All language subtitles for The.Rise.and.Fall.of.the.Roman.Empire.S01E02.The.Fall.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

[dramatic music]

- This day will
decide everything!

[all chanting]

I order you now.

Advance!

- Over the centuries,
Rome grew from a tiny kingdom

to an empire
driven by conquest.

- The fact is,
it was the sword.

It was fear.

It was blood that
conquered the Roman Empire.

- And the ambition
of its leaders.

- Let the dice fly high!

- Now the old republic

has been replaced
by a dictatorship.

- Now!
[whip cracks]

[lion roars]

[crowd cheering]

- Its emperors
are out of control.

♪

- You have put Rome
in more danger.

♪

- The empire is faced
with disaster and change.

- The city is plagued
by famine, fires, earthquakes.

♪

The empire's nearly broke.

♪

- Its enemies close in.

- This Attila,
is he the devil?

- No. Much worse.

♪

- The people of Rome
are starting to think

perhaps this city
is not eternal after all.

- Rome is ultimately
a cautionary tale to us.

You are never too big to fail.

- It's all there:

the blood, the glory,
the magnificence,

and the flaws that made Rome

the greatest empire
that Europe has ever seen.

- The story of Rome is
ultimately the story of us.

♪

- 107 C.E., Rome.

[horn fanfare]

[crowd cheering]

The great emperor Trajan
has been on the throne

for seven years.

His empire thrives
as he celebrates

one of his many triumphs.

- [grunting]

[crowd cheering]

♪

- When Trajan succeeds
the Roman Empire,

Rome is at its greatest.

It's vast, it's successful,
it's rich,

and Trajan really
personifies that,

the energy, the success,
and the sophistication

of this extraordinary
institution.

♪

- Trajan had
an interesting self-image.

Best emperor.

That was his self-image--
the best.

And he saw himself as Rome's
emperor par excellence.

He took all the best qualities
of his predecessors,

but also expanded Rome's empire
to an unprecedented level.

- During his 19-year reign,

Trajan pushes the boundaries
of the empire

to encompass more territory
than ever before,

adding Arabia,
Armenia, Mesopotamia,

and Dacia in Eastern Europe.

It now covers
2 million square miles,

over half the size
of the United States today.

- The conquest of Dacia was
one of the Roman Empire's

very last major conquests,

one of the very last
extensions of the border.

♪

- Trajan is all about
investing as much money

into the public as possible.

This is through the creation
of aqueducts, of roads,

of public edifices.

He believes in that ideology.

You know, being Roman
is almost like, today,

you could say it's the
American dream of its time.

They believed that Rome
truly was the light.

- Trajan's conquests
meant that

there was a massive delivery

to the Roman people of slaves,
of spoils, of new buildings,

of new baths, of new temples.

♪

He puts up this massive column
showing his conquest,

showing his conquests
of Dacia,

and basically
advertising himself

as an amazing conqueror.

♪

- To complete
the celebrations,

Trajan gives the Roman people

123 days of games
with over 9,000 gladiators,

including a fight to the death

between a free Roman woman
and Dacian prisoners.

♪

- Women are fairly low
on the social strata

of the Roman citizenry.

A woman's role was
primarily constricted

to the domestic sphere.

She was expected to be
a wife and mother,

to be loyal, frugal,
and obedient.

[both grunting]

[crowd shouting]

- Trajan might have looked
at a female gladiator

as yet another sign of his
greatness, and his ability

to bring ever-new
and more exotic spectacle

to the people of Rome.

♪

[crowd cheering]

- But the games also feature
more typical entertainment

for this period
in Rome's history--

the slaughter of criminals
and Christians.

♪

- The number of Christians
is growing.

And what started
as a very small movement

based around Jerusalem has now
spread across the empire.

[crowd chanting]

- Christians.

When they see a few of their
high priests eaten by lions,

they'll turn to our gods.

♪

- In 107 C.E., Ignatius,
a prominent Christian leader,

is accused of disrupting
the Roman order.

♪

- Ignatius of Antioch,
he is clearly

the target of Trajan's anger,
because he is arrested,

brought to Rome to be executed
by being fed to lions.

[crowd cheering]

[lion roars]

- So we have
the expression in English,

"being thrown to the lions."

We use it sort of
metaphorically, right?

But it was very literal
in the Roman Empire.

People actually were
thrown to the lions.

♪

- However much we talk about
civilization and baths

and all the things that we
think of as rather Roman,

the fact is, it was the sword,
it was fear,

it was blood
that conquered the Roman Empire

and kept it under control.

♪

- At this time, most Romans
are polytheistic,

worshipping multiple gods.

Christianity is a small
but growing faith,

especially among Rome's poor,

and the elites are growing
suspicious of it.

♪

- The Romans were beginning
to see the Christians

as troublemakers.

Why?

Because when groups start
to assemble together,

they start to grow.

They start to spread new ideas.

And Rome doesn't
want any new ideas.

They don't want
anybody challenging

the Roman power structure,
the Roman ethic.

♪

- Under Trajan,
the Christians are among those

getting hit with the violence.

But those harsh tactics
can backfire.

- While Ignatius is
on his way to Rome,

he's able to write
seven letters,

and it's because of these
letters that we know who he is.

- These are
first-person accounts

of what happened to him
and how he feels about it,

why he thinks it matters
or might make a difference.

♪

- Ignatius would have traveled

along a major
east-west thoroughfare,

which is known now
as the Via Egnatia,

and that connected the cities

in the eastern half
of the empire with Rome.

♪

- The Via Egnatia is one
of 372 major roads,

a network totaling
a quarter of a million miles

that connect the empire's
40 provinces to Rome,

allowing armies and trade
to move.

♪

- Ironically, it was
this very system of roads

that allowed Ignatius
to write letters ahead

that actually helped
the spread of Christianity.

[lion roars]

[crowd cheering]

- Ignatius's execution
is supposed to send

a message to Christians.

[lion growls]

But Ignatius uses it to send
a message to the Romans.

♪

- Ignatius is convinced that
he's going to die violently.

And this is okay with him
because Ignatius wants

to follow the model of Christ.

♪

- There's no touching him.

- There are great stories
of Christians

being thrown before the beast,
before the lions,

and instead of the lions
devouring them,

the lions lie down
at their feet.

[lion roars]

- Our Lord is protecting him.

- Who doesn't like that
idea of a lion,

who's supposed to
tear you apart, instead

rolling over to get a belly
rub instead of eating you?

[lion growls]

♪

[lion roaring]

♪

- He held to his beliefs.

And died for it.

Why?

For something he believed in.

And that must have been
astounding to the Romans.

♪

- Well, I think our point
was made clear enough.

- I'm not sure.

♪

I'm not sure at all.

♪

- At the time that
Ignatius dies,

nobody would
expect Christianity

to become what it is today.

Little by little,
these figures like Ignatius

were the pieces that were
building a mighty wall.

Because it was his belief
system that would prevail.

It was his belief system
that was

going to take over the empire.

♪

- By the end
of Trajan's reign,

there are an estimated 40,000
Christians in the empire.

♪

But in the years to come,
that number skyrockets,

upending ancient Roman values

and remaking Roman society.

♪

- Romans believed that the
greatness of Rome was founded

on the old gods,
and that that was threatened

by the conversion to this
new-fangled sect, Christianity.

♪

- Under Trajan's heirs,
Rome will soar to new heights.

Until its rivals
go on the attack.

- The northern frontier
was crumbling.

There were very
serious incursions.

- And an invisible enemy

brings the empire
to its knees.

- Panic spreads,
and it paralyzes Roman power.

- As despots seize
the imperial throne,

betrayal and backstabbing follow.

- Do you wish power
for yourself?

- Setting in motion
Rome's decline...

- [grunts]

- And fall.

♪

[dramatic music]

- The 2nd century C.E.,
Rome's Golden Age.

For decades, the imperial
throne passes peacefully

from one emperor to the next.

The Roman Empire flourishes,
and its population

is hitting its peak--
around 75 million people,

double that
of California today.

♪

The empire stops expanding

and focuses on securing
its borders:

Hadrian's Wall in Britain,

the Rhine
and Danube Frontiers,

and the deserts
of Africa and Arabia,

all protecting
its beating heart,

the city of Rome itself.

♪

- Rome is really the cultural
center of the universe

in this moment.

Authors, doctors, architects,
philosophers flock to the city

because they are enticed
by Rome itself.

- Among the new arrivals
is Galen of Pergamon,

a brilliant medical scientist.

The first to describe heart
valves and cranial nerves,

he's a symbol of the empire's
sophistication at this time.

- Galen is probably the single
most influential figure

in the history of medicine.

[both grunting]

- He was an author,
philosopher,

a scientist, a doctor,

and an incredibly
ambitious man.

[both grunting]

[crowd cheering]

- For Galen and others,
the capital city

is the place to be, in part
because of its emperor.

- Marcus Aurelius
comes at the tail end

of the Five Good Emperors.

These were the emperors who
ruled during what's known

as the Pax Romana,
during the very height

of the Roman Empire
in the 2nd century A.D.

♪

- He was
an extraordinary character.

He'd been chosen
as a very young man

and trained to be emperor.

And for once,
they got it absolutely right.

♪

- But Marcus Aurelius
does not rule alone.

For the first time
in Roman history,

two emperors govern
side by side.

♪

- Marcus Aurelius's adopted
brother, Lucius Verus,

they were almost opposites.

They reigned together
perfectly because

they were two sides of a coin.

♪

- Under their
enlightened rule,

the city of Rome,
on its seven hills,

has grown into the world's
first megacity.

♪

- Rome had a population
of a million people.

That is the largest population
in any city

anywhere in the world
for 1,500 years.

The next city to be that size
population is Victorian London.

♪

- But as the Romans reap
the rewards of empire,

others are stirring.

♪

In the 160 C.E.,
entire nations are on the move

in the uncharted lands
to the empire's north,

pushing against
the Danube frontier.

For once, Rome's army
can't drive them back.

- The northern frontier
was crumbling.

There were very serious
incursions

threatening Roman interests,
especially by a very dangerous

tribe called the Marcomanni.

- What starts as what might
seem a fairly small invasion

turns into what are known
as the Marcomannic Wars,

and they occupy Marcus
for the rest of his reign.

♪

- The Marcomannic Wars
on the northern frontier

may be seen as the first
of the barbarian invasions

from the north
that will chip away

at the very foundations
of the Roman Empire.

- In response,
Rome's two emperors

travel 350 miles north

to reach their military
headquarters at Aquileia,

on the border of Italy
and modern-day Slovenia.

- Marcus Aurelius had
a very strong sense of duty.

And also, he was
a political realist.

And as much as he
would have preferred

to leave the fighting
to his subordinates,

or even to his
co-emperor, Verus,

he realized that this required
his personal intervention.

♪

- But when they
arrive at the camp,

an even bigger threat
to Rome's empire

is running rampant through
the cramped legions:

a new disease that
the men in Aquileia

haven't experienced before.

♪

- By all accounts,
the plague was

a horrible, horrible disease.

I mean, in addition to the
expected diarrhea and vomiting

and fevers, scabs would form
and then fall off,

leaving horrible lesions.

- It was devastating
in its effects

and killed a large percentage
of the people that it infected.

♪

- The emperors summon
the physician Galen,

the only man they believe
can tackle this.

What we know about the plague
comes from his writings.

He arrives at Rome's
military headquarters

to find an army in crisis.

- The situation
that Galen found

when he reached Aquileia was
more severe than anything

he could have imagined.

♪

- Galen gives us some
pretty detailed description

of symptoms, and based
on those symptoms,

we think it was
likely smallpox.

It might have been the first
appearance of smallpox

in the Mediterranean world.

♪

- This crisis becomes,
in many ways for the empire,

the defining challenge.

More than perhaps at any
point in human memory,

disease had become
an existential threat

to Rome itself.

♪

- The Roman Empire has
never been free of disease,

but epidemics like the one

that's running rampant through
his army, that's something new.

This is the first
of a whole series of diseases

that are going to strike
the Roman Empire

over the next
couple of centuries.

♪

- As the plague continues
to wipe out their troops,

the two emperors
return to Rome

to replenish their
diminished legions.

They leave the army
under Galen's care.

♪

But during the emperor's
journey home,

Lucius Verus dies.

♪

- Verus didn't
make it very far--

only 50 miles from Aquileia.

For Marcus Aurelius,
he is left on his own

to rule an empire
that's stricken by plague,

has enemies at the borders,
an army that's been

devastated by this disease.

He knows that the
responsibility is his

to rule the Roman Empire
by himself.

♪

- It doesn't take very long
for the plague

to ravage all of Italy,
and to spread from the legions

to the civilian
population itself.

♪

- There was nowhere
in the world

that was more conducive
to the spread

of a highly transmissible
and lethal disease

than the city of Rome.

You have tons of people
who are living

in cramped quarters.

Sanitary conditions
are often poor.

This is a population that
is going to drop like flies

as smallpox
starts to spread among them.

♪

Perhaps as much as 10% of
the Roman Empire's population,

or even more, dies in this one plague

over the course
of the next several years.

- And, of course,
panic spreads.

And it's actually--
for a moment,

it paralyzes Roman power.

The plague is a huge crisis
for the Roman state.

♪

- With enemies at the border
and a depleted army,

the emperor turns
to an unlikely group for help.

- Help me to protect
the citizens of Rome,

and you will win your freedom!

[all cheering]

- But Rome's worst enemy
is much closer to him.

♪

- If you're looking
for a dividing line

between the glory that was
Rome and its long decline,

Commodus is it.

♪

- In 169, the Roman Empire's
Golden Age faces two threats--

invasion and a deadly plague.

- Galen returns to Rome,

and he finds
a transformed city.

And, in fact, Galen's family
itself is not spared.

♪

Almost everyone
in his own household dies.

And it's the scale of this
plague, of this disease,

is just overwhelming.

And of course, no one knew
for how long it would go on.

♪

- His observations
of an understanding

of what was happening were
ahead of many other doctors.

And of course, that brings him
close to Marcus Aurelius, who,

first of all, doesn't want
to become a victim

of the plague himself,
but is also desperate

to understand how to stop it.

♪

- Galen's mission is to keep
Marcus Aurelius alive.

♪

- Added cinnamon this time.

♪

- While on one hand,
the reign of Marcus Aurelius

marks something of a high
point in the Roman Empire...

- It didn't help.

- It also marks the point
when the seeds were planted

that were going to define
the next couple of centuries

of Rome's existence.

♪

- To face down the invaders,

Rome needs fresh fighters
to replenish

its plague-ravaged army.

So Marcus Aurelius
makes a daring move

to recruit the fittest men
in Rome...

♪

Whoever they may be.

- The gladiators live
in a sheltered community.

They don't have any connection
to the outside world.

They're exceptionally healthy.

They're getting
three square meals a day.

They've got great medical care.

So, they're probably
the fittest people

in Rome at that moment.

- We have to remember,
of course,

that what the gladiators
were trained to do was fight.

That is what
Marcus Aurelius needed.

♪

- But gladiators are
convicts and slaves.

♪

- How could these
degenerates and criminals

defend the honor of Rome?

Could they be trusted
on the battlefield?

♪

- The gladiators were often
drawn from, in the Roman view,

the lowest-born peoples
of the empire

and engaged in
a sordid occupation.

To have them vaulted
into a kind of prestige role

of soldiers
on behalf of the empire itself

was a startling transformation.

♪

- This obviously
causes a great amount

of furor throughout the city,
mainly because

gladiators are entertainers.

They are people
who fight for money,

they're mercenaries,

and they're
the lowest of the low.

♪

- Line up for the emperor!

♪

- Take up these arms.

You are now Roman soldiers.

♪

When I look at you,
I don't see prisoners.

I don't see criminals.

Or slaves.

I don't even see gladiators.

I see legionaries

dedicated to protecting
this great empire.

Help me to protect
the citizens of Rome,

and you will win your freedom!

[all cheering]

- History often
throws up these moments

where those who are
on the fringes of society

ultimately come
to save that society,

and this is certainly
the case here.

The gladiators make sense.

They're trained combatants,

and so they know
the art of war.

♪

- Marcus Aurelius
goes north once again...

♪

And his new legions clash
with the barbarian armies.

♪

After months
of fierce fighting,

Rome's ad hoc army
turns back the invasion.

It's a triumphant moment,
but the war continues,

and the threat on the empire's
border never really goes away.

♪

- This marks a turning point
in Roman imperial history.

What Marcus Aurelius
was seeing was really

the future of the Roman Empire.

There's going to be
waves of incursions

from Goths and Vandals
and many northern tribes

all out to vanquish Italy.

♪

- As a buffer
against its enemies,

the empire creates
new provinces on the frontier

and allows friendlier Germanic
tribes to settle there

in return for a promise
to defend the land,

a decision with
far-reaching consequences.

♪

As for Marcus Aurelius,
he knows he needs to plan

his succession carefully.

But his son, Commodus,
is far from the ideal heir.

[swords clanging]

[crowd shouting]

♪

[crowd cheering]

- Marcus Aurelius
can't have been unaware

of the character defects

that were going to plague
Commodus later in life.

- Halt!

♪

- The apple really did fall
pretty far from the tree,

because Commodus went in
exactly the opposite direction

as his father.

♪

- In 177,
Marcus Aurelius decides

to name his son as co-emperor
and the heir to the throne.

You know, one of the questions
that historians ask is that,

how could someone as wise as
Marcus Aurelius choose his son?

- One of the things that
makes the high point

of the Roman Empire
so remarkable

is the fact that the emperors
chose their successors.

They adopted sons to serve as
their successors, as emperors.

So really, this is a fairly
meritocratic process.

Marcus Aurelius
departed from this.

♪

- Three years after
naming Commodus

his co-emperor
and heir apparent,

Marcus Aurelius falls ill.

♪

- Caesar.

Caesar?

- What?
- It's your father.

It's time.

♪

[somber music]

♪

- It's the 17th of March, 180.

And Marcus Aurelius dies.

Very possibly of the plague
that had dogged his army.

♪

- Commodus becomes
the most powerful man

in all the Roman Empire.

And it doesn't take
very long for Commodus

to show that this is going
to be a very different reign

from the one of his father.

[dramatic music]

♪

- Commodus turns out
to be one of the worst emperors

in the history
of the Roman Empire.

If you're looking
for a dividing line

between the glory that was
Rome and its long decline,

Commodus is it.

♪

- Commodus grabs
the reins of power...

- Bring me his head.

- And drives Rome
down a dangerous course.

- How dare you?

♪

- 180 C.E., Commodus,
the new emperor,

is in command
of the Roman army

as it fights German tribes
on its north.

200 years after Augustus,
the first emperor,

the Roman Empire is still

the ancient world's
superpower.

♪

Then Commodus makes
the first in a series

of decisions that sets Rome
on a downward trajectory.

- Caesar, where are you going?

- I'm going to Rome.

- Commodus does not want
to be out in the freezing mud,

fighting, living in a camp
or in a tent.

He wants to be back
in Rome, in the luxury,

enjoy the fruits
of being an emperor.

♪

- Rather than pursuing
the war with the Germani

to its conclusion,
which, in Roman eyes,

would have to be a victory,
Commodus decided

to make peace with them.

This was a huge departure
because

in the Roman imagination,
Romans didn't make peace.

They won.

♪

- Almost immediately,
the relationship

between Commodus and the
Senate is off to a bad start.

There's a wedge
driven between them

right from the very beginning.

♪

- We were at war!

- And now we're not, Cassius.

- You have put Rome
in more danger.

- Tell me, how is peace
more dangerous than war?

- From the Senate's position,

it's just storing up
trouble ahead,

that they know these tribes
will come back in the future

where they'll probably
pose an even bigger threat.

♪

- Cassius Dio is privy to the
inner workings of the empire.

He's in close proximity
to the emperor himself.

And so his studies,
his observations, his writings

are the incredible source to go
to the knowledge of Commodus.

- Even under the emperors,
the Senate

counted for a great deal.

They were an important
go-between the emperor

and the Roman people.

It was very important
for the emperor to have

the senators on his side.

♪

- The history of Rome's emperor
shows that

it's pretty dangerous
to cross the Senate.

But Commodus had a plan,

and it really was
to ignore the Senate

and to appeal directly
to the people.

- To win the people over,
Commodus has

an incredible tool
at his disposal.

He has the games.

- Appealing to the people
is a strategy that goes

all the way back
to Julius Caesar.

Commodus throws lavish games

to celebrate
the end of the war,

which means free food
and entertainment...

[crowd chanting]

Even though years of conflict
and plague

have drained
the empire's finances.

♪

[grunting]

[cheers and boos]

- For the Senate,
they understand

that this is an absolute joke.

Triumphal games were
put on at the end

of great wars fought
for many years,

wars that established
the power of Rome.

This was the opposite of that,
and yet here he was,

parading himself as some sort
of triumphant general.

♪

[crowd chanting]

♪

[crowd cheering]

♪

- Do you hear that, Cassius?

People love it.

- But the treasury
can only stretch so far.

- I'll find the money.

- Every single day of games

costs an enormous amount
of money.

You have to fund the import
of sometimes

tens of thousands
of wild animals.

You have to hire gladiators,
some of whom

are extremely
high-priced help.

- In today's terms,
we'd be talking about an event

that would cost millions
of dollars per day,

and these games
could last for months.

The cost of the games
were unbelievable.

- Throughout history,
taxes have been a way

to generate more revenue
for the state,

and Commodus sees them
as a way to pay for the games,

curry favor with the people,
and stick it to the rich.

- Commodus directs
his attention

toward the 1%,
the senatorial class,

and he imposes
a new tax on them

to finance his games
in the Colosseum.

♪

- The Senate were never going
to just lie down and take this.

♪

- From the Senate's
perspective,

Commodus was becoming
a real threat.

It was enough
to prompt them to act.

Commodus had to be dealt with.

♪

- Within the first years
of Commodus's reign,

there's an attempt on his life.

- Who sent you?

Who sent you?

- He later finds out
that it's his own sister,

Lucilla, who's involved,
and a handful of senators.

- The idea, apparently,
was that she

would substitute
her own husband

and eliminate her brother
in order

to make room for her husband.

♪

- Bring me his head.

- There is no possible way
that a plot

on the emperor's life
did not include the Senate.

They viewed him as dangerous,
they viewed him as somebody

that should have been
gotten rid of a long time ago,

and they were going
to try their best to do it.

♪

- His relations
with the Senate

have always been tense.

Now they've become intolerable.

♪

- It's fair to say that any
semblance of a normal person

that remained in Commodus left

the moment that the
assassination plot took place.

♪

- How dare you?

♪

[grunts]

♪

- He was already a very
unstable and violent

and cruel person, and I think
this, in many ways,

validated his behavior
and sent him

on a complete mental
downward spiral.

♪

Commodus unleashes nothing
short of pure bloody vengeance

on the Senate.

Anyone he suspects
that was involved,

that will be involved,

that poses even
a minor threat to him,

in his eyes,
absolutely has to go.

The praetorians
round up senators

and systematically torture
each and every one of them,

at which point, of course,
they give up more names.

The web becomes bigger
and bigger and bigger.

A huge amount of Rome's
political class is wiped out.

Of course, one of
the side effects of this

is that they,
being wealthy men,

they have lost all their
rights to all their wealth,

their villas,
their businesses,

and quite conveniently,

Commodus takes it all
for himself.

- Cassius Dio and a handful
of other senators

escape the carnage
by fleeing the city.

- You can understand that this
shook the Senate to its core,

seeing members of the Senate
being put to death

as nothing more than
common criminals.

They knew that Commodus
was not somebody

who was mentally stable
or someone that you would

want to mess with at all.

♪

- Commodus's sister,
Lucilla, isn't spared.

She's exiled
to the Island of Capri,

then murdered
by her imperial guards.

♪

As the emperor descends
into violence and madness...

- Power corrupts; absolute
power corrupts absolutely.

- He drives his empire
closer to ruin.

- Rome is at a moment
of disaster.

- Commodus, this is madness!

- The highlight
of these new games

is going to be something
which the Roman people

have never seen before.

♪

- In the late 2nd century,
the Roman Empire is still

the most powerful of its time.

But cracks have formed.

♪

- Commodus decides that Rome
is no longer

a safe place for him to be,
and so he leaves the city

for his own safety.

- Caesar--

- I'm leaving Rome.

- I'll have
our things packed to--

- Not this time, Cleander.

You're staying.

I'm leaving you
in charge while I'm gone.

- Really, Caesar, but I--

- Dear Cleander,
I'm relying on you.

- He delegates the running
of the city and the day-to-day

affairs of Rome to one
of his former slaves,

a freed man called Cleander.

♪

- Cleander,
being a freed slave,

is basically from
the bottom of society.

Now he's been imbued with
this power and responsibility

from the emperor himself.

It's putting him above the
Senate, and that, of course,

is going to ruffle
feathers in the Senate.

♪

- Whenever you look
at the bad emperors,

I always think of the famous
maxim of "Power corrupts;

absolute power
corrupts absolutely."

So many Roman emperors
fell prey to paranoia

and increasing megalomania.

Caligula and Nero
are two perfect examples

of emperors who simply
lost their minds,

and the disintegration
of their reign

because of their own
cruel behavior,

because of their megalomania,

and because of their
systematic fighting

with the other powerful figures
in Rome, the Roman Senate.

♪

- Commodus, at the time
of his birth, had it all.

However, perhaps no other
human being in history

has squandered so much.

He was cruel,
he was power hungry,

but with no sense
of responsibility.

He had no serious
interest in governing

or even being emperor.

♪

- While all of this
is going on,

Commodus stays safely
in his villa outside Rome.

Commodus's villa contains
its own mini-amphitheater.

And while he's there,
he decides

to train as a gladiator.

- There's no record of why
Commodus decided to do this,

but we might say that it had

something to do
with his insecurity,

the desire to associate
himself with a symbol

of masculine virility.

- He becomes even
more paranoid.

And paradoxically,
he felt safer

surrounded by these
trained killers

than he did with the Senate.

- As Commodus plays gladiator,

Rome slips toward
financial collapse.

♪

- The economy is failing.

There's unrest
amongst the people.

There is death in the streets.

Rome is at a moment
of disaster.

And there was a very
serious threat at that point

that Rome itself
could be finished,

all because of the actions
of one very selfish individual.

♪

- There's a famine of the kind
that Rome hasn't suffered

for hundreds of years.

And this is joined
by a resurgence

of the Antonine Plague.

So a major pestilence
strikes the city as well.

It is mayhem in the city,
and thousands of people a day

are dying from hunger
or from disease.

♪

- He debases the coinage,
which means that

he lowered the silver
content in each coin,

therefore meaning that
the same amount of silver

could go further.

Now, superficially, it gave
him more money to buy his food

and spend it on games,
but in reality,

it will have
generated inflation.

It would be a disaster
for the city's finances.

♪

- Commodus knew, with all the
pressures on the Roman system,

he was losing the goodwill
of the Roman people,

and he had to do something big.

[crowd chanting]

- Commodus thought to himself,

I'll just give them
more circuses.

♪

- This time,
Commodus has a surprise.

♪

- The highlight
of these new games

is going to be something
which the Roman people

have never seen before.

The emperor himself is
going to take center stage

and fight as a gladiator.

- Commodus, this is madness!

You are not some slave.

You are the emperor of Rome.

♪

- One of the big draws
of becoming a gladiator is,

we forget how much power,
how much adulation,

how much excitement
they caused.

♪

But the Romans were elitists.

So the fact that someone
born of nobility,

one of the emperors,

would degrade himself
to that degree,

that he's going
to present himself

in the same profession
of infamia, the infamous,

the scum of the scum,
it wasn't just shocking,

it was absolutely
disgusting to them.

♪

- Commodus charges
the bankrupt Roman treasury

1 million sesterces to appear,
$10 million in today's money.

And he's not finished.

[both grunting]

♪

[crowd booing]

♪

[crowd cheering]

♪

- After the games,
Commodus embarks

on a still-grander project.

He intends to rebuild Rome
with himself at the center.

♪

- He renames Rome
Colonia Commodiana,

the Colony of Commodus.

And we wouldn't believe
that this was true

if it were not
for the fact that the coins

of Commodus's era show
that this was the case.

He really did name it
after himself.

- That could not be tolerated,

even by Commodus's
world-weary contemporaries.

♪

- When Commodus announces
yet another set of games,

with himself
as the star again,

the Senate know they must act.

- [grunting, groaning]

♪

- Commodus meets
his end at the hands

of his gladiatorial trainer,
at the hands of Narcissus,

acting on the orders
of the Senate.

♪

- There's a sort of poetic
irony that in the end,

it was the very figure that he
so admired, so wanted to be,

that put an end to his life--

the gladiator.

- But for Rome, the Senate's
actions come too late.

The death of Commodus

marks a tipping point
in Roman history.

♪

- The barbarians he'd settled
inside the Roman Empire

turned and invaded Italy
once again.

And the Roman Empire,
which had been drained

financially by
Commodus's expenditures,

could do very little about it.

♪

- Commodus, after his death,
suffers what's known

as the damnatio memoriae.

This means that every
reference to Commodus

was literally wiped out.

So inscriptions
with Commodus's name

were rubbed out.

Documents with his name

and about him were destroyed.

♪

- The reign of Commodus
is probably best summed up

by Cassius Dio
when he says that

Commodus was
a greater curse to the Romans

than any pestilence
and any crime.

♪

[all shouting]

- Now the Roman Empire
teeters on the edge...

- No! Stop!

- As new enemies close in.

♪

- Attila the Hun stands
as one of the most ruthless,

if not the most ruthless,
military leaders of all time.

♪

- Following the death
of Commodus in 192 C.E.,

Rome enters an extended
period of turbulence.

- This is now a new era
of Roman history.

Rome is no longer what it was.
Rome is in decline.

♪

- Over the next 200 years,
its frontiers

are often under attack.

- The empire was
beset on all sides

by barbarian invaders
who sensed Rome's weakness.

There were Saxons in the north,

there were Goths along
the Danube frontier,

Franks along the Rhine,
Persians in the east.

Rome was under threat.

[horse neighs]

- The once-invincible
Roman army struggles

to hold back the tide
of enemies on multiple fronts.

♪

The empire spends all
its resources on defense.

And military leadership
becomes the key quality

for any Roman emperor.

♪

In 330 C.E.,
Emperor Constantine the Great

founds a new capital,
closer to the legions

on the northern frontiers,
Constantinople.

But his rule
triggers upheavals

of a different order.

♪

- There's a kind
of a watershed moment

with the emperor Constantine.

So Constantine is born a pagan,
but he's the first emperor

to convert to Christianity.

And it sets the stage
for everything to change.

For Christianity to be legal.

For churches to be built.

For the new religion
to become legitimized,

to become imperialized,

and to grow like it
has never done before.

♪

- By the end
of the 4th century C.E.,

we think possibly as many
as 50% of the population

had become Christian.

- And the values that
drove Rome's expansion

are turned upside down.

- With the rise
of Christianity,

you have a lot of hostility
toward the ancient practices.

Not just toward
the ancient gods,

but toward the recognition
that much of Roman culture

is suffused with
conquest and violence,

and that goes against
the principles of Jesus.

♪

- We moved from a situation
in which the Christians

had been persecuted towards
a situation in which

the Christian emperors
moved with greater

and greater certainty
and strength against paganism.

- Under the emperor
Theodosius,

there's a whole set of
anti-pagan legislation

that gets set into place.

The shutting down of pagan

religious rituals
and holidays.

The banning of sacrifice.

And closure of pagan
temples and the withdrawal

of their funding.

[crowd chanting]

[both grunting]

- Such is the revolution
in values

that even the cornerstone
of Roman culture,

the gladiatorial spectacle,
finds itself under attack.

♪

- In the name
of the one true God!

- For Christians, what's
happening in the amphitheater

had to be stopped.

- In the name
of the one true God!

[crowd cheering]

- The Colosseum
has been standing

for close on 350 years.

It was built as an
extraordinary statement of PR

that Rome was succeeding.

♪

But at the end
of the Colosseum's life,

it really represents
the divided nature

of the end of the Roman world.

There are people
who are saying,

we have to have
a new way of being.

♪

- In the name
of our true God, stop!

♪

This is against
God's teachings!

♪

Leave or face his wrath!

♪

- This was a turning point
in history.

It sounded the death knell
of the Colosseum,

and things were never
going to be the same.

♪

- The deep change creates
tensions within Roman society,

pitting Christians
against pagans.

♪

- You'd have seen
the changes on the streets.

People were taking down
pagan monuments,

which were now regarded
as idolatrous.

Statues, for example, of gods

or men who were regarded
as gods were being taken down,

were being disfigured,
were being dismantled.

[all shouting]

- The city of Rome
is filled with statues,

and to Christians, these
statues present a huge affront

because they violate
two of the Commandments,

"Thou shalt make
no graven images,"

and "Thou shalt have
no gods aside from me."

♪

- No!

No! Stop!

Stop! Stop!

♪

[crowd cheering]

- For pagans,
watching a Christian mob

destroy a statue,
that was a tremendous affront,

and it was deeply offensive to
this traditionalist worldview.

- Amidst all this,
in 395 C.E.,

Rome's rulers decide

to split the empire
into two to survive,

an eastern and western half.

- It was simply too big
for any one person to handle.

So each half
of the Roman Empire

is ruled by one
of the sons of Theodosius,

the last man to rule
a united Roman Empire.

18-year-old Arcadius

rules from Constantinople
in the east,

and the 15-year-old Honorius
rules from Milan in the west.

- They are very young,
they're very inexperienced,

and they're clearly
not up to the job.

- Neither of them
ever visits Rome.

This means that
the city that is

the ideological and spiritual
heart of the empire

is something of a backwater.

[horse neighs]

- Rome, at this period,

is almost completely
unrecognizable

from the way that it was
in its heyday.

♪

The city is plagued
by all kinds of problems,

like famines and fires,
earthquakes.

And the buildings
stand in ruins.

The empire is nearly broke.

♪

People leave in droves,

and they're not
coming back in.

It's a pretty dark time.

♪

- With the empire divided
and vulnerable,

more and more barbarian tribes
press down on its borders.

♪

- This is a major threat
to the empire.

They have to act.

♪

- There is chaos.

There is confusion.

And there is a sense
of desperation.

♪

♪

- The Roman Empire,
recently divided

between the young brothers
Honorius and Arcadius,

is facing existential threats,

but its leaders are falling
short of the challenge.

- The contrast between
Arcadius and Honorius and, say,

the Five Good Emperors
like Trajan or Hadrian,

could not be stronger.

They are too young
and too inexperienced

to make any kind
of sound judgments.

They are entirely ruled
by the people around them.

♪

- Honorius and Arcadius
are symptomatic

of a much larger disease
that we associate

with hereditary systems.

From the Chinese emperors
to medieval kings

to the Russian tsars, systems
that are based on heredity

and not on skill often yield
rulers who are born into power

but unable
to wield it effectively.

♪

- And as the empire
grows weaker,

its rivals grow bolder--

among them, the Visigoths.

- The Visigoths are
a barbarian group

that has been settled
inside the Roman Empire

for a little less
than a generation.

They're a source of recruits
for the Roman army,

but in the past, they have
fought against the Romans.

And in the future, they could
just as easily do so again.

♪

- In 395 C.E., the same year
Honorius and Arcadius

come to the throne,
the Visigoths unite

under a king of their own--

Alaric.

- Alaric is just 25 years old.

He has been around the limes,
the fringes of the empire,

all his life.

He's actually fought
for the Roman army before.

And so he understands
the psychology

of both the Romans
and the barbarians very well.

♪

- Within a year,
Alaric's Visigoths

storm across
Eastern Roman provinces,

sacking Athens
and other large cities.

- This is a major threat
to the empire.

They have to act.

They have to deal
with Alaric now.

♪

- Then, in 402 C.E.,
Alaric attacks Italy.

♪

Then Western emperor Honorius
retreats with his court

to Ravenna,
leaving the defense of Italy

to his magister militum,
or commander-in-chief,

a man named Stilicho.

♪

- Stilicho is
a brilliant general.

He's of mixed barbarian,

possibly Vandal,
and Roman ancestry.

He's risen high
through his talents

within this Roman system.

In fact, he occupies
the kind of position

that someone like Alaric
is aspiring to.

♪

- When Stilicho meets Alaric,

he chooses to talk
rather than fight.

♪

- Stilicho is the most
powerful general,

and therefore,
politician in the Roman world.

If you're looking for a Roman
to negotiate with,

Stilicho is your man.

- There is no need
for us to be at war.

♪

- You have power.

We have none.

There'll be no peace
until my people

have a land to call their own.

- I can give you that.

Help me fight our enemies,
and I promise you,

you'll have your land.

You have my word.

♪

- To spare Italy from war,

Stilicho offers Alaric
lands in the Balkans.

♪

But Stilicho knows
he is merely buying time.

♪

Over the next few years,
Stilicho struggles to cope

with crisis after crisis.

Groups of barbarians
from outside the empire

and rebels within it all chip
away at his hold on power.

♪

Then, in 407, Alaric returns,
demanding more gold for peace.

And Emperor Honorius makes
a disastrous mistake.

- [shouts]

♪

- The Roman Empire is watching
as the central part

of its territory
is being taken over

and held by non-Roman peoples.

A rising tide
of anti-barbarianism

is growing and leads
to suspicion of Stilicho.

- Stilicho becomes a victim
of a whisper campaign

that paints him as disloyal,

in large part due to his
barbarian background,

and that's enough
for the emperor Honorius

to turn against him.

[bell tolling]

♪

- The immediate consequence
for Alaric

of the assassination
of Stilicho

is that the deal is
dead in the water.

♪

- It was a colossally
stupid move

to have Stilicho executed.

It eventually led
to the defection

of huge numbers of barbarian
troops over to Alaric's side.

♪

- Alaric wanted his homeland.

The Romans constantly
took it away from him.

So what he decides to do
is that he'll take away

the homeland from the Romans.

He's going to go
and sack Rome.

♪

- Thousands of Visigoths,
and thousands more

of Stilicho's men, who now
pledge loyalty to Alaric,

march on Rome.

♪

For the first time
in 800 years,

the barbarians
surround the city,

cutting off supply lines,

trying to starve Rome
into surrender.

But the war of attrition
takes its toll

on Roman and barbarian alike.

♪

- You get dire consequences
on both sides.

At Rome,
there's plague and famine.

There are calls
to legalize cannibalism.

On the Gothic side,
there's plague in their army.

So they really need
to come to a resolution.

- Eventually, Alaric sends
an offer of peace

to the Roman Senate.

- Unwen, send them a message.

If they grant us
this last night

to prepare our dead for burial,

I'll make a gift
to the senators of Rome.

- A gift, my lord?

- 300 of our best men
as slaves.

♪

- The Senate
agrees to the deal,

but Alaric does not
intend to retreat.

♪

- The brilliant
and really rather ironic thing

is that the Romans
trace their ancestry back

to the Trojans, and what Alaric
has given them

is effectively a Trojan horse.

These slaves are
not any old slaves.

They're actually
300 of his finest warriors.

♪

Rome essentially undergoes
the Sack of Troy again.

The slaves have completely
infiltrated the city.

They go on the rampage.

And they open the gates to the
waiting Goths who are outside.

[all shouting]

♪

- The sack of Rome is
Alaric's greatest victory--

a strike so devastating that
the empire never recovers.

- The tide has
really turned now.

Essentially, once upon a time,

the barbarians were
at the mercy of Rome,

but now, Rome is
at the mercy of the barbarians.

Its days are numbered.

- There is chaos,
there is confusion,

and there is a sense
of desperation.

When he hears the news,

the Roman Christian writer
Jerome says,

"If Rome can perish,
what can be safe?"

♪

- Rome recovers from its sack

only for new dangers
to appear.

- Who are you?

- I'm Atilla, the Whip of God.

- [groaning]

♪

- For the first time
in generations,

the Roman Empire is no longer
fighting for domination;

it's fighting for survival.

♪

While the imperial
family struggles

to hold on to Italy
and North Africa,

Germanic peoples carve up

the rest of
the Western Empire.

The Visigoths settle
in Southwestern Gaul,

while Southern Spain
falls to the Vandals.

♪

Their unlikely leader

is the illegitimate son
of a king.

His name is Gaiseric.

- The Roman sources
report that Gaiseric

had a physical disability,
but apart from that,

what they emphasize
is his intelligence.

- Gaiseric was an almost
uniquely perceptive statesman.

♪

He was ruthless
in negotiations,

and ruthless when he chose
to put his army into action.

- Gaiseric,
of all the late Roman

barbarian leaders,
is the only one who really

seeks to create a kingdom.

He wants to control his own
agenda for the long run.

- In 439, Gaiseric strikes
at the jewel

in the empire's crown...

♪

Carthage, a crucial territory
that Rome has held

since its defeat of Hannibal
nearly 600 years earlier.

♪

- North Africa is
the breadbasket

of the Roman Empire,
and Carthage is

the gateway to North Africa.

There's an extraordinary
symmetry

between the construction
of the Roman Empire

on the basis of taking Carthage

and its effective fall
as a viable superpower

through the Vandals' capture
of Carthage.

♪

- Gaiseric's capture
of Carthage

is the single most devastating
blow to the Roman Empire.

Gaiseric now controls
the food supply

to the armies
of the Western Empire,

the food supply to Rome.

He is in complete control.

- With the Vandals now
controlling the Mediterranean,

Italy cannot feed itself.

Rome is about to go through
decades

of famine, of decline,

of loss, of permanent fall.

♪

- And as Rome's
enemies circle,

its politics weaken it
from within.

♪

The Eastern emperor
Theodosius II

rules from Constantinople.

His empire is mostly intact.

But in Ravenna, his young
cousin, Valentinian III,

rules a much reduced
Western Empire.

- The Emperor Valentinian
came to the throne as a child.

He was young, he was weak,
he was not taught the politics

that earlier Roman emperors
had been taught,

and he was not a soldier.

He was also very much
under the thumb of his mother,

the imperial princess, Galla.

- Galla is
an astonishing woman.

Not only is she
the sister of one emperor,

she's married to another,

and then she's the mother
of a third.

And she exercises a great deal
of personal power

within the imperial
political circles.

♪

- She and her son turn to the
only man capable of saving

their crumbling empire,
General Flavius Aetius,

who's replaced Stilicho
as the commander-in-chief

of the Western armies.

- The problem Aetius faces
is that he's

distrusted by the royal family,
basically because

he becomes too powerful.

He manages to take over
complete control

of Roman military forces
in the Western Empire himself.

♪

- Aetius,

Magister Militum
of the Western Army,

patriarch...

of my empire.

♪

Give this to my cousin
Theodosius.

♪

I have decided to petition
the Eastern Empire

to ally their armies
and their fleet

for you to drive
the Vandal king from Carthage.

♪

This Attila.

Is he the devil, as they say?

- No.

♪

Much worse.

♪

- Even as the Romans
make plans to face

the Vandals in Carthage,
they know other barbarians

are growing in power.

None more than the Huns,
who appeared from the steppes

of Eurasia in the 4th century.

♪

- Who are you?

- I'm Attila, the Whip of God.

- [groaning]

- Attila the Hun stands
as one of the most ruthless,

if not the most ruthless,
military leaders of all time.

He would slaughter thousands,
tens of thousands,

to send a very strong message
to those that stood in his path

about the fate
that awaited them.

♪

- While Attila's Huns
menace Rome's eastern borders,

the Western and Eastern Empire

launch their combined
operation against the Vandals.

♪

Rome's combined forces,
numbering 100,000 men,

meet in Sicily,
ready to sail to Carthage.

It's the largest
invasion force

the empire has ever assembled,

but it leaves the eastern
border virtually undefended.

♪

- Attila sees this,
he seizes the moment

to unleash his Hunnic hordes,
while the rest of the Romans

are over there
600 miles away in Sicily.

♪

- Attila turns Roman tactics
and technology against them.

Using towers, catapults,
and battering rams,

the Huns can take a fortified
city in a matter of days.

♪

- This is a seismic shift in
the strategic balance of power.

Earlier enemies
rampaging through the Balkans

like the Goths couldn't
take defended cities.

They never conducted
successful sieges.

The fact that
the Huns can do it,

and they can take really
major Roman bases,

that changes everything.

♪

- As the end game approaches,

Rome's defenders
have no easy options.

♪

To act against one

means letting the other
grow stronger.

- The Western
and Eastern Empires

come together to push back
their enemies,

but as the Huns advance
in Eastern Europe,

in Sicily, the combined
Roman forces charged

with defeating
Gaiseric's Vandals

find themselves grappling
with the fallout.

[dramatic music]

- We have orders to withdraw.

Emperor Theodosius
has called back

the entire Eastern Army

to defend Constantinople
from the Huns.

We leave at dawn.

I'm sorry, my friend.

♪

- Without the Eastern fleet,
we're done.

We cannot sail alone.

What do you suggest?

- We leave Carthage
to Gaiseric for now.

Agree terms with the Vandals
to let grain into the empire.

- If and when
we defeat Attila,

I will return and remove
that traitor's head.

♪

- By turning
its invasion force north

to confront Attila,

Rome grants Gaiseric a crucial
window of opportunity,

one the empire
will come to regret.

- The fact that the expedition
never sails from Sicily

means everything to Gaiseric.

It allows him
to start to build

a real kingdom
in North Africa.

It basically secures
his existence

as an independent power.

- Gaiseric is possibly
the most underestimated factor

in the decline
of the Roman Empire.

He's a famously effective
military strategist,

but he's also
infamously cunning.

♪

- Western Emperor Valentinian
is forced to grant Gaiseric

a treaty in 442 C.E.,
recognizing an independent

Vandal Kingdom on lands
that were once Rome's.

♪

And to cap it all off,
Emperor Valentinian

agrees to marry his daughter
to Gaiseric's son...

♪

Giving the Vandal king
a fateful claim

on the imperial family.

♪

- The Romans have no choice
but to turn back.

This is the ever-present
nightmare of a two-front war,

and the Romans
respond accordingly.

They have to keep
the Vandals on their side,

but the treaty leaves them
seriously weakened.

♪

- While on
the Danube frontier,

the situation only becomes
more desperate

as Attila plunders city
after city,

moving closer
to the Eastern Roman capital.

♪

- Attila was
fundamentally predatory.

He did not have
a massive taxation system

set up in order to extract
revenue from his subjects.

Instead, his goal was
to use the Roman Empire

as a sort of bank from which he
could draw whenever he needed

more money in order to supply,
above all, those people who

were his leaders with gold.

♪

- Eastern Emperor Theodosius

knows he must keep Attila
away from his capital,

Constantinople, now almost
equal in size and wealth

to the city of Rome.

But he's not prepared to pay
the ransom, 1 ton in gold,

that Attila demands in return
for leaving the city alone.

♪

- Theodosius has grown bold.

He has refused
the Huns' peace terms.

Attila is apocalyptic.

Asks that his army moves
on the east as we speak.

♪

- They say Attila has found
the Sword of Mars in Scythia.

They say it has magical powers,

that it proves his
divine right to lead.

- It's nothing
but folklore, superstition.

- I know that!

♪

But his armies don't.

♪

They believe it.

They think they are
following a god.

♪

- Attila escalates
his attacks,

sweeping through the Eastern
Empire towards Constantinople.

- He took over
most of the cities

in what is today
Bulgaria and Serbia.

Something on the order
of 80 cities were captured.

Probably on the order
of 100,000 people

were taken into captivity.

♪

- In 443,
with the Eastern Empire

on the verge of collapse,
Theodosius surrenders.

♪

Attila now demands
3 tons of gold,

plus another ton
to be paid every year.

♪

The settlement causes a crisis
within the Eastern economy

and turns the Huns towards
Valentinian in the west.

♪

- I have no doubt that
Attila rides on us.

- Then send the legions to
reinforce the northern borders.

Hunt him down.

- With all due respect,
we do not have enough men.

If and when he attacks, we will
not be able to hold him.

We cannot defend our borders.

We cannot rely on the East
for reinforcements.

It leaves us
with just one option.

We must send word
to the barbarian tribes

to form a coalition.

If we unite together,
we may hold.

If we fight alone, us and every
other tribe will fall.

♪

- To call the Roman Empire
at this point

a husk of its former self is,
frankly, being too generous.

Huge areas have fallen out
of its effective control.

Its resources are
dramatically diminished.

Even assembling an army
is extraordinarily difficult.

If you wanted soldiers,
you were going

to have to turn to the Goths.

- The Goths are
the best military force,

apart from the Roman army,

that's available
on Western territories.

♪

Up to this point, the whole
of the strategy of the empire

has been to try and keep
the Goths in line.

Now the empire has to go
cap-in-hand to the Goths

to keep itself in being.

♪

- Theodoric, my old friend,
you have two choices.

Fight alongside us
or face the Hun alone.

And watch the Goths being
driven into oblivion.

♪

I'll await your answer.

♪

- The unnatural alliance
is made just in time.

♪

Attila's horde, as many
as 100,000 warriors,

cross the Rhine
into Roman Gaul,

attacking city after city.

Aetius scrambles his forces
to confront them.

♪

Romans and Visigoths
will meet the Huns in Gaul

in one of the bloodiest
battles of the Roman age.

♪

Its outcome will decide
the fate of the empire.

♪

- In its 1,000-year history,
Rome has survived invasions,

uprisings, and disease.

Now it unites with its old
enemies, the Visigoths,

to fight an even more
terrifying one,

Attila and his Huns.

- This is the most
powerful Hunnic army

there has ever been.

This is confrontation
on a colossal scale.

♪

- Aetius commands
a combined force of Romans

and Goths numbering
80,000 men on the north

of the battlefield.

On the opposite side,
Attila leads as many

as 100,000 warriors
set to charge.

♪

- Today, we will rip their
empire from their dead hands.

There will be great sacrifice,
but we will be victorious!

[all cheering]

♪

- Sound the advance!

♪

- The Battle
of the Catalaunian Plains

is one of the bloodiest in the
history of the Roman Empire.

♪

Roman historians
describe a slaughter

on an unprecedented scale.

♪

- Very clearly,
upwards of 50,000 men total

died during the Battle
of the Catalaunian Plains.

These are numbers that
are comparable to some

of the largest battles in
World War I and World War II.

♪

- The Huns never regained
their previous strength.

A victory for Rome
and its allies.

♪

Aetius returns to Italy
as the commander

of the depleted army.

The battle is a strategic
victory for the empire,

but its military losses
are so great that

it is vulnerable to the threat
from Gaiseric's Vandals.

♪

- We lost seven legions
in the battle.

The northern border's a mayhem.

We do not have enough manpower
to reinforce them.

Gaiseric continues
his blockade of Sardinia,

severing us further
from the sea.

We must again ask the Eastern
Empire for reinforcements.

- You dare to question my rule

by blaming the troubles
of the empire on me?

- I blame no one--
- Oh, enough.

♪

Do you wish power for yourself?

♪

- I seek nothing.

- You seek to usurp me.

You won't get the chance,
you traitor!

- [grunting]

♪

- For Aetius, he should be
celebrated as the great hero

who has defeated the Huns.

He has done the impossible.

Arguably the greatest military
figure Rome has known.

Certainly the greatest
military figure Rome

has known for a long time.

♪

- The death of Aetius
deprives Rome

of its most
effective protector.

His reputation alone
is probably enough

to keep barbarians away
from the gates of Rome.

But without him, they've
become much more vulnerable.

- The decline
of Rome accelerates

as the barbarians dismantle
the once-great empire.

♪

The imperial household
begins to implode.

♪

- [grunting]

- Within a year,
Valentinian is assassinated

by soldiers loyal to Aetius.

♪

By the time of his death,
Britain, North Africa,

Spain, and most of Gaul

have passed
out of Roman hands.

♪

Using the excuse
that his son is still

engaged to
Valentinian's daughter,

Gaiseric seizes his chance.

♪

- Gaiseric is the dark knight.

He is the one that really

brings the Western Empire
to its knees.

♪

- The Vandals arrive at the
gates of Rome in 455 C.E.

♪

- Gaiseric's intention
is not to conquer Rome,

but to plunder it.

What he's seeking to do
is to increase

the strength of his own kingdom
at the expense of Rome.

He wants to carve out
a domain for himself

from the ashes of the empire.

♪

- It takes the Vandals
less than two weeks

to defeat the city's defenses.

For days,
the Vandals loot at will.

♪

The Second Sack of Rome
is a fatal blow

from which the empire
will never recover.

♪

A succession of emperors
and pretenders

will squabble over the ruins
for another 20 years

while Goths, Franks, Vandals,

and others move in
for the kill.

♪

In 476 C.E., the last
Roman emperor in Italy

is deposed by a Gothic king.

The Western Roman Empire
has fallen.

♪

From its humble beginnings
to its spectacular decadence,

the story of Rome's
rise and fall

echoes through the ages.

♪

- Rome rose to power by making
the most of its strengths.

Its army. Its values.
Its engineering.

But ultimately, its ambition
also proved to be its downfall.

[tiger roars]

- The Roman Empire didn't
die a natural death.

It wasn't murdered
by outsiders.

It accidentally
committed suicide.

Rome was a victim
of its own success.

♪

- Internal divisions,
invasions, economic collapse,

religious upheavals.

Even a phenomenon
as resilient as Rome

could not stand up
to all those attacks.

♪

- There's many empires
that have claimed

to carry on the flame of Rome,

but no one has really succeeded
in coming close.

♪

- Roman law continues.

Roman religion continues.

Roman ideas and philosophy
continue into the present day.

- Let the games begin!

[crowd cheering]

- We are, to an extent,
the grandchildren of Rome.

And so in looking
at Rome's collapse,

we would be foolish not
to look at ourselves

and see how those same events
would affect us.

♪

- Rome is ultimately
a cautionary tale to us.

You are never too big to fail.

♪