[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:02.58,0:00:07.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,August 24th, 410 AD, the Empire falls.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:07.63,0:00:18.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,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.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:18.96,0:00:30.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,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.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:30.73,0:00:36.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,For the first time in 800 years, the eternal city is under siege.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:37.44,0:00:46.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Kulikowski: Rome had not ever been conquered by a foreign enemy in the Imperial Period.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:46.17,0:00:55.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The physiological effect of the greatest city of the ancient world being conquered was absolutely crushing.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:57.79,0:01:04.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Narrator: For three day, the great capitol of Caesar and Augustus is ravaged by its unwelcomed guests.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:04.34,0:01:10.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Stunning architectural marvels that have stood for centuries are burned to the ground.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:10.56,0:01:17.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Germanic slaves rise up to enslave their Roman masters.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:17.44,0:01:23.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And the city streets run red with the blood of its own people.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:23.03,0:01:30.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,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,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:30.68,0:01:35.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that these Gothic warriors would have been terrifying.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:35.16,0:01:43.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Narrator: At the head of charge is Alaric, a Visigothic warrior, who had once fought on the Empire's behalf along its northern frontier.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:43.88,0:01:50.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,When he was passed over for a promotion within the ranks of the Roman legions, Alaric turned from friend to foe
Dialogue: 0,0:01:50.47,0:01:56.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and used what he had learned about Roman warfare to launch his own campaign of aggression.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:56.87,0:02:05.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Martin: He eventually decided that the only way he was going to advance was to really put the screws to Rome.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:05.05,0:02:11.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So the siege of Rome was, to tell you the truth, a profit-making career move for Alaric.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:11.04,0:02:12.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[noise and screams]
Dialogue: 0,0:02:13.52,0:02:26.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,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.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:26.72,0:02:37.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,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.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:37.22,0:02:38.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[bird cry]
Dialogue: 0,0:02:38.98,0:02:46.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Narrator: In order to conquer the city, Alaric would first have to strangle it from the outside.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:46.00,0:02:51.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DeVries: He can't undermine the walls. They are far too large, they're far too secure, and they're far too well-built,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:51.66,0:02:54.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so he relies on starvation.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:56.62,0:03:05.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Narrator: Alaric's men surrounded Rome, took full control of its supply lines, and blocked all shipments of grain coming in to the city.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:07.49,0:03:16.84,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Gradually, the city died from within, and the pall of impending death began to permeate even its most hallowed traditions.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:16.84,0:03:25.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,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,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:25.90,0:03:34.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,gladiatorial combats, and execution of criminals. The population was at the show, but they were literally starving,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:34.16,0:03:44.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,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,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:44.80,0:03:51.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the crowd started shouting, "Let us buy that meat! How much per pound do you want for that?"
Dialogue: 0,0:03:51.30,0:03:52.53,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's how hungry they were.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:52.53,0:03:54.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[voices]
Dialogue: 0,0:03:54.93,0:04:01.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Narrator: In Rome, power and glory were rapidly being replaced by corpses and cannibalism.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:01.39,0:04:11.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,After two years of suffering inside the sealed off city, Roman pride had eroded enough to accept subjugation over starvation.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:12.70,0:04:14.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,[yelling]
Dialogue: 0,0:04:14.34,0:04:21.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,On the orders of a Roman aristocrat, the city gates were opened, and the Visigoths stormed in.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:23.42,0:04:28.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Their shopping spree turned up tons of treasure but hardly any food.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:28.46,0:04:38.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,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.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:38.31,0:04:41.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Kulikowski: A contempory put it very well when he says,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:41.17,0:04:43.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"The mother of the world has been killed."
Dialogue: 0,0:04:43.59,0:04:51.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Uhhm, that's what people thought, that the mother of the world had been brutally killed in a Gothic sack.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:52.99,0:05:02.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Narrator: While Alaric's sacking of Rome certainly hastened its demise, the mother of the world had been terminally ill for quite some time.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:02.75,0:05:09.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,As early as the third century AD, the Empire had fallen into the hands of a series of inept emperors,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:09.67,0:05:16.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,whose obsession with personal gain, threatened the public welfare and fostered civil war.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:16.59,0:05:28.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,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.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:29.52,0:05:39.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,While Rome gradually imploded from within, external threats, both natural and man-made, only aided its self destruction.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:39.17,0:05:46.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Daileader: Diseases, such as smallpox and measles, entered the European population pool for the first time during the second and third centuries.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:46.21,0:05:50.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In this sense, the Roman Empire paid the price for its success. It had become so wealthy,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:50.38,0:05:56.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and had established contacts with other parts of the world to such an extent, that now,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:56.34,0:06:05.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it was not only importing the very valuable wares of those regions, it was also importing the diseases that came from those regions.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:09.77,0:06:21.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,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.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:21.37,0:06:29.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But as the Romans became more and more dependent on foreign defenders, they also became more openly hostile toward them.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:29.21,0:06:38.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Kulikowski: When the Goths first entered the Empire, they came really as refugees, and they were forced into rebellion
Dialogue: 0,0:06:38.76,0:06:43.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,by the treatment that they received at the hands of Roman officials.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:43.39,0:06:53.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Famously, the Roman officials allowed slave traders to profit by selling dog meat to the Goths in exchange for Gothic children as slaves,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:53.78,0:07:00.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and so, both the incompetence and the cruelty of Roman officialdom drove the Goths into rebellion.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:05.59,0:07:15.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Narrator: Alaric, the leader and living symbol of that rebellion, died of fever in 410, shortly after his historic sacking of Rome.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:15.38,0:07:19.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,While he wouldn't live to enjoy much of his success, future generations of barbarians would.