Between 350 and 750, western Europe underwent a profound transformation. The Roman empire, which had dominated the ancient world for more than half a millennium, collapsed. The last Western Roman emperor was deposed in 476, while new peoples competed with the Roman population and with each other. Gothic tribes traveled across the empire to found kingdoms in France, Spain, and Italy. They were driven in turn by the nomadic Huns, whose power expanded dramatically from the east and disappeared just as suddenly. The Franks advanced from the banks of the Rhine River to carve out the only early Germanic kingdom which laid the foundation for a modern country. And in Britain, the Anglo-Saxons moved into the vacuum left by the Roman collapse to settle the lands that would become England. Historian David Gwynn traces the entangled stories of these four remarkable peoples, each of which interacted in different ways with the Roman empire and its legacy and together shaped the history of Christian Europe and Western civilization.

Gwynn is an associate professor in ancient and late antique history at Royal Holloway in the University of London and author of several books, including The Goths: Lost Civilizations and Christianity in the Later Roman Empire: A Sourcebook.

Session Information

The Goths

In August 410, the imperial city of Rome was sacked by the army led by Alaric the Goth. It was an event that came to symbolize the Western Roman empire’s decline and fall, and across the next three centuries Gothic kings ruled at different times over southern France, Italy, and Spain. Gwynn brings these kingdoms to life through the magnificent art and monuments which have survived and writings of those who lived under Gothic dominion. Far from representing a “dark age” of barbarism, Ostrogothic Italy and Visigothic Spain were thriving centers of culture, cut short by the reconquests of the eastern emperor Justinian and the rising power of Islam.

Additional Sessions of the Rivals and Inheritors Course

• March 11: The Huns
• March 18: The Franks
• March 25: The Anglo-Saxons

General Information

• View Common FAQs and Policies about our Online Programs on Zoom.