All language subtitles for Rome Rise and Fall of an Empire - S01E12 - The Puppet Master_track3_[und]

[music playing]

\h\hNARRATOR: In the
late fourth century,

endless barbarian attacks
\h\h\hpoisoned the Empire

with suspicion and hatred for
\hits own immigrant soldiers.

\h\h\h\h\hThe half-barbarian
half-Roman generals Stilicho

\h\his not the last to be
sacrificed, a bloody death

\h\hforeshadowing the fate
of an empire on the brink

of collapse.

\h\hNow, in the fifth century,
over 500 years after the death

of Julius Caesar, the Roman
\h\hEmpire is ravaged by war

and is quickly losing land
\hto its foreign invaders.

\h\h\h\hIn the midst of this
chaos, three Roman generals

\hcompete for the
power of emperor.

But through treachery,
betrayal, and murder,

\h\honly one, the barbarian-born
Ricimer, gains control of Rome.

He is the puppet master.

\h\h\h\hIn 455 AD, the
ancient city of Rome,

once a pinnacle of civilization,
is sacked by a violent tribe

of vandal barbarians.

\hVandals have come
from North Africa

\h\hto the capital of the Roman
world, as it used to be anyway.

\h\h\h\hThe Romans are
shocked and terrified

that barbarians could come to
their ancient cultural center

\h\h\h\hand literally take
anything that they wanted.

NARRATOR: After centuries of
\hendless barbarian attacks,

Rome has lost control
of the Mediterranean.

Desperate, the Empire offers up
its last and greatest treasure,

the land itself.

In exchange for peace, Rome
\h\hgrants its fertile soil

to the barbarian tribes.

\hThe problem is that
they had no choice.

\h\h\h\hAnd so the Romans just
negotiated with them and said,

OK.

You’re here.

We can’t get you out.

We’ll give you this territory.

And Romans just gave it away.

\hNARRATOR: The Empire has been
officially divided between East

and West for over 75 years.

But while the East
\hremains strong,

the West has lost most of its
\hterritory to the barbarians.

\hAs it barters away
its land, the Empire

\hreceives barbarian
soldiers in return.

But the plan only backfires.

\h\hThe emperors made a deal
with the devil, so to speak,

\hbecause when the emperors
gave land to the barbarians,

they were giving away whatever
\h\h\htax revenues might come

to the Imperial Treasury
\h\h\hfrom those lands.

The more you gave away,
\h\hthe poorer you got.

\h\h\hThe poorer you got, as
Roman emperor, the more land

you needed to give away.

And it was a deadly downward
\h\hspiral for the strength

of the Roman Empire.

NARRATOR: The Empire
has always depended

on foreign mercenaries.

\h\h\h\hYet in the fifth
century, the Roman army

\h\his almost entirely
of barbarian descent.

The former enemies
\h\hare now peers.

Barbarians once the
\h\hslaves of Romans

are now often their superiors.

\h\h\h\hAll these men are
saying, hey, my parents

\h\h\h\hmay have been a
barbarian, but I’m not.

I’m a general in the Roman army.

And they’re competing for the
honor attached to leadership.

\hNARRATOR: Age-old ethnic
tensions divide the army,

pitting soldier against soldier,
Roman against barbarian.

But in 456 AD, one
ambitious general

\h\h\h\h\his determined to
maintain order, though he

himself is a barbarian.

His name is Ricimer.

\h\h\h\h\hRicimer’s career
followed a path that was--

was quite normal for
\hbarbarian nobles.

\hHe was from a minor branch
of the Gothic royal family.

He had no real prospect of
winning power in his home

society.

\hAnd so he sought service as
an officer in the Roman army,

where he did very
well for himself.

NARRATOR: Now, Ricimer devises
a plan to gain even more power

in the Western Empire.

\h\h\hHe will lead his army
against Rome’s greatest foe,

the Vandals.

\h\h\h\hRICHARD BURGESS
(VOICEOVER): The problem

\h\h\h\h\his, to all intents and
purposes, there is no such thing

as the Roman army at this time.

\h\h\hA commander, whoever he
happens to be, sees a threat,

then has to raise the
\harmy however he can.

If he has money, then move
that army to the location,

and fight.

\h\hNARRATOR: Ricimer
marches to Agrigentum,

\hin modern-day Sicily, to
confront the Vandal forces

\h\h\hsailing from their
stronghold of Carthage.

\hIn Sicily, the Vandal
warriors come down hard

on Ricimer and his army.

The Vandals know their enemy
\hand they know the terrain.

\h\hSicily and southern Italy
were like the Vandals’ ATM.

Every spring, they’d
\hget in their ships

and row over and make a
very violent withdrawal

and then go home.

And the Roman security cameras
couldn’t do anything about it.

NARRATOR: Ricimer
\hleads his troops

\h\h\hagainst the great
onslaught of barbarians.

Yet despite his own
\hmilitary training,

\h\h\h\hhis army of mercenary
soldiers is at a disadvantage.

\h\h\hThe Roman army, by the
middle of the fifth century,

\his no longer the army that
it had been a hundred years

before.

\hFor one thing, it’s
considerably smaller.

For another, it’s
\hless well-armed.

And it’s certainly
less disciplined.

Consequently, there just
doesn’t seem to be any--

\h\h\hthere’s no evidence that
there was any kind of training

or tactics or whatever.

\h\h\hIt’s simply this
great whack of Germans

\h\his then sent off against
that great whack of Germans.

And they just keep killing one
another, until it either gets

\hdark or somebody gives
up or somebody runs away

\hor, you know, whatever--
whatever the case may be.

\h\hNARRATOR: Though skill and
discipline of Roman formation

\hhas been lost for
decades, the Vandals

are unable to break
\h\h\hRicimer’s men.

\h\h\hThe Roman army claims
victory, not for the Empire,

but for their great leader.

The battle-weary Ricimer
\h\hreturns home a hero.

But he’s not the only general
\hseeking his fame and fortune

in Rome.

\h\hTwo old friends from his
youth are equally ambitious,

Majorian and Aegidius.

\hRicimer, Majorian, and-- and
Aegidius had all, effectively,

been fellow junior officers.

And their careers had marched
\h\h\h\hin step with one ano--

with one another over the years.

NARRATOR: But, now it is
their innate differences

that stir conflict
below the surface.

\hThe three men reflect
the great ethnic divide

hindering the Empire.

\h\h\hI think one of the sources
of the obvious personal tension

\h\hbetween Aegidius,
Ricimer, and Majorian

really lies in their origins.

Aegidius is from Gaul.

Majorian is from Italy.

\h\hAnd Ricimer is a barbarian
who wants to live as a Roman.

NARRATOR: And Ricimer’s out
to prove that he has as much

\hright to a piece of the
Empire as any other Roman.

But the competition for
\habsolute power in Rome

is not limited to Ricimer,
or Majoriam, and Aegidius.

They must now swear allegiance
\h\hto a new emperor, Avitus,

\h\h\hwhose tenuous
claim to the throne

rests only on his formidable
\h\h\h\hbarbarian entourage.

\hIt’s quite clear that Avitus’
regime rested on a foundation

\hof Gothic military support
and that the Gothic king was

Avitus’ most influential
\h\h\hand, in some ways,

absolutely indispensable backer.

NARRATOR: With his
Gothic bodyguards,

Avitus is untouchable.

Ricimer and his friends can do
nothing but take their orders

\hand wait, while the
old figurehead enjoys

\h\h\h\hthe luxury of power,
neglecting the true problems

of the Empire.

\h\hIn North Africa,
Rome’s grain supply

\h\hhas been seized by
the barbarian Vandals.

\h\h\hNorth Africa was the
breadbasket of the Empire,

producing grain, the staple
\h\hof most people’s diets,

and olive oil, equally important
for the fat in people’s diets

and for a million other uses.

\hNARRATOR: Without
the precious grain,

\hfamine grips what’s left
of the Empire’s provinces.

In Rome, the poor must steal
\hwhat they can to survive.

Gone are the security and
comfort of Rome’s heyday,

\h\hreplaced now by
despair and turmoil.

\hRICHARD BURGESS (VOICEOVER):
So everything is topsy turvy.

There’s no stability.

\hThere’s-- there’s no sort
of knowledge of what’s gonna

happen in the future.

Everything is uncertain.

NARRATOR: The situation at the
Imperial Palace soon declines

as well.

Angry and impatient, Emperor
\hAvitus’ Visigoth soldiers

demand payment for
\htheir services.

Avitus is desperate.

\hRoman emperors couldn’t
pay the barbarian troops

that they needed in cash,
because the Roman Empire’s

\hrevenues were so
greatly decreased.

\h\hSo when Roman emperors were
bartering for military support,

they were dealing in the only
\hgood currency they had left.

So Avitus has to strip the
bronze off of the temples,

in order to pay the guys who
came down to Gaul with him,

all the-- the Gothic-- the
Gothic army and-- and his

Gothic entourage.

NARRATOR: But by selling
\hthe treasures of Rome,

Avitus only saves himself.

\h\h\h\h\hHe leaves Italy in the
poorhouse, hungry and hopeless.

The Romans riot in the streets,
demanding that Avitus banish

his Gothic troops from Rome.

MICHAEL KULIKOWSKI (VOICEOVER):
Avitus is not popular.

\hAnd he’s not popular
with the Italian army.

\hAnd he’s not popular with
the Italian general Ricimer.

\hNARRATOR: In the
public’s outrage,

Ricimer and Majorian
see an opportunity.

\h\hTHOMAS R. MARTIN
(VOICEOVER): Avitus

was in a desperate situation.

And when the barbarian Roman
\hcommander Ricimer decided

\hthat Avitus was a
losing proposition,

Avitus had no choice
\h\hexcept to flee.

\hNARRATOR: The emperor may
flee the chaos of the crowd,

\h\hbut escaping the
ambitions of Ricimer

will prove to be more difficult.

In the fifth century, Rome
is overrun by barbarians.

\h\h\hThree old friends, the
generals Ricimer, Majorian,

\h\h\hand Aegidius, maneuvere to
attain absolute power in what’s

left of the Western Empire.

But first they must subdue its
\hincompetent emperor, Avitus.

\h\h\hChased out of Rome,
Avitus flees over the Alps

and westward into his
\h\hNative Gaul, where

he gathers Visigothic supporters
before returning to Italy.

With the support of
\hhis fellow Gauls,

Avitus hopes to easily
\h\hregain the throne.

But back on Italian soil,
\h\h\hRicimer and Majorian

and are waiting for him.

The ambush is brutal.

\h\h\hThese battles are
up close and personal,

because you have to be able to
kill them from up that close.

So there’s pushing.

There’s shoving.

There’s running back.

\h\h\h\hThere are dead
bodies to climb over.

There are injured men yelling.

NARRATOR: In the bloodbath, the
army of Avitus is annihilated.

But in a surprising
\h\h\hturn, Ricimer

\h\hspares the emperor’s
life on the battlefield.

\h\h\hAvitus is made bishop in a
church in the same Italian city

where he is defeated.

THOMAS R. MARTIN
(VOICEOVER): Why

was Avitus fetus, the deposed
\hemperor, made into a bishop?

\h\hSo that he would no longer
have any military connections

or any military power.

And so that Ricimer, who
deposed him, could say,

\h\h\hI didn’t slaughter a
legitimate Roman emperor.

I allowed him to follow a
religious vocation, which

he had always wanted to do.

NARRATOR: This is
the public story.

But in the shadows, Ricimer
\h\hsends a secret assassin,

\h\hhis old friend Majorian,
to silence Avitus for good.

\hFor Ricimer, holy
exile isn’t enough.

He must have total victory.

Italian Romans wanted
to protect what they

saw as their own interests.

With the deposition and then
\h\hstrangulation of Avitus,

\hthe emperor from Gaul
was out of the picture.

And now, Romans, in Italy, could
hope that they would go back

\h\h\hto the future and that
Italy, the source of Rome’s

original greatness,
would once again be

the source of the Roman
\h\hEmpire’s salvation.

NARRATOR: With the emperor
Avitus Venus finally gone,

Italy celebrates.

\hBut the mastermind
behind Avitus’ death

has no plans of proclaiming
\hhimself as a replacement.

\h\hRicimer himself would’ve
realized that he could never

survive as emperor.

\h\h\h\h\h\hIt would’ve been
unacceptable for a barbarian

\h\h\hof-- a barbarian
warlord with, indeed,

\hroyal connections to
barbarian royal houses

to assume the Roman throne.

No barbarian leader really
contemplated it seriously.

NARRATOR: Instead, Ricimer names
a man he thinks he can control,

his best friend.

THOMAS R. MARTIN (VOICEOVER):
Majorian, the man whom Ricimer

decided to make emperor instead
of himself, was an Italian.

Ricimer had gauged the
\hsense of especially

the Roman upper class in Italy.

The Roman upper class in Italy
\h\hwanted an Italian emperor.

\h\hRicimer decided he’d be
the power behind the throne

and make Majorian,
that good Italian,

into the Roman emperor.

\h\h\hLike the Wizard of Oz,
however, behind the curtain,

\hRicimer was going to pull the
strings, or so Ricimer thought.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: With the new
regime, the three old friends

enjoy the spoils of power.

Ricimer is named Master
\hof Soldiers in Italy.

\h\h\hAnd Aegidius is sent on
assignment to his native Gaul.

\h\h\hRICHARD BURGESS
(VOICEOVER): Aegidius

is reasonably successful.

\hWe have a number of sources
that say very positive things

about him, both as a commander
\h\h\h\hand as an individual.

So he seems to have
\h\hbeen-- he seems

\h\h\h\hto have been very
charismatic and successful

military commander.

NARRATOR: Aegidius as secures
\h\h\hhis army’s camp in Gaul

near the city of Soissons.

But with the Francs
\h\h\hto the North,

the Visigoths to the West, and
\hthe Burgundians to the East,

he is trapped in a
sea of barbarians.

Under constant attack from
\htheir barbarian enemies,

\hAegidius and his army rise
to the occasion, determined

\hto defend Roman
Gaul at all costs.

\hAegidius was a
Roman from Gaul,

from France, who had
\hextensive military

and diplomatic experience.

And the Roman hope was that
\hhe could prevent further,

especially Gothic,
incursions in Gaul

and protect what, admittedly,
\h\h\h\h\h\hsmall part of Gaul

was still part of
the Roman Empire.

NARRATOR: The endless barbarian
assaults take their toll

\h\hon his already
diminished forces.

But Awgidius refuses
\h\hto admit defeat.

\h\h\h\hAt this stage,
Aegidius in the 450s,

there’s still hope, perhaps.

And he clings on to this
view and tries and hopes

for a restoration
\hof Roman power.

NARRATOR: With Aegidius
in Gaul, Ricimer expects

to wield full power in Italy.

But Majorian has other plants.

What Ricimer discovers is that
\hMajorian has every intention

of being an active
\h\hRoman emperor,

\hrather than the figurehead
that he was intended to be.

He tried very hard to push
\hRicimer into the shadows

and into the sidelines.

And he tried to take command
\hof major military ventures

on his own.

\h\hGEOFFREY GREATREX
(VOICEOVER): Majorian,

is an emperor who was, clearly,
very dynamic, who is also

very efficient.

And he he’s also aware
\hof the deficiencies

\hof the empire, which he
is determined to rectify.

\h\hMajorian devises a grand
campaign against the Vandal

\h\hking Gaiseric, leaving
Ricimer on the sidelines.

This, Ricimer will not allow.

The alliance between Ricimer,
\h\h\h\hMajorian, and Aegidius

\h\h\hyields success when
Majorian is made emperor.

And Aegidius gains
victories in Gual.

But Ricimer’s power
\has the mastermind

is threatened when Majorian
\h\hstrikes out on his own,

launching an expedition
against Rome’s greatest

enemy, the Vandals.

Majorian leads his troops across
the Alps into Gaul and South

\h\hinto Hispania, to
prepare a Naval attack

against the Vandals
\h\hof North Africa.

Majorian commissions carpenters
to build the strongest, fastest

ships, hoping to overpower the
great fleet of the Vandal king

Gaiseric.

\h\h\hMajorian wanted to drive
the Vandals from North Africa,

to restore the Roman Empire’s
most important source of food

and revenue.

\hNARRATOR: Camped near
the Mediterranean coast,

Majorian takes every precaution
for his important and expensive

mission.

\h\h\hTHOMAS S. BURNS
(VOICEOVER): Majorian

is, by all the evidence
\h\h\hwe have, careful.

He sends scouting forces across
the Straits of Gibraltar.

Test the waters, if you will,
of local support for landing,

because it’s gonna be
\ha landing operation.

This is not exactly
\h\hD-day, but it’s

\h\hgoing to be, by lay Roman
standards, a very significant

Naval action here.

\h\hNARRATOR: But in the
night, disaster strikes.

\h\h\hDespite all of
Majorian’s efforts,

Gaiseric’s men set the
\hRoman fleet ablaze.

Once again, the Vandals prove
to be too much for the Romans.

\h\hRICHARD BURGESS (VOICEOVER):
They cannot defeat the Vandals.

A lot-- lots of thingss--
\h\h\hthey just collapse,

before they even--

before they even really
\hstart, in some cases.

The expedition had really
collapsed halfway through.

\h\hAnd the Romans, up to
that point, were winning.

\h\h\hMICHAEL KULIKOWSKI
(VOICEOVER): If Majorian

had been able to conquer Africa,
it’s quite clear that he would

have been unchallengeable.

\h\h\hBut as it was, the
mission was a disaster.

The invasion was a disaster.

\h\h\h\hThe fleet that had been
collected to carry the soldiers

across the Mediterranean was
burned in the harbor, where

it was being mustered.

\hNARRATOR: Majorian returns to
Italy, dejected, his great plan

to recapture North
\hAfrica, ruined.

\h\h\hThis is a humiliating
act, in part of Majorian.

The way Roman concepts of
\hpower and honor worked,

\hthis emperor, the last one
who really had the capacity

\hto lead men into battle
and thereby achieve the--

the image of manliness,
\h\h\h\h\his humiliated.

NARRATOR: Along the same
\h\hwooded road to Rome,

a troop of soldiers rides
to intercept the emperor.

\h\h\hIt is the Honor Guard of
Majorian’s old friend Ricimer.

\h\h\hRICHARD BURGESS
(VOICEOVER): Majorian

was the first military emperor
\h\hthat Rome had had in years

and years and years.

But with the failure of
\hthe Vandal expedition,

Ricimer, for some
\hreason or other,

decided to get rid of him.

\hThere may have been
other things going on.

Majorian may have blamed
the failure on Ricimer.

Ricimer may have blamed
the failure on Majorian.

We have no idea.

NARRATOR: Fifth-century
writer, John of Antioch.

JOHN OF ANTIOCH (VOICEOVER):
\h\hRicimer and his soldiers

\h\harrested him, stripped him
of his purple robe and crown,

beat him, and beheaded him.

Thus ended Majorian’s life.

NARRATOR: A messenger carrying
\h\hnews of Majorian’s murder

\hmakes his way slowly to
the far-off Roman outpost

of Soissons, Gaul, where
\hAegidius is stationed.

It is very bad news
\h\hfor the general.

\h\h\h\hThe only response that
Aegidius is likely to have had

\his that he and Majorian
and Ricimer were buddies.

\h\h\hThey had served
together for decades.

What does this make him?

\h\hI mean, his-- his legitimacy
was his appointment by Majorian,

\h\h\h\hwho has now been
discredited and killed.

I think his future
is very uncertain.

MICHAEL KULIKOWSKI (VOICEOVER):
With Majorian dead,

Aegidius no longer
\h\hsees any point

\h\h\h\hin continuing to
cooperate with Ricimer.

\h\hAnd so Aegidius
simply breaks away.

He refuses to recognize Ricimer
and Ricimer’s new government

and effectively rules his bit of
Gaul as an independent kingdom.

NARRATOR: Aegidius must
\hprepare his soldiers.

Declaring independence
\h\h\h\h\hfrom Ricimer

is akin to declaring war.

Rejecting Ricimer’s
\h\h\hrule in Italy,

\hAegidius as considers
his kingdom of Soissons

the last vestige of
\hthe Roman Empire.

\h\h\h\h\h\hThere’s no
evidence that they’re

\h\h\hresponding to
orders from Ricimer

or anyone else in Italy.

They’re on their own.

\h\h\hThey’re-- they’re
completely independent.

So the fabric of the empire is
\hnow broken down into pieces.

NARRATOR: In Rome, Ricimer
prepares for war as well.

But first, he must find a new
\h\hemperor to do his bidding.

This time, there is no dispute.

The man he chooses is no more
than a puppet, Libius Severus.

RICHARD BURGESS (VOICEOVER):
No one wants to be emperor.

\h\hIt’s not a job
that anyone needs.

\hThe only person who needs an
emperor is the generalissimo.

\hHe’s the guy who
needs the emperor.

Nobody else needs one.

So Ricimer’s there and
\hhe needs an empire.

So he’s the one who appoints the
successor to Marjorian, Liius

Severus.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: With the new
Emperor Severus by his side,

Ricimer can do as he pleases.

And nothing will please him more
than getting rid of Aegidius

once and for all.

\h\h\h\hIn the fifth century,
Emperor Marjorian and his two

\h\h\hold friends, Ricimer and
Aegidius, share power in Rome.

But when Ricimer has Marjorian
\h\h\h\hand brutally murdered

and appoints a new
puppet as emperor,

\hAegidius has no choice but
to remain in his native Gaul

and prepare for war.

\h\h\h\hAfter such a personal
betrayal, Aegidius and his men

\h\hare ready to do
battle with Ricimer.

The power alliance between
\h\hthe three old friends

has been hijacked.

And Aegidius is left
\h\hout in the cold.

\h\h\hMaybe he thought he had
a understanding that he was

\ha co-player in this game,
that there were two generals

\h\h\hin charge here,
Ricimer and Aegidius.

Aegidius found out
\hthat he wasn’t--

he wasn’t regarded as a player.

He wasn’t consulted.

And he lost the third
part of the triangle.

Now, he’s on his own.

\hNARRATOR: But Ricimer
is already making plans

to block Aegidius’
impending attack.

\h\hWith the new emperor,
Severus, under his thumb,

Ricimer makes a deal with Rome’s
one time enemy, the Goths.

\h\hTHOMAS R. MARTIN
(VOICEOVER): Ricimer

saw this is a really serious
\hthreat, Aegidius’ proposed

invasion of Italy.

So Ricimer did the smart thing.

He made an alliance
\h\hwith the Goths,

who were in Aegidius’ rear.

Goths, Aegidius, Italy.

Because Ricimer knew if the
\h\hGoths could put pressure

\hon Aegidius from
the back, Aegidius

couldn’t come to Italy.

\h\h\hAnd that’s, in
fact, what happened.

\hNARRATOR: Just as
he has always done,

Ricimer commissions someone
\helse to do his dirty work.

\h\hEmperor Severus proves to be
the perfect puppet for Ricimer,

\h\h\hhappy to allow the war
against Aegidius to unfold.

As Aegidius moves his troops
\h\h\hsouth from his kingdom

\hin Soissons, Gaul, he is
attacked by Ricimer’s army

\h\hof Goths outside
the city of Orleans.

\h\h\h\h\hTHOMAS R. MARTIN
(VOICEOVER): These battles

\hbegin with both sides roaring
each other, like at the kickoff

of a football game.

There was an actual word for it.

It starts out with a low growl.

\h\hAnd then, all the
soldiers, eventually,

\h\hare just yelling at
the top of their lungs.

Then, you throw missiles
\h\h\hat the other side.

\h\hNARRATOR: With such a
powerful barbarian enemy,

Aegidius and his troops
are hard-pressed to gain

the advantage on
the battlefield.

The barbarians were especially
good at running at full speed

\h\hand using throwing
axes, which were very

sharp, with a heavy head, and
\heither shattering the shield

of the men opposing them, or if
you were really lucky, hitting

them with the ax.

\h\hNARRATOR: But while the
goths are soldiers for hire,

\hAegidius fights for
the survival of Rome.

Finally, he claims victory.

But the losses are great.

In the field hospitals of
Gaul, Aegidius and his men

recover from the Gothic attack.

But he knows there will be more.

GEOFFREY GREATREX (VOICEOVER):
\hAegidius has his hands full,

essentially.

These deals that Ricimer cuts
with kingdoms in his vicinity,

\hobviously mean that he
has to deal with these.

These are going to
\hbe his priority.

\h\hHe’s going to be
busy in Gual and not

\hbe able to detach any
forces to invade Italy.

\hHe just simply doesn’t have
the resources to deal with it.

NARRATOR: Desperate to vanquish
Ricimer’s forces in Rome,

he turns to an unlikely
\h\h\h\hsource for help.

Aegidius sends a messenger south
to Rome’s most menacing enemy,

\hGaiseric, who, as
king of the Vandals,

had taken North Africa, the
\hbreadbasket of the empire,

over 20 years earlier.

\hHe sends an envoy to
try to strike a deal.

\h\h\hAnd Aegidius must have
been very worried about how

\h\h\hthis deal would be
perceived if it got out

to be public knowledge.

\h\h\h\hOn the one hand,
people could see, well,

if we can reach a real
deal with the Vandals,

\h\h\hthen we have a
real bright future.

\hBut on the other
hand, what will we

\hhave to give up to deal with
these people who’ve taken away

\h\h\hthe most precious, the
richest, part of our empire?

NARRATOR: After traveling
through Gaul and Hispania,

Aegidius’ convoy finally
\hreaches North Africa.

\h\h\hIn the Vandal
camp, the messenger

delivers Aegidius’ plea.

\hGEOFFREY GREATREX (VOICEOVER):
It looks as though Aegidius may

\hhave sought to establish some
sort of relations with Gaiseric

in North Africa, from
\h\hthe point of view

that they both have
\h\ha common enemy.

That is Ricimer in Italy.

And therefore, Ricimer could be
caught between Gual and North

\h\hAfrica, a potentially a very
dangerous position for Ricimer.

\h\hNARRATOR: The barbarian king
Gaiseric could be the last best

hope for the Empire’s survival.

\h\h\hSurrounded by
barbarians in Gaul,

Aegidius is unable to drive
\h\hhis army against Ricimer

and the puppet emperor Severus.

\h\hWith nowhere else to turn,
Aegidius sends a plea for aid

to the Vandal king Gaiseric.

In Soissons, thousands of miles
away from the Vandal kingdom

in North Africa, Aegidius
can only wait for a reply.

\hWe don’t know for sure,
but I think it’s likely

that Aegidius’ envoy
reached the Vandals

\h\h\hand that perhaps a
deal was in the making.

We really can’t say.

\hNARRATOR: Aegidius
has run out of time.

Assassins sent by Ricimer
make certain he will never

\h\hfulfill his dreams
of a restored Empire.

It seemed this mission serious
\h\henough and perhaps that it

\h\h\hwas-- it seemed possible
that is was going to succeed,

which led Aegidius’ enemies to
finally find a way to undo it

\hby treachery, because they
couldn’t take him in direct

battle on the field of combat.

NARRATOR: With Aegidius
\h\h\h\hout of the way,

Ricimer’s hunger for
power only increases

\h\h\hand his thirst for
blood cut short the life

of his puppet emperor Severus.

Ricimer makes and unmakes,
through violence, a series

\hof emperors, trying to find
that front man who would allow

\hRicimer to really be the
power, without developing

ambitions of his own.

The problem for Ricimer was
\hthat when he put a puppet

on the Roman throne, that puppet
didn’t want to remain a puppet.

\hNARRATOR: But now,
total power is his.

Ricimer’s ambition and blood
lust seem to know no limits.

\h\hFor two years, Ricimer rules
Rome without naming an emperor.

And the Barbarian Vandals
continue to ravage Italy.

\hAny alliance they might have
had with the murdered Aegidius

\his now as dead as
the general himself.

\hAs Ricimer sits on
his impotent throne,

\hthey take the empire
away, piece by piece.

MICHAEL KULIKOWSKI (VOICEOVER):
When the Western Empire starts

\h\h\h\hto disintegrate, it
disintegrates very rapidly.

In a sense, the Roman Empire
\h\h\hdoesn’t actually fall.

It simply splinters away,
until the title of emperor

becomes meaningless.

NARRATOR: Ricimer’s continued
\hfailure against the Vandals

only makes matters worse.

\hAs the Vandals strike against
the Eastern empire’s coastline,

\h\h\h\h\h\hits capital of
Constantinople is finally

\h\h\h\hforced to move against
Ricimer, before it’s too late.

\h\h\h\hFrom within his
protected palace walls,

the Eastern emperor,
Leo, devises a plan

\h\h\h\hto save the troubled
Western Empire from Ricimer

and the Barbarian invaders.

\h\h\h\hIt is at this point
that Leo realizes that he

has to stop the Vandals.

\hAnd so what he does
is he sends Anthemius.

\h\hNow, Anthemius
was the son-in-law

of previous Eastern emperor.

\h\hAnd he actually had a
better claim to the throne

than Leo did.

So Leo’s kind of killing two
\hbirds with one stone here.

He gets rid of a potential
\h\hopponent, as it were,

and he provides an emperor for
the West, a competent emperor

for the West.

\hNARRATOR: And Leo has plans
for Anthemius’ family as well.

\h\h\hHe sends them all from
their home in Constantinople

westward to Ricimer’s
\h\h\hpalace in Rome.

\h\hAnthemius’ young daughter,
Olympia, is offered to Ricimer

in marriage, in an attempt
\hto subdue the ambitions

of the bloodstained general,
\h\hwhile Anthemius assumes

the throne of the
\hWestern Empire.

\h\hIt seems as though
the Western government

had nothing against this.

And Ricimer, who was, as it
\hwere, the effective ruler

\h\hof Italy, welcomed
him there and married

his daughter called Olympia.

So it looks as though everything
was set for a good beginning

\h\hand things might
have gone very well.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Ricimer’s
assumption that Anthemius

\h\h\h\hwill serve simply as
another puppet emperor soon

proves false.

\h\hRICHARD BURGESS (VOICEOVER):
The real problem was Anthemius.

Anthemius was sent by the East.

Anthemius was acting
\h\hlike an emperor.

And it wasn’t always--

he wasn’t always doing
\hwhat Ricimer wanted.

NARRATOR: In 468 AD, with
Anthemius now maintaining

control in the West, the
\hEastern emperor, Leo,

\h\h\h\hfinances a large scale
expedition against the Vandals

in Sicily.

\h\hThere is no example of
the East helping the West

\h\hmilitarily, unless their
own interests were involved.

And almost always, it
involved the Vandals,

because the Vandals
had this giant port.

They had a fleet.

\h\h\hAnd of course,
this is what-- this

\h\h\h\his what prompted the big
expedition in 468, because they

were now actually able to
attack the East anywhere.

NARRATOR: But Ricimer cannot
\h\htolerate Anthemius, who,

backed by the Eastern Empire,
\h\h\hdiminishes his own hold

on power.

\h\hAnd the tradition in
the West, by this point,

\h\h\h\hwas that the
emperors were merely

\h\hfigureheads, that Ricimer
made the important decisions,

made emperors and removed
\h\h\hthem, and conducted

\h\hmilitary operations himself,
whereas Anthemius was perfectly

capable of doing this himself.

NARRATOR: Filled with jealousy,
Ricimer sabotages the attack,

assassinating Rome’s
\h\hown commanders,

leaving the Empire’s
\hforces vulnerable.

RICHARD BURGESS (VOICEOVER):
The whole thing falls apart.

\h\h\h\h\hAnd then, the--
unfortunately, the fleet,

\h\hwhich is headed by
Leo’s brother-in-law,

it falls apart as well.

The ships are burned.

\hEverything is a
complete disaster.

NARRATOR: After the Empire’s
\hcrushing defeat in Sicily,

\h\hRicimer spends months
gathering troops in Milan,

before launching a full scale
\hattack on Anthemius in Rome.

\hRICHARD BURGESS (VOICEOVER):
So Ricimer brings in the army.

And they besiege Anthemius
and Rome for nine months,

until, eventually, Rome falls.

\hAnd meanwhile, while
the siege is going on,

Leo has had envoys sent to
him from the West saying,

all hell is breaking loose.

It’s Civil War.

Do something.

NARRATOR: But there’s no time to
save Rome from Ricimer’s wrath.

And all Anthemius
\hcan do is flee.

\hIn a familiar scene,
the deposed Anthemius

seeks sanctuary in a church.

Well, we know that the--

\hthe-- the besiegers broke in
to Rome, early in July of 472,

and that Anthemius’
followers scattered.

Anthemius disguised
himself as a beggar

and was caught probably at
\hthe shrine of the martyr

Chrysogonus.

\hNARRATOR: But this time,
Ricimer hires no assassin

to silence his emperor.

On the steps of the
\h\hChristian altar,

\h\h\hhe personally sees to the
sacrifice of his latest victim,

Anthemius.

RICHARD BURGESS (VOICEOVER):
\h\h\h\h\h\hHe was executed.

\h\h\hI assume it was
cutting his head off.

That’s the normal way it’s done.

Chances are they probably
\hstuck his head on a pike

and paraded it around.

\hNARRATOR: Ricimer
plays true to form.

Once again, with
blood and steel,

he carves out his place in
Rome, leaving only corpses

\h\h\h\hin his wake, bodies as
lifeless as the empire itself.

\h\h\hAgain without an
emperor, Rome succumbs

to anarchy and violence.

\hBarbarians meet
little resistance

as they raid the towns of Italy.

\h\hThey go out and they sort of
rape, loot, and plunder, attack

\h\h\hcities and whatever
else, and then come back.

\hAnd this is what people
have to face, every year.

\h\h\h\hSo it-- it’s--
there’s no stability.

NARRATOR: Ricimer does nothing
as the empire self-destructs.

\h\hHe cares only for himself,
as always garnering his power

from the Empire’s weakness.

\h\h\h\h\h\hTHOMAS S. BURNS
(VOICEOVER): So now, there’s

a peculiar circumstance here.

\h\hWe don’t seem to
need a real emperor.

\h\hAnd it’s hard to find a
role that’s clearly cut out

for the commanding officer
\h\hof the Western armies.

One could really question why
we have an imperial government

at all.

\h\hThis society is slipping
out of the structural system

that we had identified
with the Roman Empire.

NARRATOR: Ricimer is a man who
has built his career and power

\hon the countless dead bodies
of his enemies, both barbarian

and Roman.

\h\hNow, he is alone, master
of an empire, in name only.

In such turbulent times, even
the details of Ricimer’s death

are fragmented.

Priscus, the only
source, tells us

\h\hthat he died of vomiting
copious quantities of blood.

[non-english].

And that’s it.

\hSo we have no idea whether it
was an ulcer or cancer or what.

With the sources,
\hwe have no idea.

\hNARRATOR: When the
puppet master dies,

the Western Empire
\h\hdies with him.

By now, barbarian leaders,
\hwhether they were Goths

or something else, really
had the money and the men

\hto decide the fate
of the Roman Empire.

And that is exactly what
\hhappened in the years

after the death of Ricimer.

NARRATOR: Ricimer’s
struggle to dominate

\h\hbrought nothing but ruin to
the Empire he hoped to control.

\h\h\hYet in his absence, its
future grows even more bleak.