How far declined was the city of Rome in 476 AD?

Started by Goldfinch, January 19, 2022, 08:08:26 PM

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Goldfinch

How far declined was the city of Rome in 476 AD?

In this video, we explore how the city of Rome itself must have looked in the year 476 AD, one of the possible dates for "The Fall" of the Western Roman Empire. How did the city look? What was the state of its magnificent buildings, temples, amphitheaters, Fora? We shall find that the state was actually better than is commonly believed.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y36mjTXhW_s[/yt]
"For there are no works of power, dearly-beloved, without the trials of temptations, there is no faith without proof, no contest without a foe, no victory without conflict. This life of ours is in the midst of snares, in the midst of battles; if we do not wish to be deceived, we must watch: if we want to overcome, we must fight." - St. Leo the Great

Mr. Mysterious

It was still a shadow of its former self in many ways and got worse in the ensuing decades. From A.D. 402 to 476 the capital of the Western Roman Empire had been at Ravenna.
"Take courage! I have overcome the world." John 16:33

Goldfinch

Quote from: Mr. Mysterious on January 23, 2022, 07:06:48 PM
From A.D. 402 to 476 the capital of the Western Roman Empire had been at Ravenna.

Speaking of Ravenna, here's an interesting lecture by Prof. Judith Herrin: Imperial Capital, Gothic Kingdom and Byzantine Outpost: the challenge of understanding Early Christian Ravenna.

From AD 402 to 751 the small city of Ravenna, on the NE coast of Italy, became the capital of the Roman Empire in the West, then the centre of a Gothic kingdom and finally the western outpost of Byzantine government from Constantinople. During these centuries the construction of many early Christian churches, palaces, tombs and fortifications made it a repository of exquisite art and architecture, erected on the orders of a wide range of elite officials and through the skilful efforts of many anonymous craftsmen. This talk aims to explain how such a concentration of early Christian art occurred and why it survived, when so many other centres failed.

This lecture is given by Professor Judith Herrin. Prof. Herrin won the Heineken Prize for History (the 'Dutch Nobel Prize') in 2016 for her pioneering work on the early Medieval Mediterranean world, especially the role of Byzantium, the influence of Islam and the significance of women. She is the author of Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire, The Formation of Christendom, A Medieval Miscellany and Women in Purple. Herrin worked in Birmingham, Paris, Munich, Istanbul and Princeton before becoming Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at King's College London until 2008. She is now the Constantine Leventis Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Classics at King's. She has excavated in Greece, Cyprus and Turkey, and served for thirty years on the editorial board of Past and Present.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pe0a5NXHhI[/yt]
"For there are no works of power, dearly-beloved, without the trials of temptations, there is no faith without proof, no contest without a foe, no victory without conflict. This life of ours is in the midst of snares, in the midst of battles; if we do not wish to be deceived, we must watch: if we want to overcome, we must fight." - St. Leo the Great