better change our present and prepare for our future in the next video we will continue this story as we explore the fate of the East and Roman Empire and how it reacted to these circumstances will that be the next documentary I do maybe although I do have some other plans that might work on first in between if you enjoyed this video and found it informative I'd invite you to come check out some other cool contents we have here on fire blurring like the videos shown here and to subscribe to keep up with more like them the documentary on Germany England and the Dark Ages for example each start right after the fall of Rome so you can learn a bit about what happens next to help with the cost of production fire of learning does take donations on patreon the link to which you can find in the description you can support the channel with as little as a one dollar contribution however simply subscribing to the channel for free is also a large help a special thanks once again to our patreon supporters listed here we are also on Instagram Facebook and now Twitter so come check us out there too gracias tibi ah go for watching

Channel: Fire of Learning

Views: 972,857

Rating: 4.8370237 out of 5

Keywords: Rome, Fall of Rome, History, Roman Empire, Alaric, Odoacer, Diocletian, Constantine, Crisis of the Third Century, Valentinian, Ricimer, Pax Romana, Hadrian, Nerva, Marcus Aurelius, Marcomannic Wars, Commodus

Id: sebwoP_Mq6A

Length: 59min 11sec (3551 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 17 2019