1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,000 2 00:00:09,400 --> 00:00:14,679 Sometime in the eighth or ninth century, somewhere on the island of Great Britain, 3 00:00:14,679 --> 00:00:20,789 an unknown British poet clambered through the rubble of an overgrown ruin. 4 00:00:20,789 --> 00:00:26,140 Like so many people from this age, which has been called the Dark Ages, we don't 5 00:00:26,140 --> 00:00:30,279 know this poet's name. We don't know when they were born or when they died, 6 00:00:30,279 --> 00:00:35,739 even where they're from. But they wrote a poem in the language of Old English that 7 00:00:35,739 --> 00:00:40,600 has survived to this day and that poem gives us a glimpse into the lost and 8 00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:45,850 decaying world they inhabited. It was a world of mystery scattered with the 9 00:00:45,850 --> 00:00:50,430 enormous crumbling ruins of a bygone age. 10 00:00:54,189 --> 00:00:58,360 How wondrous this wall-stone, shattered by fate. 11 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:03,280 Castles are smashed; the work of giants crumbled. Ruined are the roofs, tumbled 12 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:08,280 the towers, broken the barred gates; frost in the plaster ceilings a-gaping, 13 00:01:08,280 --> 00:01:18,130 torn away, fallen, eaten by age. This poem is known simply as 'The 14 00:01:18,130 --> 00:01:22,540 Ruin' and it's thought the ruin it describes is that of the British Roman 15 00:01:22,540 --> 00:01:27,820 town of Bath. The poem itself has come down to us as something of a ruined 16 00:01:27,820 --> 00:01:33,340 object, too. It was damaged by fire at some point in history so that its words break 17 00:01:33,340 --> 00:01:38,090 off and cut out just like the shattered masonry it describes. 18 00:01:38,090 --> 00:01:42,950 But what we have is enough to picture the crumbling ruined buildings and the 19 00:01:42,950 --> 00:01:48,619 effect they had on its poet. You can almost feel the light falling through 20 00:01:48,619 --> 00:01:53,229 the broken roof and smell the still water where luxurious baths once stood. 21 00:01:53,229 --> 00:01:58,399 You can picture the solitary figure of the poet clambering over the piles of 22 00:01:58,399 --> 00:02:04,579 masonry and you can almost hear them wondering who built this place? How did 23 00:02:04,579 --> 00:02:09,679 they construct the vaults of these cavernous halls and why, after everything 24 00:02:09,679 --> 00:02:34,020 they'd built, did they leave it all behind? 25 00:02:45,700 --> 00:02:50,330 My name's Paul Cooper and you're listening to The Fall of Civilizations 26 00:02:50,330 --> 00:02:55,630 Podcast. Each episode I look at a civilization of 27 00:02:55,630 --> 00:03:00,660 the past that rose to glory and then collapsed into the ashes of history. I 28 00:03:00,660 --> 00:03:07,090 want to ask what did they have in common? What led to their fall and what did it 29 00:03:07,090 --> 00:03:11,680 feel like to be a person alive at the time who witnessed the end of their 30 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:18,340 world? In this episode of Fall of Civilizations, I want to look not at the 31 00:03:18,340 --> 00:03:23,500 collapse of a whole empire but at just one part of it; the island of Great 32 00:03:23,500 --> 00:03:29,710 Britain as it was under the rule of the Roman Empire. I want to show how a great 33 00:03:29,710 --> 00:03:34,120 civilization was built almost overnight and endured the test of centuries 34 00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:40,690 against overwhelming odds. I want to explore its fatal flaws and describe 35 00:03:40,690 --> 00:03:45,870 what happened after its final dramatic collapse. 36 00:03:48,750 --> 00:03:54,240 At the time the poetry of The Ruin was written, Roman Britain was already a 37 00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:58,650 distant memory. It was remembered as a time of giants 38 00:03:58,650 --> 00:04:04,800 and legends, but for nearly four centuries until its fall, Britannia had 39 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:09,750 been one of the Roman Empire's most enduring possessions. To get to the start 40 00:04:09,750 --> 00:04:13,890 of this story, we have to rewind back through the centuries to the first 41 00:04:13,890 --> 00:04:19,519 century BC when the power and confidence of the Roman Empire was at its height. 42 00:04:19,519 --> 00:04:26,190 This was the very twilight of the period we call the Roman Republic and in this 43 00:04:26,190 --> 00:04:31,470 period, Rome was still a kind of democracy. While power was concentrated 44 00:04:31,470 --> 00:04:36,210 in the wealthy and land-owning classes, Rome did hold elections and the power 45 00:04:36,210 --> 00:04:41,640 of the Senate acted as a check on the might of its rulers. Under this system 46 00:04:41,640 --> 00:04:46,919 Rome had conquered vast swathes of territory across Europe, into Greece and 47 00:04:46,919 --> 00:04:53,790 Turkey, and along the North African coast. Its empire was vast and constantly 48 00:04:53,790 --> 00:04:59,669 expanding but at this point, the ragged chalk coasts of the British Isles was 49 00:04:59,669 --> 00:05:05,580 still the frontier of what the Romans called 'the known world'. Britain for Rome 50 00:05:05,580 --> 00:05:11,400 was a mysterious and frightening place. According to Plutarch, some even believed 51 00:05:11,400 --> 00:05:17,220 the island of Britain was a legend. The island furnished much matter of dispute. 52 00:05:17,220 --> 00:05:22,350 Some argued that its name and story had been fabricated, that it had never 53 00:05:22,350 --> 00:05:25,680 existed. Although the crossing from mainland 54 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:29,900 Europe to the British Isles is only thirty kilometres at its narrowest point, 55 00:05:29,900 --> 00:05:34,740 it's a body of water exposed to the harsh weather systems of the North Sea 56 00:05:34,740 --> 00:05:40,740 and North Atlantic. The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus describes its 57 00:05:40,740 --> 00:05:47,040 dangerous and unpredictable nature. A narrow space of sea that swells with 58 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:52,370 dreadful surges and then sinks again to be as flat as a little plane. 59 00:05:52,370 --> 00:05:57,770 By the middle of the first century BC, this treacherous and unpredictable 60 00:05:57,770 --> 00:06:01,970 crossing had already defeated the ambitions of several generals and 61 00:06:01,970 --> 00:06:09,889 emperors. Julius Caesar famously invaded the British Isles twice, in 55 and 54 BC. 62 00:06:09,889 --> 00:06:15,680 Both of these campaigns did little more than sink Roman life and treasure 63 00:06:15,680 --> 00:06:21,320 into the marshy lands of Kent and the Thames Valley. Caesar would go on to 64 00:06:21,320 --> 00:06:25,820 gather all of the power of Rome's institutions to himself and he would 65 00:06:25,820 --> 00:06:32,449 pass Rome on to his successor Caesar Augustus as a dictatorship. Augustus, who 66 00:06:32,449 --> 00:06:37,520 ruled as the first Roman emperor, planned three separate invasions of Britain that 67 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:42,949 each fizzled out uselessly. Generations later, the notorious mad 68 00:06:42,949 --> 00:06:48,320 Emperor Caligula even amassed a great invasion force of 200,000 men on the 69 00:06:48,320 --> 00:06:54,080 Normandy coast, poised to take the island of Britain for Rome. This attempt 70 00:06:54,080 --> 00:07:00,530 might have been successful had Caligula not been the mad Emperor. On a whim, he 71 00:07:00,530 --> 00:07:04,010 reportedly ordered his men to give up the invasion of Britain and gather 72 00:07:04,010 --> 00:07:10,130 seashells from the Normandy beaches instead. Britain for the Romans was an 73 00:07:10,130 --> 00:07:15,289 unobtainable prize. It was a land of mystery peopled by wild and 74 00:07:15,289 --> 00:07:20,990 unpredictable barbarians. After returning from his failed invasions, Julius Caesar 75 00:07:20,990 --> 00:07:27,289 wrote with palpable horror about the British inhabitants. Most of the inland 76 00:07:27,289 --> 00:07:32,860 inhabitants do not sow corn; that live on milk and flesh and are clad with skins. 77 00:07:32,860 --> 00:07:39,050 All the Britons dye themselves with woad which gives them a bluish color and a 78 00:07:39,050 --> 00:07:44,780 terrifying appearance in battle. They wear their hair long and have every part 79 00:07:44,780 --> 00:07:51,770 of their body shaved except the head and upper lip. It was the Emperor Claudius 80 00:07:51,770 --> 00:07:56,680 who finally enveloped this wild and dangerous place into the Empire of Rome. 81 00:07:56,680 --> 00:08:01,640 Claudius successfully landed four legions; that's 20,000 men, on the British 82 00:08:01,640 --> 00:08:04,580 coast. He waited behind on the continent, 83 00:08:04,580 --> 00:08:08,659 perhaps wisely considering the failures of his predecessors, and he must 84 00:08:08,659 --> 00:08:12,740 have listened eagerly as every new report came back to him as his man 85 00:08:12,740 --> 00:08:17,539 landed in Kent, crossed its chalk downs and valleys, and marched north to the 86 00:08:17,539 --> 00:08:23,539 river estuaries of the Thames. There, an enormous mass of British fighters 87 00:08:23,539 --> 00:08:31,819 awaited them. The battle went on for two days; an incredibly long battle in an era 88 00:08:31,819 --> 00:08:38,000 that was mostly characterized by short and brutal confrontations. After a 89 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:42,019 fierce resistance, the British forces retreated to the banks of the River 90 00:08:42,019 --> 00:08:47,680 Thames. The Romans followed, wading and swimming through the marshes of Essex, 91 00:08:47,680 --> 00:08:51,740 using their engineering expertise to build bridges across the swampy ground. 92 00:08:51,740 --> 00:08:58,420 After a final bloody clash, British resistance was crushed. 93 00:08:58,420 --> 00:09:02,839 It wasn't until victory was all but assured that the emperor Claudius 94 00:09:02,839 --> 00:09:07,000 himself arrived on British shores. 95 00:09:07,750 --> 00:09:11,120 Famously, he brought with him a terrifying symbol 96 00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:17,300 of Roman power; a tamed war elephant brought from Africa. To the poor 97 00:09:17,300 --> 00:09:20,839 Britain's witnessing the arrival of their conquerors, the sight of this 98 00:09:20,839 --> 00:09:25,190 animal, the heavy thuds of its footfalls, and the rattling of its mighty chains 99 00:09:25,190 --> 00:09:32,779 must have ended any thought they had of successful resistance. From there, Roman 100 00:09:32,779 --> 00:09:36,769 troops swept across the rest of the country with ruthless efficiency; into 101 00:09:36,769 --> 00:09:43,130 Wales and the British Midlands, subduing tribes as they went. But when they 102 00:09:43,130 --> 00:09:47,089 reached the rugged heath and hills of Caledonia, that's modern Scotland, 103 00:09:47,089 --> 00:09:53,510 the Romans met their match. These lands were ruled by fierce confederations of 104 00:09:53,510 --> 00:10:00,160 tribes, among them powerful warrior clans like the Picts and the Maeatae. 105 00:10:00,160 --> 00:10:04,999 The Roman historian Cassius Dio writes about these peoples with particular 106 00:10:04,999 --> 00:10:10,970 contempt. These tribes inhabit wild and waterless 107 00:10:10,970 --> 00:10:15,319 mountains and desolate and swampy plains, possessing neither walls, cities, nor 108 00:10:15,319 --> 00:10:20,629 tilled fields. They dwell in tents, naked and unshod, and are very fond of 109 00:10:20,629 --> 00:10:28,040 plundering. We don't know what the Picts called themselves since almost nothing 110 00:10:28,040 --> 00:10:32,509 of their language has survived. The word 'pict' is what the Romans called them and 111 00:10:32,509 --> 00:10:36,829 it comes from the same root as the English word 'picture'. It means painted, 112 00:10:36,829 --> 00:10:42,350 referring to the brilliant war paint they wore into battle. Today we know them 113 00:10:42,350 --> 00:10:47,660 by the beautiful ritual standing stones they left across Scotland, decorated with 114 00:10:47,660 --> 00:10:51,399 mesmerizing whorls and curls. 115 00:10:54,579 --> 00:10:58,809 But whatever else we know about them, we know that these tribal people fought 116 00:10:58,809 --> 00:11:03,970 with enough ferocity that the Roman advance was halted. The Picts knew their 117 00:11:03,970 --> 00:11:08,049 land well and they were well-versed in what we today would call guerrilla 118 00:11:08,049 --> 00:11:13,839 warfare. The Romans knew when to quit. They ceased their advance and declared 119 00:11:13,839 --> 00:11:18,069 the border with Caledonia to be the final limit of their empire. They built 120 00:11:18,069 --> 00:11:22,480 forts along a jutting cliff that ran the whole width of the country, a shelf of 121 00:11:22,480 --> 00:11:26,319 igneous dolerite that formed a natural barrier between the Roman lands and the 122 00:11:26,319 --> 00:11:31,720 lands of the Picts. One rare writing tablet found in a rubbish heap in one of 123 00:11:31,720 --> 00:11:36,639 these forts and dated to the year 92 AD, shows the Roman frustration with their 124 00:11:36,639 --> 00:11:41,790 ongoing battles with this bunch of ragtag natives. The Britons are 125 00:11:41,790 --> 00:11:48,759 unprotected by armor. There are very many cavalry; the cavalry do not use swords, 126 00:11:48,759 --> 00:11:55,089 nor do the Brittunculi take up fixed positions to throw their javelins. The 127 00:11:55,089 --> 00:11:58,689 word Brittunculi is interesting because it has never been seen in any 128 00:11:58,689 --> 00:12:04,029 other Roman source. It's a kind of slang that loosely translates to nasty little 129 00:12:04,029 --> 00:12:06,790 Britons, and it gives you a sense of how the 130 00:12:06,790 --> 00:12:13,809 Romans felt about their new subjects. In the year 120 AD, the Emperor Hadrian 131 00:12:13,809 --> 00:12:19,119 visited Britain and he was dismayed to find the Roman troops there still beset 132 00:12:19,119 --> 00:12:24,279 with rebellions and raids. But he was impressed with the natural fortification 133 00:12:24,279 --> 00:12:29,559 given by this ridge of volcanic stone they were camped on. He ordered this 134 00:12:29,559 --> 00:12:33,579 barrier to be made more fortified with the construction of what would become 135 00:12:33,579 --> 00:12:40,179 the largest Roman artifact in the world, a mighty wall stretching 135 kilometres 136 00:12:40,179 --> 00:12:44,640 from coast to coast. This border wall would be known as 137 00:12:44,640 --> 00:12:48,899 Hadrian's Wall and the Romans defended it with garrisons of infantry and 138 00:12:48,899 --> 00:12:54,089 cavalry stationed in a string of forts all the way along its length. The 139 00:12:54,089 --> 00:12:58,019 Romans weren't satisfied with this border; they would make multiple attempts 140 00:12:58,019 --> 00:13:03,750 to push it further north into Caledonia, but all of these attempts would fail. At 141 00:13:03,750 --> 00:13:08,790 one point they even built another wall, known as the Antonine Wall, 160 142 00:13:08,790 --> 00:13:12,829 kilometres further to the north at the narrowest point of the British Isles. 143 00:13:12,829 --> 00:13:19,279 It spans 63 kilometers from coast to coast but it turned out to be useless. 144 00:13:19,279 --> 00:13:24,750 The land of Caledonia was ungovernable and the Antonine Wall was abandoned each 145 00:13:24,750 --> 00:13:29,279 time it was tried; it's stones left to crumble into the peaty earth of the 146 00:13:29,279 --> 00:13:35,700 Scottish moors. But Hadrian's barrier stood. Rome led occasional scouting 147 00:13:35,700 --> 00:13:40,980 parties out into the space between the two walls. They went to barter for truces, 148 00:13:40,980 --> 00:13:46,640 exchange hostages, and initiate trade. The Romans knew when to spot a bargain; 149 00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:51,540 vast hordes of Roman coins found north of Hadrian's Wall suggest that for at 150 00:13:51,540 --> 00:13:56,870 least some of the time, Rome was paying the Picts to hold back their attacks. 151 00:13:56,870 --> 00:14:02,610 Meanwhile, south of this snaking line of stone, Roman Britain settled into a 152 00:14:02,610 --> 00:14:09,660 restive peace. There were uprisings at first; the most famous of these led by 153 00:14:09,660 --> 00:14:13,980 the warrior Queen Boudicca of the Iceni tribe only seventeen years after 154 00:14:13,980 --> 00:14:19,290 the conquests of southern Britain. Rome crushed this adventure brutally and 155 00:14:19,290 --> 00:14:24,690 with it, some of the last organized resistance to their rule. But the 156 00:14:24,690 --> 00:14:37,350 province of Britannia would never quite be pacified. Everyone knows that old 157 00:14:37,350 --> 00:14:42,779 saying that Rome wasn't built in a day, but in Roman regional capitals like 158 00:14:42,779 --> 00:14:48,959 London and Colchester, these cities really did seem to go up overnight. If 159 00:14:48,959 --> 00:14:54,149 you compare Singapore or Dubai to photos of those cities in the 1980s, you might 160 00:14:54,149 --> 00:14:57,930 get a sense of how it must have felt to live in London in the decades after the 161 00:14:57,930 --> 00:15:04,769 Romans arrived. A small marshy fishing town suddenly transformed in the space 162 00:15:04,769 --> 00:15:11,310 of only a few decades into a glittering metropolis. Despite their colorful 163 00:15:11,310 --> 00:15:15,689 pantheon of gods, the real religion of the Romans was the religion of urbanism, 164 00:15:15,689 --> 00:15:21,269 the cult of the city. They replicated the structure of Rome in every city they 165 00:15:21,269 --> 00:15:27,149 built; in London, Rome built an ornate forum and a theater, enormous public 166 00:15:27,149 --> 00:15:31,589 buildings with marble fronts and tiled roofs unlike anything the Britons had 167 00:15:31,589 --> 00:15:37,170 seen before. A new elite of Roman governors, civil servants, and statesmen 168 00:15:37,170 --> 00:15:42,870 poured in and their luxurious villas went up around the countryside. These 169 00:15:42,870 --> 00:15:48,620 residences were resplendent with mosaics and baths, even underfloor heating. 170 00:15:48,620 --> 00:15:53,699 Each city they built became another hub in a network of roads along which 171 00:15:53,699 --> 00:16:01,009 imperial commodities moved. Urban Britons could now enjoy inscenses and perfumes, 172 00:16:01,009 --> 00:16:07,170 amphoras of wine, and red gloss pottery from Gaul, olive oil from Spain, along 173 00:16:07,170 --> 00:16:12,809 with pepper and spices brought from as far as India. In exchange, Britain 174 00:16:12,809 --> 00:16:18,240 supplied precious metals to the Roman world; gold and silver, as well as lead and 175 00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:21,809 iron. Perhaps most importantly, the shores of 176 00:16:21,809 --> 00:16:26,009 Cornwall and Devon were a rich source of tin, a rare metal in the ancient world 177 00:16:26,009 --> 00:16:32,490 that was crucial for making bronze. But despite these benefits, Britannia was 178 00:16:32,490 --> 00:16:37,649 always a costly possession. Records show that larger amounts of resources were 179 00:16:37,649 --> 00:16:42,180 poured into the island than were ever taken out and some at least must have 180 00:16:42,180 --> 00:16:52,230 realized that the Empire couldn't fund this outpost forever. Part of the costs 181 00:16:52,230 --> 00:16:59,000 of holding Britain as a colony was due to its countryside; a hotbed of rebellion. 182 00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:05,280 Native Britons lived in small villages of timber turf-walled roundhouses that 183 00:17:05,280 --> 00:17:10,919 dotted the land and here, tribal loyalties held greater sway than any 184 00:17:10,919 --> 00:17:15,569 loyalty people felt to their Roman governors. A good way to think about the 185 00:17:15,569 --> 00:17:20,069 situation is to look at the recent occupation of Iraq by the United States, 186 00:17:20,069 --> 00:17:25,980 Britain, and their allies. In Roman times, fortified green zones went up across 187 00:17:25,980 --> 00:17:30,660 Britain, too; walled compounds where foreign administrators poured in to 188 00:17:30,660 --> 00:17:37,260 enforce the new structure of Imperial Society. Tomb inscriptions from York show 189 00:17:37,260 --> 00:17:43,610 Imperial officials coming from as far as Africa, France, Sardinia, and Greece. A 190 00:17:43,610 --> 00:17:49,230 rotating cast of governors came and went, too. These figures often stayed in 191 00:17:49,230 --> 00:17:53,250 their post for only three years or so and none of them were native to Britain. 192 00:17:53,250 --> 00:17:58,290 Although we don't have complete records, there's also no evidence of 193 00:17:58,290 --> 00:18:04,350 native Britons ever rising to the social rank necessary to govern. This is a 194 00:18:04,350 --> 00:18:09,570 situation quite different to other Roman colonies like Gaul where Rome made some 195 00:18:09,570 --> 00:18:15,960 effort to bring indigenous people on board with the Imperial project. So, while 196 00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:20,400 some Britons might have felt the material benefits of Roman rule, it seems 197 00:18:20,400 --> 00:18:23,940 they never really felt part of the shared destiny that bound the rest of 198 00:18:23,940 --> 00:18:30,690 the Empire together during its height. Perhaps partly for this reason, it seemed 199 00:18:30,690 --> 00:18:37,260 the British countryside was only ever one step from anarchy. This threat of 200 00:18:37,260 --> 00:18:41,490 rebellion from within was coupled with raids by the Picts and the Maeatae on 201 00:18:41,490 --> 00:18:46,290 walled northern border. The rich traffic of trade coming to and from 202 00:18:46,290 --> 00:18:52,980 Europe also created a booming industry and piracy. Seagoing tribes like the 203 00:18:52,980 --> 00:18:57,480 Saxons became increasingly bold, braving the stormy waters of the North Sea to 204 00:18:57,480 --> 00:19:04,320 harass shipping, and even make incursions onto the British coast. So, even in this 205 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:08,610 first century of Roman rule in Britain, the pressures that would eventually 206 00:19:08,610 --> 00:19:16,700 crush it like a tin can began to bear in from every side. 207 00:19:16,700 --> 00:19:21,029 One of the key measures that archaeologists use to track the cycle of 208 00:19:21,029 --> 00:19:25,619 peace and war in the ancient world is to look at the frequency of buried coin 209 00:19:25,619 --> 00:19:32,759 hoards. Put yourself in the position of a person living in the ancient world. When 210 00:19:32,759 --> 00:19:36,629 times are good, you feel secure enough to store your silver coins or your gold 211 00:19:36,629 --> 00:19:42,080 jewelry in your home or in the family vault or even in an early form of bank. 212 00:19:42,080 --> 00:19:47,460 But when times are bad, you can't risk that; you might bury your silver as an 213 00:19:47,460 --> 00:19:51,690 extra precaution or you do so in a panic when you see the first plumes of black 214 00:19:51,690 --> 00:19:57,989 smoke begin to show over the horizon. In times of mild unrest, people would 215 00:19:57,989 --> 00:20:03,570 come back to dig these up again later once the danger had passed. But if the 216 00:20:03,570 --> 00:20:08,849 unrest is serious enough, there might not be anyone left to retrieve it. In that 217 00:20:08,849 --> 00:20:12,899 case, the coins remain in the ground with the dates and emperors stamped 218 00:20:12,899 --> 00:20:18,720 meticulously on their surface. This is bad news for their owner of course, but 219 00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:22,200 it's good news for archeologists who want to track a region's history of 220 00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:26,510 unrest. 221 00:20:26,510 --> 00:20:30,500 I'm going to pick up our story again at a point where people in Roman Britain 222 00:20:30,500 --> 00:20:36,830 were once again burying their coins in record numbers, right as the second 223 00:20:36,830 --> 00:20:40,030 century draws to a close. 224 00:20:40,130 --> 00:20:44,720 Since the end of the Roman Republic, Rome had undergone nearly two centuries of 225 00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:50,000 constant expansion and the constant wars on its borders had been matched by a 226 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:55,370 relative peace within its lands, a period known as the Pax Romana, or the Roman 227 00:20:55,370 --> 00:21:01,820 peace. But as the Year 200 approached, this relative peace in the Roman 228 00:21:01,820 --> 00:21:08,120 Empire's interior was beginning to shatter. Plague had ravaged Rome's lands, 229 00:21:08,120 --> 00:21:14,030 a devastating disease brought back from the east by soldiers on campaign. It 230 00:21:14,030 --> 00:21:19,400 killed 2,000 people a day in Rome at its height and it decimated the Imperial 231 00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:25,850 Army, leading to as many as 5 million deaths across Europe. Trouble had 232 00:21:25,850 --> 00:21:30,470 reigned in the political world as well. Since the time of Julius Caesar and his 233 00:21:30,470 --> 00:21:36,380 successor Augustus, the Roman Emperor had been a dictator with supreme power. 234 00:21:36,380 --> 00:21:41,210 The Senate and Judiciary were nothing but agents of his command rather than 235 00:21:41,210 --> 00:21:47,610 representing any kind of popular will. Wherever absolute power exists, there 236 00:21:47,610 --> 00:21:52,950 are always men who will risk everything to claim it. Against the backdrop of 237 00:21:52,950 --> 00:21:58,620 plague and famine, civil wars began to erupt across Europe over rival claims to 238 00:21:58,620 --> 00:22:03,210 the total power of the Imperial throne. In these wars, 239 00:22:03,210 --> 00:22:07,410 it was quite often the generals stationed in Britannia, the Empire's 240 00:22:07,410 --> 00:22:14,210 farthest and bleakest province, who would hear the drums of war beat the loudest. 241 00:22:15,049 --> 00:22:19,980 To understand why Britannia was such a source of trouble, you only have to look 242 00:22:19,980 --> 00:22:24,840 at the particular paradox that Roman Britain presented. All of the threats 243 00:22:24,840 --> 00:22:28,980 facing it from outside and within meant that the land required the constant 244 00:22:28,980 --> 00:22:34,919 presence of an enormous army to defend it, as many as 40,000 soldiers at its 245 00:22:34,919 --> 00:22:39,630 height. That's about one-eighth of the entire Imperial Army, just to put that in 246 00:22:39,630 --> 00:22:43,960 perspective. This meant that any one man put in 247 00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:48,309 charge of Britannia's defense force was automatically one of the Empire's most 248 00:22:48,309 --> 00:22:52,509 powerful men. The paradox might not seem apparent at 249 00:22:52,509 --> 00:22:56,799 first but this was one of the fatal flaws that led to the repeated humbling 250 00:22:56,799 --> 00:23:04,000 and the final fall of Roman Britain. 251 00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:08,990 When discussing the Romans, it's easy to get bogged down in the endless chain of 252 00:23:08,990 --> 00:23:14,240 colorful characters; the schemers and the drunks and the zealots, the charlatans 253 00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:19,220 and the soldiers that leap out at us from the histories. I want to avoid 254 00:23:19,220 --> 00:23:23,510 getting dragged too much into relating the stories of each and every person who 255 00:23:23,510 --> 00:23:27,920 had a role in the collapse of Roman Britain, but I think it does help us to 256 00:23:27,920 --> 00:23:32,630 zoom in on some of these personalities so we get a sense of the kind of person 257 00:23:32,630 --> 00:23:37,919 responsible for what happened next. The first character in this story is 258 00:23:37,919 --> 00:23:45,299 a man named Clodius Albinus. That's because Albinus is one of the first 259 00:23:45,299 --> 00:23:51,119 generals to make what I will call the British mistake. He will be the first, but 260 00:23:51,119 --> 00:24:04,230 by no means the last. Born in Tunisia to a humble family, Albinus was African but 261 00:24:04,230 --> 00:24:08,549 the name albinus means white. He was given this name due to the extraordinary 262 00:24:08,549 --> 00:24:14,220 paleness of his complexion. On his birth, his father wrote a letter about this 263 00:24:14,220 --> 00:24:20,399 strange phenomenon. A son was born to me on the seventh day before the Kalends of 264 00:24:20,399 --> 00:24:24,720 December and so white was his body at birth that it was whiter than the linen 265 00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:30,359 clothes in which we wrapped him. Albinus' unusual physical appearance doesn't 266 00:24:30,359 --> 00:24:35,489 seem to have held him back. He grew up a promising soldier and rose through the 267 00:24:35,489 --> 00:24:40,139 ranks of the Roman military on the basis of his skill. When he was appointed 268 00:24:40,139 --> 00:24:44,940 governor of Britannia, Albinus stayed for longer than many before him and we 269 00:24:44,940 --> 00:24:49,830 have a good account of his physical appearance in the Historia Augusta. He 270 00:24:49,830 --> 00:24:55,559 was tall of stature with unkempt curly hair and a broad expanse of brow. His 271 00:24:55,559 --> 00:25:00,869 skin was wonderfully white. He had a womanish voice almost as shrill as a 272 00:25:00,869 --> 00:25:04,169 eunuch's. The life of governor seemed to suit 273 00:25:04,169 --> 00:25:08,489 Albinus and he might have spent the rest of his life in Britannia governing well 274 00:25:08,489 --> 00:25:13,619 and rising through the ranks of Roman society were it not for the events that 275 00:25:13,619 --> 00:25:17,669 were about to unleash blood and chaos across the wide expanse of the Western 276 00:25:17,669 --> 00:25:21,720 Roman Empire. The beginning of these events was the 277 00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:27,360 death of the tyrannical Emperor Commodus in the year 192 AD. You might remember 278 00:25:27,360 --> 00:25:33,390 him if you've ever seen Russell Crowe's Gladiator. When Commodus died without 279 00:25:33,390 --> 00:25:38,520 an heir and left multiple claimants behind, the whole Empire descended once 280 00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:44,910 again into chaos. This is the period that would cause the historian Cassius Dio to 281 00:25:44,910 --> 00:25:52,050 write his famous lament. Our history now descends from a kingdom of gold to one 282 00:25:52,050 --> 00:26:01,800 of iron and rust. The name given to this time, 'the year of the five emperors', might 283 00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:07,440 give you some idea of the ensuing pandemonium. These five claimants to the 284 00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:12,060 Imperial throne fought and died. They burnt cities to the ground, they 285 00:26:12,060 --> 00:26:19,350 slaughtered vast armies, until there were only two credible candidates left. One of 286 00:26:19,350 --> 00:26:23,610 these was Albinus, the pale Tunisian stationed with his legions in Britain 287 00:26:23,610 --> 00:26:29,100 who was a favorite of the Roman senate. But the other claimant was the man 288 00:26:29,100 --> 00:26:35,299 sitting on the throne in Rome, the ruthless Emperor Septimus Severus. 289 00:26:35,299 --> 00:26:39,769 Back in Britain, Albinus gave a dramatic speech before his British 290 00:26:39,769 --> 00:26:45,409 legions, addressing them in that high-pitched but piercing voice. He 291 00:26:45,409 --> 00:26:49,340 announced that he wanted to restore the ancient democratic power of the Roman 292 00:26:49,340 --> 00:26:54,799 senate, a radical statement for a prospective ruler to make. Albinus' 293 00:26:54,799 --> 00:27:00,309 soldiers cheered him and they announced that he was the only emperor they served. 294 00:27:00,309 --> 00:27:08,090 It was a clear declaration of rebellion. The senate soon sent Albinus messages of 295 00:27:08,090 --> 00:27:13,009 support and with his men's loyalty secured, Albinus decided to march on 296 00:27:13,009 --> 00:27:18,889 Rome. He knew he would have to act decisively and he couldn't spare a 297 00:27:18,889 --> 00:27:25,700 single man. He took three legions, every last soldier in Britain, and sailed for 298 00:27:25,700 --> 00:27:31,879 the mainland in the year 195. He must have been buoyed up by such a sense of 299 00:27:31,879 --> 00:27:37,519 destiny on that voyage and it would have been an inspiring sight, those tens of 300 00:27:37,519 --> 00:27:42,529 thousands of legionaries in their bright armor, the sea thick with ships all 301 00:27:42,529 --> 00:27:51,309 sailing to Rome to restore its ancient Republic. But Albinus would not succeed. 302 00:27:51,309 --> 00:27:56,179 Despite being popular in Gaul and amassing a vast following, he was finally 303 00:27:56,179 --> 00:28:01,730 defeated two years later at the Battle of Lugdunum. It was a bloody and 304 00:28:01,730 --> 00:28:07,549 drawn-out affair lasting over two days. Again, an excruciatingly long battle in 305 00:28:07,549 --> 00:28:15,049 this era. The clash involved as many as 300,000 soldiers and for a time, it 306 00:28:15,049 --> 00:28:21,259 looked like Albinus would win. But then the tide turned; his men began to flee 307 00:28:21,259 --> 00:28:26,119 the battlefield and Albinus realized that all was lost, that all his 308 00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:31,309 sacrifices had been for nothing. He ran himself through with his own 309 00:28:31,309 --> 00:28:37,909 dagger and the Emperor Severus wasn't kind in victory. He rode his horse over 310 00:28:37,909 --> 00:28:43,159 Albinus' mangled body and then paraded his head on a pike. He beheaded 311 00:28:43,159 --> 00:28:48,500 his family and purged his followers. The power of the Emperor as supreme 312 00:28:48,500 --> 00:28:57,230 dictator remained and the senate got quietly back into line. Albinus had lost 313 00:28:57,230 --> 00:29:03,590 everything but his dash for Rome had also cost his province dearly. Over the 314 00:29:03,590 --> 00:29:07,730 long two years he had been at war, Albinus had left Britannia completely 315 00:29:07,730 --> 00:29:14,810 undefended and with no garrison, the land had descended into anarchy. At this time, 316 00:29:14,810 --> 00:29:19,280 a huge part of Britain's economy was driven by the constant presence of a 317 00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:23,030 Roman army, so people employed to supply these men, 318 00:29:23,030 --> 00:29:28,010 to make them bread and forge them swords, repair the leather of their stirrups. All 319 00:29:28,010 --> 00:29:33,350 these people suddenly had no job and no way to support themselves. Local 320 00:29:33,350 --> 00:29:37,790 rebellions spread across the country while outside forces raided and 321 00:29:37,790 --> 00:29:43,580 plundered with impunity. Picts from Scotland, Scottii from Ireland, and Saxons 322 00:29:43,580 --> 00:29:51,350 from the sea all combined to ravage the land that Albinus had left behind. Rome 323 00:29:51,350 --> 00:29:56,930 would eventually return to take back control but even ten years later, in the 324 00:29:56,930 --> 00:30:02,180 year 207, the Roman statesman put back in charge still wrote with fear about the 325 00:30:02,180 --> 00:30:08,180 dire situation the country faced. Barbarians there are in revolt; over- 326 00:30:08,180 --> 00:30:15,650 running the country, carrying off treasure, and destroying most things. So, 327 00:30:15,650 --> 00:30:20,750 that's the heart of what I'm calling the British mistake. The paradox is that any 328 00:30:20,750 --> 00:30:25,700 sufficiently large force able to occupy Britain also presented an irresistible 329 00:30:25,700 --> 00:30:31,130 temptation to its commander. Any force that could hold Britain could also take 330 00:30:31,130 --> 00:30:35,510 Rome and so the moment the Imperial crown was up for grabs, 331 00:30:35,510 --> 00:30:40,310 Britain's governor would pile all his soldiers onto ships and march on the 332 00:30:40,310 --> 00:30:46,250 Eternal City, leaving Britain undefended. The Emperor Septimus Severus, 333 00:30:46,250 --> 00:30:51,500 soon after trampling Albinus' body beneath the hooves of his horse, sailed 334 00:30:51,500 --> 00:30:56,150 to Britain to ensure that never again would another challenger arise. In 335 00:30:56,150 --> 00:30:59,779 response to attacks from the north, he led a huge army 336 00:30:59,779 --> 00:31:05,690 into Scotland to drive the attackers back into their lands. But Severus didn't have 337 00:31:05,690 --> 00:31:10,879 Albinus' way with the native Britons. It seems this ill-conceived adventure 338 00:31:10,879 --> 00:31:16,519 achieved nothing, with the border exactly where it had always been. But for good 339 00:31:16,519 --> 00:31:20,389 measure, he split the province of Britannia in two to limit the power of 340 00:31:20,389 --> 00:31:26,210 any one governor, but it wouldn't last. For Roman Britain, the clock was ticking. 341 00:31:26,210 --> 00:31:31,009 Although Albinus was one of the first generals to make this mistake, he 342 00:31:31,009 --> 00:31:34,029 was far from the last. 343 00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:44,940 One thing we will learn over the course of this series is that the fall of a 344 00:31:44,940 --> 00:31:50,440 civilization is rarely simple. Roman rule ended in different parts of 345 00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:56,380 Britain at different times and under different circumstances. It came along 346 00:31:56,380 --> 00:32:00,910 with the collapse of Roman authority across Western Europe and this occurred 347 00:32:00,910 --> 00:32:07,809 after the time of Albinus, a 50-year period called 'the military anarchy'. This 348 00:32:07,809 --> 00:32:14,290 era saw at least 26 claimants contest the Imperial throne. Incessant civil wars 349 00:32:14,290 --> 00:32:19,000 and rampant inflation crippled the Roman economy and German tribes made 350 00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:24,010 incursions into the Empire's territory. It seemed like a thousand different 351 00:32:24,010 --> 00:32:29,559 pressures rained down from all sides and in all of this, despite the Emperor 352 00:32:29,559 --> 00:32:33,760 Severus' measures, Britain would remain a fertile staging ground for 353 00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:37,950 rebellion. In the year 260 for instance, a 354 00:32:37,950 --> 00:32:42,930 Roman commander called Postumus staged an insurrection that carved Britain and 355 00:32:42,930 --> 00:32:48,330 Gaul away from the empire for ten years before it was retaken by Rome. A quarter 356 00:32:48,330 --> 00:32:52,860 century later, in the year 286, a Roman naval commander called Carausius, a 357 00:32:52,860 --> 00:32:56,640 common man who had risen through the ranks, declared himself Emperor of 358 00:32:56,640 --> 00:33:02,370 Britain and ruled for seven years before being overcome himself. It wasn't all 359 00:33:02,370 --> 00:33:07,830 a history of failures; in the year 306, the man who had become known as Emperor 360 00:33:07,830 --> 00:33:12,960 Constantine the Great was crowned Emperor in York. He successfully marched 361 00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:17,580 on Rome and although he spent the next twenty years fighting rival claimants in 362 00:33:17,580 --> 00:33:22,350 a series of bitter civil wars, he was ultimately crowned Emperor over both the 363 00:33:22,350 --> 00:33:26,480 Eastern and the Western Roman Empires. 364 00:33:26,630 --> 00:33:32,070 For much of the third century, Rome was at war with itself and the events of 365 00:33:32,070 --> 00:33:37,390 this time changed the Empire forever. Rome's Emperors were now military 366 00:33:37,390 --> 00:33:42,720 strongmen. Trade across the Empire had broken down, impoverishing its people, 367 00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:47,890 while at the same time Rome's wealthy were now an ultra-rich elite, far richer 368 00:33:47,890 --> 00:33:52,990 than they had ever been in history. Meanwhile, the Empire's enemies grew 369 00:33:52,990 --> 00:33:58,300 stronger and more organized, learning how to play to Rome's weaknesses, learning 370 00:33:58,300 --> 00:34:03,970 how to win. As the fourth century dawned, Roman Britain's troubles would 371 00:34:03,970 --> 00:34:10,480 only increase. One event would soon lay bare just how far the Roman Empire's 372 00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:15,760 power had fallen and it's remembered to history as the Great Barbarian 373 00:34:15,760 --> 00:34:24,159 Conspiracy. To set the scene, we have to imagine the winter of 367 on the Roman 374 00:34:24,159 --> 00:34:29,159 garrison at Hadrian's Wall. The winters in this part of the world are harsh. 375 00:34:29,159 --> 00:34:33,790 Cruel winds and rain would have lashed the men stationed on the wall, their 376 00:34:33,790 --> 00:34:41,470 breath visible in the air. This was the last bastion against the wild tribes of 377 00:34:41,470 --> 00:34:46,320 the north, and conditions here were harsh. Letters these soldiers wrote at the time 378 00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:50,140 include complaints about the cold that bit at their feet every day, 379 00:34:50,140 --> 00:34:55,300 the lack of holidays, and not enough beer provided in their rations. But it's still 380 00:34:55,300 --> 00:35:01,030 hard to imagine exactly what was behind the decision these men took next. Perhaps 381 00:35:01,030 --> 00:35:06,010 it was hunger, cold, or fear. Perhaps they were even bribed; there was no shortage 382 00:35:06,010 --> 00:35:11,080 of Roman coin north of the wall, let's remember. Whatever the reason, the 383 00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:16,510 soldiers tasked with defending the Empire's northern border mutinied. They 384 00:35:16,510 --> 00:35:21,130 changed sides and allowed a waiting army of Picts from Caledonia to cross the 385 00:35:21,130 --> 00:35:27,160 wall. This horde swept down on the towns and villages of Northumbria. Villages 386 00:35:27,160 --> 00:35:32,050 burned, men and women were put to the sword, but before the Romans could send 387 00:35:32,050 --> 00:35:37,120 the usual reinforcements to quash this invasion, something astonishing happened. 388 00:35:37,120 --> 00:35:41,920 Immediately, waves of tribesman of the fierce Attacotti from the outer isles, 389 00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:46,660 Scottii from Ireland, and Saxons from Germania began to land on Britain's 390 00:35:46,660 --> 00:35:52,330 coasts. At the same time, parties of Franks and Saxons landed on the mainland 391 00:35:52,330 --> 00:35:58,570 in northern Gaul. These didn't seem like random attacks; they seemed to be 392 00:35:58,570 --> 00:36:03,310 coordinated raids like nothing else the so-called barbarian tribes had ever 393 00:36:03,310 --> 00:36:07,360 attempted before. They completely overwhelmed the Roman 394 00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:13,960 defenses. Everywhere Roman towns burned, cities were sacked, and amid the chaos, 395 00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:19,780 slaves escaped, and whole units of soldiers deserted in terror, all of these 396 00:36:19,780 --> 00:36:24,040 gathering together into bands that roamed the countryside, resorting to 397 00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:29,170 theft and murder to support themselves. The historian Ammianus Marcellinus 398 00:36:29,170 --> 00:36:35,530 paints a scene of pure chaos. Nectaridus, the commanding general of 399 00:36:35,530 --> 00:36:40,270 the seacoast, was killed, and another general, Fullofaudes, was ambushed by 400 00:36:40,270 --> 00:36:45,970 the enemy and taken prisoner. The Attacotti, a warlike race of men, and the 401 00:36:45,970 --> 00:36:51,160 Scots were ranging wildly and causing great devastation while the Gallic 402 00:36:51,160 --> 00:36:55,630 regions were harassed by the Franks and their neighbours, the Saxons, with cruel 403 00:36:55,630 --> 00:37:03,720 robbery, fire, and the murder of all who were taken prisoners. For two whole years, 404 00:37:03,720 --> 00:37:08,980 anarchy ruled in northern Europe until Rome sent its best general, Flavius 405 00:37:08,980 --> 00:37:15,940 Theodosius, to march on the roaming barbarian bands. Theodosius defeated some 406 00:37:15,940 --> 00:37:19,020 in battle and he offered an amnesty to others. 407 00:37:19,020 --> 00:37:26,230 Order slowly returned to the region, but the damage was done. The attack of the 408 00:37:26,230 --> 00:37:30,910 great conspiracy had come as a complete surprise, and when we think about the 409 00:37:30,910 --> 00:37:34,480 effect this might have had on the people at the time, it wouldn't be too far off 410 00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:38,440 to think of this as something like the September 11th attacks on the United 411 00:37:38,440 --> 00:37:42,900 States. These were coordinated, brutal strikes 412 00:37:42,900 --> 00:37:48,400 calculated to cause maximum fear and damage and they shook the very core of 413 00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:51,820 the Empire. Rome's confidence in the face of the 414 00:37:51,820 --> 00:37:56,040 barbarian threat would never recover. 415 00:37:57,120 --> 00:38:02,350 The Empire's reduced ability to protect itself was one factor in the collapse of 416 00:38:02,350 --> 00:38:08,380 Roman Britain, but it was only one of many. Britannia's economy had been in 417 00:38:08,380 --> 00:38:13,030 decline for decades, with reduced trade to other parts of the Empire disrupted 418 00:38:13,030 --> 00:38:17,500 by the century of civil wars, by barbarian invasions, and piracy on the 419 00:38:17,500 --> 00:38:22,570 sea. Pottery produced in Britain began to drastically reduce in variety and 420 00:38:22,570 --> 00:38:27,670 decoration around this time, and iron production in the south plummeted. Whole 421 00:38:27,670 --> 00:38:35,590 kilns were abandoned and the price of iron skyrocketed. Around the Year 350, the 422 00:38:35,590 --> 00:38:39,730 Roman sewers and Canterbury started clogging up and no one bothered to clear 423 00:38:39,730 --> 00:38:45,370 them. A thick layer of silt also began to build up in the public baths that 424 00:38:45,370 --> 00:38:50,770 everywhere stood as a symbol of Roman civilization. This decline was beginning 425 00:38:50,770 --> 00:38:56,260 to seep into every aspect of British life but it was one man, an ambitious and 426 00:38:56,260 --> 00:39:01,810 hot-headed general called Magnus Maximus, who would play a pivotal part in tipping 427 00:39:01,810 --> 00:39:05,850 the land over into its final fall. 428 00:39:07,579 --> 00:39:10,890 It's often said that history repeats itself. 429 00:39:10,890 --> 00:39:15,300 We're told that if we study its lessons we can avoid making the same mistakes 430 00:39:15,300 --> 00:39:19,700 twice, but I think that happens a lot less than people realize. 431 00:39:19,700 --> 00:39:25,470 Events are so complex that nothing ever really happens the same way twice, but 432 00:39:25,470 --> 00:39:29,550 just occasionally in the flow of history, you do get these eddies and whirlpools 433 00:39:29,550 --> 00:39:34,260 where it really does feel like people keep doing the same thing over and over, 434 00:39:34,260 --> 00:39:39,990 like the rerun of a movie we've seen before. If Magnus Maximus had been a 435 00:39:39,990 --> 00:39:44,099 reader of history, if he had read the story of that previous governor of 436 00:39:44,099 --> 00:39:50,010 Britain, Albinus the white Tunisian and his ill-fated march on Rome, he might 437 00:39:50,010 --> 00:39:54,089 have done things a little differently as the fourth century entered its final 438 00:39:54,089 --> 00:40:03,250 decades. 439 00:40:03,250 --> 00:40:09,770 Like Albinus, Maximus was a distinguished general. He was from the Gallaecian region 440 00:40:09,770 --> 00:40:14,600 of northern Spain and he had served in fearsome campaigns in Africa and against 441 00:40:14,600 --> 00:40:19,550 German tribes on the Danube River. He had also been among the army of Flavius 442 00:40:19,550 --> 00:40:25,360 Theodosius which had returned order after the events of the great conspiracy. 443 00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:30,560 Maximus was also interesting for being a devout Christian, a religion that was 444 00:40:30,560 --> 00:40:37,340 outlawed in the Roman Empire only one lifetime before. Maximus was assigned as 445 00:40:37,340 --> 00:40:42,440 the governor of Britain in the year 380 and in his first year, he faced down an 446 00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:47,060 army of Picts and Scots that had overrun Hadrian's Wall, perhaps 447 00:40:47,060 --> 00:40:53,060 emboldened by Rome's recent weakness. After crushing this threat, 448 00:40:53,060 --> 00:40:59,810 Maximus celebrated by building a huge church on London's Tower Hill. But like 449 00:40:59,810 --> 00:41:04,460 other governors of Britannia before him, Maximus had ambitions greater than simply 450 00:41:04,460 --> 00:41:09,950 commanding a garrison in the Empire's wettest and windiest dominion. For the 451 00:41:09,950 --> 00:41:13,700 last decade of his life, Maximus had watched from afar as an 452 00:41:13,700 --> 00:41:19,340 incredibly unpopular Emperor had sat on the Imperial throne. This Emperor was a 453 00:41:19,340 --> 00:41:24,110 young man named Gratian and he is one of these particularly colorful characters 454 00:41:24,110 --> 00:41:30,380 that leap out of the Roman histories. Gratian loved to hunt and bizarrely, he 455 00:41:30,380 --> 00:41:35,810 spent all his time in the company of a band of Scythian archers. These were men 456 00:41:35,810 --> 00:41:41,060 from beyond the Danube River, outside the bounds of the Roman Empire. That is to 457 00:41:41,060 --> 00:41:46,320 the Romans, they were barbarians. The young Emperor loved the culture of 458 00:41:46,320 --> 00:41:51,090 his Scythian friends. He even used to appear at court dressed in the full 459 00:41:51,090 --> 00:41:56,100 traditional garb of a Scythian warrior, an ornately patterned overcoat and furs. 460 00:41:56,100 --> 00:42:03,600 The Roman people seemed to tolerate this eccentric Emperor for a while, but 461 00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:11,100 in the year 378, Rome would suffer a horrifying blow. The Emperor Valens, who 462 00:42:11,100 --> 00:42:15,590 ruled over the eastern portion of the Empire, had brought a massive army of 463 00:42:15,590 --> 00:42:23,360 30,000 men to crush a rebellion of Goths and Huns barely more than 10,000 strong. 464 00:42:23,360 --> 00:42:27,750 Confident in his coming victory, the Emperor Valens attacked them without 465 00:42:27,750 --> 00:42:33,320 waiting for reinforcements. These Goth rebels stood and fought and 466 00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:39,360 astonishingly, they won. The Emperor Valens was killed along with 20,000 of 467 00:42:39,360 --> 00:42:46,250 his men and his body was never recovered. This loss shook Rome to the core. 468 00:42:46,250 --> 00:42:50,960 Barbarian armies were now causing havoc across Rome's eastern territories, 469 00:42:50,960 --> 00:42:56,910 flouting the authority of the Empire. Suddenly, the Emperor Gratian dressing up 470 00:42:56,910 --> 00:43:03,869 like a barbarian didn't seem quite so acceptable. The people of Rome turned on 471 00:43:03,869 --> 00:43:08,430 him and around the Empire, all other claimants to the throne sensed their 472 00:43:08,430 --> 00:43:15,090 chance. They began to gather their armies and once again, the British paradox came 473 00:43:15,090 --> 00:43:21,270 into play. The hot-headed zealot Magnus Maximus, just like Albinus before him, 474 00:43:21,270 --> 00:43:27,180 commanded a vast army in Britain and he, liked his predecessor, resolved to march 475 00:43:27,180 --> 00:43:31,619 on Rome. Just like Albinus, he knew he couldn't 476 00:43:31,619 --> 00:43:38,130 spare a single man. He took the entire Roman garrison of Britannia, piled it 477 00:43:38,130 --> 00:43:44,180 onto a fleet of ships, and set sail for Gaul in the year 383. 478 00:43:44,310 --> 00:43:52,590 With Maximus on his way to Rome, Britain was once again left undefended. We can 479 00:43:52,590 --> 00:43:57,300 never know if any of Maximus' advisors told him about the story of Albinus, the 480 00:43:57,300 --> 00:44:03,030 pale skinned Tunisian who had marched on Rome. Did no one on that creaking ship 481 00:44:03,030 --> 00:44:08,580 sailing its way to the continent, not one of them mention to Maximus what had 482 00:44:08,580 --> 00:44:12,900 happened nearly 200 years before when the last Governor of Britain had tried 483 00:44:12,900 --> 00:44:18,390 to become Emperor? I find this hard to believe but that's part of history's 484 00:44:18,390 --> 00:44:23,430 spell. It teaches us lessons even as it convinces us that these lessons don't 485 00:44:23,430 --> 00:44:29,820 apply to us, that we will be the ones to break its endless chain. For Maximus at 486 00:44:29,820 --> 00:44:33,900 least, nothing mattered to him except reaching Rome and seizing the purple 487 00:44:33,900 --> 00:44:41,270 robes of the Emperor for himself. The zealous Maximus did seem to be blessed; 488 00:44:41,270 --> 00:44:45,930 everywhere he went, legions that were sent to fight him instead joined his 489 00:44:45,930 --> 00:44:52,830 cause. Enraged, the Emperor Gratian met his army outside Paris and Maximus' 490 00:44:52,830 --> 00:44:56,090 forces won the day. 491 00:44:56,090 --> 00:45:00,790 The young Emperor fled with his Scythian bodyguards and he was killed soon after 492 00:45:00,790 --> 00:45:08,090 while Magnus Maximus declared himself Emperor. But this is where the luck of 493 00:45:08,090 --> 00:45:14,390 Maximus runs out. Before he'd even begun to rule, his support slowly collapsed and 494 00:45:14,390 --> 00:45:20,720 it did so in part because of the anarchy he left behind in Britannia. Just like 495 00:45:20,720 --> 00:45:25,310 Albinus, he had left his home province, the heart of his supporters, completely 496 00:45:25,310 --> 00:45:31,160 undefended. Just as before, raiders and pirates now devastated the coasts and 497 00:45:31,160 --> 00:45:36,560 northern towns. The departure of the lands garrison had caused an economic 498 00:45:36,560 --> 00:45:44,030 collapse, too, Maximus had also taxed Britain brutally to pay for his wars. Now 499 00:45:44,030 --> 00:45:48,670 rebellions spread like a fire through dry heather. 500 00:45:48,670 --> 00:45:54,400 The date of Maximus' departure, 383, is the last date ever to be found on a 501 00:45:54,400 --> 00:46:00,400 Roman coin in Wales. It's the last date too for any archaeological trace in the 502 00:46:00,400 --> 00:46:06,549 northern Pennine hills. In these places, it marked the end of Roman rule in 503 00:46:06,549 --> 00:46:12,910 Britain. The 6th century British cleric St. Gildas put it more bluntly in his 504 00:46:12,910 --> 00:46:18,470 searing rant entitled 'On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain'. 505 00:46:18,470 --> 00:46:22,830 Britain is left deprived of all her soldiery and armed bands, of her cruel 506 00:46:22,830 --> 00:46:26,250 governors, and of the flower of her youth who went with Maximus but never again 507 00:46:26,250 --> 00:46:31,590 returned. The Scots from the northwest and the Picts from the north, like hungry and 508 00:46:31,590 --> 00:46:35,520 ravening wolves, rushed with greedy jaws upon the fold which is left without a 509 00:46:35,520 --> 00:46:41,120 shepherd. From this point, the British economy was in freefall. 510 00:46:41,120 --> 00:46:47,130 After this time, British coffins stopped being sealed with nails and boots lost 511 00:46:47,130 --> 00:46:53,160 their hobnails. This shows how expensive iron had become. British people now 512 00:46:53,160 --> 00:47:00,180 slipped on icy ground and rotted in flimsy coffins. Pottery became a lost art 513 00:47:00,180 --> 00:47:07,200 and the suburbs of the cities began to empty. The astonishing thing is Maximus 514 00:47:07,200 --> 00:47:12,030 was not even the last governor of Britain to make this mistake. This 515 00:47:12,030 --> 00:47:16,230 dishonour would fall to a common soldier called Constantine who once and for all 516 00:47:16,230 --> 00:47:22,350 ended the Roman presence in Britain. He was named after the great fourth century 517 00:47:22,350 --> 00:47:27,420 Emperor who had been crowned in York a hundred years before, and now this famous 518 00:47:27,420 --> 00:47:34,830 event would repeat itself as farce. After the departure of Maximus, a bloody power 519 00:47:34,830 --> 00:47:39,810 struggle had broken out in Britain, with rival factions tearing it to pieces like 520 00:47:39,810 --> 00:47:45,420 dogs after a strip of meat. This struggle resulted in the soldiers themselves 521 00:47:45,420 --> 00:47:51,180 choosing the new governor of Britannia, and they chose one of their own; a common 522 00:47:51,180 --> 00:47:57,480 soldier known as Constantine. The historian Orosius can barely conceal 523 00:47:57,480 --> 00:48:04,920 his sneer. Constantine, a man from the lowest ranks of the soldiery, was chosen 524 00:48:04,920 --> 00:48:09,710 simply from confidence inspired by his name and without any other 525 00:48:09,710 --> 00:48:13,670 qualifications to recommend him. 526 00:48:13,780 --> 00:48:19,450 We can assume that Constantine wasn't a reader of history. That's because he 527 00:48:19,450 --> 00:48:25,090 would repeat the mistake of Albinus and Maximus almost exactly. The moment he 528 00:48:25,090 --> 00:48:29,290 sensed weakness in Rome, he took all of his British legions and sailed for the 529 00:48:29,290 --> 00:48:35,020 continent. Completely overwhelmed by barbarian invasions and Roman infighting, 530 00:48:35,020 --> 00:48:39,730 the noble-born Emperor Honorius was forced to buy off this lowly soldier 531 00:48:39,730 --> 00:48:44,920 Constantine. He offered him the position of co-Emperor and this precarious 532 00:48:44,920 --> 00:48:49,840 situation held for a few years until an alliance of challenges chased 533 00:48:49,840 --> 00:48:55,750 Constantine out of his capital and killed him in the year 411. Most of his 534 00:48:55,750 --> 00:49:03,400 soldiers would never return to their posts in Britannia. For Rome, enough was 535 00:49:03,400 --> 00:49:11,080 enough. The province of Britannia wasn't worth it. The Empire was now so weakened 536 00:49:11,080 --> 00:49:16,000 that an army of Goths led by Alaric was now rampaging around northern Italy and 537 00:49:16,000 --> 00:49:20,560 even sacked Rome itself, the first time a foreign power had done 538 00:49:20,560 --> 00:49:26,560 this for 800 years. The collapse of the entire Empire now seemed like a 539 00:49:26,560 --> 00:49:32,680 possibility and in 410 AD, the Emperor Honorius finally declared the end of the 540 00:49:32,680 --> 00:49:38,350 official Roman presence in Britain. He famously told the British to look to 541 00:49:38,350 --> 00:49:45,160 their own defenses. Rome withdrew all remaining soldiers and administrators 542 00:49:45,160 --> 00:49:50,710 from Britain. They stopped collecting taxes in the province and this released 543 00:49:50,710 --> 00:49:55,120 some of the burden on its people initially, but they also stopped paying 544 00:49:55,120 --> 00:50:00,130 the administrators who ran its cities and managed its trade routes. They ended 545 00:50:00,130 --> 00:50:04,000 the wages and supplies flowing to the local soldiers who had fought as 546 00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:08,550 auxiliaries in the garrison. These men didn't go anywhere; 547 00:50:08,550 --> 00:50:13,570 instead, they began to tax the populations themselves, demanding money 548 00:50:13,570 --> 00:50:19,030 and supplies in exchange for protection. These groups would ultimately grow into 549 00:50:19,030 --> 00:50:25,870 the basis of very early medieval society. These warlords frequently fought their 550 00:50:25,870 --> 00:50:29,729 wars using the services of mercenary armies from the continent. 551 00:50:29,729 --> 00:50:35,409 Dukes from Denmark, Angles and Saxons from northern Germany, men who brought 552 00:50:35,409 --> 00:50:40,809 their families and formed the first Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in Britain. The 553 00:50:40,809 --> 00:50:45,549 people forgot Latin as an everyday language and it survived only in the 554 00:50:45,549 --> 00:50:51,759 churches. They stopped writing as far as we can tell, since no texts have survived, 555 00:50:51,759 --> 00:50:57,669 and people forgot their Roman identities too, adopting the cultures of the incoming 556 00:50:57,669 --> 00:51:02,619 peoples. We can see this by burials in some places that have been found, 557 00:51:02,619 --> 00:51:07,359 matching burial practices in Germany and Norway even though the genetics of the 558 00:51:07,359 --> 00:51:12,729 buried person are clearly British. While this great social and cultural 559 00:51:12,729 --> 00:51:21,759 change happened, Britain's Roman cities fell gradually into ruins. Bit by bit, the 560 00:51:21,759 --> 00:51:25,839 great opulent villas that had once dominated the countryside were abandoned 561 00:51:25,839 --> 00:51:30,309 and became dilapidated. Small estates fell first; 562 00:51:30,309 --> 00:51:34,900 some of them absorbed into the holdings of richer landowners, but the large ones 563 00:51:34,900 --> 00:51:42,009 followed soon after. Mosaiced floors cracked as roof beams fell in, while 564 00:51:42,009 --> 00:51:48,069 private bath houses became homes for frogs and water weed. In his fifth 565 00:51:48,069 --> 00:51:52,779 century work, The Life of St. Germanus, Constantius of Lyon describes coming 566 00:51:52,779 --> 00:52:00,279 across a ruined villa of this kind. Its roof had fallen in. It was overgrown with 567 00:52:00,279 --> 00:52:04,209 bushes and brambles and among all the many rooms that it had once contained, 568 00:52:04,209 --> 00:52:10,180 there was scarcely one left that was fit to live in. 569 00:52:10,180 --> 00:52:15,170 Constantius tells us that the ruined villa was haunted by the ghosts of evil 570 00:52:15,170 --> 00:52:22,730 men. In the north of Britain, Hadrian's Wall was finally abandoned and it seems 571 00:52:22,730 --> 00:52:25,810 the soldiers in its forts left in a hurry. 572 00:52:25,810 --> 00:52:31,060 At one of the most well-preserved sites, an auxiliary fort called Vindolanda, 573 00:52:31,060 --> 00:52:36,290 archaeologists have found Roman cavalry swords simply abandoned; dropped on the 574 00:52:36,290 --> 00:52:42,170 ground and left there. These are very rare finds since in this time, a sword 575 00:52:42,170 --> 00:52:47,060 was an expensive and precious object. Their owners would no more throw them 576 00:52:47,060 --> 00:52:52,220 away than a modern person might throw away their mobile phone. All kinds of 577 00:52:52,220 --> 00:52:56,359 objects pertaining to the daily lives of soldiers have been found left behind, too; 578 00:52:56,359 --> 00:53:03,849 bath sandals and writing tablets, pots and buckets and buckles. One day, it seems, 579 00:53:03,849 --> 00:53:11,480 everyone at Vindolanda just got up and left. After the Romans departed and the 580 00:53:11,480 --> 00:53:16,849 border collapsed, local people began to use Hadrian's Wall as a quarry, taking 581 00:53:16,849 --> 00:53:21,470 its high-quality blocks of stone to build their own houses and barns, even 582 00:53:21,470 --> 00:53:26,000 churches, so that now the wall is woven into the fabric of countless medieval 583 00:53:26,000 --> 00:53:31,190 buildings across the region. Near Carlisle, the medieval priory of 584 00:53:31,190 --> 00:53:35,270 Lanercost, for instance, was built using a large amount of material stolen from the 585 00:53:35,270 --> 00:53:39,040 wall which runs just half a kilometre to the north. 586 00:53:39,040 --> 00:53:44,660 You can still see Roman inscriptions on some of the priory stones, boasting about 587 00:53:44,660 --> 00:53:51,200 which legions were stationed on the wall. Meanwhile, tribal chieftains and local 588 00:53:51,200 --> 00:53:55,730 warlords, some of whom had been officers in the Roman army until recently, moved 589 00:53:55,730 --> 00:54:01,040 into the forts along the wall and used them as private castles. In one fort known 590 00:54:01,040 --> 00:54:04,520 as Birdoswald, it seems the descendants of the original garrison 591 00:54:04,520 --> 00:54:09,109 still lived there a century after the departure of Rome, passing down their 592 00:54:09,109 --> 00:54:14,660 uniforms, flying regimental insignia, and building timber constructions inside its 593 00:54:14,660 --> 00:54:19,940 crumbling ruin. They probably received pay and supplies from people living in 594 00:54:19,940 --> 00:54:23,299 the area in exchange for protection, and they 595 00:54:23,299 --> 00:54:31,039 maintained a kind of Roman identity in order to increase their legitimacy. To 596 00:54:31,039 --> 00:54:37,399 the south, large cities like London fell gradually into disrepair. Trade at London's 597 00:54:37,399 --> 00:54:41,509 port had been slowing over the past century but now it finally stopped 598 00:54:41,509 --> 00:54:49,249 altogether. Its suburbs turned into wasteland or were tilled for farming. The 599 00:54:49,249 --> 00:54:54,169 large church built by Magnus Maximus on Tower Hill burned to the ground and it 600 00:54:54,169 --> 00:54:59,739 seems people lacked either the knowledge, the resources, or the will to rebuild it. 601 00:54:59,739 --> 00:55:05,089 London's great Roman forum, too, was dismantled and quarried for stone and 602 00:55:05,089 --> 00:55:10,519 it's public bath was torn down. Its great Basilica, which was once the largest 603 00:55:10,519 --> 00:55:17,179 building in northwest Europe, was also taken apart. People began to be buried 604 00:55:17,179 --> 00:55:20,390 inside the city limits, something the Roman authorities would 605 00:55:20,390 --> 00:55:25,639 never have allowed. Of these burials, studies show that four times more have 606 00:55:25,639 --> 00:55:29,239 been found with wounds from stabbing and slicing weapons than in the previous 607 00:55:29,239 --> 00:55:36,709 period. London's population of nearly 30,000 people began to drift away back 608 00:55:36,709 --> 00:55:40,880 to a simpler existence in the countryside, to timber long houses and 609 00:55:40,880 --> 00:55:47,759 round houses built of thatch and wattle. In some places the ancient hill forts of 610 00:55:47,759 --> 00:55:52,890 the pre-roman Britons which had lain empty for centuries now burst back into 611 00:55:52,890 --> 00:55:57,660 life. Excavations in these sites have found objects that seemed to have been 612 00:55:57,660 --> 00:56:01,470 looted from the abandoned Roman towns and villas that now littered the 613 00:56:01,470 --> 00:56:09,089 countryside; dressed stone and glass and pottery. Amid the slow hollowing out 614 00:56:09,089 --> 00:56:14,239 of London, archaeological evidence shows that an enclave of the ultra-wealthy 615 00:56:14,239 --> 00:56:19,789 continued to live a somewhat Roman existence in a kind of gated community. 616 00:56:19,789 --> 00:56:25,559 They enjoyed the same wine and olive oil they always had, presumably imported at 617 00:56:25,559 --> 00:56:31,049 great expense. They denied the writing on the wall for as long as they could, but 618 00:56:31,049 --> 00:56:37,589 the decline was unstoppable. The rest of the city descended into chaos and nature 619 00:56:37,589 --> 00:56:44,269 crept back to reclaim its streets and alleys. By the end of the 4th century, 620 00:56:44,269 --> 00:56:50,039 everything south of the River Thames had been abandoned. Large pockets of London's 621 00:56:50,039 --> 00:56:54,900 urban fabric turned into patches of overgrown wasteland and people began to 622 00:56:54,900 --> 00:57:01,079 grow wheat in the middle of the city. By the end of the fifth century, London was 623 00:57:01,079 --> 00:57:06,059 deserted. It was now an uninhabited ruin, a city of 624 00:57:06,059 --> 00:57:12,119 ghosts sinking into the marsh and mud of the river. By the end of the fifth 625 00:57:12,119 --> 00:57:18,989 century, London was deserted. We can imagine ivy growing over its crumbling 626 00:57:18,989 --> 00:57:24,029 walls and elder too, young trees pushing their roots between the bricks and 627 00:57:24,029 --> 00:57:31,769 stones of its buildings. The only people left in London were scavengers. They came 628 00:57:31,769 --> 00:57:37,229 to find things like iron nails which could be recycled. The forests around 629 00:57:37,229 --> 00:57:41,759 London would also have been cut down and so the only source of usable timber 630 00:57:41,759 --> 00:57:46,710 would have been that left in the decaying city. So, little by little, people 631 00:57:46,710 --> 00:57:56,039 tore London apart. One artifact known as the Billingsgate Broach, tells the story 632 00:57:56,039 --> 00:58:01,229 of these scavengers. It was dropped amid the fallen roof tiles of a building 633 00:58:01,229 --> 00:58:05,640 known as the Billingsgate House, perhaps by a scavenger who had looted it and 634 00:58:05,640 --> 00:58:10,859 feared being robbed or by someone exploring the ruins who simply dropped 635 00:58:10,859 --> 00:58:15,869 it and couldn't find it afterwards. Either way, it's a fascinating artifact 636 00:58:15,869 --> 00:58:23,219 that speaks of the afterlife of the ruined city of London. It wasn't only 637 00:58:23,219 --> 00:58:28,650 London that fell into ruins; in cities like Bath which inspired the poetry of 638 00:58:28,650 --> 00:58:32,759 the ruin that we opened with, urban life continued in some form after the 639 00:58:32,759 --> 00:58:38,819 departure of Rome. While it's great temples crumbled and grand public 640 00:58:38,819 --> 00:58:43,619 buildings fell into disrepair, its city authorities still managed basic repairs 641 00:58:43,619 --> 00:58:49,380 like recobbling the streets. But without their links to the Roman economy, the 642 00:58:49,380 --> 00:58:53,960 slow death of Britain's cities was all but assured. 643 00:58:53,960 --> 00:58:59,970 By the early 5th century, all of Britain's towns, large and small, simply 644 00:58:59,970 --> 00:59:06,990 ceased to exist. The city of York, where once the Emperor Constantine the Great 645 00:59:06,990 --> 00:59:10,200 had been crowned, now stood empty and in ruins, 646 00:59:10,200 --> 00:59:16,770 slowly reclaimed by the seasonal floods of the river Ouse. We know this because 647 00:59:16,770 --> 00:59:21,330 archaeologists have found the remains of water beetles, water voles, shrews, and 648 00:59:21,330 --> 00:59:27,360 frog-hoppers inside the city, all animals that live only in flooded and swampy 649 00:59:27,360 --> 00:59:32,390 ground, vanished by the developments of the Roman era. 650 00:59:33,630 --> 00:59:38,570 The incoming Saxon people were obviously impressed by the ruins of Roman cities 651 00:59:38,570 --> 00:59:44,550 but also seemed to have feared them as places of ghosts and curses. They rarely 652 00:59:44,550 --> 00:59:49,410 came near to the ruins and built their settlements far away from them. At some 653 00:59:49,410 --> 00:59:53,430 sites like Caer Celemion, there's some evidence that the wells of the decaying 654 00:59:53,430 --> 00:59:59,580 city were filled in to prevent people from returning. Ritual objects were also 655 00:59:59,580 --> 01:00:03,360 left behind, perhaps to ward off the curse that was believed to hang over 656 01:00:03,360 --> 01:00:10,590 these crumbling stones. It's no coincidence that tales of giants form 657 01:00:10,590 --> 01:00:15,690 such a prominent part of British folklore. To see why, you just have to 658 01:00:15,690 --> 01:00:19,200 imagine the mighty temples and public buildings that were left behind in the 659 01:00:19,200 --> 01:00:24,140 wake of Roman rule. To people who no longer knew how to build these things, 660 01:00:24,140 --> 01:00:30,180 these crumbling walls, these awesome constructions of bygone centuries, must 661 01:00:30,180 --> 01:00:34,350 have seemed the work of a race of gods who had once walked England's rolling 662 01:00:34,350 --> 01:00:40,980 fields and ancient primeval forests. Perhaps to truly understand how it must 663 01:00:40,980 --> 01:00:45,060 have felt to live in the time after Roman rule, it's best to end the same way 664 01:00:45,060 --> 01:00:51,420 we started, with the Old English poem The Ruin. As you listen, think about what it 665 01:00:51,420 --> 01:00:55,140 must have felt like to live in this time, when the foreign occupiers who had 666 01:00:55,140 --> 01:01:00,990 brought so much change finally left. It was a time when it felt that history was 667 01:01:00,990 --> 01:01:07,890 no longer moving forwards, that tomorrow would be a darker time than today, a time 668 01:01:07,890 --> 01:01:13,080 when all you had left to remember that lost golden age is the landscape strewn 669 01:01:13,080 --> 01:01:18,390 with monumental blocks of stone, the cavernous bathing halls, and the 670 01:01:18,390 --> 01:01:29,610 overgrown ruins slowly and unstoppably crumbling into the earth. 671 01:01:29,610 --> 01:01:36,130 Far and wide the slain perished, days of pestilence came, 672 01:01:36,130 --> 01:01:41,680 death took all the brave men away. Their places of war became deserted places, the 673 01:01:41,680 --> 01:01:47,470 city decayed. The rebuilders perished, armies into the earth, and so 674 01:01:47,470 --> 01:01:52,000 these buildings grow desolate and this red-curved roof parts from it's 675 01:01:52,000 --> 01:01:57,490 tiles of the ceiling vault. The ruin has fallen to the ground, broken into 676 01:01:57,490 --> 01:02:02,500 mounds where at one time shone many a warrior, joyous and ornamented 677 01:02:02,500 --> 01:02:12,040 with gold-white splendor. Thank you once again 678 01:02:12,040 --> 01:02:16,030 for listening to The Fall of Civilizations Podcast. I'd like to give a 679 01:02:16,030 --> 01:02:22,030 special thanks to my voice actors Jake Barret Mills, Jacob Rowlandson, Shem 680 01:02:22,030 --> 01:02:26,590 Jacobs, and a special thank you goes to Dr. Rebecca Pina at the University of 681 01:02:26,590 --> 01:02:31,330 East Anglia for allowing us to hear the poetry of The Ruin in its original Old 682 01:02:31,330 --> 01:02:36,340 English. I love to hear your thoughts and responses on Twitter so please come and 683 01:02:36,340 --> 01:02:41,380 tell me what you thought. You can follow me @Paul.MM.Cooper and if you'd like 684 01:02:41,380 --> 01:02:45,700 updates about the podcast, announcements about new episodes, as well as images and 685 01:02:45,700 --> 01:02:50,380 maps relevant to the episode, you can follow the podcast @Fall_of_Civ_Pod 686 01:02:50,380 --> 01:02:56,110 with underscores separating the words. This podcasts can only keep going with 687 01:02:56,110 --> 01:03:00,760 the support of our generous subscribers on Patreon. You keep me running, you help 688 01:03:00,760 --> 01:03:04,690 me cover my costs, and you also let me dedicate more time to researching, 689 01:03:04,690 --> 01:03:09,190 writing, recording, and editing to get the episodes out to you faster and bring as 690 01:03:09,190 --> 01:03:13,660 much life and detail to them as possible. I want to thank all my subscribers for 691 01:03:13,660 --> 01:03:18,370 making this happen. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider contributing and 692 01:03:18,370 --> 01:03:21,940 help keep the podcast running. For now, goodbye, 693 01:03:21,940 --> 01:03:25,890 and thanks for listening.