What was it like to live through the Fall of the Roman Empire?

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 พ.ค. 2024
  • The fall of the Western Roman Empire was an era, not an event. But those who lived through it had no doubt that it was a catastrophe.
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    Chapters:
    0:00 Introduction
    0:55 Reactions to the Fall of Rome
    2:09 St. Germanus and Britain
    3:27 St. Severinus and Noricum
    4:39 HelloFresh
    5:46 St. Severinus (cont.)
    6:56 Sidonius Apollinaris and southern Gaul
    8:31 Boethius and Italy

ความคิดเห็น • 714

  • @forkthepork
    @forkthepork ปีที่แล้ว +1063

    Pretty rough, I'd wager

    • @Rosegoldshawwty
      @Rosegoldshawwty ปีที่แล้ว +22

      Sums it up yea

    • @kotaowens6978
      @kotaowens6978 ปีที่แล้ว +22

      Not great.

    • @westrim
      @westrim ปีที่แล้ว +12

      Pretty tough, I bet

    • @Alexq79-
      @Alexq79- ปีที่แล้ว +87

      Bruh I was chilling in my elaborate marble bath and then some gibberish speaking hairy men wearing pants started shouting at me and began stealing my furniture. Can’t have shit in Rome

    • @AldousHuxley7
      @AldousHuxley7 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Not for the goos

  • @rabbit251
    @rabbit251 ปีที่แล้ว +194

    I read an account of a Roman lord in the countryside. He feared the Goths coming and that they would kill him and his family. Instead, a Goth came knocking on his door and asked to buy his farm. The Roman gladly agreed. He then left and joined a monastery. Not all Goths were blood thirsty savages. Many wanted the comforts afford from the Empire.

    • @blastermaster5039
      @blastermaster5039 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      Haham yeah. The Goths in my RTW 1 campaign sieged my territory, send a diplomat, asked me that I should give up the town their siegin or they will attack and I gave it to them.
      Good thing the Goths took the heaviest brunt of the Hun and Vandal raids, lending me to crush both in turn.

    • @concept5631
      @concept5631 ปีที่แล้ว +19

      People forget that the Gauls, Goths, Huns, etc etc. the *_Other_* as painted by the Romans were just as human as you and I today.

    • @Alkis05
      @Alkis05 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

      That must have been during the osthrogoth kingdom of Theoderic the Great. During that period, they were still enforcing something resembling the roman way of life. It was even a prosperous time. It only lasted until the Lombards arrived.
      Or maybe it was during Visigothic hospitalitis period, when they settled in Gaul after paying military service for rome in Hiberia, pushing the vandals out of the peninsula. It was a period of accommodation and a degree of assimilation, until they broke peace in 469

    • @rabbit251
      @rabbit251 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@Alkis05 Thanks for the info. You're quite knowledgable Alkis. I wish more internet chats were professional like this.

    • @DrPeculiar312
      @DrPeculiar312 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      @@rabbit251 This dude has no clue what the hell he is talking about

  • @tomservo9254
    @tomservo9254 ปีที่แล้ว +377

    Patrick Wyman's Fall of Rome podcast spends many many many hours detailing this.
    TL;DR - Depends on where you were living. Britain or Northern Gaul? Pretty much a Mad Max level of social disintegration within your lifetime. Southern Gaul or Italy? A slow-boil decline you'd have barely noticed, until Belisarius shows up and everything falls off a cliff.

    • @michaeldunne338
      @michaeldunne338 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      Well Italy got worked over a bit between 401-411, with the invasions of Alaric's Goths and Radagiasus, as well as from instability that resulted in defections of foreign (German?) troops to the Goths. Having hostile armies moving up and down a peninsula like that is never good for civilian life. And, Rome was taken. Suspect pretty much the same four decades later, when the Huns invaded northern Italy, and the Vandals raided the coastline and sacked Rome.

    • @tomservo9254
      @tomservo9254 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      @@michaeldunne338 The importance of Rome proper was vastly diminished by that point, though. The sack(s) had immense psychological impact, but the fact that Alaric's sack didn't kill off the entire Empire right then and there is testament to its reduced material significance for the broader population. Raids and an increased barbarian influence had already been a fact of life in those areas for generations anyway.
      What really made the difference was that frontier provinces were far more artifically reliant on the presence of legions to sustain their economies. If you were a trader or a craftsman in Britain and suddenly no longer had soldiers around to buy your products or receiving the supplies needed to make your products, you're SOL. Closer to the interior the pretense of sucessor states maintaining Roman-like governance and the presence of older better-established trade routes made the fall much less precipitous - until the Gothic Wars annhiliated that structure and replaced it with a power vacuum the Byzantines couldn't properly fill, stripped the land clean with endless back-and-forth exchanges of territory, and added in a devestating bout of plague for good measure.

    • @michaeldunne338
      @michaeldunne338 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@tomservo9254 Rome was still one of the larger cities of the Empire at that time, and the run up to the sack and aftermath involved hostile armies of foreigners, with deserters and slaves, moving up and down the peninsula of Italy, a core territory of the Empire. Could say "reduced" importance given the wealth and/or stability of other areas (Africa, the East), but important all the same, contributing to the downward spiral of more disruption and mayhem, less taxes, and less resources for the Western Empire to defend itself.
      Your right about the frontiers, but the situation got even worse following the invasion of Radagaisus and maneuvers of Alaric's Goths - the Rhine frontier collapsed around AD 406/407, and barbarians tore across Gaul pretty rapidly, ravaging the landscape (AD 407 - 409 time period), reaching Iberia by AD 409/410. So much was going down right when Rome was actually taken and Goths were roving up and down the Italian peninsula. It was quite amazing that Roman forces held (as well as Honorius' imperium) under those circumstances.

    • @Lerxstification
      @Lerxstification ปีที่แล้ว +26

      Right now, we have a pretty good feel for what it's like to be living in a former empire (Superpower) going down the tubes right in front of our own eyes.
      Right, now more bread and circuses, order up some doordash and binge watch TIS.

    • @tja9212
      @tja9212 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      thist last standing garrison that went over the alp and got ambushed and killed - do you have some good searchterms to find out more about it? it sounds so interesting.

  • @OptimusMaximusNero
    @OptimusMaximusNero ปีที่แล้ว +49

    "Oh, city of Rome, enjoy your existence, as you shall fall ruled by a man named Romulus..."
    *-Last words of shepherd Remus*

    • @johkkarkalis8860
      @johkkarkalis8860 ปีที่แล้ว

      Prescient fellow, that Remus.
      Hardly brotherly love!

    • @christophzeit6282
      @christophzeit6282 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Source?

    • @johkkarkalis8860
      @johkkarkalis8860 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@christophzeit6282 Good question.
      Probably the same source that had Julius Caesar descended from the family of Aeneas.
      We take our myths and legends often seriously.
      No harm. They are entertaining and often serve to instruct the generations in duty, selflessness, and proper behavior.

    • @christophzeit6282
      @christophzeit6282 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@johkkarkalis8860 Just asking the exact source for the quote. Vergil?

    • @johkkarkalis8860
      @johkkarkalis8860 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@christophzeit6282 Oh, that I can't say. It was from another correspondent .
      Virgil sounds plausible but for the fact that he was a client of Gaius Maecenas who was a close friend and advisor to Octavian, the later Augustus Caesar.
      I think it would have been politically wise for Virgil to write quite favorably about the family of Caesar.
      I do like the quote. It has the feel of being uttered by some Oracle, and the ancients took that quite seriously.
      For me it can be a bit tricky to tease out fact from myth concerning the ancient civilizations. Rome is endlessly fascinating but I wouldn't care to live at a time when antibiotics and modern medicine were unknown.

  • @OptimusMaximusNero
    @OptimusMaximusNero ปีที่แล้ว +363

    *Fun fact:* There's an amazing comic about the Fall of the Western Empire called "Amiculus", in which the byzantines, after re-conquering Rome during the reign of Justinian, try to find out the fate of Romulus Augustulus while the last days of the boy as emperor are shown through flashbacks. Loved the way Orestes was portrayed here as a maniac obsessed with maintaining the Empire no matter what

    • @Taukingur
      @Taukingur ปีที่แล้ว +12

      Is there a way one can read it online?

    • @marvelfannumber1
      @marvelfannumber1 ปีที่แล้ว +21

      Cool idea for a comic actually, since the fate of Romulus Augustus is one of the bigger historical mysteries out there. Going to check it out if I stumble upon it.

    • @OptimusMaximusNero
      @OptimusMaximusNero ปีที่แล้ว +25

      @@marvelfannumber1 There are some really crazy theories out there about his fate. For example, the book "The Last Legion" reveals he fled to England and became the father of King Arthur

    • @OptimusMaximusNero
      @OptimusMaximusNero ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@Taukingur Nop, sorry. You will have to buy it if you want to enjoy it

    • @Taukingur
      @Taukingur ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@OptimusMaximusNero Maybe later.

  • @crossexamination2878
    @crossexamination2878 ปีที่แล้ว +16

    We are doing it right now. It feels like this.

    • @ericaallispn7284
      @ericaallispn7284 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Yep invasion of other countries immigrants breakdown in legal system lawlessness violence states separating economically and by ethics woke bullshit yeah America will be split in two Washington DC is finished

  • @marshalleubanks2454
    @marshalleubanks2454 ปีที่แล้ว +140

    Boethius's book, the Consolation of Philosophy, was incredibly influential in the Middle Ages. In England alone, it was translated into the vernacular by King Alfred the Great, Geoffrey Chaucer and Queen Elizabeth I.

    • @kaloarepo288
      @kaloarepo288 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      As Boethius was a Catholic and as Theodoric and his advisors were Arian Christians attempts have been made to make Boethius a Catholic saint in the mold of Sir Thomas More and Thomas Becket.

    • @QuantumHistorian
      @QuantumHistorian ปีที่แล้ว +6

      "By" the monarchs, or by scholars who politely dedicated them to their Monarchs and wrote that name on the cover?

    • @FrJohnBrownSJ
      @FrJohnBrownSJ ปีที่แล้ว +10

      Boethius is still taught to every student at the Jesuit high school in New Orleans.

    • @fod1235
      @fod1235 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Boethia

    • @marshalleubanks2454
      @marshalleubanks2454 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@FrJohnBrownSJ Excellent - in English, or Latin?

  • @darrynmurphy2038
    @darrynmurphy2038 ปีที่แล้ว +156

    I really wish that Rome hadn't fallen, not because it was such a great empire or that the times after were so harsh, but rather because people haven't stopped comparing it to their own times for the past 1,500 years

    • @Unknown-jt1jo
      @Unknown-jt1jo ปีที่แล้ว +33

      I'm sure the Romans would weep at inconveniencing you.

    • @SobekLOTFC
      @SobekLOTFC ปีที่แล้ว +18

      Slavery and fascism are not a good thing, bruh.
      No matter how fascinating the history is 😐

    • @darrynmurphy2038
      @darrynmurphy2038 ปีที่แล้ว +31

      @@Unknown-jt1jo It's not the Romans who are inconveniencing me at all, it's modern day Brits/Yanks who like to draw tenuous parallels with themselves and the Romans

    • @laststraw6734
      @laststraw6734 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      @@darrynmurphy2038 Aww, poor guy.

    • @Michael_the_Drunkard
      @Michael_the_Drunkard ปีที่แล้ว +36

      @@SobekLOTFC go back to reddit!

  • @automaticmattywhack1470
    @automaticmattywhack1470 ปีที่แล้ว +74

    Your little jokes for the captions for the pictures crack me up. Again, another fun and interesting topic and a top notch video! Thanks!

    • @bengiyardimli1925
      @bengiyardimli1925 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      For a moment i was like “wait a minute” until i realized it was a joke.

    • @samdherring
      @samdherring ปีที่แล้ว +9

      Gordonius Ramsius always knew where the lamb sauce was.

  • @JK-rv9tp
    @JK-rv9tp ปีที่แล้ว +8

    I was half way through Hello Fresh bit before I realized it wasn't a service offered during the Roman collapse by Saint Whatisname.

  • @alexthorpe2522
    @alexthorpe2522 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    There's no garum in this damn house!

  • @BadMetalCoin
    @BadMetalCoin ปีที่แล้ว +28

    Do you think Gordon Ramsey is related to Gordonius Ramsius? That would be a wild coincidence that both were/are famous chefs!!! 🤣

  • @kevting4512
    @kevting4512 ปีที่แล้ว +40

    Best way to describe the Fall of the Roman Empire is "It depends." If you're in the Eastern Empire, you'd probably be well off and life continues with minimal interruptions. In the Western Empire, it depends on location and circumstance. But in most areas, it was a transitional period from a Roman elite rule to a Germanic turned Roman rule.

    • @thewinner7382
      @thewinner7382 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      There was plenty of disruption in parts of the Eastern Roman Empire tbf, just mostly those parts near the balkans. And if you were living in Syria and the surrounding area your life had already felt under threat since the rise of the Sassanids.

    • @Ghall2708
      @Ghall2708 หลายเดือนก่อน

      If u were living in the east unless you were in Anatolia you were still getting raided. Around this time one of the emperors of the east allowed some Slavic tribes to live in Illyria to help protect them from the goths in the west. That’s the start of what we know today of places like Croatia and other Slavic countries. These Slavs betrayed the Romans tho and took the lands that the Romans gave them and created there own lil kingdom. The east was also invaded by Huns who marched all the way to Athens I believe

  • @ScrubbyBubbles
    @ScrubbyBubbles ปีที่แล้ว +15

    Kinda getting that feeling living in modern day USA. Love your videos man. Reminds me a lot of Felton WW2 videos with the level of quality.

    • @jmd1743
      @jmd1743 ปีที่แล้ว

      It's basically post-ww2 Britain & France such as the Suez canal crisis & the First Indochina War, the deindustrialization, and long economic recession.

    • @CantRead1
      @CantRead1 ปีที่แล้ว

      Internet: Modern? Bad.

    • @ms_cartographer
      @ms_cartographer 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      If the U.S. falls in my lifetime, I won't be sad. I'll never haveca good life no matter how hsrd I work. I came from nothing, and I still have nothing. So, I don't give a shit what happens to my country. My cou try doesn't care about me. Why should I care about my country?

  • @tomburke5311
    @tomburke5311 ปีที่แล้ว +111

    There's a very good book by Robin Fleming, 'Britain after Rome', and the first few chapters cover the 5thC. Her conclusion, based on archeology - mainly of burials - is that there was no formal invasion (there are no battlefields dating from that time, and precious few weapons in graves); that eastern England was considerably depopulated, starting from the last 4th C; that the towns were deserted; and that, based on the nature of the burials, a sparse, culturally-mixed population of very poor people lived there during that century. By the time of the 6thC, regional differences are emerging (brooches, for example, which leave traces in graves), the range and quality of grave goods has improved, and there are the first indications of local elites.
    All in all, in eastern England first, then in the rest of the former Roman provinces of Britannia, the slow fall of the western empire was a cataclysm. it destroyed society, which was eventually remade in a very different way over the next century and a half.

    • @Hmfirestormz
      @Hmfirestormz ปีที่แล้ว +8

      I’d imagine they all went poor and were culture less for about 200 years until the local warlords became kings

    • @anthonysaunders345
      @anthonysaunders345 ปีที่แล้ว

      Supercool stuff, and I have read that literature. I don't suppose is have a job otherwise. The main thing about those years is that not much had survived, and that tells one something. The video was addressing the immediate aftermath of the Roman withdrawal, and that's what I was addressing.400 years later is a different story and a different topic, but that's the cool thing about it. My apologists, but what you have written above is extremely worth discussing

    • @johnspurrier0001
      @johnspurrier0001 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      It was the beginning of the 1000 years of the dark ages.

    • @anthonysaunders345
      @anthonysaunders345 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@Hmfirestormz It depends what you mean by poor. By today's standards, the majority of people in the Roman Empire were poor. As mentioned elsewhere in this feed, there is little evidence of large-scale war in Post-Roman Britain. There may have been, but this idea is based on the assumption that everything collapsed after the Romans left. In fact, most of the local societal structures such as the Church, legal system, magistrates and other government officials were already native Britains before the Romans left, and probably would have remained in place after they left.

    • @garyhewitt489
      @garyhewitt489 ปีที่แล้ว

      It depends where in Britain you were.
      There's evidence that Britain was considered a safe haven for rich landowners prior to the imperial withdrawal.
      The cities and trade declined the villas raided and the slaves would swell the ranks of these raiders.
      After the carnage the land formally owned by Romano elites would be essentially not farmed, many of the population wouldn't have the knowledge or the inclination when roving bands could take whatever you produced.
      So the Saxons,Angles Jutes kinda moved into and utilised an empty land, and were prepared to defend it or take more.
      But in West Britain the Romans had took taxes and resources but the British essentially just carried on as they had.
      So the collapse was not quite so catastrophic.
      So called Tintagel Ware pottery and trade goods were still being imported presumably exchanged for metals wool and other traditional trade goods perhaps via Amorica.
      A tin mining community in Cornwall would have more direct communications and more in common with Brittany than any Roman city in Britain.

  • @juanfervalencia
    @juanfervalencia ปีที่แล้ว +10

    I promise I will support you in Patreon as soon as I get some money. Greetings from Colombia, this channel has been the best.

  • @jamesmiddleton1278
    @jamesmiddleton1278 ปีที่แล้ว +69

    Interesting how Britain disintegrated. An economy completely tied up with export to Rome, and with the legions vital to hold things together economically and militarily, if I understand correctly. Collapse of Pax Romanus left no warrior class to defend against the chaps coming over in longboats etc.
    So interesting. Thank you 😁

    • @SubjectiveFunny
      @SubjectiveFunny ปีที่แล้ว +6

      It's happening again right as we speak

    • @SubjectiveFunny
      @SubjectiveFunny ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @brandovlogs nothing cooler than an emo weeb.
      Good for you kid 💪

    • @garyhewitt489
      @garyhewitt489 ปีที่แล้ว

      It seems some of the frontier forts, manned by auxiliaries with families present, even when the imperial pay cheques stopped continued as communities.
      Rather poor but with solid defences they were not really worth trying to take and probably came to some sort of arrangement in order to survive a bit longer, but they were essentially isolated.

    • @samss6090
      @samss6090 ปีที่แล้ว

      @brandovlogs Why do Asian Women love European men so much?

    • @donottouch5421
      @donottouch5421 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@samss6090 Because the overlords are promoting race mixing.

  • @Jesse_Dawg
    @Jesse_Dawg ปีที่แล้ว +46

    Hearing the sacking or destruction of people just makes my heart ache. What a terrible sight and psychological impact that all had to have been. Your videos are really good. Please make more. And make more on the economics, valuable trade goods, coins, precious metals, and the elites. Please make more, thank you for all your hard work

    • @johkkarkalis8860
      @johkkarkalis8860 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Jesse Dawg sacking, pillage, plague have been our fortunes since recorded history.
      With the exception of early Genesis there never was a time when all was paradise.
      Edward Gibbon in his massive work on " The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" ( I cheated. I read only a one volume condensation) believed that if ever there was a time when mankind was happy and the affairs of man were wisely guided it was that time from the reign of emperor Nerva to the death of emperor Marcus Aurelius, approximately 85 years. A relatively long period in the history of the Empire. There were no homicidal lunatics ruling during that time span.
      So set your time machine for 96 A.D.

    • @metoo3342
      @metoo3342 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      @@johkkarkalis8860 Human brains haven't changed in over 300,000 years. The trauma of pillaging and sacking and plague would still have the same impact then as it does today. Even chimpanzees get PTSD and mental issues from violent conflicts.

    • @johkkarkalis8860
      @johkkarkalis8860 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@metoo3342 I agree, the size of our present day brain hasn't changed in 200,000 - 300,000 years based on what paleontologists tell us, but shape has apparently changed with development of our frontal cortex (so I have read).
      Pillaging, all manner of depredation has certainly been with us since we evolved into homo sapien, but so has cooperation as the principal tool of our survival.
      We are a witches brew of contradiction, yet we survive.
      I won't prognosticate how long we can keep going.
      For the Roman's of the 5th century things must have seemed grim. For the poor souls of the mid 14th century enduring the horrors of the Black Death it must have seemed like the end of the world; yet here we are 7 centuries later.
      Don't know whether it's resilience or just dumb luck.
      This gets into speculation that is way over my pay grade.

  • @Klueran
    @Klueran ปีที่แล้ว +3

    That ad transition was SMOOTH

  • @kidmohair8151
    @kidmohair8151 ปีที่แล้ว +48

    thank you for making this one...
    and to be honest for all the other videos you have done as well.
    it is widely taught that darkness descended on the day that the city of Rome fell.
    but like all empire falls, the daily life of the average joesephus and johanna would
    go on much as before until, as you say, they started to notice the absence of some things that would have formerly been readily available.
    and then, being human, they would shrug their shoulders and make do with what they had to hand.

  • @TorToroPorco
    @TorToroPorco ปีที่แล้ว +6

    The seamless transition to the commercial endorsement is a bit disorienting as though I’ve been lifted from Ancient Rome into modern day and then back via an errant time machine. The momentary discombobulation makes it difficult to skip through the ad placement. Nicely done.

  • @doublem1975x
    @doublem1975x ปีที่แล้ว +27

    The quote by Apollinaris really sticks in my head. To the common Roman citizen on the frontier the barbarian invasions must’ve felt like their world was coming to an end.

  • @Nathan-jt8zt
    @Nathan-jt8zt ปีที่แล้ว +13

    I’m on a boat on my way to work. Thank you for this, much needed

    • @TexasTeaHTX
      @TexasTeaHTX ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Where do you work lol?

    • @norymusic
      @norymusic ปีที่แล้ว +1

      What

    • @ryz8
      @ryz8 ปีที่แล้ว

      there's a lot of water right underneath you then

    • @Nathan-jt8zt
      @Nathan-jt8zt ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@ryz8 around 50 metres apparently, as shallow as 12 in some places though. I work on a wind farm

    • @matbroomfield
      @matbroomfield ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@Nathan-jt8zt Well that's uncommon.

  • @DensityMatrix1
    @DensityMatrix1 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    There is a pretty decent book on this. “Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark ages”
    Basically things got worse, but people managed. Remnants of Rome lived on in local traditions, titles and and customs.

  • @helmort
    @helmort 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

    I've dedicated a substantial part of my life to gaining a nuanced and precise understanding of the fall of Rome. Honestly, instead of arriving at a definitive answer, I've uncovered certain insights that I believe are essential for truly grasping what transpired. Think of these insights as keys that unlock a deeper understanding.
    1) Rome didn't truly collapse. While the Roman elite, the emperor, and the idea of identifying oneself as "Roman" may have faded, remnants of ancient Roman culture persist to this day. Look no further than the capitals of Europe, North and South America, adorned with majestic Greco-Roman columns and white sculptures. Above all, consider our alphabet; it remains identical to that of the Roman Empire. In essence, when we mention "Western society," we are essentially referring to the legacy of the Romans but in a transformed context.
    2) It's more accurate to view it as 'barbarians versus barbarians' rather than 'Romans versus barbarians' when analyzing the empire's decline. In the later stages of the Roman Empire, Romans often dressed, fought, and consisted of individuals we might classify as 'barbarians.' Indeed, distinguishing between the two groups is quite challenging. We often fail to make this distinction because art, media, movies, and our imagination tend to depict half-naked men rampaging as barbarians while portraying Romans as both civilized yet decadent. To some extent, we still adhere to the rhetoric and "racist" imagery of a world dominated by a "white" empire besieged by "inferior" races seeking dominance. This imagery can, in turn, justify certain actions in the name of civilization and averting a second "fall."
    3) The fall of the empire is frequently perceived as the total obliteration of a culture. However, the truth, eloquently conveyed in the video, is that diverse people with distinct cultures united to overthrow an antiquated and tyrannical authority. I've read numerous chronicles of people in Italy opening their cities to the barbarians and expressing gratitude for liberating them from burdensome and unjust taxation. These two cultures accomplished something extraordinary, reshaping the essence of European culture and Western civilization in Western Europe. For the first time, Europeans truly became Europeans, and the Middle Ages splendidly exemplified this explosion of melting pot creativity, art, culture, religion, and much more. (If you're well-versed in history, you know that the medieval era wasn't a 'dark age' but a flourishing period during which people invented many of the concepts and innovations we still use today).
    💀☠💀☠☠

    • @PRH123
      @PRH123 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Well said..!

  • @RickLowrance
    @RickLowrance ปีที่แล้ว +15

    Great video. I'll be watching this one several times since I really want to retain some of it. You've had a string of videos recently with great subjects. You are on the top of your game.

  • @pojoman7
    @pojoman7 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    Thank you for making these videos. Honestly love you keep it up thanks for the entertainment and detailed insight. Your Unmatched my guy.

  • @SobekLOTFC
    @SobekLOTFC ปีที่แล้ว +8

    Love it- keep up the great work, Garrett!

  • @unknown81360
    @unknown81360 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    2:05 Ah yes, the famous Gordonius Ramsius hahahah

  • @andrewhaley2758
    @andrewhaley2758 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    A new toldinstone video? Ave Professor, we who are about to watch, salute you!

  • @nonamernobrainer846
    @nonamernobrainer846 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    "Gordonius Ramsius"
    My guy almost got me, nice job

  • @BARTa.k.aECCENTRICVISIONARY
    @BARTa.k.aECCENTRICVISIONARY ปีที่แล้ว +2

    it's always a good day when toldinstone uploads. love what you do man, don't stop.

  • @wavecast64
    @wavecast64 ปีที่แล้ว +29

    I love this topic. I find the late Roman empire to be incredibly fascinating, especially the shift in culture to the medieval era, amazing video!

  • @henkspui
    @henkspui ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Thanks for yet again another upload!!

  • @YouTubeLate
    @YouTubeLate ปีที่แล้ว +39

    I’m trying to wrap my head around the scale of Roman power and authority during these times to be able to grasp what it really felt when Rome was sacked. The Roman Empire may have been huge but I’m thinking the farthest provinces from Rome surely would’ve had separatist sentiments and given how historically, these provinces were conquered states that only came into Roman control. If anything, the fall would’ve probably just been horrific the closer you are to Rome if not only within Rome.

    • @leonardodavid2842
      @leonardodavid2842 ปีที่แล้ว +31

      Virtually all provinces at the time of Rome decline (obviously the newest provinces were given up or lost first, thus didn’t experience the slow decline) had been part of the empire for centuries, usually around 300 to 400 years.
      That is, for example, longer than the US has existed. Much longer than Germany or Italy. As long as Scotland has been in a union with England.
      Many provinces like the Iberian provinces, Greek provinces, north African provinces, Balkan or souther Gaullic provinces had been part of the empire for over 500 years, and as much as 600 or 700 years.
      700 years.
      Now think of how Texas became part of the US in 1845 (not even 200 years ago). It was Mexican before that.

    • @FernandoMendoza-dw8nz
      @FernandoMendoza-dw8nz ปีที่แล้ว +8

      After being under Roman control for centuries most of the local elite would have considered themselves Roman nobility. The idea of the heart of the country being sacked I imagine would have been frightening.

    • @asoka7752
      @asoka7752 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@leonardodavid2842 US will end up like Rome too with the woke culture. So many weak men, a lot of men end up being transgenders, boys end up being transgender, women hate men, a lot of homosexuals, masculinity is attacked, family unit is attacked, family values are attacked, promote individualism and greed, a handful of elites control the mass. we are in the era of the western decline. it will slowly go down and within 100-200 years or maybe a little a bit later US will collapse, then west along with that.

  • @samuraieko5408
    @samuraieko5408 ปีที่แล้ว +22

    It was kind of like living through today's collapse, just without electricity, TV, or internet.

  • @jovanweismiller7114
    @jovanweismiller7114 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Garret, just a point of information, The graphic used to illustrate the 'British monk' of a century after the fall of Britannia is wearing the habit of a Franciscan friar, an Order founded in the 13th century.

  • @KoldAsHell
    @KoldAsHell ปีที่แล้ว +4

    At least they had a photo of the cookery of Gordonius Ramsius

  • @foowashere
    @foowashere ปีที่แล้ว

    A most splendid episode, thank you for making and sharing. 👍

  • @hagerty1952
    @hagerty1952 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Amazing how seamlessly you segue into the ad!

  • @TimBitten
    @TimBitten ปีที่แล้ว +2

    The Consolation of Philosophy is an unbelievably brilliant book. The language in it is so advanced that I had to hear it read by people who understood its context (free on Librivox) to get my head around what it was conveying, but it’s absolutely under-appreciated and under-read.

  • @asheland_numismatics
    @asheland_numismatics ปีที่แล้ว +6

    I love this channel! 👍

  • @hemaccabe4292
    @hemaccabe4292 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Love the captions.

  • @sethbartley2212
    @sethbartley2212 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Covered my man Boethius, automatic like from me!
    Great recap of the fall and the various transitions from a "ground floor" perspective.

  • @marshalleubanks2454
    @marshalleubanks2454 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    I really like the life of Severinus by Eugippius (circa 510). It has some pithy pieces, like
    "So long as the Roman dominion lasted, soldiers were maintained in many towns at the public expense to guard the border. When this custom ceased, the squadrons of soldiers and the border were blotted out together."

  • @tonybuckley6413
    @tonybuckley6413 ปีที่แล้ว

    must say you have one of the best history channels on the interweb.. good stuff dude ..

  • @quantafreeze
    @quantafreeze ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I love these videos. Great job

  • @a-complished4406
    @a-complished4406 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I always wanted to know exactly this. Awesome content

    • @aka99
      @aka99 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      If you are interested in that, i can suggest the channel Maiorianus and the channel History in 3D.

  • @LordTelperion
    @LordTelperion ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Thank you as always.

  • @frankreynolds4249
    @frankreynolds4249 ปีที่แล้ว

    i love watching your videos, i love getting high and watching your videos, and i love falling asleep to your videos. thank you.

  • @hamiljohn
    @hamiljohn ปีที่แล้ว

    Best transition yet!

  • @brucewilliams6292
    @brucewilliams6292 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Good seagueway. Thanks for the video.

  • @lavignesbeats
    @lavignesbeats ปีที่แล้ว

    Exactly the video I was hoping for this is perfect!

  • @oitoitoi1
    @oitoitoi1 ปีที่แล้ว

    one of your best videos!

  • @weilandiv8310
    @weilandiv8310 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    My great great uncle, Gazius, scored a VCR and KitchenAid blender.

  • @qboxer
    @qboxer ปีที่แล้ว +1

    My favourite time period . Looking forward to more Late Antiquity videos!

  • @slayerhuh404
    @slayerhuh404 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    I like this channel, keep it up. Just subbed.

  • @gryphon0468
    @gryphon0468 ปีที่แล้ว +16

    Ask an American what it’s like to live through the fall of the American Empire today.

    • @JudeFurr
      @JudeFurr 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      Not bad, we still have Sunday night football

    • @sirgalahad1376
      @sirgalahad1376 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      My belly is full I’m entertained and sleep safely at night. Must have felt like that in Rome before the fall. They never saw it coming.

  • @graccusbro2061
    @graccusbro2061 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Amazing stuff

  • @robbabcock_
    @robbabcock_ ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Great video!

  • @nicolasduplessis8483
    @nicolasduplessis8483 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Germanus in dire need of a red bull. It made me smirk, nice touch

  • @steener76
    @steener76 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    Watching this excellent video it occurred to me that it would generally suck to live in that time period.

  • @humbleacho3814
    @humbleacho3814 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Good commentary

  • @jamesrahe5287
    @jamesrahe5287 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    great video!

  • @joshdignam959
    @joshdignam959 ปีที่แล้ว

    these vidoes about what it was like to live in rome and the time travelers guide and the story telling ones like the night life one are incredible more please :D

  • @jonathanjochem7289
    @jonathanjochem7289 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Best episode in a while.

    • @aka99
      @aka99 ปีที่แล้ว

      If you are interested in that, i can suggest the channel Maiorianus and the channel History in 3D.

    • @jonathanjochem7289
      @jonathanjochem7289 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@aka99 thanks. I'll check it out.

  • @optomixx4050
    @optomixx4050 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Great Video. Look forward to seeing them every week. Would you consider posting on Rumble as well?

  • @stevejohnson3357
    @stevejohnson3357 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    I read the consolation of philosophy and in some ways it sounds very modern even though nobody writes in that exact style. He didn't sound worried either, I think, because he had a voice in the court in Cassiodoris. He knew when to keep his mouth shut and lived to be 93.

  • @jordansiqueido2101
    @jordansiqueido2101 ปีที่แล้ว

    Brand new to the channel. Please keep up your "Strait Take" on the ancient topic stuf. I'm commenting at 5:45 and sooooo greatful you went with cooking advertising, and not Curiosity Brainwash Dream

  • @johnspizziri1919
    @johnspizziri1919 ปีที่แล้ว

    Excellent!!

  • @gordianknot6867
    @gordianknot6867 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Probably very similar to how it feels to live in majority of Europe or UK now.

  • @dphunk87
    @dphunk87 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    This may be the smoothest work in of a paid promotion I've ever seen on TH-cam 🎉

  • @jonathanjochem7289
    @jonathanjochem7289 ปีที่แล้ว +11

    Dr. Ryan, You mentioned an upcoming video about Roman mosaics. Is that still in the works or did I miss it? I'm really looking forward to it. Also, would an episode on Epicurus and his followers be possible? Your videos are always a springboard for further reading. Thank you.

    • @toldinstone
      @toldinstone  ปีที่แล้ว +13

      No, the mosaic video is still in the works. I have a video on popular philosophy in the Roman Empire planned for later this year, which will explore the Stoic and Epicurean schools.

    • @BuriedFlame
      @BuriedFlame ปีที่แล้ว

      @@toldinstone The future of the mosiacs is blurry. Very apt.

  • @DarthBane959
    @DarthBane959 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Top notch stuff. I canceled my cable subscription recently because channels like this exist

    • @aka99
      @aka99 ปีที่แล้ว

      If you are interested in that, i can suggest the channel Maiorianus and the channel History in 3D.

  • @GarfieldRex
    @GarfieldRex ปีที่แล้ว +9

    Beautiful video. Would be awesome to see the transition, the adaptation of the Romans to the barbarian new rule per region. 👌

  • @markketchum5765
    @markketchum5765 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    We are all about to find out

  • @presidentpotato222
    @presidentpotato222 ปีที่แล้ว

    We are about To go through part 2

  • @jatincranmore6616
    @jatincranmore6616 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Anybody else catch the Gordonius Ramsius kitchen picture? I didn’t realize he got his start in ancient Rome

  • @udaaz
    @udaaz ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Very nice 👍

  • @erichughes1166
    @erichughes1166 ปีที่แล้ว

    The smoothest seg into an ad.

  • @Ray-eg8ub
    @Ray-eg8ub ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Its weird thing to ask but how ancient people saw metal oxidizing or any other chemicals reaction

  • @matthewhammond859
    @matthewhammond859 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    Where can I find the sources of your quotes? Please could you detail them in your video somewhere in future. This is priceless information.

    • @aka99
      @aka99 ปีที่แล้ว

      If you are interested in that, i can suggest the channel Maiorianus and the channel History in 3D.

  • @jussikomulainen7129
    @jussikomulainen7129 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I literally just thought abt this question?!

  • @donpcmartin
    @donpcmartin 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    That segue to the hello fresh Ad 😂😂😂

  • @ProvisionalPatrioticAlliance
    @ProvisionalPatrioticAlliance ปีที่แล้ว

    We're about to find out

  • @domineprinceps
    @domineprinceps ปีที่แล้ว

    Was hoping for a Sidonius reference. Was not disappointed. I recall that he also mentioned 476 as the end of central Roman rule in the provinces.

  • @Kriegter
    @Kriegter ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Modern: The year 476 AD marked the end of the greatest empire of the ancient world when Romulus Augustulus was deposed, the world turned dark for half a millenium and returned to barbaric times...
    People at the time: "did you know that the young usurper just got replaced 🤓??"
    "I don't care about nerdy politics smartass talk go clean your room"

  • @Willigula
    @Willigula ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I even enjoy your commercial announcements.

  • @mtvntn
    @mtvntn ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I’m starting to believe that these paintings we witness are not the scene of a particular moment, but scenes of moments that all come together to express what happened during those times. The paintings were a movie all in one shot.

    • @histguy101
      @histguy101 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      They're Renaissance paintings that don't reflect reality at all.

  • @julesknight1511
    @julesknight1511 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    "Heavy metal bassist..." had me 🤣

    • @asgerms
      @asgerms ปีที่แล้ว

      When I was done laughing, I had to check if there was a metal band called Visigoths, simply because it sounds heavy. Of course there is :)

  • @jerryware1970
    @jerryware1970 ปีที่แล้ว

    We’re about to find out.

  • @JessmanChicken86
    @JessmanChicken86 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    5:46 sounds like the plot to a movie

  • @Carlton-B
    @Carlton-B ปีที่แล้ว +13

    The last emperor in the West should be Julius Nepos. After he fled Rome (or Ravenna), he ruled from Dalmatia. Odovacar, who sent the standards back to Constantinopolis in 476, acknowledged Nepos as the Western emperor during the late 470s. He was assassinated, possibly by minions of Glycerius (whom he deposed), in 480. It seems like a raw deal to me that he doesn't get called the last emperor of the West.
    Theodoric the Great eventually nearly reassembled the Western empire, by marriage and war, but died of old age before it was accomplished.
    The real end of Rome occurred during the Gothic War of the 540s. Italy was devastated and the old institutions destroyed, and the great Roman families wiped out during that war.
    The fifth century is my favorite part of Roman history, and I dearly wish that Sidonius Apollinaris had written a history.

    • @histguy101
      @histguy101 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Theoderic is totally the last de facto emperor of the west. In 497, Anastasius sent the western imperial regalia, diadem, etc back to Theoderic in Ravenna and named him Vicarius/Exarch of Italy. It's too bad he didn't leave a good successor in place.

    • @Carlton-B
      @Carlton-B ปีที่แล้ว

      @@histguy101 100% agree.

  • @georgg372
    @georgg372 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I once read a pretty interesting article on an Austrian Newspaper's Archeology Blog that e.g. in Noricum's more remote valleys and in the Areas where Germanic tribes did not constantly move through, but also in areas such as Flavia Solva some people where kinda relieved not having to pay taxes to dysfunctional central authorities anymore, which had been proven in the previous Germanic raids. of course under the presumption that these people had survived in reestablished hill forts (mostly by repurposing temples on hills) which then turned into new settlements.

  • @Maximilion420
    @Maximilion420 ปีที่แล้ว

    Love the video and great information. But your delivery sounds more robotic than siri

  • @pdub9925
    @pdub9925 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    Western civilization will likely find out first hand again

    • @monrow1961
      @monrow1961 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Its happening right now, digitalization is destroying the physical economy/infrastructure.
      Mass migration, political instability & plague, fertility crisis, stagnation/breakdown of arts and culture, droughts, starvation and climate change etc.

  • @YouTubemessedupmyhandle
    @YouTubemessedupmyhandle ปีที่แล้ว +10

    Pestilence, collapse of established social orders, persecution by religious bigots, endless wars… no, I can’t picture it either.

  • @Dogbrainsyndrome
    @Dogbrainsyndrome ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Top 5 TH-cam channel all time

  • @samuelroyal7236
    @samuelroyal7236 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    How the romans celebrate birthdays?
    When did the people stop identifying as romans?
    Was Atheism shunned in the roman empire?

  • @Redjar007
    @Redjar007 ปีที่แล้ว

    Been a subscriber for months and just now realized your name isn’t some exotic European name rather “told in stone” without spaces