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Her steps were slow. Her eyes are like holes. Her cheeks were sunken. Hunger had exhausted her limbs. Her withered shoulders could barely hold the shield. Her helmet, now ill-fitting, showed off her gray hair. Her spear was covered in rust. This is how Claudian, writing at the turn of the 5th century, described the goddess Roma. His poem celebrated the defeat of a rebellion led by Gildon, Count of Africa, which briefly cut off Rome's grain supply. This was a harbinger of the crisis that would doom the Western Roman Empire generations later. Claudian, however, was not worried. Order, he proclaimed, had been restored. Rome will endure. It is surprisingly difficult to find excessive recognition of political decline in late Roman literature. Many
authors, especially those associated with the imperial court, like Claudian, prefer to celebrate the ancient greatness of Rome. Another poem by Claudian, for example, praises Rome in terms unchanged since the golden age of Augustus 400 years earlier. The Roman peace made the whole world our home. We can live wherever we want, without fearing even the wilds of the north. We can drink from the Rhine or the Syrian Orontes. We are all one people. The Roman Empire will never end. Several decades earlier, the orator Ausonius, tutor of the future emperor Gratian, wrote a long poem in which he described a journey along the Moselle.
Although the river ran just within the threatened Rhine border, peace and prosperity reigned. Villas sprawl along the shore, smoke rising from the chimneys of their private baths. The boys are fishing in quiet pools. Grapevines, laden with grapes, are reflected on the surface of the water. Barbarians never appear. Other authors from the fourth and fifth centuries record the invasions and sieges of that era, as shown in my video about what it was like to experience the fall of Rome. However, even these narratives tend to combine grief over recent catastrophes with confidence in the ultimate survival of the imperial system. In part, this simply reflects the fact that we,
looking at events from a distance of 16 centuries, have a sense of perspective that the Romans did not. Moreover, Roman authors tend to describe decline as a moral problem. Since the 2nd century BC, when the conquest of the Mediterranean greatly enriched the Roman elite, it has been customary to contrast the luxury and moral decadence of the present with the virtuous frugality of the early Republic. Sallust, writing during the time of Caesar, believed that Rome began to decline from the moment of the destruction of its main rival, Carthage. Such moral decay had little to do with the actual health of the Roman state.
Politically, the empire that Sallust criticized had never been stronger. And in late antiquity, when Rome's situation became increasingly serious, rhetoric remained unchanged. The historian Ammianus Marcellinus, visiting Rome in the late 4th century, repeated a number of outdated clichés about the decline of the rich. They walk around in silks, leading crowds of slaves through the streets and baths, serenaded by flutes and lyres while they rest in their mansions. Ammianus recounted the numerous disasters that befell the Roman Empire during his time, from Julian's failed Persian campaign to the disastrous Battle of Adrianople. But in his epilogue, he embraced the task of writing history for future
generations, apparently never imagining that his story would be the last of its kind. Some of Ammianus' contemporaries, who resented the rise of Christianity, wrote with longing about the decay of old customs. Rutilius Namatian, a former prefect of Rome, composed a long poem about his journey from Italy to his native Gaul in the autumn of 417. Wherever he goes, Rutilius sees signs of decline, the destruction of harbors, the damage left by barbarian invasions, and the spiritual void left by the departure of the old gods. His world has grown old.
Christian authors of the 4th and 5th centuries tended to be more optimistic. They believed that God created the Roman Empire to protect and nurture the church. The city of Rome was a symbol of this divinely sanctioned world order. The Christian writer Lactantius reasoned: "The world must end, but it cannot perish while the city of Rome exists. However, when the capital of the world falls, who can doubt that the end of time has come? Alaric's sack of Rome in 410 caused a crisis of conscience among Christian intellectuals. Saint Jerome, who was then living in Bethlehem, lamented: "Who would have believed that Rome, built by conquering the whole world, could fall?
Who would have believed that the mother of nations would become their tomb? "Who would have believed that the shores of Syria, Egypt, and Africa, the dominions of the imperial city, would be filled with its refugees?" Alaric's plundering seemed to vindicate pagan critics who claimed that Christianity had weakened the Roman state. Why did God allow barbarians to occupy the center of the Christian empire? Some, like the church historian Sozomen, saw the plundering as divine judgment on Roman luxury and debauchery. In his Histories Against the Pagans, the Spanish priest Orosius attempted to downplay the significance of the plundering by comparing it to such earlier disasters as the Great Fire of Nero's time. The
most thoughtful answer came from the pen of Saint Augustine, whose monumental "City of God" postulated that all history, like the mind of every human being, is characterized by a conflict between the earthly and heavenly cities, love of self and love of God. For the resolution of this conflict and the destined victory of the celestial city, the survival of the Roman Empire was of no importance. In other words, the sack of Rome didn't matter. Such philosophical musings were cold comfort to millions of Romans forced to deal with the realities of a crumbling political order. Although Senator Sidonius Apollinarius could still deliver a eulogy comparing one of the last Western. From the emperors to Trajan, the collapse of the imperial system was now impossible to
ignore. In Spain, Bishop Hydatius lamented the collapse of the Roman world and the chaos caused by the wandering bands of Visigoths. Pavlinus of Pell, who once whiled away his days among his vineyards, watched as the Goths burned his Gallic estates and died in poverty., wrote a long religious poem alluding to the devastation caused by the barbarians. The best thing, he concluded, was to seek happiness in heaven. Perhaps the most moving voice of the last years of the Western Roman Empire is that of the Gallic aristocrat Salvian. Writing it after Carthage, the second city of the West, fell to the Vandals, he heeded the long-standing theme of moral decline.
The Romans, he argued, deserved punishment for their sins. Even the barbarians were more virtuous. Salvian, however, lamented the decline of the imperial system. Where now is the ancient power and honor of Rome? The Romans were feared, but now they live in fear. They once took tribute from barbarians. Now they pay it. We thank the barbarians when they allow us to pay the ransom. What could be more pitiful than that? For information on how the collapse of the empire was perceived in Britain, Rome's most remote province, see Pete Kelly's video, linked on the screen and in the description. Next spring you can join me in Tunisia. In addition to Carthage, we will see Douga, the African Pompeii, the magnificent amphitheater in El Jem, and many
other places. Learn more by following the link in the description. In June 2027, I'm traveling to Romania to explore some of the most spectacular and rarely visited ruins of the Roman world, including the remains of the longest ancient bridge and the tunnels of a perfectly preserved 2,000-year-old mine. Link below. My new book, The Leaky Aqueduct, Fighting Pigeons, and Mystery Cults, is now available in both hardcover and paperback. You'll find additional content, including My Ongoing Research into the Hit HBO Series "Rome," on Told Stone's Patreon. And finally, don't forget about my other channels: Told Stone Footnotes and Scenic Routes to the Past. Thanks for watching.
