How Did One City Come to Rule the Known World, and Why Did It Fall?

In the year 117, a single state stretched from northern England to the Euphrates, and between a sixth and a quarter of everyone on Earth lived under its rule. It had begun as one city in Italy. How did Rome build an empire that ringed the whole Mediterranean, and why did it fall in the West while the East held on until 1453? We follow four clues: a career army, a long peace, a crisis that nearly broke it, and a split that saved half of it. Along the way we cover: the Republic, its elected officials and Senate, and how Rome turned conquered peoples into soldiers; civil war, the murder of Julius Caesar, Actium, and how Octavian became Augustus, the first emperor; the Pax Romana: ruling through local elites, low taxes, roads, aqueducts, the Colosseum and citizenship for all free-born people in 212, and the slavery the peace rested on; Trajan's empire at its greatest, five million square kilometres, and Hadrian's Wall; Commodus, an army that made and unmade emperors, debased coins and the crisis of the third century; Diocletian's four rulers, Constantine and Constantinople, and the split into a Latin West and a Greek East; the fall of the West in 476, the survival of the Byzantine Empire, and the fall of Constantinople in 1453; the debate: when did Rome really fall, and who claimed to be its heir? A separate film on Latin, the empire's language, will follow. Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:20 The question 0:41 The Army 1:27 The First Emperor 2:12 The Roman Peace 3:34 The Peak 4:11 The Crisis 4:59 The Split 5:47 The Fall 6:28 Did Rome Fall? 7:25 The answer The Long Answer: one question, eight minutes, the whole story. History, science, technology and strange events, explained clearly for curious people. Got a question you want answered? Leave it in the comments. Sources Narration based on the English Wikipedia article "Roman Empire" (CC BY-SA 4.0). Maps: coastlines from Natural Earth (public domain); borders hand-drawn and approximate. Photo credits (Wikimedia Commons) Nicholas Hartmann (CC BY-SA 4.0) – The Colosseum, Rome (also used for the thumbnail); The Roman Forum; The Pantheon, Rome Erik Drost (CC BY 2.0) – Inside the Colosseum Sonse (CC BY 2.0) – The Roman Forum and the Temple of Saturn; The Curia Julia, Rome Livioandronico2013 (CC BY-SA 4.0) – The dome of the Pantheon, Rome; The Appian Way John Samuel (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Inside the Pantheon Benjamin Smith (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Hadrian's Wall on Housesteads Crags Benh LIEU SONG (CC BY-SA 3.0) – Pont du Gard aqueduct, France Falk2 (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Original paving, Appian Way TimeTravelRome (CC BY 2.0) – Mosaic of a beast fight, Nennig villa Arild Vågen (CC BY-SA 3.0) – Hagia Sophia, Istanbul ImanFakhri (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Inside Hagia Sophia Apaleutos25 (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Theodosian Walls of Constantinople Carole Raddato (CC BY-SA 2.0) – Theodosian Walls of Constantinople; Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs, Venice; Bust of Trajan Jakub Hałun (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Ostia Antica Herbert Weber (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Library of Celsus, Ephesus Trldp (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Gerasa (Jerash), Jordan Marionaaragay (CC BY-SA 3.0) – Roman legion reenactors David Friel (CC BY 2.0) – Reenactors in testudo formation Krzysztof Golik (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Circus Maximus and the Palatine Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0) – The Roman Baths, Bath Steven Zucker (CC BY 2.0) – Justinian mosaic, San Vitale, Ravenna Martin Falbisoner (CC BY-SA 3.0) – United States Capitol Bernard Gagnon (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Diocletian's Palace, Split Jun (CC BY-SA 2.0) – Relief of collared slaves, Ashmolean Museum Classical Numismatic Group (CC BY-SA 2.5) – Gold coin (tremissis) of Theodosius I Unknown photographer (CC BY 2.5) – Bust of Augustus, Louvre Commonists (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Bust of Hadrian Following Hadrian (CC BY-SA 2.0) – Tusculum portrait of Julius Caesar José Luiz (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Bust of Cleopatra VII Merulana (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Commodus as Hercules Rama (CC BY-SA 2.0 fr) – Bust of Caracalla Dosseman (CC BY-SA 4.0) – Bust of Diocletian Edelseider (CC BY-SA 3.0) – Fayum mummy portrait Mark Landon (CC BY 4.0) – Bronze slave collar CC0: Wilfredor, The Colosseum and the Roman Forum, and fragments of the Colossus of Constantine; D. Benjamin Miller, head of the Colossus of Constantine; Gallica/BnF, silver denarius, 115–114 BC; French National Library, gold aureus of Augustus