010: Barbarians at the Gates

In the decades after the Gauls abandoned Rome to its fate, the Romans were forced to battle both external threats and internal sedition. The Plebes, saddled with debt from the reconstruction, forced through reforms in 367 BC that finally gave them access to the most powerful offi ... Show More

From 343-341 BC Rome fought a brief war against the Samnites, a powerful hill tribe who would plague the Romans for the rest of the century. The Romans won an inconclusive victory, but the war was only the opening salvo in a long running struggle between the two peoples. 

The Romans fought a final war against their Latin neighbors from 340-338 BC. The Romans won a decisive victory and the Latin League was abolished once and for all. 

In 9CE three Roman legions were walking through Germany when they were ambushed in what would become one of the most notorious defeats throughout Rome’s history. The loss of the legions were a crippling blow to Rome’s plans of expansion, and redrew the borders in the province. Gu ... Show More

In the late 4th century and early 5th centuries two massive largely-Germanic confederations arrived on Roman borders, having been uprooted from their homelands by the Huns. These were the Goths and the Vandals. Both peoples would become prime enemies of the Roman Empires in the E ... Show More

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great Roman military disaster of 9 AD when Germanic tribes under Arminius ambushed and destroyed three legions under Varus. According to Suetonius, emperor Augustus hit his head against the wall when he heard the news, calling on Varus to give ... Show More

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the infamous assault of an army of the Holy Roman Emperor on the city of Rome in 1527. The troops soon broke through the walls of this holy city and, with their leader shot dead early on, they brought death and destruction to the city on an epic sc ... Show More

After Belisarius' heroic defense of Rome in 537-538, it looked as if there might be a rapid end to the Gothic war. But no. The Roman high command was wracked by internal division that would prolong the war and lead to the tragic sack of Milan.Check out my website nickholmesauthor ... Show More

In 476, the last of the Roman emperors in the West was deposed; in 1776, historian Edward Gibbon wrote “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, and Rome’s fate became a major point of comparison for all empires. In Gibbon's view, instead of inquiring why the Rom ... Show More

نتحدث في هذه الحلقة عن القبائل الجرمانية البرابرة الذين غزوا روما ونهبوها وعن انقسام الإمبراطورية الرومانية إلى شرقية وغربية   

A vast ruined bath house, a fire-damaged poem and a world teetering on the brink of collapse. In this episode, we look at the history of the collapse of Roman Britain. Find out how a great civilization grew up almost overnight on the island of Britannia, how it endured the test o ... Show More

Rome is racked by ‘Imperial Crisis’ while strong Germanic tribes gather along the Rhine and Danube. The Alamanni, Franks, Vandals and Goths rise to power and provide us with many words in modern English. The Goths translate the Bible into … Continue reading →