Episode 26 - Rome Falls, and the Dark Ages Begin

I’m going to begin this episode with a famous quote from Edward Gibbon, from his massive work, the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:

The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness...... The story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and instead of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long. 

It is kind of remarkable that despite all its corruption and all the turmoil, the Roman Empire lasted as long as it did. There are lots of factors in its demise, but Gibbon is right when he points out that it is more surprising that it lasted so long, than it is that it fell. Like I said in an earlier episode, Rome was strong as long as it had a good emperor, but Rome didn’t always produce the kind of people who made good emperors.

What is A Short Walk through Our Long History?

I think that if you want to understand the world we live in today, it helps to understand the important events of history. In this series, we are going to look at major events, people, documents, places, books, and ideas that have shaped history, and thus shaped our modern world.