At its peak, the Roman empire extended from Britain to the Sahara Desert, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Euphrates River. Yet in 476, the last western Roman emperor was deposed. Imperial authority survived in the east, centered in the city of Constantinople, but the western regions were divided between Germanic kingdoms and the rising influence of the papacy. Historian David Gwynn analyzes the dramatic events which shaped the decline and fall of the Roman empire in the west, exploring the transformation from the ancient to the medieval world that laid the foundations for modern Europe.

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

Session Information

Goths, Huns, and Vandals

In the summer of 376, an estimated 100,000 Gothic men, women, and children descended upon the Roman empire’s Danube River frontier. They came as refugees not invaders, fleeing the advance of the nomadic Huns, and their arrival set in motion the complex train of events that culminated in the collapse of Roman power in the west. Gwynn offers a wide-ranging account, from the Goths under Alaric who sacked Rome and the Hun empire of Attila to the Vandal conquest of North Africa and the abandonment of Roman Britain, ending with the deposition of emperor Romulus Augustulus and the disappearance of the western Roman empire.

Additional Sessions of the Fall of Rome and Birth of Europe Series

• April 9: Imperial Power and Christian Triumph
• April 23: The Rome that Did Not Fall
• April 30: Barbarian Kings and Roman Popes

General Information

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