Podcasts by The Fall of Rome Podcast
Further podcasts by Patrick Wyman / Wondery
Podcast on the topic Geschichte
All episodes
30: Tides of History: Natural Disasters and the End of the Roman Empire from 2018-03-20T07:05
Justinian was the last great Roman emperor, but his reign was plagued by disasters beyond his control: volcanic eruptions, a changing climate, and a plague of epic proportions. Those disasters c...
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29: Tides of History: Justinian the Great and the Reconquest of the Western Empire from 2018-03-06T08:05
Justinian is one of the defining figures of the Roman Empire. In many ways, he marks the boundary between Antiquity and the Middle Ages. In this episode, we explore his ambitious reform program ...
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28: Tides of History: How the Eastern Roman Empire Survived Attila the Hun and the Disastrous Fifth Century from 2018-02-20T08:05
While the western half of the Roman Empire was collapsing, the east managed to weather the storm of the disastrous fifth century. In this episode, we examine how and why it survived Attila the H...
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27: Tides of History: Why Didn't The Eastern Empire Fall? from 2018-02-06T08:05
When we talk about the fall of the Roman Empire, we're only talking about the western half - France, Spain, Italy, North Africa, and Britain. The eastern half of the Roman Empire survived the di...
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26: Tides of History: How Latin Became the Romance Languages from 2017-12-14T08:05
How did Latin splinter into the Romance languages? In this episode, we explore how Latin transformed from a single, widely dispersed language into a series - French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian...
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25: Tides of History: The Decline and Fall of the Roman City from 2017-11-14T08:05
Cities were what made the Roman world Roman, but as the Empire fell apart, so did its cities. They shrank drastically or disappeared entirely between 400 and 600. In today's episod...
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24: Tides of History: The Roman City from 2017-10-24T07:05
Cities were what made the Roman world, well, Roman. They were centers of culture and political life, and they were the bedrock that tied together its economy. Today we'll explore how those citie...
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Introducing Tides of History from 2017-07-20T07:05
History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme, said Mark Twain. From the fall of the Roman Empire to the rise of the modern world: history ebbs and flows over the centuries, driven by g...
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23: Could the Roman Empire Have Survived? from 2017-06-22T17:29:50
Could the Roman Empire have survived past the fifth century? To answer that question, we examine some other points when the Empire could have fallen apart but didn't, and what brought it back toget...
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22: The Brilliance of Saint Augustine. An Interview with Elizabeth Bruenig from 2017-06-15T07:00
Saint Augustine is one of the foundational figures of Christianity and one of the most influential thinkers of all time. He was also a complex and fascinating figure in his own right. Elizabeth Bru...
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21: Rome's Legacy and the Barbarian Kingdoms from 2017-06-08T17:30:37
As central government disappeared from what had been the Western Roman Empire, the barbarian kingdoms stepped into the void, creating new forms of rulership and institutions that would lay the grou...
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20: The Anglo-Saxon Migration, the North Sea World, and the Birth of England from 2017-05-25T17:55:03
Roman Britain fell fast, and it fell hard. Into the ruins of this world stepped a wave of migrants from the North Sea coast of the Continent whom we know as the Anglo-Saxons. This migration, a comp...
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19: Why Didn't Rome Rise Again? An Interview with Professor Walter Scheidel from 2017-05-18T07:00
Why didn't Rome rise again? Everywhere else in the world, the appearance of one great empire was marked by their recurrent resurgence, but in Europe it happened only once. Professor Walter Scheidel...
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18: The Warlords of Northern Gaul and the Rise of the Franks from 2017-05-11T19:26:24
As the Roman Empire disintegrated, northern Gaul turned first into a military province and then into a playground for warlords, some Roman and some barbarian. This episode is the story of how one w...
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17: Ostrogothic Kingdom or the Western Empire Reborn? from 2017-04-27T17:58:24
Under the leadership of their great king Theoderic, the Ostrogoths built a kingdom for themselves in Italy. But was this a kingdom, and Theoderic a king, or was he an emperor and his new realm the ...
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16: The Kingdom of the Visigoths from 2017-04-13T22:29:45
The ashes of the Roman Empire produced a host of new states built on the foundations it left behind. The first of these was the Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse, which dominated southern Gaul and hel...
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15: The Death of the Roman Political System from 2017-03-30T18:16:27
Taxes, soldiers, and loyalty: these were the foundations, the structures, of the Roman political system. This episode explores how and why they fell apart over the course of the disastrous fifth ce...
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14: The Calamitous Fifth Century - A Narrative History from 2017-03-16T17:30:04
It took just 80 years for the Roman Empire to fall apart completely, from a ponderous but functional state at the death of Theodosius the Great 395 to nonexistence by 476. How and why did that happ...
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13: The Unraveling of the Roman World from 2017-03-02T22:29:22
The Roman world was more than just an empire; it was a cultural, social, economic, and political space built on the easy movement of goods, people, beliefs, and practices from place to place. It w...
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12: The Fall of the Roman Economy from 2017-02-17T01:21:59
The Roman economy was a marvel, the powerhouse that produced surpluses big enough to support huge cities, maintain an enormous standing army, and construct monumental buildings that stand to this d...
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11: The Roman Economy Before the Fall from 2017-02-03T00:45:55
The economy of the Roman Empire was surprisingly modern, featuring commercial markets, large-scale production, and agricultural sophistication that wouldn't be matched until the middle of the ninet...
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10: The Late Roman Army, Barbarians, and the Frontier from 2017-01-13T17:08
The Roman army was the central institution in the late Roman world. It had changed dramatically from the classic legions of Augustus and Marcus Aurelius, adapting itself to the much different world...
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9: Attila and the Empire of the Huns from 2016-12-13T05:54:29
Attila the Hun is the best-known barbarian from antiquity, but the Hunnic Empire he inherited and expanded hasn't gotten the credit it deserves for its complexity and organization. This episode exp...
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8: The Vandals and the Fall of Roman Africa from 2016-11-23T21:18:07
North Africa was the most prosperous region of the western Roman Empire, the agricultural heartland that fed the city of Rome, and the barbarian Vandals' conquest of the region was the final nail i...
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Special Episode: The End Of The Gladiators from 2016-10-30T16:49:32
Gladiators are one of the defining characteristics of the Roman Empire in popular culture. How and why did they disappear? We explore the topic in this special episode. See Privacy Policy at https...
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7: The Three Transformations Of Roman Gaul from 2016-10-20T21:53:49
Gaul was one of the heartlands of the Roman Empire, and it encompassed a tremendous amount of diversity within its borders. Over the course of the fifth century, the region split along its fault li...
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6: The Catastrophic Fall Of Roman Britain from 2016-10-01T04:17:46
In 350, Britain was a thoroughly integrated province of the Roman Empire, full of prosperous, Latin-speaking cities, luxurious villas, and all the other trappings of Roman life. By 500, the cities ...
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5: Just How Screwed Up Was the Later Roman Empire? from 2016-09-15T02:04:24
One of the fundamental questions about the later Roman Empire is just what a mess it really was. Did the barbarians topple a fundamentally healthy, functional state? Or were they merely the straw t...
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4: The Gothic Sack of Rome from 2016-09-03T02:39:04
In 395, the barbarian Goths rebelled against the Romans and fought a campaign that culminated in the sack of Rome in 410. But were the Goths really barbarous foreigners, or are they better understo...
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3: The Goths and the Beginning of Rome's End from 2016-08-27T00:30:17
In the third episode of The Fall of Rome, we explore the Goths' migration into the Roman Empire and their desperate war for survival against the forces of the Empire. This conflict culminated in th...
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2: The Barbarian World from 2016-08-12T02:49:11
We explore the barbarian world beyond the frontiers, focusing on the fearsome Goths who would one day leave an emperor dead on the battlefield, sack Rome itself, and found a kingdom of their own in...
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1: Introduction from 2016-08-05T02:05:14
Barbarians, political breakdown, economic collapse, mass migration, pillaging and plunder. In the introduction to this series, PhD historian Patrick Wyman takes you through the broad outlines of th...
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1: Introduction from 2016-08-05T02:05:14
Barbarians, political breakdown, economic collapse, mass migration, pillaging and plunder. In the introduction to this series, PhD historian Patrick Wyman takes you through the broad outlines of th...
Listen