CLAH266 – week 12
Dr Jamie Wood
THE FALL OF THE ROMAN
EMPIRE: CAUSES AND
INTERPRETATIONS

Introduction
 The fall of the western Roman Empire
 Scholarly interpretations of the fall of the
empire
 The fall of the empire in the popular
imagination
 Exam

Early 450s: success then trouble
 451: in alliance with the Theoderic, King of the
Visigoths, the Roman general Aetius defeated Attila’s
Hunnic army at Chalons in Gaul
 453: Aetius betrothes his daughter to Valentinian III
 454: Valentinian, under influence of other advisors, kills
Aetius
 455: one of advisors, Petronius Maximus arranges for
Aetius’ former officers to assassinate Valentinian III
 PM marries Val III’s widow
 Eastern court refuses to accept PM as emperor
 PM tries to get aid from the Visigoths but it does not arrive
 PM cancels wedding of Val III’s daughter to the son of the
Vandal king, who sails to Rome and sacks the city
 PM is abandoned by his troops and killed by a mob in Rome

Anonymous, Life of Saint
Genovefa, 10, 12
 When it was noised abroad that Attila the King of the Huns, overcome
with savage rage, was laying waste the province of Gaul, the terror-
stricken citizens of Paris sought to save their goods and money from his
power by moving them to other, safer cities. But Genovefa summoned the
matrons of the city and persuaded them to undertake a series of fasts,
prayers, and vigils in order to ward off the threatening disaster, as Esther
and Judith had done in the past. Agreeing with Genovefa, the women
gave themselves up to God and labored for days in the baptistery--fasting,
praying and keeping watch as she directed. Meanwhile she persuaded the
men that they should not remove their goods from Paris because the
cities they deemed safer would be devastated by the raging Huns while
Paris, guarded by Christ, would remain untouched by her enemies. [...] On
that day the Apostle's word was fulfilled: "All men have not faith. But the
Lord is faithful who shall establish you and keep you from evil.” The
Bishops Martin and Anianus have been greatly praised for their amazing
virtues. One day, near the city of Worms, the former went into battle
without weapons. Having thus allayed the fury of the opposing armies, he
obtained a treaty. And when the Huns besieged the city of Orleans, the
latter by his prayers assisted the Patrician Aetius and his Goths in keeping
it from destruction. Aren't the same honors due to Genovefa, who drove
away the same army by her prayers so that it would not surround Paris?

Late 450s: attempts to recover
 455-456: Eparchius Avitus, PM’s envoy to the Visigoths,
is made emperor with their support and that of Gallo-
Roman nobility; but
 Lack of support from East
 Visigoths act independently in Spain
 Italians don’t like being ruled by a foreigner
 Disloyalty of his generals
 He is defeated and forced to become a bishop
 457-461: Majorian
 General: victory over Visigoths, Burgundians and Sueves in
Gaul and Spain
 But his fleet to attack the Vandals in Africa is destroyed:
 “While Majorian was campaigning in the province of
Carthaginiensis the Vandals destroyed, through traitors, several
ships that he was preparing for himself for a crossing against the
Vandals from the shore of Carthaginiensis. Majorian, frustrated in
this manner from his intention, returned to Italy”
(Hydatius, Chronicle, 200, s.a. 460)

Flavius Ricimer (d. 472)
 German general (magister militum)
 Effectively in control of the Western Empire from
mid-450-472
 Rebels against Avitus and Majorian
 Replaces Majorian with series of (increasingly short-lived)
emperors he can control; but
 Not recognised by eastern emperors
 Or barbarians in western provinces, who increasingly act
independently of Rome and take more territory away
 Natural death

Julius Nepos (r. 474-475)
 General in (autonomous) control of Dalmatia
 Appointed Western Emperor by the Eastern
Emperor Leo I in 474
 He soon replaced Glycerius in Italy
 Soon deposed by Orestes, western magister
militum in 475
 Remains in control in Dalmatia until his death in
480

Romulus Augustulus (r. 475-476)
 Child, son of Orestes
 Figurehead for his father
 Rome controls little more than
Italy and part of southern Gaul
 Revolt of barbarian troops in
Italy under the general
Odoacer demanding territory:
 Orestes killed and Romulus
Augustulus deposed
 Odoacer
 Sends imperial regalia to
Constantinople
 Styles himself King of Italy
 Rules in name of Eastern Emperor
Zeno

Summary
 Contextual problems/ solutions
 Loss of territory
 Military defeats (but still some successes)
 Diplomacy: marriage alliances and external aid
 Rapid turnover of emperors
 Too many cooks?
 Eastern Empire
 Roman aristocrats in Italy and S. Gaul
 Barbarian kings
 Barbarian generals and troops in Roman army

The political-cultural context
of Gibbon’s work
 Political
 Empire
 Absolutism vs. democracy
and reform
 Revolution
 Formation of nations
 Intellectual
 Enlightenment
 Rationalism over religion
 Science
 History as science –
historicism in 19th C

Edward Gibbon (1737-1794):
An introduction
 Wealthy family
 Educated in London and Oxford
 Passion for theological controversy
 Conversion to Catholicism and back to
Protestantism
 5 years studying in Lausanne
 Literary celebrity
 Service in South Hampshire militia
 1762: commences Grand Tour, including travel to
Rome, where he says idea for the Decline and Fall
took root
 1773: appointed honorary 'professor in ancient
history' at the Royal Academy
 1774: MP for Liskeard, Cornwall
 1776-1788: publication of the Decline and Fall in 6
volumes

Looking back on Rome:
Gibbon’s Autobiography
 “...at the distance of twenty-five years I can
neither forget nor express the strong emotions
which agitated my mind as I first approached
and entered the eternal City. After a sleepless
night, I trod, with a lofty step the ruins of the
Forum; each memorable spot where Romulus
stood, or Tully spoke, or Caesar fell, was at once
present to my eye; and several days of
intoxication were lost or enjoyed before I could
descend to a cool and minute investigation.”

The impact of Gibbon’s work
 The volumes were a commercial and
literary success
 Negative appraisals:
 Strongly criticised for its view of Christianity
(chapters 15-16 banned in several countries)
 Accused on anti-Semitism
 Negative view of middle ages: “I have
described the triumph of barbarism and
religion.” (3.71)
 Rejection of contemporary democratic
movements
 Positive appraisals:
 Praised for its style (e.g. by Winston
Churchill) and ideas (Isaac Asimov)
 Emphasised importance of primary sources
rather than secondary accounts (first
modern historian?)

Edward Gibbon’s reasons for
the fall
 Internal factors are pre-
eminent
 Factors built in to the imperial
system
 the role of the army
 the role of the emperor
 Christianity weakens the
Roman spirit
 monks rather than legionaries
 The (manly) barbarians defeat
an already-decrepit system

210 Reasons for the decline of the Roman  Citizenship, granting of  Epidemics
Empire (source: A. Demandt, Der Fall  Civil war  Equal rights, granting of
Roms (1984) 695; see also: Karl  Climatic deterioration  Eradication of the best
Galinsky in Classical and Modern
 Communism  Escapism
Interactions (1992) 53-73)
 Complacency  Ethnic dissolution
 Abolition of gods
 Concatenation of misfortunes  Excessive aging of population
 Abolition of rights
 Conservatism  Excessive civilization
 Absence of character
 Corruption  Excessive culture
 Absolutism
 Cosmopolitanism  Excessive foreign infiltration
 Agrarian question
 Crisis of legitimacy  Excessive freedom
 Agrarian slavery
 Culinary excess  Excessive urbanization
 Anarchy
 Cultural neurosis  Expansion
 Anti-Germanism
 Decentralization  Exploitation
 Apathy
 Decline of Nordic character  Fear of life
 Aristocracy
 Decline of the cities  Female emancipation
 Asceticism
 Decline of the Italian population  Feudalization
 Attack of the Germans
 Deforestation  Fiscalism
 Attack of the Huns
 Degeneration  Gladiatorial system
 Attack of riding nomads
 Degeneration of the intellect  Gluttony
 Backwardness in science
 Demoralization  Gout
 Bankruptcy
 Depletion of mineral resources  Hedonism
 Barbarization
 Despotism  Hellenization
 Bastardization
 Destruction of environment  Heresy
 Blockage of land by large landholders
 Destruction of peasantry  Homosexuality
 Blood poisoning
 Destruction of political process  Hothouse culture
 Bolshevization
 Destruction of Roman influence  Hubris
 Bread and circuses
 Devastation  Hypothermia
 Bureaucracy
 Differences in wealth  Immoderate greatness
 Byzantinism
 Disarmament  Imperialism
 Capillarite sociale
 Disillusion with stated  Impotence
 Capitalism
 Division of empire  Impoverishment
 Capitals, change of
 Division of labor  Imprudent policy toward buffer states
 Caste system
 Earthquakes  Inadequate educational system
 Celibacy
 Egoism  Indifference
 Centralization
 Egoism of the state  Individualism
 Childlessness
 Emancipation of slaves  Indoctrination
 Christianity
 Enervation  Inertia

 Inflation  Nationalism of Rome's subjects  Ruin of middle class
 Intellectualism  Negative selection  Rule of the world
 Integration, weakness of  Orientalization  Semieducation
 Irrationality  Outflow of gold  Sensuality
 Jewish influence  Over refinement  Servility
 Lack of leadership  Pacifism  Sexuality
 Lack of male dignity  Paralysis of will  Shamelessness
 Lack of military recruits  Paralyzation  Shifting of trade routes
 Lack of orderly imperial succession  Parasitism  Slavery
 Lack of qualified workers  Particularism  Slavic attacks
 Lack of rainfall  Pauperism  Socialism (of the state)
 Lack of religiousness  Plagues  Soil erosion
 Lack of seriousness  Pleasure seeking  Soil exhaustion
 Large landed properties  Plutocracy  Spiritual barbarism
 Lead poisoning  Polytheism  Stagnation
 Lethargy  Population pressure  Stoicism
 Leveling, cultural  Precociousness  Stress
 Leveling, social  Professional army  Structural weakness
 Loss of army discipline  Proletarization  Superstition
 Loss of authority  Prosperity  Taxation, pressure of
 Loss of energy  Prostitution  Terrorism
 Loss of instincts  Psychoses  Tiredness of life
 Loss of population  Public baths  Totalitarianism
 Luxury  Racial degeneration  Treason
 Malaria  Racial discrimination  Tristesse
 Marriages if convenience  Racial suicide  Two-front war
 Mercenary system  Rationalism  Underdevelopment
 Mercury damage  Refusal of military service  Useless eaters
 Militarism  Religious struggles and schisms  Usurpation of all powers by the state
 Monetary economy  Rentier mentality  Vain gloriousness
 Monetary greed  Resignation  Villa economy
 Money, shortage of  Restriction to profession  Vulgarization
 Moral decline  Restriction to the land
 Moral idealism  Rhetoric
 Moral materialism  Rise of uneducated masses
 Mystery religions  Romantic attitudes to peace

Understanding the barbarian
migrations after Gibbon: some
theories
 Germanist (‘catastrophe’) model
 nineteenth century –everything that was new in the 5th, 6th, 7th and
later centuries was the result of ‘Germanic’ influence
 Romanist (‘continuity’) model
 Germanic invaders are seen as creating little that was new –
migrations are the movements of small warrior elites.
 Nowadays:
 French and Italians refer to ‘the barbarian invasions’ (les invasions
barbares)
 English and Germans talk of ‘migrations’ (also: Völkerwanderungen
– wanderings of peoples)

Ethnoarchaeology in the early 20th
century
 Location of a people linguistically enables
archaeologists could find physical evidence
of the material culture of that people
 Gustaf Kossinna traced migration routes of
late antiquity on this basis
 Enabled modern states to claim regions of
neighbouring states on the basis that they were
the original homeland of their people
 But this is wrong – Chris Wickham: “a man or
woman with a Lombard-style brooch is no
more necessarily a Lombard than a family in
Bradford with a Toyota is Japanese; artefacts
are no secure guide to ethnicity”

Gothic and other Germanic settlements, 1800–100 BC, according to
Madison Grant, The Passing of the Great Race, following Kossinna's
model (1916)

The Hunnensturm
 The Huns as catalyst
1. Hunnic empire leads to
coalescence of ‘supergroups’ –
e.g. Ostrogoths
2. Huns push other peoples into
empire
3. Huns encouraged to go west
by Eastern Empire
 Peter Heather = key recent
scholar on this phenomenon
(not universally accepted)

Ethnogenesis theory and its
opponents
 Birth of ethnically defined communities not mass migration,
but movement of small warrior elites
 Wolfram’s History of the Goths, building on work of Reinhard Wenskus
 Traditionskern:
 Oral tradition preserves memories of the people’s past age for small
barbarian warrior elites that (a) entered Roman territory and (b)
managed to succeed in competition with other small elites
 The Vienna School
 These communities (and their histories) are the product of
contact with educated Roman elites (and their ethnographic
traditions)
 The barbarian past as a product of Christian and Roman writers
writing on Roman soil for short-term purposes
 The Toronto School

Medieval visions of Rome
 Successor kingdoms
 Victory over Rome (e.g.
Visigoths)
 Common descent and peaceful
succession to Rome (e.g.
Franks)
 Institutional memories
 Medieval Papacy: the Roman
church as successor of empire
 Imperial successors
 Holy Roman Empire (800): a re-
founded empire
 Continuity in Byzantium

Renaissance and Reformation
 Renaissance:
 self-conception/
representation as period
of rebirth of classical
learning
 Reformation:
 Papacy and Holy Roman
Emperor take on key
role in counter-reform
movement
 Personal identity:
 Writers such as Erasmus
& Luther cultivate
connections to church
fathers writing under
later empire (e.g. Fall of Constantinople (painted 1499)
Jerome & Augustine)

Emil Brack, Planning the
Grand Tour, late 19th century
18th & 19th Century
 The Grand Tour
 Emerging nation states in western Europe trace their origins to the post-
Roman kingdoms; so end of Roman rule is important
 International empires look to Roman Empire as example (and try to learn
from it)
 E.g. Training elites to govern the empire
 Roman Republic and foundations of American Republic

The fall of Rome...
 The Fall of the Roman
Empire (1964)
 Agora (2009)
• What factors do these
trailers suggest are
responsible for the fall of
Rome?

The birth of Britain...
2004
2007 • Who is made responsible for the
fall of Rome in these trailers
• What do the trailers suggest
happened next?

A cultural phenomenon
 NOVELS. Gore Vidal, Julian (1964):
historical novel based in primary
sources; impact of Christianity on
empire; Christianity and politics;
blames Christians for murder of
Julian
 VIDEO GAMES. Rome: Total War –
Barbarian Invasions (2005): eastern
and western empire; senate no
longer powerful; barbarians; hordes;
religious tension between
Christians, pagans, Zoroastrians

Parallelism: Rome and America

The decline of America

Discussion
 What periods/ geographical-political areas
are particularly interested in this topic?
 What can these depictions tell us about the
fall of Rome?
 What else can they tell us?

Summary
 Reception
 Evokes strong responses
 Highly stereotyped visions of what
actually happened
 2 strands:
 A model to learn from and emulate
 A negative example: an evil empire
 Particularly important for thinking
about the fate of nations and empires
 Utility
 Not very useful for telling us what happened in antiquity
 But possibly useful for thinking about the topic in different
ways or bringing us back to traditional interpretations
 And definitely useful for what it tells us about periods in which
such re-imaginings took (and still take) place

Exam
 2 sections
 2 questions
 2 hours
 Equally weighted
 A: 1 question from 8
 B: explain the relevance of at least TWO gobbets
(from 8) to our understanding of the political, religious
and social functioning of the later Roman Empire
 i.e. Write ONE answer that draws on at least TWO
gobbets

Gobbet practice
Think about the following:
 What you know of the context/ contents of the
text and its author
 The main point(s) the author is making
 The genre(s) of the texts
 The main similarities (and differences) between
the extracts
 How these extracts relate to bigger themes on
the course (and/or other courses)

Sozomen Ecclesiastical History 2.3
We have been informed that Constantine was led to honour the Christian religion by
the concurrence of several different events, particularly by the appearance of a sign
from heaven. When he first formed the resolution of entering into a war against
Maxentius, he was beset with doubts as to the means of carrying on his military
operations, and as to the quarter whence he could look for assistance. In the midst of
his perplexity, he saw, in a vision, the sight of the cross shining in heaven. He was
amazed at the spectacle, but some holy angels who were standing by, exclaimed, Oh,
Constantine! By this symbol, conquer! And it is said that Christ himself appeared to
him, and showed him the symbol of the cross, and commanded him to construct one
like it, and to retain it as his help in battle, as it would insure the victory. Eusebius,
surnamed Pamphilus, affirms that he heard the emperor declare with an oath, as the
sun was on the point of inclining about the middle of the day, he and the soldiers who
were with him saw in heaven the trophy of the cross composed of light, and encircled
by the following words: By this sign, conquer. This vision met him by the way, when he
was perplexed as to whither he should lead his army. While he was reflecting on what
this could mean, night came; and when he fell asleep, Christ appeared with the sign
which he had seen in heaven, and commanded him to construct a representation of
the symbol, and to use it as his help in hostile encounters. There was nothing further to
be elucidated; for the emperor clearly apprehended the necessity of serving God. At
daybreak, he called together the priests of Christ, and questioned them concerning
their doctrines. They opened the sacred Scriptures, and expounded the truths relative
to Christ, and showed him from the prophets, how the signs which had been
predicted, had been fulfilled. The sign which had appeared to him was the symbol,
they said, of the victory over hell [...]

Damascius, Life of Isidore,
quoted in Suda, under Hypatia
Such was Hypatia, as articulate and eloquent in speaking as she was prudent
and civil in her deeds. The whole city rightly loved her and worshipped her in a
remarkable way, but the rulers of the city from the first envied her, something
that often happened at Athens too. For even if philosophy itself had perished,
nevertheless, its name still seems magnificent and venerable to the men who
exercise leadership in the state. Thus it happened one day that Cyril, bishop of
the opposition sect, was passing by Hypatia's house, and he saw a great
crowd of people and horses in front of her door. Some were arriving, some
departing, and others standing around. When he asked why there was a
crowd there and what all the fuss was about, he was told by her followers that
it was the house of Hypatia the philosopher and she was about to greet them.
When Cyril learned this he was so struck with envy that he immediately began
plotting her murder and the most heinous form of murder at that. For when
Hypatia emerged from her house, in her accustomed manner, a throng of
merciless and ferocious men who feared neither divine punishment nor
human revenge attacked and cut her down, thus committing an outrageous
and disgraceful deed against their fatherland. The Emperor was angry, and he
would have avenged her had not Aedesius been bribed. Thus the Emperor
remitted the punishment onto his own head and family for his descendant
paid the price. The memory of these events is still vivid among the
Alexandrians.

Practice question
 Did the reforms of Diocletian save the Roman
Empire from collapse or condemn it to
failure?

Some advice
1. Collect and review everything; get an overview of
the module, including themes, then pick topics
2. Work together
3. Timings - be sensible
4. Read the question and write a plan: don’t just
download everything you know
5. Prioritise: have 3 or 4 main points
6. Answer the question:
a. Make sure every paragraph relates back to it
b. If in doubt, leave the first 3 lines blank
7. Use the gobbets