0:00:02.579,0:00:07.629 August 24th, 410 AD, the Empire falls. 0:00:07.629,0:00:18.963 Rome: A city so long in control of its own destiny, and the world's, is invaded by a band of dirty, sweaty, smelly thugs. 0:00:18.963,0:00:30.727 They are the Visigoths, a terrifying assortment of heathens from Europe's northeastern frontier, and they've come to declare the death of Roman domination. 0:00:30.727,0:00:36.025 For the first time in 800 years, the eternal city is under siege. 0:00:37.441,0:00:46.171 Kulikowski: Rome had not ever been conquered by a foreign enemy in the Imperial Period. 0:00:46.171,0:00:55.194 The physiological effect of the greatest city of the ancient world being conquered was absolutely crushing. 0:00:57.794,0:01:04.338 Narrator: For three day, the great capitol of Caesar and Augustus is ravaged by its unwelcomed guests. 0:01:04.338,0:01:10.559 Stunning architectural marvels that have stood for centuries are burned to the ground. 0:01:10.559,0:01:17.438 Germanic slaves rise up to enslave their Roman masters. 0:01:17.438,0:01:23.029 And the city streets run red with the blood of its own people. 0:01:23.029,0:01:30.679 Martin: The Roman citizens really are helpless. All they know is that they've had to surrender, that there is no one there to protect them, 0:01:30.679,0:01:35.164 that these Gothic warriors would have been terrifying. 0:01:35.164,0:01:43.884 Narrator: At the head of charge is Alaric, a Visigothic warrior, who had once fought on the Empire's behalf along its northern frontier. 0:01:43.884,0:01:50.473 When he was passed over for a promotion within the ranks of the Roman legions, Alaric turned from friend to foe 0:01:50.473,0:01:56.867 and used what he had learned about Roman warfare to launch his own campaign of aggression. 0:01:56.867,0:02:05.047 Martin: He eventually decided that the only way he was going to advance was to really put the screws to Rome. 0:02:05.047,0:02:11.043 So the siege of Rome was, to tell you the truth, a profit-making career move for Alaric. 0:02:11.043,0:02:12.401 [noise and screams] 0:02:13.525,0:02:26.719 Narrator: Two years earlier in 408 A.D., Alaric and his rebel army had arrived on the doorstep of Rome itself, looking for power, plunder, and, most of all, food. 0:02:26.719,0:02:37.222 DeVries: Anybody wants to look at why the Visigoths win, it's because desperation. They need to win. If they don't, they starve to death, and that's the bottom line. 0:02:37.222,0:02:38.981 [bird cry] 0:02:38.981,0:02:46.003 Narrator: In order to conquer the city, Alaric would first have to strangle it from the outside. 0:02:46.003,0:02:51.659 DeVries: He can't undermine the walls. They are far too large, they're far too secure, and they're far too well-built, 0:02:51.659,0:02:54.162 so he relies on starvation. 0:02:56.624,0:03:05.168 Narrator: Alaric's men surrounded Rome, took full control of its supply lines, and blocked all shipments of grain coming in to the city. 0:03:07.491,0:03:16.840 Gradually, the city died from within, and the pall of impending death began to permeate even its most hallowed traditions. 0:03:16.840,0:03:25.895 Martin: Even in times of utter distress, it's really important for Roman society to continue to have chariot races and killing of wild beasts, 0:03:25.895,0:03:34.158 gladiatorial combats, and execution of criminals. The population was at the show, but they were literally starving, 0:03:34.158,0:03:44.795 and when some condemned men or gladiators - it's not clear who was killed - and they are lying there, bleeding out on the sands of the arena, 0:03:44.795,0:03:51.301 the crowd started shouting, "Let us buy that meat! How much per pound do you want for that?" 0:03:51.301,0:03:52.533 That's how hungry they were. 0:03:52.533,0:03:54.927 [voices] 0:03:54.927,0:04:01.393 Narrator: In Rome, power and glory were rapidly being replaced by corpses and cannibalism. 0:04:01.393,0:04:11.374 After two years of suffering inside the sealed off city, Roman pride had eroded enough to accept subjugation over starvation. 0:04:12.698,0:04:14.338 [yelling] 0:04:14.338,0:04:21.620 On the orders of a Roman aristocrat, the city gates were opened, and the Visigoths stormed in. 0:04:23.420,0:04:28.465 Their shopping spree turned up tons of treasure but hardly any food. 0:04:28.465,0:04:38.307 So after three days, Alaric and his men moved on in search of greener pastures and left the heart of the Roman Empire on life support. 0:04:38.307,0:04:41.170 Kulikowski: A contempory put it very well when he says, 0:04:41.170,0:04:43.587 "The mother of the world has been killed." 0:04:43.587,0:04:51.248 Uhhm, that's what people thought, that the mother of the world had been brutally killed in a Gothic sack. 0:04:52.987,0:05:02.754 Narrator: While Alaric's sacking of Rome certainly hastened its demise, the mother of the world had been terminally ill for quite some time. 0:05:02.754,0:05:09.671 As early as the third century AD, the Empire had fallen into the hands of a series of inept emperors, 0:05:09.671,0:05:16.588 whose obsession with personal gain, threatened the public welfare and fostered civil war. 0:05:16.588,0:05:28.152 During a 50-year period in the third century, nearly all of the two dozen emperors who seized power were brutally slain by rivals, rebels, and subjects. 0:05:29.522,0:05:39.171 While Rome gradually imploded from within, external threats, both natural and man-made, only aided its self destruction. 0:05:39.171,0:05:46.207 Daileader: Diseases, such as smallpox and measles, entered the European population pool for the first time during the second and third centuries. 0:05:46.207,0:05:50.379 In this sense, the Roman Empire paid the price for its success. It had become so wealthy, 0:05:50.379,0:05:56.337 and had established contacts with other parts of the world to such an extent, that now, 0:05:56.337,0:06:05.142 it was not only importing the very valuable wares of those regions, it was also importing the diseases that came from those regions. 0:06:09.773,0:06:21.366 Narrator: As Rome's population began to dwindle, so did its border guard, leaving its emperors no choice but to hire barbarian fighters, like Alaric, as mercenaries. 0:06:21.366,0:06:29.211 But as the Romans became more and more dependent on foreign defenders, they also became more openly hostile toward them. 0:06:29.211,0:06:38.755 Kulikowski: When the Goths first entered the Empire, they came really as refugees, and they were forced into rebellion 0:06:38.755,0:06:43.393 by the treatment that they received at the hands of Roman officials. 0:06:43.393,0:06:53.775 Famously, the Roman officials allowed slave traders to profit by selling dog meat to the Goths in exchange for Gothic children as slaves, 0:06:53.775,0:07:00.186 and so, both the incompetence and the cruelty of Roman officialdom drove the Goths into rebellion. 0:07:05.586,0:07:15.380 Narrator: Alaric, the leader and living symbol of that rebellion, died of fever in 410, shortly after his historic sacking of Rome. 0:07:15.380,0:07:19.380 While he wouldn't live to enjoy much of his success, future generations of barbarians would.