23: Could the Roman Empire Have Survived?

The Fall of Rome Podcast

Patrick Wyman / Wondery

Education, Medieval History, Patrick Wyman, Ancient History, Society & Culture, History, Tides Of History, Documentary

4.8 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2017

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Could the Roman Empire have survived past the fifth century? To answer that question, we examine some other points when the Empire could have fallen apart but didn't, and what brought it back together after Caesar's assassination and the Crisis of the Third Century. Take the survey at wondery.com/survey. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The idea of the fall of the Roman Empire has a ring of destiny about it.
0:05.8	When we tack on the other half of Edward Gibbons' famous title and consider decline and fall
0:10.7	together, it seems downright inevitable.
0:14.1	In some existential sense, it was always going to happen.
0:18.0	No Empire lasts forever from Old Kingdom Egypt to the Soviet Union.
0:22.6	There's always an expiration date.
0:25.8	There are always too many internal contradictions, too many forces pulling the periphery away
0:31.1	from the center.
0:32.8	Rome was no exception.
0:35.0	But to understand that no Empire survives forever isn't a satisfactory explanation for
0:39.7	why the Roman Empire fell apart at the exact time or in the exact fashion that it eventually
0:45.8	did.
0:46.8	Why not 50 or 200 or 500 years before?
0:50.8	Why were Barbarian armies forged within the Roman Empire the basis of its successor states
0:55.1	rather than local aristocrats or organized invaders from across the border?
1:00.0	In other words, how might things have gone differently?
1:04.3	There's a corollary to this that we have to bear in mind.
1:07.2	It's an absolute miracle that the Roman Empire lasted as long as it did.
1:13.0	It's incredible that for so many centuries faced with so many challenges and under so
1:18.4	many different conditions, it was able to overcome the obstacles it faced to retain something
1:23.7	like unity.
1:26.0	The factors that created that unity are just as worthy of discussion as what led to its
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Patrick Wyman / Wondery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Patrick Wyman / Wondery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.