Hi, everybody, and welcome to another episode of The Fall of Rome.

As always, I'm your host, Patrick Weiman.

Thank you for joining me today.

Over the last two episodes, we've talked at great length about the various disasters

that befell the Roman Empire over the course of the Calamitas 5th century.

Powerful generals and court officials dominated the children and incompetent adults who occupied

the Imperial Office until the death of Valentinian III in 455.

By the time vigorous and accomplished leaders became emperors once again, men like Majorian

and Enthemias, the structures and institutions that had acted as the foundation of the Roman

political system were too far gone to be recovered.

It was only a matter of time after that before the Imperial Center collapsed completely.

When Romulus Augustulus was deposed in 476, the last vestiges of the Western Empire

disappeared, not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Not replaced the political structures of the Roman Empire over the course of the 5th

century, province by province and region by region until finally Italy itself slipped

the moorings of the state, or the barbarian kingdoms.

They're sometimes called the successor kingdoms, if you prefer that term.

They popped up all over the Western Empire between 418 and 489, from Hadrian's wall to

Carthage, and by various means.

Each of these kingdoms came into being in its own way, and each developed more or less

along its own lines, influenced by the circumstances of settlement, the local context, subsequent developments

and random chance.

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