The Fall of Rome

The course is broken down into 10 units over 10 weeks, each requiring approximately 10 hours of study time. The following topics are covered:

Unit 1: Sources and Context

• Source material
• Assembling our written sources
• Geography
• The Omnishambles of 235-285
• The challenges facing Rome in 285

Unit 2: Diocletian and the Dominate – The Empire strikes back (276–305)

• The restoration of order: Principate to Dominate - The Tetrarchy
• Reorganising the Roman Empire
• Reorganising the Roman army
• Reorganising the Roman government
• The urban environment
• Internal and external threats: The Great Persecution
• Taking stock

Unit 3: Christianity ascendant: Constantine the Great (305-337)

• From Eboracum to the Pons Milvius (305-312)
• Constantine’s vision
•  The Arch of Constantine
• Constantine’s Christian Empire
• Constantine’s Pagan Empire
• Beata Tranquilitas, Baptism and death
• Further exploration / building your library
• First assessed assignment

Unit 4: Constantine’s heirs and Julian the Apostate (337 – 364)

• Constantine’s heirs
• Christians V Pagans; Christians V Christians
• Ammianus Marcellinus
• The reign of Constantius II (337-361) – Challenging times
• Julian the Apostate
• Christianity reborn: Taking stock

Unit 5: The East/West divide (364 – 395)

• The decisive East/West split in the Roman Empire
• From the ‘Barbarian Conspiracy’ to the Battle of Adrianople
• The reign of Theodosius I ‘The Great’
• Magnus Maximus
• Roman Christianity
• Taking stock: An irrevocable split and the death of Paganism?

Unit 6: The northern barbarians – Goths, Huns et al.

• The multi-layered nature of ethnic identity
• Roman attitudes towards barbarians
• Barbarian attitudes towards Romans
• The Goths
• The Huns
• Defining the barbarian; defining the Roman

Unit 7: The Sack of Rome (395 – 411)

• A divided Empire with child Emperors (395)
•  Alaric and Stilicho
• The death of the Gladiators
• The Roman withdrawal from Britain
• Alaric’s Sack of Rome (410) and death (411)
• Ramifications (historical and psychological) of Alaric’s Sack of Rome
• Further study / building your library
• Second assessed assignment

Unit 8: Roman Empresses; Barbarian kings (411 – 450)

• The situation at the death of Alaric
• Power struggles in Spain, Gaul, Britain, Italy and Africa
• The Eastern court of Theodosius II: Political, religious and dynastic intrigue
• Religion and the law
• Communications, trade and the land
• Imperial women

Unit 9: The end of Rome in the West (450 – 476)

• Rome’s defences in the late Empire
• The survival of the Empire in the East
• Attila the Hun
• Endgame: The fall/transformation of Rome in the West
• Romulus Augustulus: The last Emperorof the West
• Drawing conclusions

Unit 10: Epilogue: ‘Fall’ or ‘Transformation’ – how, why, and indeed, did Rome fall?

• Consolidation / revision
• Evidence
• The (210) causes of the Fall of the Roman Empire
• Fall or transformation?
• Good thing / bad thing?
• The Fall of Rome and the 21st Century
• Further exploration / building your library
• Course conclusion

We strongly recommend that you try to find a little time each week to engage in the online conversations (at times that are convenient to you) as the forums are an integral, and very rewarding, part of the course and the online learning experience.

To participate in the course you will need to have regular access to the Internet and you will need to buy the following textbooks:

Christie, N., The Fall of the Western Roman Empire: An Archaeological and Historical Perspective (2011). Bloomsbury, London, New York.
Goldsworthy, A., The Fall of the West: The Slow Death of the Roman Superpower (2009). Weidenfield & Nicolson, London.
Kershaw, S. P., A Brief History of the Roman Empire (2013). Robinson, London.

Please ensure you are able to access copies of any required textbooks prior to enrolling on a course but please keep in mind that courses with insufficient students enrolled will be cancelled. The Department accepts no responsibility for books bought in anticipation of a course running.