All language subtitles for 13 - Rome Rise Fall - The Last Emperor

Previously on "Rome: Rise and fall of an empire..."

Ethnic tensions continue to divide
the already ravaged empire,

as the barbarian-born general,
Ricimer, claws his way to the throne.

Hungry for power,
he kills anyone who stands in his way-

including his closest friends.

Now...

Roman control of the empire's
once-great western provinces

is swept away by a storm of
barbarian warlords and kings.

Out of the chaos, one Roman leader rises up,
determined to restore Rome to its glory days.

But in his path stands a fierce barbarian warrior-prince.

For the empire, the clash of their
swords is the beginning of the end.

ROME
RISE AND FALL OF AN EMPIRE

THE LAST EMPEROR

By the fifth century A.D.,
after hundreds of years of constant warfare,

the western Roman empire is a
mere shadow of its former self.

The empire was into full-blown crisis.

There was increasing pressure from barbarians outside the empire
who wanted to come into the empire.

And above all, there was this tremendous
financial pressure.

The empire wasn't generating
the revenues that allowed it

to keep its military forces strong
and its infrastructure repaired.

Without a well-armed military,
Rome is powerless against

one of the largest barbarian forces
the empire has ever seen: The huns-

led by their ferocious leader, Attila.

Fifth century chronicler, Callinicus
recounts their savagery:

"The barbarian huns became so great
that more than a hundred cities were captured.

And there were so many murders and bloodlettings
that the dead could not be counted."

The huns, a nomadic tribe from the east,
lay waste to what little is left of the empire.

The fact is that there is no state in the west.

The west has dissolved.

The west has fallen apart.

There's so many different entities,
so many different armies,

so many different powers that are vying
for control that there's no control.

Though the eastern capital of Constantinople
is able to survive the hunnic invasions,

the weaker Western empire feels
the brunt of their expansion,

and is forced to cede the Roman
region of Pannonia to Attila the hun.

In the empire's former territories, romans must
now answer to their barbarian rulers-the huns.

Romans and barbarians can identify each other
by the way they speak, by the way they dress,

by the way they smell,
by the way they wear their hair.

Even though by this time, romans and
barbarians are really used to each other,

I think it's fair to say that ethnic
tensions have never gone away.

But one Roman moves through the troubled society
with ease, and finds opportunity in Attila's new regime.

His name is Flavius Orestes.

Orestes was a Roman who had grown up
in territory dominated by the huns.

But he got a high position at the court of Attila.

The empire may be falling down around him,

but it is his Roman heritage that makes Orestes
and the other Pannonians valuable to Attila.

They're Roman because
they talk like romans.

They walk like romans,
and there is still the cultural, the social,

everything that makes up what a person is and does
is still Roman and that goes on for centuries.

Able to read and write, the cultured Orestes
stands out among Attila's many barbarian allies.

Orestes is soon made secretary in the ruler's court.

Orestes got to see how Attila
had a real political vision

trying to merge the huns with the romans
through marriage and political alliance

to come up with a new
empire there in the north.

Having daily contact with Attila the hun, Orestes
experiences first-hand just how brutal barbarian justice can be.

His Roman sensibilities are easily offended.

I think it is fair to say that there's what we would call
ethnic tension between barbarians and romans.

They faced a problem similar to the problem that we face today.

These different peoples from different cultures need to work together
in important ways, they want to become like each other.

But there's tension between them.

Though Orestes is repulsed by the
barbarians' blood sacrifice of their enemies-

in Attila's power, Orestes finds
the ambition for something more.

Orestes-when he served in the court of Attila-
was able to see how this leader was organizing a nation out of nothing.

And I think Orestes above all would have learned that
there is a real possibility of seeing a new kind of Roman world,

one led by a king that melded
barbarian and Roman strengths

to restore the glory of Rome the way it had
been at the time of the founders, the kings.

Orestes may be ruled by barbarians,
but he will always be Roman

and always think of himself
and his people as superior.

He longs to return the once-great
empire to its Roman roots.

In 453 A.D., Attila's reign comes to an
unexpected end, on his wedding night-

soon bringing about the collapse of the
mighty huns and their barbarian allies.

His bride finds him dead of
a broken blood vessel and,

terrified of being accused of killing him,
spends the entire night next to the corpse.

Sixth century historian, Jordanes:

"He fell, not by wound or by foe, nor by treachery,
but happy in his joy and without pain."

But the huns' demise cannot save Rome.

The power vacuum that results only allows more barbarians
to descend upon the fading Western empire.

In the following years, Rome's cities fall into disrepair.

Hunger prevails and beggars fill the streets.

Orestes wanders, no longer a man of influence.

He seeks his fortune in a land struggling to survive.

The infrastructure seems to have crumbled in some cases
fairly quickly, varied from one region to another.

Aqueducts it's true, sort of perhaps fall into disrepair
and the quality of pottery perhaps in some places diminishes.

It's all getting a bit more hectic.

The street plans begin to change,
the regular features break down.

It is a time of diminished hope and starving children.

The details of Orestes'
travels are lost to us,

but as a true Roman, he refuses to
believe that the empire is beyond saving,

that the humanity and civilization
at its core cannot be brought back.

He sets his sights on one day making
his way to the city of Rome.

The fact is, is that Rome fell physically far earlier
than it fell psychologically.

The idea that Rome could fall was
difficult for many to accept;

And many didn't accept it.

They believed as long as there was an emperor
on the throne, there was a Rome;

As long as there were walls around the city, there was a Rome;

As long as there was somebody who believed
a Rome existed, the empire in fact existed.

In the mid fifth century, after years of
constant pressure from barbarian attacks,

Rome is forced into a treaty with a
powerful tribe called the burgundians

granting them valuable Roman land
in exchange for military service.

Originally from Scandinavia, like many germanic barbarians,
the burgundians are allowed to settle in southern Gaul.

These territories on the periphery of Italy are the first to go.

It's just very slowly; little bits and pieces are given away.

In a way it's kind of like if you think about your body.

If you're out in the cold,
your body is programmed to make sure

that your brain and your sort of heart
and whatever survive no matter what.

So your fingers go first,
your toes, your feet, your hands...

And it's very much like the Roman empire.

In return for these land grants, the burgundians
must supply the empire with mercenary soldiers

but this treaty only furthers Rome's plight.

When they give land to the barbarians,
since land is a great source,

perhaps a principal source of revenue, the more land
they give away, the less money they have coming in.

The less money they have coming in,
the more land they have to give away

in order to keep barbarian support,
to keep the army strong.

So it really is a vicious spiral that leads
more and more to a financial crisis.

The burgundians' leader, Gundobad,
is the son of a mighty chieftain,

but as the empire grows weaker and more desperate for his
tribe's many mercenaries, he is a powerful force in Rome as well.

In the empire's capital,
Gundobad is made the master of soldiers,

but he controls more than the army.
He also chooses Rome's emperor: Glycerius.

It's a choice made by Gundobad because
Gundobad thought that he was a loyal figure,

but it's clear that Glycerius must
rule at the pleasure of Gundobad

and he must rely upon the support
of Gundobad to do this effectively.

The emperor's great throne room
is filled with more barbarians than romans.

The western Roman army at this point
is overwhelmingly barbarian if not entirely.

It seems likely that there were
still native Roman forces in there,

but when we do hear of this army, it's an army that
contains Turks and Germans and a range of other non-romans.

In charge of Glycerius' barbarian mercenaries
is a barbarian warrior named Odovacar.

Odovacar found a position in the imperial guard,
close to the center of power.

Surely because he had demonstrated
military competence and real leadership ability.

This is the Rome that Orestes encounters
when he finally arrives-after decades of travel.

Upon first meeting Odovocar, he cannot know
how deeply the empire has changed since its glory days.

The power of the Western empire
is certainly gone in the 470s,

but I think it's probably not clear to
everybody that this is a doomed enterprise.

It does seem potentially to be
just a momentary weakness and,

had the course of things gone differently,
perhaps it could have recovered.

Orestes' diplomatic experience earns him
a high position in the imperial army,

but he is surprised to find Odovocar-
a lowly barbarian-holding equal standing.

They obviously were both highly ambitious.
They had survived really tough circumstances.

Orestes is seated at the court of the
blood-thirsty Attila the hun.

Odavacar had been a military commander and
had brought himself literally later from rags to riches at Rome.

I think their ambitions as well as their special competences
would have put them on the track to compete with each other.

Both have their own visions of empire-one
Roman and one barbarian.

After spending years in the court of Attila the hun,
the Roman, Orestes, is made a general in the Roman army.

But in Italy he encounters an empire
that's disintegrating and hardly Roman.

Its power resides not in its emperor, Glycerius, but in the barbarian generals-
Odovacar and the burgundian chieftain, Gundobad.

In the past, Rome had integrated its barbarian mercenaries
in the army to ensure that they never gained too much power.

But what happens in the fifth century
is that they stay as germanic groups.

They get to keep their own clothing,
their own food, their own culture,

their own administrative structure, the
political structure, the military structure.

And it's bizarre but they aren't romanized.

And now Gundobad's warriors hold the same rank
as their Roman peers in emperor Glycerius's Roman army.

The army at Glycerius's disposal- rather
basically, that Gunderbad has at his disposal-

would be a mixed formation, no doubt comprising some
Burgundians but many other various groups as well

that together form as it
were the army in Italy.

In the case of the Roman army, there seems
to have definitely been tensions at times

between barbarians who were serving
and romans who were serving;

Romans who felt that because it was the Roman army that
their leadership capabilities should be recognized.

Whereas barbarians should be disqualified
because they were barbarians.

The once unified power of the Roman military is lost
as violence explodes within its ranks, dividing the army against itself.

General Orestes-once so skilled at diplomacy-
soon finds that even he is powerless against it.

As Rome suffers greater losses against
tribes like the visigoths in Gaul,

Roman soldiers must question the
allegiance of their barbarian allies.

I think everybody had their own interests at this point.

Things become somewhat fragmented and diffused.

So that what we're dealing
with is a group of people

whose interests are no longer united,
even among the romans themselves.

Chaos reigns on the battlefield when the army
no longer fights for the empire-but every man for himself.

When the enfeebled Western empire can no longer keep
its enemies from sacking the mediterranean coastline,

the stronger Eastern empire,
based in Constantinople, finally steps in.

In the imperial palace, the aging eastern emperor Leo
enjoys the security of his heavily fortified capital.

The reality of the Roman empire in the mid-fifth century
was that there was a distinct east and west.

The reality was also that the east was prosperous,
the west was not.

Blaming Glycerius for Rome's failures,

Leo hopes to extend his own reach by
appointing a new western emperor: Julius Nepos.

The thinking about why Nepos was chosen to go to
the west revolves around the position that Nepos had at court.

He was a very well placed person,
related by marriage to the emperor Leo.

He was a figure who was suitable for
leading an invasion to Italy.

In 474 A.D., Nepos assembles an army and leads
his troops away from Constantinople-bound for Italy.

The east is going to look to reassert its influence
in the west and find a candidate who could depose Glycerius.

Its reaction is not a surprising one.

As a newly appointed emperor, Nepos has a
great deal to prove, and even more to lose,

if he fails in bringing the western
empire back from the barbarians.

As Nepos' army sails from Constantinople,

the western emperor Glycerius must prepare
his own army to counter the attack in Rome.

But when Glycerius orders Orestes and
Odovacar to ready their troops for battle,

he encounters, first-hand,
the problem of barbarian loyalty.

Gundobad and his burgundian troops
desert him in his hour of need.

What happens is that Gundobad
abandons his position to go back

and become king of the burgundians, which is clearly
a whole lot more fun than generalissimo of Glycerius.

The army, because it's not a Roman army
in terms of its native background,

has a different agenda and a different set of
desires than perhaps a citizen militia would.

Without his burgundian support,
even the armies of Odovacar and Orestes

cannot save Glycerius from
the invading forces of Nepos.

As Nepos draws near Rome, Glycerius and his commanders ride out,
not for battle but to plead for mercy.

And so Glycerius found himself in a situation
where he really couldn't expect military support,

either from hired barbarians
or from his local troops.

So when the Eastern empire sent Nepos to take
over, Glycerius made the only rational decision:

He surrendered without a fight.

Nepos, having come to Italy to violently unseat
Glycerius, now spares the emperor's life.

Nepos wanted the appearance of legitimacy, that he would
become emperor with the backing of the eastern emperor

and the approval and agreement of the
western emperor who would step down

because he recognized that Nepos
was the better man for the job.

He orders Glycerius be made a bishop
and sends him into exile far from Rome.

In June 474 A.D., when Nepos is crowned western
emperor, he is lauded by Orestes and Odovacar.

Being equally ambitious, both men transfer
their loyalty to their new leader immediately.

Orestes, being Roman, also has an idea
that there is still a Rome and he can still protect Rome.

In the case of Odovacar, there seems
to be a recognition that there is no more Rome.

And so how it plays out is you've got two
very capable men at the very moment in time

when a decision is made whether
Rome will cease to exist

Nepos promotes the Roman Orestes
and the barbarian Odovacar

to the highest posts in his court,
giving them unmatched power in Rome.

Elevating Orestes and
Odovacar at the same time,

giving them kind of equal power-at least equal
recognition- he's kind of prepared his own demise.

In both of these characters he's elevated individuals
who are of strong will and of great capabilities.

But the court politics in Rome are quickly
overshadowed by relentless visigoth invasions

against the last,
remaining western Roman territory of Gaul.

At the height of the Roman empire,
this region now known as Provence, France,

was a prosperous community, but throughout
the 470s its people are subject

to constant raids from the visigoth
barbarians and their king, Euric.

The very ambitious visigothic
king who was a real expansionist

decided that he was going to attack this area there
in southern France that wasn't under his control.

By this time, the visigoths really
did have an overwhelming force.

So it was simply part of the process by which
Roman territory in Gaul was constantly shrinking

until it was reduced to just a tiny slice along
the coast of what is today southern France.

The bloodthirsty visigoth warriors lay
waste to the villages of Provence,

showing no mercy to the
helpless Roman citizens.

The eastern emperor Leo sends Julius Nepos
to Rome as the new western emperor.

Nepos is counting on his two commanders-
the barbarian Odovacar,

and the Roman, Orestes- but even with their
support, the Roman empire is in terrible jeopardy.

Barbarian visigoths invade southern Gaul,

forcing the meager Roman legion,
stationed on the border, into battle.

The imperial soldiers, under-armed and unprepared,
are no match for the visigoths.

The goths seem better organized.

Their kingship seems to be stronger.

They seem to be able to
mobilize more forces,

and the forces seem to be better able to deal
with whatever eventualities occur in warfare.

The fighting is brutal, the carnage overwhelming.

Something must be done.

Though the Roman commander Orestes
is inexperienced in battle,

emperor Nepos sends him from Rome to Gaul
with orders to drive the barbarians out.

He's to be the new commander in chief in Gaul.

Now, the thing is you can ask yourself is this such
a great honor or such a great position to be given,

given that there's very little that's
left to be controlled in Gaul?

It seems like an honor, but perhaps it was actually
a way of sidelining him. We don't know.

But in his camp on the Italian border, the former
diplomat Orestes tries his hand at military strategy-

hoping to sideline Odovacar and
the new emperor Nepos, instead.

He offers a deal to his mostly barbarian soldiers:

If they march with him against emperor Nepos,
he will Grant them valuable land in Italy.

We know that Orestes turned against Nepos.

That instead of following
the emperor's instructions,

he decided to try to
seize power for himself.

Why did Orestes turn against Nepos?
I think Orestes had a vision of restoring Rome.

Abandoning Gaul to the visigoths, Orestes leads his army
from their camp in northern Italy back towards Rome-

but when emperor Nepos learns of
the invasion, he flees to Ravenna.

In August of 475 A.D., Orestes marches into Ravenna
and orders his troops to scour the city in search of the emperor.

The barbarian soldiers go on a rampage,
terrorizing the citizens and destroying property.

I can only imagine Orestes either thought that Nepos
was selling out the Roman empire to the barbarians

or Orestes simply had this overwhelming ambition to
capture the Roman empire's leadership for himself.

But even under the threat of death,
no one reveals the emperor's hiding place.

Emperor Nepos is forced to secretly escape the city,
according to sixth century historian, Jordanes.

Nepos fled to Dalmatia and,
deprived of his power,

he languished there as a private citizen in the same city
where the exiled emperor Glycerius recently became bishop.

Soon Nepos is on his way out.

He's exiled and will continue to be exiled,
calling himself emperor until 480.

In fact, some historians give him
sympathy as the last Roman emperor.

But he's long since ceased to exist as an emperor.

With Nepos gone and the barbarian
soldiers under his thumb,

Orestes believes he can restore order
to an empire engulfed in anarchy.

In a surprising turn,
Orestes does not take the throne himself,

but instead names his young son,
Romulus Augustulus, emperor.

Orestes decided that he, with his childhood having grown
up among barbarians and his service at the hunic court,

that maybe the Italian elite wouldn't
want him, Orestes, as the emperor.

But they would accept this pure,
Italian Romulus as their leader.

Because it would appeal to their sense of tradition
no matter how empty in terms of power that feeling was now.

The boy will remain in the well-protected city of Ravenna.

And he was protected by Paulus, his uncle.

Romulus is still an adolescent and had not yet come to full maturity,
hence his name Augustulus, little Augustus.

Young Romulus is merely a puppet for his father.

It is Orestes who will rule the empire,

finally edging out his rival Odovacar to
become the most powerful man in Rome.

Swollen with pride, Orestes ignores
his debt to the barbarian soldiers.

But after holding up their end of the deal-
helping Orestes unseat Nepos-they demand their payment of land.

These guys want to get settled on Italy,
on Italian territory, on the land of Italian senators.

And Orestes is enough of a Roman
to know that this isn't going to fly.

And so he says no.

Orestes couldn't pay the soldiers.

For the soldiers, the purpose of having
an emperor was to pay them.

So when Orestes, the power behind
the throne with the son on it,

can't come up with the money that they want or
can't come up with the land that they demand,

then there's only one answer: Get rid of that emperor
and get somebody else who can get us what we want.

With the help of his guards,
Orestes is able to flee the chaos,

but he underestimates the power of the
barbarian army, now bent on revenge.

After years of competing for power with
his barbarian co-commander, Odovacar,

the Roman Orestes gains the advantage- crowning
his own 12-year-old son as puppet emperor.

But tensions rise as the barbarian army goes unpaid.

When the barbarian soldiers are denied
what Orestes has promised them-

settlement land in Italy- they turn to
his greatest rival for help- Odovacar.

So the soldiers made a perfectly rational
decision to go to somebody else,

in this case Odovacar, who they thought had
a better chance of satisfying their demand.

Odovacar was a barbarian and they'd
expect that he wouldn't have nearly as many qualms about

giving them land or money or whatever they
needed regardless of where it came from in order to make them happy.

The soldiers make Odovacar an offer he can't refuse.

So they turn to him and they say,

"well, if you can get us this land,
we'll make you king. How does that sound?"

"Oh, that sounds all right."

So off they go and he seems to be a
leader of this sort of ragtag bag

of germanic peoples in this
supposedly Roman army.

Together, they set out to bring
down all Roman power in the empire.

Odovacar will now taste the revenge he seeks against
Orestes who dared to usurp his power in Rome.

They immediately begin to raid the cities of Italy.

The narration that we have of this
talks about days and days of plundering.

The wealthy being stripped of all of their money.

After risking their lives for the sake of
an empire they can't even call their own,

the barbarian soldiers feel the time has come for Rome
to pay, in blood, what they cannot pay in money and land.

Pretend you're a solider for the moment.

Pretend that you have to live on the meager
wages that you've got and now you miss a payday.

One payday you may be able to make it.
2, 3, 4 paydays in a row, you're starving.

Are you going to have much allegiance
to the army that has let you starve?

Now answering to no one, Odovacar relishes the opportunity
to finally assert his dominance over Italy and Orestes.

What we're talking about in 476 is not a war per se.

There's no great battles; There's no sieges.
You've got starving soldiers seeking to survive.

And in order to survive, they will
do whatever it takes to do so.

Because they are trained to fight,
they will put down anyone who encounters them.

And riots and rampages and sackings and rapings take place.

With Odovacar closing in, Orestes leaves his
son, the young emperor, Romulus, in Ravenna

under the care the boy's uncle, Paulus- while
Orestes escapes to Ticinium in northern Italy.

Orestes is forced to seek refuge from Odovacar
and his troops in Ticinium which is modern Pavia.

We're told by a text that the bishop of
Pavia gives Orestes sanctuary in the city.

But even the house of god cannot
protect him from the barbarian forces.

Orestes is forced to flee as Odovacar and his men
ravage the church, desperate to root him out.

The bishop had his
collection of alms stolen,

all the money he collected to help the
poor was stolen by Odovacar's forces.

They also burned buildings, including the church.

As the church goes up in flames,
so do Orestes' visions of the empire's rebirth.

Odovacar does not care about
the perpetuation of Rome.

In fact, it's a realization to him very
early on that Rome no longer exists.

But what role does he play?
What power can he hold?

Orestes and his guards escape Ticinium,

hoping to buy enough time to prepare
for the certain face-off with Odovacar

Once they were peers in
the emperor's court.

Now they are locked in a struggle
for their very survival.

Both are very proud of
the position they hold,

and neither are willing to recognize
the other has any power at all.

Now, in that case of course, a clash is imminent.

Orestes and his army get as far as
Placentia- modern-day Piacenza, Italy-

before they are finally confronted
by Odvacar on the battlefield.

The inexperienced Orestes has little chance
against the savagery of Odovacar's barbarian troops.

It would have been loud, chaotic, bloody, violent,
dusty, which is why morale, even more than training,

when push came to shove, was at the heart of
who was going to win and who was going to lose.

There are dead bodies to climb over.

There are injured men yelling.

There are people loosing their bowels from fear.

There was something still
symbolic about the empire,

as if the last few gasps
of imperial...power

could be hung onto by someone who felt
that the empire could be restored by that.

They thought the empire was still existent
or that they could save the empire.

We know as historians now that they cannot.

No matter how foolish, Orestes refuses to admit defeat.

When the Roman general Orestes breaks his
promise of land to his barbarian troops,

they launch a full-scale revolt led by Orestes'
rival, the barbarian general, Odovacar.

Now, fighting on a battlefield
near Placentia, Italy,

the two adversaries vie for supremacy, just as
they once did in the emperor's throne room in Rome.

Odovacar and Orestes are the
two most important individuals in the west.

On their shoulders lie the future
of Rome and one has to agree with the other.

There has to be some compromise made.

If not, there will be violence and that's, in fact, what happens.

It's a brutal fight to the death,
and in the battle's end,

just as in the empire's, the Roman finally
succumbs to the mightier barbarian.

We don't know exactly what happened
when Odovacar caught up with Orestes.

But my suspicion is that it was a quick and brutal end.

There was not going to be any any elaborate ceremony.
or elaborate funeral.

Orestes was to disappear.
I'm sure his execution was swift, silent and total.

Victorious,
Odovacar and his troops march to Ravenna

to address the only unfinished business left- the
young son of Orestes, the last western Roman emperor.

The 12-year-old emperor,
Romulus Augustulus, and his uncle Paulus

are unaware of Orestes' death and unprepared
for the murderous assault of Odovacar's men.

When Odovacar comes to Ravenna, Romulus is
not able to put up much of a fight but Paulus,

who is charged with protecting Romulus, manages
to do this and tries to protect his nephew.

Odovacar's forces then kill Paulus
and move against the boy emperor Romulus Augustulus.

Terrified, the boy flees the sounds of his uncle's murder.

The last Roman emperor- trapped like a bewildered animal-
cannot hide from the barbarian's blade.

There is no escape.

Romulus is a mere figurehead.

So there's no reason, in essence,
for Odovacar to do anything to him.

But the ruthless warrior makes a surprising choice.

He spares the boy's life, sending him into exile.

By saving his life,
Odovacar can show his clemency

and can show to the romans that he can behave
in a way that a just sovereign ought to behave.

In the summer of 476 A.D., Odovacar
becomes Italy's first barbarian ruler.

Odovacar's now king. Now, he's not king of Italy.
He's not king of the Roman empire. He's just king of these guys.

This little motley band of whatever
it was making up the Roman army at this point.

Odovacar is king, not emperor, because
the Roman empire is officially dead-

just over 500 years after
its birth in 27 b.C.

It really is the end of a Roman emperor in the west.

Now there's going to be a king in the west.

There's still a Roman emperor in the east, but
the east has no effective control over the west.

In a real political sense, things have changed fundamentally.

News of Rome's fall travels quickly to the
new eastern emperor, Zeno, in Constantinople.

The messengers arrive bearing the news
the Eastern empire has dreaded for years.

They carry the last vestige of the boy-emperor's imperial office.

The last thing that Odovacar has Romulus Augustulus
do before he formally steps down from the Roman throne

is send an envoy on behalf of the senate and the emperor
conveying the ornaments of imperial authority to Constantinople

with the word that no emperor
is needed in the west.

With a barbarian king lording over Italy,
the remaining symbols of Roman power are no longer needed.

We know that Odovacar
very publicly proclaimed

he was not going to wear the purple robes and the
golden crown that signified a Roman emperor at the time.

He was going to leave those aside.
Odovacar was something new.

He was a king in the west, not an emperor.

The robes and the crowns and the jewels
of emperorship now belonged to the eastern emperor.

But in his hands, they no longer signify
power and prestige, only failure and loss.

Back in Italy, the families of the barbarian soldiers
are now finally granted the land they fought for.

The west now lies completely in their hands.

It's clear Odovacar did uphold what
he had agreed to his soldiers.

He kept his promise. He gave them what was due to them
and was a man of his word to those supporting him.

For the empire, invasions of women,
children, and homesteads,

proved more powerful than those
of warriors and siege machines.

Rome became strong in the
beginning because it took in outsiders.

That is to say, it encouraged immigration.

But in the end, when the barbarians came in
numbers and wanted to be part of the Roman empire,

for complicated reasons, the romans were unable
to take them in in the way they had done before.

This failure to make immigration
a positive source of strength

really was one of the principal reasons
for the undoing of the Roman empire.

But despite the fall of the empire, in
remote places like monasteries and libraries,

the great knowledge and ingenuity born of Roman
civilization is miraculously salvaged and saved.

The idea of Rome endured because in those pockets where there
was still an emphasis on learning and education and books,

it was romanness and the classics of Roman literature and
culture that were seen as the foundation of a civilized life.

The Roman empire has bequeathed
a huge amount to us, certainly in the west.

So many institutions, so much terminology.

The very languages that we speak that
are so marked by Roman influence.

It's all around us.

We simply cannot escape the Roman
legacy however hard we may try.

And that's why it matters.

From democracy to empire to its fall,
Rome has inspired the western world as we know it.

Its civilization survived centuries of war,
persecution, corruption, and plague,

only to die quietly, slowly,
at the hands of one barbarian soldier.

There is a romanticism to
caring about the fall of Rome,

caring about the Roman empire as a whole.

I mean, it certainly was a very important part
of the formation of the modern world. But let's face it.

This has been around for 1500 years.
Why should we care any longer?

And I think the answer's very simple in that:

we should care because in Rome lay all of the wonderful aspects of
humanity and all of the terrible aspects of humanity.

And if we study those, we understand them,

perhaps we can repeat the good
ones and not repeat the bad ones.