The 16-Year-Old Boy Whose Pension Ended the Roman Empire

The Fall of the Western Roman Empire happened on September 4, 476 — not with fire and screams, but with a parcel mailed from Ravenna to Constantinople. This film traces how Rome's 5-million-square-kilometer empire of 60 million people went bankrupt when its silver denarius fell from 95% to 2% pure and prices rose 250-fold. It revisits the disaster at Adrianople in 378, the sacks of Rome in 410 and 455, the loss of Carthage in 439, and how 16-year-old Romulus Augustulus lost his throne to Odoacer.