Cold Open

It’s August 9th, 378 CE, in Adrianople in the Eastern Roman Empire, and a battle is raging.

Flavius Valens pushes his way through the ranks of Roman soldiers until he’s right on the front line. As soldiers on either side interlock their shields, Valens stabs his sword over the top of the defensive wall they make, hacking at the enemy soldiers beyond. As Roman emperor, the 49-year-old Valens should be directing the battle from a place of safety. But right now, he senses that the enemy army is about to crack, and Valens wants to be part of the action.

The Roman Empire is now so large that it's impossible for one man to rule it. Eighty-five years ago, a new system of government was introduced that effectively split the empire into two halves, each with its own emperor. Valens is the emperor in the East. Another man rules the West. But both sections of the Roman Empire are coming under pressure from an external enemy: a powerful Germanic tribe known as the Goths. And today, the Eastern Roman army under Emperor Valens is attempting to push the Goths out of Roman territory—but the Goths are fighting back.

As Valens takes another swipe with his sword, he hears the thunder of galloping horses. A cavalry charge is about to hit the front line—but since he’s in the middle of the action, Valens doesn’t know whether it’s Roman cavalry or the Goths'.

Valens gets his answer only a moment later when the Roman line disintegrates. The Gothic cavalry has just changed the course of the battle. And as his army crumbles and enemy warriors surround him, Valens swallows his fear and lifts his sword. The odds are stacked against him, but Emperor Valens is determined to go down fighting.

Roman survivors will later scour the battlefield for their emperor, but Flavius Valens’s body will never be found. The defeat at Adrianople won’t just mean that the Eastern Roman Empire needs a new ruler. This battle will also signal the beginning of the end for the Roman Empire, a slow decline that will culminate almost a century later when the last emperor in the West is forced from the throne on September 4th, 476 CE.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is September 4th, 476 CE: The End of the Roman Empire.

Act One

It’s January 381 CE, in Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, almost two and a half years after the Battle of Adrianople.

34-year-old Emperor Theodosius takes a seat on his throne in the Grand Palace and signals to his officials that he’s ready to receive visitors. The officials open the door to reveal Athanaric, a general of the Goths, waiting on the other side. As Athanaric steps forward into the throne room, the Imperial guards keep a close watch in case he attempts any attack. But Athanaric hasn’t come to Constantinople in order to kill the emperor. Instead, he bends his knees and offers surrender.

After Emperor Valens was killed at the Battle of Adrianople, Theodosius succeeded him as Roman emperor in the East. In the two years since Theodosius has tried his best to strengthen the Roman army. He’s improved discipline. He’s extended conscription. And he’s admitted non-Romans into the army, even welcoming deserters from the Goths who killed Emperor Valens. Thanks to these reforms, the Romans have won several victories. And in Theodosius's eyes, the surrender of Athanaric is proof that his strategy against the Goths is working.

With Athanaric waiting on bended knee, Theodosius rise from his throne and accepts his submission with a smile. Theodosius had been determined to win a propaganda victory by making Athanaric submit to him publicly and in person. But now he wants to appear magnanimous in victory.

He promises that Athanaric’s troops will be integrated into the Roman army and that Athanaric himself will be made a Roman commander. But privately Theodosius is still suspicious of Athanaric and he has no intention of giving him the opportunity to foment rebellion within the legions. So, it’s little surprise that just a few weeks after his surrender, Athanaric is found dead - with many suspecting that he was murdered on orders of the Emperor.

Having neutralized a potentially powerful enemy, Theodosius decides that the time is right to go on the offensive. He launches a new military campaign against the Goths, and over the next few months, Theodosius's Roman army wins a series of battles. The Goths are steadily driven out of Roman territory in Macedonia and Greece, but despite these victories, Theodosius realizes that the Goths are too numerous to eject from the entire Empire. So, in October 382 CE, Theodosius negotiates a settlement with the remaining Gothic leaders. Under the terms of the agreement, the Goths are granted land along the River Danube, on the edge of the Roman Empire. In return, the Goths promise that their warriors will serve in the Roman army, just like Athanaric’s soldiers have done.

Thanks to this peace deal, Theodosius placates the Goths, gains a more powerful army, and secures the eastern section of the Roman Empire. But just as Theodosius thinks he’s solved all his problems, a new crisis emerges in the West. A usurper named Magnus Maximus assassinates the western emperor and seizes the throne. Civil war then breaks out when the dead emperor’s brother, Valentinian claims to be the legitimate ruler instead.

So, in the summer of 384 CE, Theodosius travels to Italy and brokers a peace agreement between the two rivals. Under the terms of this deal, Magnus Maximus and Valentinian will rule jointly as co-emperors in the West. But this arrangement only lasts three years before Magnus Maximus makes a second grab for power, and Valentinian flees to the East for help. Since Magnus Maximus has proven himself to be untrustworthy, Theodosius returns to Italy again—but this time, with the full might of the Eastern Roman army behind him. Theodosius defeats and executes Magnus Maximus, and restores Valentinian to the Western throne—but even then, Valentinian does not have a secure grip on power. Only four years later, Valentinian is discovered dead in suspicious circumstances. The emperor who succeeds him claims that Valentinian's death was a suicide, but the new emperor is rumored to be the very man behind Valentinian's sudden death.

By now, Theodosius has had enough. Once again, he marches his troops West. But this time, he’s not coming to broker a peace deal. He’s coming to the West to take control. And soon, for the first time in decades, a single emperor holds power over the entire Roman Empire.

But Theodosius won’t enjoy his supremacy for long. He’ll die of natural causes five months later, and the Roman Empire that he rescued will face a new threat—only this time, there’ll be no one to pull it back from the brink.

Act Two

It’s August 24th, 410 CE, outside Rome, 15 years after Emperor Theodosius's death.

Alaric, King of the Visigoths, emerges from a tent and stretches in the early morning sun. He’s up early, but Alaric is no stranger to rising with the sun with his army.

Almost two decades ago, Alaric was a Gothic general in the Roman army and an important ally of Emperor Theodosius. Alaric’s men played a crucial role in the battles that gave Theodosius victory during the civil wars of the Western Roman Empire. But after Theodosius's death, the Roman Empire was split between western and eastern emperors again—and Alaric soon came to the conclusion that neither new emperor valued the contribution of his Goths to the Roman army. He responded by turning on the Romans and declaring himself King of the Visigoths, or Western Goths.

Since then, Alaric has led his army on a long campaign across the Roman Empire, plundering as they go. His plan is to force the Romans to grant his people money and land in return for an end to the violence. But so far, the Roman authorities have refused to make a deal. So, now, Alaric's army has laid siege to the richest prize of them all: Rome. Before Alaric's army arrived, the western emperor fled north to Ravenna and set up a new imperial court there. But though Rome is no longer the capital of the Western Empire, it’s still a wealthy and important city—and Alaric feels he deserves a share of its treasures.

As Alaric sits down to breakfast and plans the day with his senior officers, cheers break out among the Visigoth soldiers. Alaric stands, intrigued as to what’s causing the celebration. But the reason becomes clear when a Visigoth soldier points at Rome’s city walls. One of the gates has been opened from the inside. And Alaric immediately shouts to his men to gear up and attack.

Only later will Alaric discover the gate had been opened by rebellious Roman slaves, hoping to gain their freedom when the city falls. But right now, Alaric doesn’t care how the gate has opened—only that it gives his army an easy opportunity to take the city.

His men swarm inside and, for the next three days, Visigoths run riot. For the first time in 800 years, Rome has fallen to an enemy army. Anything of value is pillaged. Even the mausoleums of past emperors are ransacked.

But Alaric doesn’t stay in Rome. He has been successful against the Romans because he keeps moving. So, as soon as his soldiers have carried away all they can, Alaric leads his army south, leaving Rome smoldering behind them. Alaric next intends to invade Sicily and burn the fertile farmlands that the Western Roman Empire depends on. Perhaps then the emperor will submit to the Visigoths’ demands and grant them territory where an independent Visigoth kingdom can thrive.

But Alaric's plan soon suffers a fatal blow. A storm wrecks the Visigoth fleet before it can set sail for Sicily. And after losing the ships, Alaric's army has no option but to begin a long trek back north through Italy. Alaric does not join them though. He falls ill and dies soon after the storm doomed his plan to invade Sicily.

Alaric's unexpected death ends the Visigoth invasion of Italy, but it doesn’t save the Roman Empire. Years of constant warfare and overspending on vast building projects have emptied the imperial coffers and weakened its army. Now, the Visigoth's sack of Rome has shown the world that the once-mighty empire is a shadow of its former self.

Over the next few decades, Roman troops are withdrawn from the provinces of the empire in a vain attempt to protect the heartlands in Italy. Britain and North Africa are abandoned. Even once secure regions like France and Spain are left thinly defended.

But it does little good. More tribes follow the example of the Visigoths and flood across the Roman frontiers—and the western emperors prove unable to stop them. A barbarian army under the command of Attila the Hun will repeatedly attack in a campaign that rampages through France and Italy. And in 455 CE, Rome will be sacked again—this time by an army belonging to a different tribe, the Vandals. 21 years after that, another barbarian army will threaten to bring the empire down entirely by turning its attention to the new Roman capital, and its last stronghold: the northern Italian city of Ravenna.

Act Three

It’s September 4th, 476 CE, in Ravenna, the capital of the Western Roman Empire, 66 years after the Visigoths sacked the city of Rome.

11-year-old Romulus Augustulus glances back as his carriage leaves Ravenna through the city’s southern gate. As the buildings recede behind him, Romulus wonders if he’ll ever see them again—because even though he’s still a child, Romulus has just become the latest Roman emperor to lose his crown.

A year ago, the previous western Roman emperor was removed in a coup led by Romulus's father. Romulus was proclaimed as the new emperor, but it was his father who was the power behind the throne. He decided that the empire had been too weak and let barbarian tribes ravage Roman settlements throughout the last century. So, he issued decrees in Romulus's name declaring that these tribes were to be banished from Italy. In response, a barbarian confederation led by the chieftain Odoacer began an uprising.

Within weeks, Romulus's father was assassinated, and a barbarian army had captured Ravenna. But Odoacer had no intention of just pillaging Ravenna and moving on. Odoacer's aim was regime change. So, after the city surrendered, Odoacer intimidated Romulus into abdicating. Now, Romulus has been ordered into exile.

Odoacer allows him to leave the city and journey south to a villa outside Naples. But Romulus's abdication leaves a power vacuum. Roman Senate wants the eastern emperor to take control in the west again, as Theodosius once did years earlier. But Odoacer has no intention of handing control over to another emperor. Instead, he proclaims himself king and ruler of Italy - and the weak and divided Roman Senate can do nothing to stop him.

The once mighty Roman Empire has already been split in two. And while in the East, Emperors will continue to rule from Constantinople for centuries to come, the West will now splinter even further. Its provinces will fracture into kingdoms and principalities. Its monuments will crumble. And the boy-emperor Romulus Augustulus will be the last to wear the Imperial crown after he was deposed and fled into exile on September 4th, 476 CE.

Outro

Next on History Daily. September 5th, 1972. Palestinian militants spur a hostage crisis when they infiltrate the apartments of Israeli athletes and coaches at the Munich Olympics.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Matthew Filler.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Scott Reeves.

Edited by Dorian Merina.

Managing producer, Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.