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· Introduction
0:03 · On August 24, 410 AD, a band of Visigoths entered Rome's Salarian Gate.
0:11 · Even before the other gates were taken and the whole horde came streaming into the city,
0:15 · smoke began to rise above the manicured treetops of the emperor's gardens, and the first
0:20 · screams echoed in the canyon-like streets.
0:23 · Rome, the imperial city, had fallen.
0:28 · Although Rome was no longer the capital, it remained the empire's symbolic heart.
0:34 · No foreign invader had entered the city in eight centuries; and for many Romans, it was
0:39 · almost inconceivable that it could be sacked by barbarians.
0:45 · Saint Jerome, writing from his monastic cell in Bethlehem, summarized the general feeling:
0:50 · "with one city, the whole world has died."
0:54 · By contrast, the event regarded by modern historians as the end of the Western Roman
· Reactions to the Fall of Rome
1:00 · Empire – the overthrow of Romulus Augustulus, the last western emperor, in 476 – seems
1:08 · to have been virtually unnoticed by contemporaries.
1:10 · This is partly a consequence of the scantiness of our sources, and partly an acknowledgement
1:18 · that the Western Empire was little more than a political fiction by the time it fell.
1:23 · More generally, it reflects the fact that the fall of the Western Roman Empire was a
1:29 · process, not a moment; an era, not an event.
1:33 · Only in retrospect did its significance and permanence become clear.
1:38 · The fall of the Western Roman Empire – in the sense of an end to effective imperial
1:43 · authority in a given region – was not always dramatic, or even especially noticeable.
1:50 · Wars and invasions cost many Romans their property, their freedom, or their lives.
1:56 · But for many others, the fall of the empire represented nothing more or less than the
2:01 · gradual disappearance of familiar things, from Roman patrols on the roads to Roman pots
2:07 · in the kitchen.
· St. Germanus and Britain
2:09 · The familiar things faded swiftest in Britain, the first part of the western empire to slip
2:15 · from imperial control.
2:17 · Over the course of a few decades, under the pressure of Germanic raids and the struggles
2:22 · of local warlords, the social structure of Roman Britain collapsed.
2:28 · Cities and villas were abandoned, the production of trade goods ceased, and standards of living
2:33 · sank to their lowest ebb in more than a millennium.
2:37 · A British monk, writing a century later, described the period in apocalyptic terms: "as flames
2:44 · roared and swords gleamed on every side, priests and people were hacked down together."
2:50 · A generation after the end of Roman rule in Britain, a Gallic bishop named Germanus visited
2:58 · the former province to combat heresy.
3:01 · He met priests and soldiers still attuned to developments in the empire.
3:06 · But he also encountered a marauding band of Saxon raiders.
3:11 · Fortunately, the good bishop was up to the challenge: appointing himself head of the
3:16 · local militia, he sallied forth against the barbarians, and put them to flight – if
3:22 · his biographer can be believed – with a war cry of "Alleluia!"
· St. Severinus and Noricum
3:27 · Although Britain's post-Roman trauma was exceptional, most of the frontier provinces
3:32 · were profoundly affected by the collapse of Roman authority.
3:36 · Besides the fact that they were the first regions to be overrun by invaders, their economies
3:41 · tended to be heavily dependent on their garrisons.
3:44 · Once the imperial government stopped paying its troops, the whole provincial economy frayed.
3:50 · Many frontier cities came to resemble the once-great legionary fortress of Naissus,
3:55 · which a visitor in the mid-fifth century described as a gutted ruin, ringed by fields white with
4:02 · bones.
4:03 · The most vivid account of the end of Roman rule on the frontier appears in the Life of
4:09 · Saint Severinus, a holy man who lived and worked in Noricum (modern Austria).
4:14 · By the time Severinus arrived in the mid-fifth century, the provincial administration had
4:20 · disintegrated, leaving each city to fend for itself.
4:24 · The saint did what he could to help local authorities stave off disaster, arranging
4:28 · counter-raids against bandits, advising Germanic kings, and – in one instance – ensuring
4:35 · that food was supplied to the inhabitants of a hungry town.
· HelloFresh
4:39 · [ad text redacted]
5:44 · Back to Noricum, and the fall of Rome.
· St. Severinus (cont.)
5:47 · Although the border defenses were in ruins and the field armies long gone, a few garrisons
5:52 · held out along the old frontier.
5:55 · By Severinus' time, only one of these garrisons was still in contact with the imperial government.
6:02 · But since no official dared to enter Noricum, the garrison commander was forced to send
6:07 · soldiers over the Alps to retrieve pay from Italy.
6:11 · The last time this journey was attempted, the men were ambushed by barbarians.
6:16 · Their bodies, washed up on the banks of a local river, were the only news the garrison
6:21 · ever received of the disaster.
6:24 · As the last imperial troops faded away, Germanic tribes moved in to fill the power vacuum.
6:32 · Severinus did what he could to mediate between the invaders and the local inhabitants, convincing
6:37 · one king to free all the Romans his warriors had taken captive.
6:40 · But despite the saint's efforts, raiders continued to sack cities and enslave their
6:46 · inhabitants.
6:48 · After Severinus died, the situation deteriorated to the point that all the remaining Romans
6:53 · were evacuated from the province.
· Sidonius Apollinaris and southern Gaul
6:56 · The end of imperial authority tended to be less dramatic in the heartlands of the Western
7:01 · Empire.
7:02 · This was especially true of southern Gaul, whose powerful aristocrats struggled against,
7:08 · negotiated with, and finally served under the Germanic invaders with remarkable success.
7:14 · The perspective and experiences of the Gallic aristocracy at the moment of transition from
7:21 · Roman rule are epitomized by the letters of Sidonius Apollinaris.
7:27 · After a distinguished political career at Rome, Sidonius became bishop of Clermont in
7:32 · his native Gaul, and fought to keep his city within the swiftly-eroding empire.
7:37 · But eventually, after a siege that reduced them to eating grass, the citizens of Clermont
7:43 · opened their gates to the Goths.
7:45 · In a letter to a friend, Sidonius – who had urged continued resistance – despaired:
7:51 · "our ancestors," he wrote, "will no longer glory in the name of Rome, if they
7:58 · have no descendants."
8:00 · Sidonius praised those who fought the Goths, telling a man who had sallied out against
8:05 · the invaders that he had "made Romans of [his] fellow-citizens."
8:11 · In the end, however, like most members of his class, he accepted the demise of the empire,
8:17 · and resigned himself to the realities of living under the rule of the Goths, even commending
8:22 · one of his younger correspondents for learning the German language, and combining "Burgundian
8:28 · eloquence and a Roman spirit."
· Boethius and Italy
8:31 · Accommodation was also the strategy pursued by the great Roman magnates of Italy.
8:37 · Thanks to their willingness to cooperate with the new Germanic ruling class, the Italian
8:41 · elites preserved most of their wealth, lands, and prestige.
8:46 · The Senate continued to meet in Rome, consuls continued to be chosen, and games were still
8:52 · staged in the Colosseum and Circus Maximus, financed by the men from the same families
8:57 · who had dominated politics in the last years of the Western Empire.
9:02 · One such man was Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius.
9:07 · A scion of Rome's most distinguished clans, Boethius rose to literary distinction as a
9:15 · young man, composing learned treatises on a wide range of philosophical and theological
9:21 · subjects.
9:22 · He also achieved political success, becoming consul.
9:27 · Then, at the height of his power, he was falsely accused of treachery and thrown into prison.
9:34 · As he awaited judgement and execution, Boethius composed The Consolation of Philosophy, a
9:40 · dialogue exploring the nature of happiness and free will in brilliant prose interspersed
9:45 · with a series of poems.
9:47 · The final lines of one poem neatly summarize the experience of those who lived through
9:53 · the fall of the Western Roman Empire: This law no earthly thing transcends: All that
10:00 · has a beginning, ends If you enjoyed this video, please consider
10:06 · supporting toldinstone on Patreon.
10:09 · You might also enjoy my book, Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants.
10:14 · Thanks for watching.

--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <--
	·	Introduction
0:03	·	On August 24, 410 AD, a band of Visigoths entered Rome's Salarian Gate.
0:11	·	Even before the other gates were taken and the whole horde came streaming into the city,
0:15	·	smoke began to rise above the manicured treetops of the emperor's gardens, and the first
0:20	·	screams echoed in the canyon-like streets.
0:23	·	Rome, the imperial city, had fallen.
0:28	·	Although Rome was no longer the capital, it remained the empire's symbolic heart.
0:34	·	No foreign invader had entered the city in eight centuries; and for many Romans, it was
0:39	·	almost inconceivable that it could be sacked by barbarians.
0:45	·	Saint Jerome, writing from his monastic cell in Bethlehem, summarized the general feeling:
0:50	·	"with one city, the whole world has died."
0:54	·	By contrast, the event regarded by modern historians as the end of the Western Roman
	·	Reactions to the Fall of Rome
1:00	·	Empire – the overthrow of Romulus Augustulus, the last western emperor, in 476 – seems
1:08	·	to have been virtually unnoticed by contemporaries.
1:10	·	This is partly a consequence of the scantiness of our sources, and partly an acknowledgement
1:18	·	that the Western Empire was little more than a political fiction by the time it fell.
1:23	·	More generally, it reflects the fact that the fall of the Western Roman Empire was a
1:29	·	process, not a moment; an era, not an event.
1:33	·	Only in retrospect did its significance and permanence become clear.
1:38	·	The fall of the Western Roman Empire – in the sense of an end to effective imperial
1:43	·	authority in a given region – was not always dramatic, or even especially noticeable.
1:50	·	Wars and invasions cost many Romans their property, their freedom, or their lives.
1:56	·	But for many others, the fall of the empire represented nothing more or less than the
2:01	·	gradual disappearance of familiar things, from Roman patrols on the roads to Roman pots
2:07	·	in the kitchen.
	·	St. Germanus and Britain
2:09	·	The familiar things faded swiftest in Britain, the first part of the western empire to slip
2:15	·	from imperial control.
2:17	·	Over the course of a few decades, under the pressure of Germanic raids and the struggles
2:22	·	of local warlords, the social structure of Roman Britain collapsed.
2:28	·	Cities and villas were abandoned, the production of trade goods ceased, and standards of living
2:33	·	sank to their lowest ebb in more than a millennium.
2:37	·	A British monk, writing a century later, described the period in apocalyptic terms: "as flames
2:44	·	roared and swords gleamed on every side, priests and people were hacked down together."
2:50	·	A generation after the end of Roman rule in Britain, a Gallic bishop named Germanus visited
2:58	·	the former province to combat heresy.
3:01	·	He met priests and soldiers still attuned to developments in the empire.
3:06	·	But he also encountered a marauding band of Saxon raiders.
3:11	·	Fortunately, the good bishop was up to the challenge: appointing himself head of the
3:16	·	local militia, he sallied forth against the barbarians, and put them to flight – if
3:22	·	his biographer can be believed – with a war cry of "Alleluia!"
	·	St. Severinus and Noricum
3:27	·	Although Britain's post-Roman trauma was exceptional, most of the frontier provinces
3:32	·	were profoundly affected by the collapse of Roman authority.
3:36	·	Besides the fact that they were the first regions to be overrun by invaders, their economies
3:41	·	tended to be heavily dependent on their garrisons.
3:44	·	Once the imperial government stopped paying its troops, the whole provincial economy frayed.
3:50	·	Many frontier cities came to resemble the once-great legionary fortress of Naissus,
3:55	·	which a visitor in the mid-fifth century described as a gutted ruin, ringed by fields white with
4:02	·	bones.
4:03	·	The most vivid account of the end of Roman rule on the frontier appears in the Life of
4:09	·	Saint Severinus, a holy man who lived and worked in Noricum (modern Austria).
4:14	·	By the time Severinus arrived in the mid-fifth century, the provincial administration had
4:20	·	disintegrated, leaving each city to fend for itself.
4:24	·	The saint did what he could to help local authorities stave off disaster, arranging
4:28	·	counter-raids against bandits, advising Germanic kings, and – in one instance – ensuring
4:35	·	that food was supplied to the inhabitants of a hungry town.
	·	HelloFresh
4:39	·	[ad text redacted]
5:44	·	Back to Noricum, and the fall of Rome.
	·	St. Severinus (cont.)
5:47	·	Although the border defenses were in ruins and the field armies long gone, a few garrisons
5:52	·	held out along the old frontier.
5:55	·	By Severinus' time, only one of these garrisons was still in contact with the imperial government.
6:02	·	But since no official dared to enter Noricum, the garrison commander was forced to send
6:07	·	soldiers over the Alps to retrieve pay from Italy.
6:11	·	The last time this journey was attempted, the men were ambushed by barbarians.
6:16	·	Their bodies, washed up on the banks of a local river, were the only news the garrison
6:21	·	ever received of the disaster.
6:24	·	As the last imperial troops faded away, Germanic tribes moved in to fill the power vacuum.
6:32	·	Severinus did what he could to mediate between the invaders and the local inhabitants, convincing
6:37	·	one king to free all the Romans his warriors had taken captive.
6:40	·	But despite the saint's efforts, raiders continued to sack cities and enslave their
6:46	·	inhabitants.
6:48	·	After Severinus died, the situation deteriorated to the point that all the remaining Romans
6:53	·	were evacuated from the province.
	·	Sidonius Apollinaris and southern Gaul
6:56	·	The end of imperial authority tended to be less dramatic in the heartlands of the Western
7:01	·	Empire.
7:02	·	This was especially true of southern Gaul, whose powerful aristocrats struggled against,
7:08	·	negotiated with, and finally served under the Germanic invaders with remarkable success.
7:14	·	The perspective and experiences of the Gallic aristocracy at the moment of transition from
7:21	·	Roman rule are epitomized by the letters of Sidonius Apollinaris.
7:27	·	After a distinguished political career at Rome, Sidonius became bishop of Clermont in
7:32	·	his native Gaul, and fought to keep his city within the swiftly-eroding empire.
7:37	·	But eventually, after a siege that reduced them to eating grass, the citizens of Clermont
7:43	·	opened their gates to the Goths.
7:45	·	In a letter to a friend, Sidonius – who had urged continued resistance – despaired:
7:51	·	"our ancestors," he wrote, "will no longer glory in the name of Rome, if they
7:58	·	have no descendants."
8:00	·	Sidonius praised those who fought the Goths, telling a man who had sallied out against
8:05	·	the invaders that he had "made Romans of [his] fellow-citizens."
8:11	·	In the end, however, like most members of his class, he accepted the demise of the empire,
8:17	·	and resigned himself to the realities of living under the rule of the Goths, even commending
8:22	·	one of his younger correspondents for learning the German language, and combining "Burgundian
8:28	·	eloquence and a Roman spirit."
	·	Boethius and Italy
8:31	·	Accommodation was also the strategy pursued by the great Roman magnates of Italy.
8:37	·	Thanks to their willingness to cooperate with the new Germanic ruling class, the Italian
8:41	·	elites preserved most of their wealth, lands, and prestige.
8:46	·	The Senate continued to meet in Rome, consuls continued to be chosen, and games were still
8:52	·	staged in the Colosseum and Circus Maximus, financed by the men from the same families
8:57	·	who had dominated politics in the last years of the Western Empire.
9:02	·	One such man was Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius.
9:07	·	A scion of Rome's most distinguished clans, Boethius rose to literary distinction as a
9:15	·	young man, composing learned treatises on a wide range of philosophical and theological
9:21	·	subjects.
9:22	·	He also achieved political success, becoming consul.
9:27	·	Then, at the height of his power, he was falsely accused of treachery and thrown into prison.
9:34	·	As he awaited judgement and execution, Boethius composed The Consolation of Philosophy, a
9:40	·	dialogue exploring the nature of happiness and free will in brilliant prose interspersed
9:45	·	with a series of poems.
9:47	·	The final lines of one poem neatly summarize the experience of those who lived through
9:53	·	the fall of the Western Roman Empire: This law no earthly thing transcends: All that
10:00	·	has a beginning, ends If you enjoyed this video, please consider
10:06	·	supporting toldinstone on Patreon.
10:09	·	You might also enjoy my book, Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants.
10:14	·	Thanks for watching.