Original subtitles

- [Narrator] Our history is no more than a series

of incredible events.

Each one of us can influence its course.

The tiniest of our decisions

can influence the future of mankind.

To know the past is to anticipate the future.

The ninth of August, 378, the Battle of Adrianople.

The Roman army has been annihilated.

A few years later, stripped of its defenses,

Rome is sacked.

The city had remained inviolate for 800 years.

Fourth of September, 476.

The last Roman emperor of the West is deposed.

The Roman Empire no longer exists.

These three events, although occurring over a century

are intimately connected and will lead

to the fall of the Western Roman empire.

Let's see why.

(dramatic instrumental music)

Today, the Mediterranean is divided

and is often a theater of conflict.

However, under the Roman empire,

it formed one single state.

It consisted of more than 40 contemporary countries,

not just Italy, France, or Spain,

but including Egypt, Kosovo, Israel,

and even a part of Iraq.

A single currency, common laws, one ruler.

For the first and the last time in its history,

the Mediterranean is at peace.

This is the age of aqueducts, of emperors, and legionaries.

The empire is immense and ruling such a vast entity

was practically impossible.

Today we can fly over it in several hours.

On horseback, it could take months.

That is why it was separated into two.

To the east, the Eastern empire.

To the west, the Western empire.

One territory, two thrones and two emperors

who worked together for the good of the empire.

At the time in which we are interested,

375 AD, there happened to be two brothers.

Valentinian, the elder, a dynamic general rules the West

with an iron fist.

His brother Valens, less assertive,

struggles to impose his authority on the East.

Valentinian is charismatic

and dominates his younger brother.

This difference in character between the two brothers

will prove crucial in the events that are to follow.

- [Narrator] Welcome to the memory of humanity.

Here we can control time,

analyze and compare billions of events

and alter them to rewrite history endlessly.

For example, let's imagine that we could recreate

the Roman empire in our day.

Where Palestine and Israel would be united in one country.

France and Germany.

A sort of United States of the Mediterranean.

From London to Jerusalem,

its citizens would all speak the same language,

travel without passports,

and obey one system of laws.

All religions would be tolerated

on condition they did not trouble civil rule.

This federation would possess vast hydrocarbon reserves

and its armies would rival those

of the United States or China.

This country would be the heirs

to the founders of democracy, the rights of man,

of philosophy and the Enlightenment.

It would be the nation of algebra,

of the metric system, of medicine, physics, and astronomy.

Seen against current conflicts,

all that may seem impossible.

However the truth is that these tensions

already existed in Roman times.

Let us continue.

(dramatic instrumental music)

- [Narrator] The empire is rich and beyond its borders,

the barbarian peoples are watching

for the least opportunity to join in the feast.

For a Roman, the word barbarian applies

to any person living outside its borders.

A barbarian is an un-Romanized foreigner.

To the north and the east, the empires borders

are under constant pressure.

To defend the empire, successive empires developed

an ingenious system requiring the minimum of soldiers.

By utilizing natural obstacles, such as rivers or mountains,

the Romans fortified their borders

and organized their troops into mobile forces.

These often Pharaonic enterprises are still evident today

such as Hadrian's wall in England.

By way of comparison,

the imperial forces numbered roughly the same

as the modern day French army,

but they protected a much larger territory.

The system is formidably efficient.

A dynamic emperor, Valentinian devotes his whole time

to restoring the empire's fortifications

and he does it well.

He restores discipline with an iron fist,

reinforces walls and mercilessly punishes any barbarians

who dare to challenge him.

Both feared and respected by his enemies,

he is the strong man that Rome needs.

But when he receives a barbarian delegation come

to bargain a truce, the fate of the Roman empire is decided.

The emperor listens to the barbarian chiefs

but the meeting goes badly.

Valentinian loses his temper,

falls into a rage, insults the barbarian chiefs,

and suddenly in the middle of a sentence,

the emperor collapses,

struck down by a brain hemorrhage.

(gentle instrumental music)

Valentinian I, defender of Rome dies during the night.

- [Narrator] We have just reached a turning point.

A turning point is a key event,

a cross-roads in our history

where the world swings one way or the other.

Valentinian I, defender of Rome, has just died.

Trajan, Caligula, Nero, Commodus.

The history of Rome is written in the blood of its emperors.

Valentinian is far from being the first

to die tragically and yet his death at this precise moment

will have dramatic consequences.

In a dangerous age where the threat of a barbarian invasion

is ever-present, the death of a capable emperor

is serious to the empire.

His brother Valens possesses nothing

near the same military abilities.

His son, Gratian, is still young.

Valentinian's death leaves the empire

without any real leader.

Sometimes in the history of humanity,

it happens that the decisions of one man

can turn millions of lives upside down.

In 1942, Hitler dominates Europe.

One man has the courage to stand up to him.

Winston Churchill, the English Prime Minister,

categorically refuses the peace offered by the Nazis.

Throughout the war, he will prove an unshakeable bulwark.

Without him, no Normandy landings, no liberation of Paris,

and probably a German victory.

Let's go back to our story.

- [Narrator] With Valentinian dead,

it now falls upon his son, Gratian, a young adult

and especially upon his brother, politically weak

and a mediocre soldier,

to face the problems ahead.

And the problems are the Huns.

(dramatic instrumental music)

Nomads from Central Asia,

the Huns live and fight on horseback.

(arrows whirring)

They are excellent archers.

Their enemies are dead before they can fight.

Living exclusively from breeding and hunting,

they need wide, virgin territories.

They don't want to conquer the world,

they want to turn it into their hunting ground.

Along their way, they meet the Goths,

a Germanic barbarian people.

At this period, the Goths form a great realm.

Through contact with their powerful neighbor,

the Roman empire, they have developed their trade

and their art of war.

The skill of their warriors is well-known to the Romans

who often enlist them as mercenaries.

But no one can resist the horsemen from the Steppes.

Formidable in hand to hand combat,

the Goths are totally unprepared

for the long-range warfare waged against them by the Huns.

Riddled with arrows, the Goth forces are decimated.

The Goth kingdoms resist for a while,

but finally the whole nation must decide.

Flee or become slaves.

Driven south, they finally reach the frontiers

of the Roman empire.

Caught between the hammer and the anvil,

they ask for political asylum in Rome

which is granted.

The empire is short of manpower and these refugees are seen

by the authorities as manna from Heaven.

An incredible humanitarian operation begins

and whole tribes, tens of thousands of Goths,

cross the Danube on makeshift rafts.

Men, women, children, and the old.

The Goths have one hope,

to become part of the empire and live in peace.

History will decide otherwise.

Corrupt Roman officers ignore the emperor's orders

and dump the Goths in refugee camps,

where they then hold them to ransom.

Money for food.

(dramatic instrumental music)

Roman historians recount scenes of horror.

Parents starving in ruin are forced to sell a child

into slavery in order to feed the others.

Driven to desperation, the Goths finally act for themselves.

They massacre the Roman garrisons

and pass the point of no return.

Riot turns into revolt

and revolt into invasion.

- [Narrator] To govern is to choose.

What would have happened if Valens had refused access

to the empire?

If he had ordered his troops to prevent the barbarians

from crossing the Danube?

For the Goths huddled in their tens of thousands

on the banks of the river,

such questions would have been soon answered.

They would have been massacred to the last man

or for the fortunate, reduced to slavery.

The Huns were not the most merciful

to those they vanquished.

The story of the Goths might have ended there

and the world would have retained no more

than a vague trace of them in the byways of history.

No Ostrogoth kingdom in Italy,

no Visigoth kingdom at Toulouse.

For the Romans, the drama would have gone unnoticed.

The empire would have gone on as normal

for a time, at least.

The Goths were only the advance guard

of a formidable migration of peoples

that is to flood upon the empire.

In December 406, the Vandals cross the Rhine,

followed by the Franks and the Burgans.

This is the period known as the Barbarian Invasions.

The empire will be shaken to its foundations.

The Europe of today is deeply marked

by this fusion.

Thus the Burgans will create Burgandy.

The Franks and the Alemmani, two related Germanic peoples

will be the founders of France and Germany, respectively.

The Angles and the Saxons will cross the North Sea

to become the Anglo-Saxons,

forcing the Britains to flee before them

and seek their refuge in Brittany.

Let's go back to our story.

(dramatic instrumental music)

- [Narrator] The Goths ravaged the north of the empire.

Valens, the brother emperor, decides to act.

He recalls his veterans, musters all available troops

and sets out to restore imperial authority.

(dramatic instrumental music)

However, they are too numerous

and so Gratian also musters an army

and sets out to assist his uncle.

But when Valens reaches the meeting point first,

he starts to think.

Having lived so long in the shadow

of his powerful elder brother,

he needs a military victory to restore his image.

If Valentinian were still alive,

Valens would have waited quietly for reinforcements

and victory would have been assured,

but he has great difficulty

in accepting assistance from a child, albeit an emperor.

Against the advice of his generals,

the battle is engaged and the aim is nothing less

than the outright extermination of the Goths.

The Roman army consists of 15,000 hardened veterans,

well-equipped and disciplined,

ready to lay down their lives in the defense of the empire.

Opposite them are countless Goth warriors.

They have lost everything and are fighting

for their lives and those of their families.

Under a leaden sky,

the two armies observe each other for hours.

Instead of attacking at once and making an end of it,

Valens commits an error.

He hesitates.

In battle, the least hesitation can prove fatal.

But Valens is a politician, not a soldier,

and he appears not to know one simple fact.

Leaving your army in full sunlight without water

and with empty bellies is something you do not do.

The Romans are losing their patience.

They are thirsty, they have been subjected

to the barbarians provocations since early afternoon.

Discipline slackens.

Suddenly, without any order given,

the Roman light cavalry, exasperated with waiting,

launch their attack.

At the worst possible moment,

Valens loses control of his army.

Leaving their families in their fortified camp,

the Goths charge to the attack.

Professional soldiers, the Roman legions regroup

and receive the charge.

(dramatic instrumental music)

Then, a surprise.

At least 5,000 barbarian cavalry suddenly appear

on the heights over the battlefield.

The Romans never saw them coming.

Cavalry is a formidable weapon,

a combination of mass and speed.

1200 pounds hurtling at 20 miles per hour,

concentrated in the tip of a spear.

What descends upon the Roman army is a tsunami

of 3,000 tons of flesh and steel.

Under normal conditions, a troop of infantry

has a chance against such an attack.

Using pikes and spears and forming a wall of shields,

they can break the charge and repel the adversary.

But you have to face them.

The Roman army in mid battle is disorganized.

It's soldiers are already fighting hand to hand.

Sweeping down the slope,

the Goth cavalry attacked the unprotected flank

of the legions.

Against all expectations, the legions withstand the shock.

Despite their losses,

the defenders of the empire close ranks.

The charge is broken.

However, the Goth cavalry is already regrouping.

The legions withstand a second charge, then a third.

In such a compact mass, every arrow hits its target.

At the end of the day, their lances shattered,

their shields bristling with arrows,

the legionaries are on the very verge of breaking.

Surrounded, at the limit of their strength,

they watch as the enemy prepares a final attack.

The imperial ranks collapse.

It's a massacre.

- [Narrator] There's a time for doubt

and a time for action.

Although accepting the Goths into the empire

was not a mistake in itself

and was even a perfectly defensible strategic

and economic choice, Valens' attitude

in the months that would follow the Goth invasion

will be disastrous for the empire.

First, he starts by underestimating the gravity

of the situation, allowing the Goths to reinforce

when he sends insufficient powers to deal with the problem.

Then, he decides to attack

without having received reinforcements from the West.

Militarily, the Romans have always ruled the battlefield.

However, the legions, through having recruited

among the barbarians have lost cohesion,

and the Goths, through contact with the Romans,

have learned their tactics.

So we are far from the relative power

that Caesar encountered in Gaul.

If Valentinian had not died a few years previously,

Valens would most certainly have waited patiently

for his elder brother, the Western army

being traditionally stronger than the Eastern.

The joining of the two would have created

such a tactical advantage that victory

would have been within the grasp of any general,

even of Valens.

The Goths would have been massacred

and things would have returned to normal.

The empire would even have emerged stronger

and its image of invincibility would have remained intact.

- [Narrator] Only nightfall will bring an end

to the massacre.

Two thirds of the elite of the Roman armies

will be left upon the battlefield.

Armor will be replaced more easily than veteran soldiers.

The power of Rome collapses along with its army.

Emperor Valens will himself disappear into the night.

Legend has it that he was burned alive

in a farm where he had taken refuge.

The Romans told themselves that they had seen worse

and that they had survived.

But this time, Rome found itself with an entire people

on its territories.

Not wishing to risk a second disaster,

Gratian turned around with his troops

and left to protect the West.

With his uncle dead, he had to choose a new head

of the Eastern empire.

Having only just assumed power,

the new emperor received the heavy responsibility

of having to negotiate with the Goths.

And the bargain was a simple one.

Peace in exchange for gold.

They tried everything to make the Goths go away.

Promises of lands, titles, and kingdoms,

and in one of history's ironies,

from one bargain to another,

the Goths moved slowly from the East towards the West

which took them directly onto Rome.

(dramatic instrumental music)

The sack of Rome by the Goths in 410 was not the only cause

of the lingering death of the empire,

but it sends out a strong signal

to all its predators.

The Roman army is no longer invincible.

Attacked from all sides, gnawed away by political intrigue,

the Roman empire of the West will lose its provinces

one after another, and finally disappear.

The end of the empire marks the beginning of another period

of our history, the Middle Ages.

The eastern part will survive it

by more than a thousand years under the name

of the Byzantine empire.

But that is another story.

(gentle instrumental music)

- [Narrator] Could the empire have survived?

What caused its fall?

What determinant event precipitated it?

How could such a vast empire have disappeared?

There are many factors.

Political intrigues, military defeats,

climate issues leading to major invasions,

the loss of the feeling of citizenship,

the waning of Roman civic virtue.

But the empire had already known some grave moments.

Several centuries earlier,

the Roman legions had been annihilated in a huge battle

by Hannibal, the Carthaginian general.

The two superpowers of the age waged a terrible war,

a war for control of the Mediterranean.

To put an end to the sworn enemy,

Hannibal led his army across the Alps

and carried out a surprise attack on the legions.

It was a massacre.

Hannibal was at the gates of Rome.

But that time, Rome was to pick itself up

and finally win the war.

The fall of Rome was harsh.

The chaos that followed proved traumatic for many people.

Populations shrank all over the Mediterranean.

Cities demolished their theaters to build defenses.

The Pax Romana was no more than a distant memory.

However, once the storm passed, calm returned.

Slowly at first.

There were difficult centuries,

but the Middle Ages was the time of renewal,

the age of cathedral building.

The barbarian invaders certainly destroyed

the existing empire but they also brought in fresh blood.

By settling in the empire, they merged with it.

As after a forest fire, civilization got the upper hand

and set off once more with fresh vigor.

(dramatic instrumental music)