The Odyssey of Western Civilization: Episode 4

Episode 4: Rome’s Fall: Continuation or a new Dark Age?
Hosted by Victor Davis Hanson

Rome thrived by gradually Romanizing the Mediterranean world: absorbing and assimilating conquered peoples and turning them into Roman citizens. But eventually Rome became a victim of its own success. As the empire grew ever larger, the homogenization process broke down. In the countryside, small farms gave way to vast estates worked by slaves, whose patrician owners eventually controlled most of the empire’s wealth. The yeoman farmers migrated to the cities and became a mob, to be pacified with bread and circuses. Shorn of its republican virtues, Rome lost its fighting edge. Soon the barbarians were at the gates, and Rome no longer had the strength – or the will – to resist. The city finally fell in 476 A.D. But was that really the end of Rome? Ep 4/8