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00:01Rome, the greatest and most powerful civilization in the history of mankind.
00:07It would rule the world for over a millennium.
00:12Mark Antony, Augustus, Nero, Caligula, and of course Julius Caesar.
00:19Whether emperor, general, senator, or dictator, the names of these illustrious Romans are forever associated with the power of Rome.
00:30Through a series of victorious military campaigns, the Romans were able to build an immense empire that spanned the continents
00:39of Europe, Asia, and Africa.
00:42And yet, despite its glory, enormous wealth, and its many military conquests and triumphs, Rome would eventually fall.
00:52How did one of the greatest and most powerful empires in the history of mankind, which inspired many Hollywood classics,
00:59eventually reach its end?
01:02There's one point that pretty much everyone agrees on.
01:05The fall of the Roman Empire wasn't sudden. It took decades, if not centuries.
01:10We'll unravel the mystery behind one of the most famous and fascinating events in human history.
01:16The fall of the Roman Empire.
01:27It's here in Rome, the capital of modern Italy, that the history of one of the greatest civilizations of all
01:33time began.
01:37What remains of this city, a veritable open-air museum known as the Eternal City, still bears all the hallmarks
01:45of its glorious past.
01:49The Colosseum, the empire's most enduring symbol, attracts tens of millions of visitors every year, fascinated by the arena where,
01:59almost 2,000 years ago, Roman citizens came to watch the public games.
02:07When we think of the Roman Empire, we think of the grandiose monuments, sumptuous banquets, but also episodes of conquest
02:16and battle.
02:18This important chapter in history is often evoked in literature and movies such as Cleopatra or Gladiator, which have contributed
02:28to the image we have of it.
02:34But colossal archaeological remains, as well as big-budget Hollywood films, often fail to capture the scope of Rome's civilizing
02:43influence.
02:45This crucial period in history shaped many regions of the world, from Europe to the Middle East, by North Africa.
02:52Even today, they still bear traces of Rome, most notably the architectural remains.
02:57It also laid the foundations of Western civilization.
03:00The fall of the Roman Empire closed the period of antiquity, and marked the beginning of the Middle Ages.
03:07Before the Roman Empire, the Roman Republic had governed for almost 500 years, right up to 27 BCE.
03:14And before that, the Kingdom of Rome had reigned for 250 years.
03:18This was a kingdom founded on the legendary myth of Romulus and Remus in 753 BCE.
03:26Forward!
03:30The conquest of territory will begin under the Republic, and will continue under the Empire.
03:36The Romans will conquer over the centuries in Europe, Africa, and Asia, which will become Romanities, even though they are
03:45geographically very far away from Rome.
03:49Yet, despite this total domination of the world, the Roman Empire would eventually fall.
03:59To fully understand how this economic and military juggernaut, which ruled the world for over a millennium, could collapse, we
04:07must first explain how it became the most powerful and wealthiest civilization in the world.
04:15Officially, the history of Rome began in 753 BCE with the myths of Romulus and Remus.
04:24According to legend, Numitor was the ruler of the city of Alba Longa on the right bank of the Tiber
04:31River.
04:31But his brother, Amulius, dethroned him.
04:35And to ensure that no descendants would challenge him for the throne, Amulius placed his brother's grandsons, the twins Romulus
04:44and Remus, in a basket and threw it into the floodwaters of the Tiber.
04:50But one day, a she-wolf who was drinking from the river discovered the two brothers and saved them by
04:58suckling them in her den until a shepherd adopted them and raised them on the Palatine Hill in present-day
05:04Rome.
05:04As adults, the twins dethroned the usurper and founded a new city.
05:11To mark its boundaries, Romulus plowed a sacred furrow.
05:16Then, he vowed to kill anyone who crossed it.
05:20When Remus disobeyed by entering, Romulus murdered his brother.
05:26Romulus thus became the first king of the city to which he gave his name, Rome.
05:36According to legend, Rome was founded on April 21st, 753 BCE.
05:44The reality is less spectacular, but also more complicated.
05:50Everyone knows the phrase, Rome wasn't built in a day.
05:54Before Rome became a sprawling superpower, it was just a modest town.
05:58The first Romans were farmers and shepherds living in huts on the Escaline and Palatine Hills,
06:04which remained relatively primitive until the 7th century BCE.
06:10That all changed when a people called the Etruscans, who led a confederation of city-states stretching from present-day
06:17Bologna to the Bay of Naples,
06:19wished to take advantage of Rome's strategic position on the Tiber.
06:24They began to take control of the city around 650 BCE.
06:29The origins of the Etruscans remain unclear to this day.
06:34Archaeologists have discovered that they used a variant of the Greek alphabet.
06:39It appears the Etruscans introduced to Rome the polytheistic cult of the Greeks, transforming the names of the Olympian gods.
06:50Zeus becoming Jupiter.
06:52Aphrodite becoming Venus.
06:54Poseidon becoming Neptune.
06:57Under Etruscan rule, Rome gradually grew from a series of small villages into a full-fledged city.
07:03They drained the marshes surrounding the city, built bridges, underground sewers, and their famous roads.
07:09Towards the end of the period of Etruscan influence, the first Temple of Jupiter, built on the Capitoline Hill, became
07:16the symbol of Rome's power.
07:17Some of the most iconic Roman sites, the Forum and the Senate, were built during this early period.
07:24Under the impetus of the Etruscan civilization, a political organization was also gradually established.
07:32In those days, Rome was ruled by kings, and according to ancient writings, Romulus was Rome's first monarch.
07:41But most contemporary historians agree that the first king was Tarquin the Elder, an Etruscan who reigned around 616 BCE.
07:54Kings held absolute power, acting as administrative, judicial, military, and religious leaders.
08:00Historians and archaeologists agree that the end of the Kingdom of Rome and the birth of the Roman Republic occurred
08:06around 509 BCE,
08:08when Tarquin the Superb, the last Etruscan king, was expelled from the city by the Roman people.
08:15The Kingdom of Rome is no more.
08:19The time has come for the second period in the history of the greatest Western civilization, the Roman Republic.
08:38A period in which Rome would become the superpower we all know today.
08:46The Roman Republic's ambitions were far-reaching, and to achieve them, the Romans would combine incredible innovations in military tactics
08:55with shrewd political acumen.
08:58From its first foundation, the Roman state was under threat and faced battles against neighboring tribes.
09:07It had to fight for its survival, and these battles hardened the Romans, which naturally enabled Rome to expand its
09:17territory and influence.
09:23When the Romans won new territories, instead of subjugating the vanquished, they offered them Roman citizenship.
09:32Thanks to this shrewd and popular strategy, Rome was not only at the head of an ever-expanding territorial state,
09:40but the increase in its population had a considerable impact on its contingent of soldiers.
09:48Its legions grew ever larger, and its military power became ever more formidable.
09:54From this point, Rome's ambition knew no bounds.
10:01Starting from the third century BCE, Rome waged the Punic Wars against its main rival at the time, the powerful
10:09city of Carthage.
10:10These successive conflicts, spanning more than a century, played a key role in the domination that Rome would exert over
10:17the Mediterranean world.
10:21Carthage was a huge Phoenician city in North Africa, north of present-day Tunisia.
10:26Its vast area of influence included Western Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearic Islands, and the south of the Iberian Peninsula.
10:36Au départ, Carthage et Rome sont alliés et vont même combattre ensemble certains ennemis communs.
10:42Mais elles aspirent à dominer les mêmes territoires comme la Sicile.
10:46Au départ, un traité détermine les zones d'influence de Rome et de Carthage en Sicile.
10:53Mais évidemment, Rome veut cette île toute entière parce que c'est un territoire riche en terres agricoles, mais c
11:00'est aussi un carrefour commercial en Méditerranée.
11:05In 264 BCE, the city of Syracuse, an ancient Greek colony allied with Carthage, attacks a garrison of Roman mercenaries
11:15based in Messina.
11:16Carthage, it sparked the First Punic War, a word derived from the Latin Punicus, meaning Phoenician, the name of the
11:23Carthaginian civilization.
11:26The First Punic War was fought mainly on the seas. Rome, which had only a modest naval fleet, built a
11:34massive number of warships.
11:36And despite its lack of naval experience, won victory after victory.
11:42The Carthaginians were expelled from Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, which became Rome's first provinces.
11:53Two decades later, Carthage, bent on revenge, launched the Second Punic War, leading 70,000 men, 20,000 horses, and
12:0137 elephants.
12:04Hannibal, the famous general, crossed the Pyrenees and the Alps and descended on Italy.
12:09But the Romans counterattacked, and their general, Scipio Africanus, drove Hannibal back and conquered the Iberian Peninsula, then North Africa.
12:18By 146 BCE, Roman armies had laid waste to Carthage.
12:24In the east, Rome will also occupy Macedonia, Greece, Syria, and the Kingdom of Pergamon, an important Greek colony to
12:33the west of present-day Turkey.
12:35North of Rome, the conquest of Gaul is about to be entrusted to a brilliant general, his name, Julius Caesar.
12:42In 58 BCE, Julius Caesar began his conquest of Gaul, which was made up of the powerful tribes of the
12:49Averni, the Nervi, and the Carnutes, who called what is now France and Belgium home.
13:01In the east, the armies of Caesar chassent the Germans and the Helvets.
13:06In the north, the Romans installent the camps near the borders of the Germans, which they will win before deciding
13:12to attack the Germans and the Aquitans.
13:40Who will fight with me ? Who will fight with me ?
13:43Deux mois plus tard, Caesar assiège Alésia, où Vercingétorix s'est retiré en attendant une armée de secours.
13:52C'est un siège extrêmement dur qui affame les Gaulois. Toutes les tentatives de sortie d'Alésia échouent.
14:00Vercingétorix est finalement contraint de rendre les armes et l'année suivante, toute la Gaule est devenue romaine.
14:12In the wake of this success, Julius Caesar conquers Numidia in Africa, before dethroning the Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy XIII,
14:21and appointing his sister Cleopatra Philippator as the last Egyptian pharaoh, with whom he will have a son, Caesarean, born
14:31in 47 BCE.
14:33These bold military conquests will come at a price, not only in economic and human terms, but also politically.
14:44Julius Caesar's military triumphs and rapid rise to power stoked his boundless ambition and threatened the balance of Roman rule,
14:52which operated under a system known as the Triumvirate, a political alliance between three men who were supposed to share
14:59power equally, Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey.
15:03The history of the Roman Republic is an uninterrupted series of successful military campaigns.
15:12But warfare is costly and created social and political imbalances that led to a civil war between Pompey, Rome's Grand
15:20Consul, and Julius Caesar.
15:24At the end of this civil war, Pompey fled to Egypt, and the Senate in crisis appointed Julius Caesar dictator
15:32for life.
15:33They conferred on him the title of imperator, bestowing supreme military and civil command.
15:41He wasn't an emperor because this was the year 45 BCE, and Rome was still a republic.
15:52Julius Caesar was first general, then pontiff, senator, consul, and finally dictator for life, a position he held for less
15:59than six months since he was assassinated in March 45 BCE.
16:06Following a plot hatched by the Senate and led by Brutus, the son of his mistress.
16:16Julius Caesar is dead.
16:18The battle for his succession begins.
16:25Julius Caesar is dead.
16:28The battle for his succession begins.
16:33The two most serious contenders for the succession were his nephew, Octavian, his official heir, and the ambitious general, Mark
16:40Antony.
16:43Mark Antony was urged to wage war against Octavian by his mistress, Queen Cleopatra, who had been Julius Caesar's lover,
16:53and was furious that Caesareum, the son she had had with Caesar, had not been named heir in his father's
17:00will.
17:02In the year 31, 13 years after Julius Caesar's death, Octavian wins a decisive victory in the naval battle of
17:10Actium against the armies of Cleopatra and Mark Antony.
17:14The couple will commit suicide just a few months later.
17:21These military successes not only enable Octavian to eliminate his rivals, but also to take control of Egypt.
17:29The power is now wielded by a single man, Octavian.
17:34His ascension will pave the way for the third great period in the history of this powerful civilization, the Roman
17:41Empire.
17:47Octave, who has no more rival, becomes the first emperor of Rome's history under the name of Auguste.
17:53We are then on the 16th of January of the 27th of our era.
17:56Auguste will then fix the borders of the empire at the level of the great rivers.
18:00The Rhin and Danube, for the north-west.
18:04And in the south-west, the Euphrates, which bears the Mésopotamia, a region that corresponds today to Iraq and Syria.
18:13It is also under his kingdom that Jesus Christ would be born in a small table in Bethlehem.
18:20A reign that will last 40 years, the longest in the history of Rome.
18:27When Augustus died, Tiberius, his adopted stepson, succeeded him.
18:34Tiberius alternated between political and economic reforms.
18:38But he also distinguished himself through his military skills.
18:42For several years, he led major expeditions, most notably to quiet the tribes of Germania.
18:52And it was during Tiberius' reign that Pontius Pilate became prefect of the province of Judea.
18:59It was Pilate who, according to the Bible, had the idea of asking the crowd which criminal, Barabbas or Rabbi
19:08Jesus of Nazareth, they preferred to free.
19:15Surprised that the crowd had chosen Barabbas, he washed his hands and declared of Jesus,
19:22I am innocent of this man's blood.
19:24It is your responsibility.
19:27Yet Pontius Pilate has no idea that the crucifixion of this rabbi would play a major role in the fall
19:34of the Roman Empire a few centuries later.
19:42The animosity begins in the year 37, four years after the death of Christ,
19:48when Caligula, the great grandson of Augustus, succeeds Tiberius to become Rome's third emperor.
19:55As unpopular as Tiberius was, Caligula grows even more renowned for his cruelty and ruthlessness.
20:03During his reign of terror, he murders his closest allies and constantly plots against the Senate, which he fiercely hated.
20:12Caligula has gone down in history as one of Rome's worst tyrants.
20:18All available sources are extremely hostile towards him.
20:23He's described as a bloodthirsty ruler, fond of orgies and torture.
20:27We don't really know whether this vitriolic portrait is true, and more recent study casts some doubt.
20:35But what is certain is that the perverse and sadistic image of this emperor simply highlighted the despotic excesses of
20:45the empire,
20:46which definitively turned the page on the golden age of Roman democracy.
20:55Only four years into his reign, Caligula is assassinated, but things don't improve.
21:02The situation reaches a boiling point when Nero becomes emperor.
21:08Nero, who became Rome's fifth emperor in 58 CE, built a reputation as a monstrous despot.
21:16His reign was marked by the murder of his own mother, Agrippina, and probably also that of his brother, Britannicus.
21:25Extremely brutal, Nero has been considered by history as an uncontrollable madman.
21:34Nero doesn't reserve his bloodthirsty axe just for his family.
21:38He also unleashes his tyranny on the first Christians.
21:43Most famously, Nero demonstrates his personal brand of cruelty when he orders the execution of a number of Christians he
21:51accuses of setting fire to Rome,
21:53when he's the one responsible.
21:56Nero is reported to have given his generals the order to set fire to the city of Rome.
22:02This has since been questioned, but the burning of Rome has certainly been seen as emblematic of his rule.
22:09Thousands died and much of the city was destroyed.
22:12His biographer, Suetonius, claimed he was so excited by the scene that he recited poems and played the lyre,
22:21while the eternal city seemed to be meeting its end.
22:26Nero commits suicide in 68 CE.
22:32But his reputation for persecuting the early Christians lives on.
22:38Like Nero, most Roman emperors in the first three centuries CE regarded Christians as a Jewish sect harmful to the
22:47empire.
22:50Officially, they were branded heretics, suspected of incest and accused of cannibalism,
22:57for claiming to feed on the flesh and blood of the Son of God while receiving the Eucharist.
23:02Unofficially, Rome mainly reproached them for rejecting the sanctity of the city and its emperor,
23:08but also for their constant criticism of Roman traditions such as the circus games and the strict social hierarchy.
23:21Under Roman rule, things don't look good for the Christians.
23:26Another example is Marcus Aurelius.
23:29This emperor, portrayed as a philosopher king in the blockbuster Gladiator, was in fact a rather unsavory character.
23:37Around 177 CE, fearing the spread of Christianity, he demanded that 66 Christian martyrs be thrown to wild beasts.
23:47Then eventually came the great persecution, orchestrated by Emperor Diocletian from 303 onwards.
23:53He revoked many of the rights of Christians, threatening imprisonment and execution if they did not agree to bow to
23:59the absolute authority of Rome.
24:02But the standard policy of repressing religious minorities will prove increasingly problematic.
24:14This swollen Roman Empire has become far too vast to be managed centrally by Rome.
24:20The ever-expanding empire would find itself administering an immense territory made up of people with very different languages, customs
24:29and religions.
24:32Sensing the vulnerability, the conquered territory staged numerous revolts, which threatened to destabilize the empire.
24:41It is against this backdrop that in 285 CE, Emperor Diocletian decides to split the Roman Empire in two in
24:50order to better administer it.
24:52He sets up a four-headed system of power known as the Tetrarchy.
24:56Each of two emperors rule over the two parts of the empire, and each emperor appoints a Caesar to succeed
25:03him.
25:04Diocletian was to administer the so-called Eastern Roman Empire, entrusting the western part to Maximian, a close and trusted
25:13friend.
25:13As his name indicates, the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire includes the half west of the Roman territory, going
25:19from the current Great Britain to the North to the Africa of the North,
25:22and passing by the Péninsule Ibérique.
25:24The east border of this part of the empire goes beyond the Alps and the plains of Hungary, to the
25:31south of the Balkans.
25:36On the other side, you have the Eastern Roman Empire, from the Caucasus and the Balkans in the northwest, down
25:42to the eastern Mediterranean, through Syria, down to Arabia, and west to Egypt.
25:47But the heart of its power lay in Asia Minor, the equivalent of modern-day Turkey.
25:55The division was supposed to be temporary, to allow the Romans to fortify their positions in all the seditious provinces
26:02of the empire.
26:06However, the eastern and western parts of the empire, which are already far apart geographically,
26:13gradually begin to drift in different directions politically, culturally, and even religiously.
26:21All that began to change when Constantine I was officially proclaimed emperor of the Eastern Empire in 306 CE.
26:33After his victory at the Battle of Milvian Bridge, he puts an end to the Tetrachy and reigns supreme over
26:40the entire Roman Empire, in the east and in the west.
26:46Constantin will give this major success political and military success to the intervention of Christ.
26:54From there, he will become the Christianism and become the great defender of Christianity.
27:00In 313, with the Edith of Milan, the emperor Constantin I will allow every citizen of the empire to follow
27:08the cult of his choice.
27:09A partir du reign de Constantin, donc, les chrétiens vont commencer à occuper les postes les plus importants au niveau
27:16politique,
27:17mais aussi les grades militaires les plus prestigieux.
27:20C'est un grand bouleversement.
27:24Having eliminated his great rival, the Roman emperor of the west, Constantine, ended the co-emperor system
27:32and took sole command of the Roman Empire for 13 years.
27:40But the truth is, he neglects the older western part of the empire in favor of the Eastern Roman Empire.
27:48He renames it the Byzantine Empire, after the ancient Greek colony of Byzantium.
27:54He then establishes the city of Constantinople, which he inaugurates in 330 CE.
28:07The prestige of the Byzantine Empire was further underlined when Theodosius I made Constantinople his capital 50 years later,
28:16helping spread Christianity throughout the Roman Empire.
28:19Some say this was the beginning of the end.
28:23In his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, first published in 1776,
28:29the Englishman Edward Gibbon blames the rise of Christianity for Rome's decline.
28:35He believes that this new religion, which advocated non-violence,
28:40was incompatible with Rome's policy of military conquest.
28:45The triumph of Christianity is complete when Theodosius makes it the official religion of the Empire
28:52with the Edict of Thessalonica in 380 CE.
28:56And while it's true that Christianity rose as the Empire declined, there were other factors at work.
29:07The Eastern and Western parts of the Empire, which are already far apart geographically,
29:13gradually begin to drift in different directions politically, culturally, and even religiously.
29:23The highly Christianized Eastern Roman Empire increasingly distanced itself from the traditions and customs of the original Roman Western Empire,
29:32which had been reduced to a shadow of its former self.
29:38On the one hand, you have a prosperous, urbanized East, largely influenced by Hellenism and Christianity.
29:45And on the other, you have a rural West, gradually becoming barbarized.
29:50In addition, the Roman economy failed to create new sources of wealth.
29:55It had to make do with its reserves, the tributes imposed on defeated peoples, and new taxes,
30:01which increased the tax burden on its citizens.
30:03The economic crisis led to a military crisis.
30:08Soldiers, increasingly underpaid and busy with civil wars, were less able to defend the frontiers.
30:16In addition to the irresistible rise of Christianity, there is also the rise of the barbarian peoples.
30:25As its once great economy begins to falter, the bloated Empire gains a reputation for decadence and idleness.
30:33The barbarians, as the Romans called those living outside the Empire's borders, took advantage of the situation and stepped up
30:41their raids in the Western Roman provinces.
30:44Today we march against Rome!
30:49Though the Empire had been reunited by Constantine I upon the death of Emperor Theodosius in 395 CE,
30:58his sons Honorius and Arcadius decided to divide the Empire back into its eastern and western spheres.
31:07The division will seal the fate of the Western Roman Empire.
31:12Faced with the threat of barbarian invasion on the Empire's doorstep, the Roman rulers retreat to the Palace of Ravenna,
31:20which replaced Rome as the new capital of the Western Empire.
31:28sequestered in their palaces in Ravenna, a succession of Roman emperors during this period cling to their notion of Roman
31:35superiority.
31:36By doing so, they underestimate the barbarian invaders.
31:40The Alemanni ravaged much of Gallic territory as far as the Pyrenees.
31:45The Burgundians took their turn in present-day Burgundy, for example.
31:50In turn, the Balkans, Italy, the Iberian Peninsula and Gaul were all conquered by the barbarian peoples.
31:59Aware of its strategic error and unable to face down all the invaders,
32:04the Empire decides to turn its weakness into its strength.
32:08The Roman imperial government, regularly faced with new invaders, pursued a policy of assimilation.
32:15Gradually, it integrated the barbarians, who had settled into its various provinces, into its own troops.
32:21These former barbarian warriors were there to help defend the Empire against further barbarian invasions.
32:28This strategy of assimilation works brilliantly for a while.
32:32But at the same time, the barbarization of the Roman army will have unintended consequences.
32:39These fighters from the East learned the military strategies and combat techniques of the Roman legions.
32:46So, the military became a melting pot that not only helped them integrate, but also trained them to be seasoned
32:53soldiers.
32:56This strategy to thwart the barbarians will only make matters worse.
33:02The territories, now provinces, turn to their own people to defend them from these dangers.
33:08And if Rome couldn't help them, why should they continue to be subservient to its Empire?
33:13In the West, the Visigoths ensure the domination of all the Western Mediterranean.
33:19In the West, the Francs confirm their installation on the territories of the Belgium and the current Basis,
33:25then extend to the Somme.
33:41By the middle of the 5th century CE, the Western Roman Empire is a mere shadow of its former self.
33:49And it's threatened by a new enemy, Attila.
33:52He has built his own empire from the plains of the Danube, east of present-day Hungary.
33:58And he leads an army of warriors known as the Huns.
34:01When Attila, the notorious king of the Huns, invaded Gaul in 451 CE,
34:08the Roman general Attius united the tribes of Gaul with the remaining Roman troops
34:12and managed to drive back the Huns.
34:15But it was a hollow victory for Rome.
34:19The barbarians began to pursue policies independent of the Empire,
34:24reclaiming their lands and occupying others in the face of Roman weakness.
34:30In 475, Flavius Orestus, commander of the Roman army,
34:36organized a military coup against Julius Nepos,
34:39the legally designated emperor forcing him into exile.
34:42To succeed him, Orestus appoints his own son, Romulus Augustulus,
34:47then just 14, as the new emperor.
34:50For the Eastern Roman Empire and the Germanic Kingdoms,
34:53Romulus Augustulus was an usurper.
34:55So they did nothing when Odoacer, the barbarian chief of the Hurlian people,
34:59captured him.
35:00Ironically, this puppet emperor bears the name of the mythical founder of Rome,
35:04and also the first Roman emperor.
35:07In the case of his barbarians, Odoac, the chief of the army d'Italie du Nord,
35:12cannot be sacred emperor.
35:13So, he sends the insignes of the power of the emperor of the Occident
35:17to Constantinople, to the emperor of the Orient,
35:21to signify him the disappearance of the Empire of the Occident.
35:24And then, he became king in September 476 of our era.
35:30This is the official date of the fall of the Roman Empire of the Occident.
35:35For several centuries, historians have pretty much attributed the fall of the Western Roman Empire
35:41to a potent combination of historical events.
35:44The rise of Christianity, the split with the Eastern Roman Empire,
35:48and the barbarian invasions fostered by Rome's moral and political decline.
35:54But could there have been another, less conventional factor?
36:01For several centuries, historians have attributed the fall of the Western Roman Empire
36:06to the rise of Christianity,
36:09the split with the Eastern Roman Empire,
36:12and the barbarian invasions fostered by Rome's moral and political decline.
36:20Recently, an American historian proposed a radical idea.
36:24Could climate change have played a role?
36:27In 2017, Kyle Harper, professor of history at the University of Oklahoma,
36:34wondered whether alternating droughts and devastating floods,
36:38coupled with epidemics such as smallpox and the bubonic plague,
36:42could have hastened the decline of Roman civilization.
36:46He proposed that layers of sediment act like a time machine.
36:51So, he turned his attention to core samples taken from glaciers and the seabed.
36:57He concluded that the Mediterranean area enjoyed an extremely favorable climate
37:01at the height of its glory, between 200 BCE and 150 CE.
37:07Climatologists have dubbed these three and a half centuries the Roman climatic optimum.
37:17But these good times wouldn't last.
37:24From 150 CE onwards, the supposed end of the Roman climatic optimum,
37:30rainfall became increasingly scarce, droughts would have become more frequent,
37:35leading to recurrent, localized shortages.
37:39There would have been a chain of meteorological extremes, both droughts and torrential rains,
37:44which would have fallen across the northern Mediterranean.
37:47These would have caused catastrophic flooding.
37:50Crops would fail and famine would result.
37:53At the same time, in the urban environments, overflowing sewers and stagnant water would have spread disease and caused epidemics.
38:01In the days of the Roman Empire, the majority of the population was urban, living in large cities.
38:07These cities were part of a sprawling network of roads built across the entire imperial territory.
38:13They even extended beyond the empire's borders to the Far East.
38:18Capital was at the heart of these highways.
38:21Hence the expression, all roads lead to Rome.
38:25This gigantic network would have favored the circulation of viruses.
38:31And hence, epidemics.
38:36One of the most historically significant epidemics, portrayed as a curse from the gods, is the terrible Antonone Plague.
38:44It broke out in the provenance of Seleucia on the Tigris in 165 CE.
38:50At the time a legend was circulating in the Roman world,
38:53it tells of a strange, pestilential cloud that escaped from the sacred temple of Apollo
39:00when it was sacked by the troops of General Lucius Verus.
39:04It contaminated the soldiers who spread the disease along the routes back to Rome from east to west.
39:11The origin is obviously mythological, but the epidemic did take place with tragic consequences.
39:21Selon les spécialistes de la médecine antique, ce mal, soi-disant envoyé par Apollo,
39:26serait en réalité une forme de variole, une maladie très contagieuse.
39:31Son taux de mortalité est alors estimé entre 40 et 70%.
39:36Les survivants sont immunisés pour toujours, mais ils sont souvent défigurés par les cicatrices
39:42qui ont laissé les pustules qui recouvraient tout leur corps.
39:46Another epidemic, dubbed Cyprian's Plague,
39:49is a virus that has never been identified with certainty.
39:52Its symptoms, similar to the Ebola virus,
39:56struck the Roman Empire between 249 and 262 CE.
40:05Symptoms were reported to include a sudden fever,
40:08severe gastrointestinal disorders and hemorrhaging.
40:12In the affected provenances, it was a horror show.
40:16The city of Alexandria alone lost 60% of its population in just a few years,
40:22dropping from 500,000 to 190,000.
40:25At the height of the epidemic, Athenian historians claimed that their city was seeing close to 5000 deaths a day.
40:34Its lethalness and virulence are thought to have considerably weakened the empire,
40:38accelerating the crisis that began in the 3rd century.
40:43While climate change and pandemics may have contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire,
40:48they're just part of the picture.
40:50As the empire became unwieldy and globalized,
40:55Roman cultural identity eventually dissolved and disappeared
40:59in favor of Christianity on the one hand
41:02and the local customs of all its constituent provinces on the other.
41:08What happened was, in fact, inevitable.
41:12But history can be messy and imprecise.
41:15And while many textbooks insist the Roman Empire drew its last breath in 476 CE,
41:22many historians beg to differ.
41:24For them, the empire came to an end on May 29th, 1453,
41:29when the Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI was killed by the troops of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II,
41:37who had come to conquer the city of Constantinople,
41:40now known as Istanbul and still the capital of the Byzantine Empire.
41:44This defeat ended Byzantine rule established by Constantine the Great over 1,000 years before.
41:51To them, Constantine XI will forever be remembered as the last of the Roman emperors.
41:58And not all of the elements.
41:58Not all of the elements.
42:00And all of the elements in the start of the Soviet Union
42:00So this is the ability to continue to continue to destroy the process of the Roman Empire.
42:00I'm glad to be your father,
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