The Dark Ages - Part 1 - The Sacking of Rome

At its height in the second century A.D., the Roman Empire was the beacon of learning, power, and prosperity in the western world. But the once-powerful Rome - rotten to the core by the fifth century - lay open to barbarian warriors who came in wave after wave of invasion, slaughtering, stealing, and ultimately, settling. As chaos replaced culture, Europe was beset by famine, plague, persecutions, and a state of war that was so persistent it was only rarely interrupted by peace. THE DARK AGES profiles those who battled to shape the future, from the warlords whose armies threatened to cause the demise of European society, such as Alaric, Charles the Hammer, and Clovis; to the men and women who valiantly tended the flames of justice, knowledge, and innovation including Charlemagne, St. Benedict, Empress Theodora, and other brave souls who fought for peace and enlightenment. It was in the shadows of this turbulent millennium that the seeds of modern civilization were sown.

August 24th, 410 AD, the Empire falls.

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.

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.

For the first time in 800 years, the eternal city is under siege.

Kulikowski: Rome had not ever been conquered by a foreign enemy in the Imperial Period.

The physiological effect of the greatest city of the ancient world being conquered was absolutely crushing.

Narrator: For three day, the great capitol of Caesar and Augustus is ravaged by its unwelcomed guests.

Stunning architectural marvels that have stood for centuries are burned to the ground.

Germanic slaves rise up to enslave their Roman masters.

And the city streets run red with the blood of its own people.

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,

that these Gothic warriors would have been terrifying.

Narrator: At the head of charge is Alaric, a Visigothic warrior, who had once fought on the Empire's behalf along its northern frontier.

When he was passed over for a promotion within the ranks of the Roman legions, Alaric turned from friend to foe

and used what he had learned about Roman warfare to launch his own campaign of aggression.

Martin: He eventually decided that the only way he was going to advance was to really put the screws to Rome.

So the siege of Rome was, to tell you the truth, a profit-making career move for Alaric.

[noise and screams]

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.

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.

[bird cry]

Narrator: In order to conquer the city, Alaric would first have to strangle it from the outside.

DeVries: He can't undermine the walls. They are far too large, they're far too secure, and they're far too well-built,

so he relies on starvation.

Narrator: Alaric's men surrounded Rome, took full control of its supply lines, and blocked all shipments of grain coming in to the city.

Gradually, the city died from within, and the pall of impending death began to permeate even its most hallowed traditions.

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,

gladiatorial combats, and execution of criminals. The population was at the show, but they were literally starving,

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,

the crowd started shouting, "Let us buy that meat! How much per pound do you want for that?"

That's how hungry they were.

[voices]

Narrator: In Rome, power and glory were rapidly being replaced by corpses and cannibalism.

After two years of suffering inside the sealed off city, Roman pride had eroded enough to accept subjugation over starvation.

[yelling]

On the orders of a Roman aristocrat, the city gates were opened, and the Visigoths stormed in.

Their shopping spree turned up tons of treasure but hardly any food.

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.

Kulikowski: A contempory put it very well when he says,

"The mother of the world has been killed."

Uhhm, that's what people thought, that the mother of the world had been brutally killed in a Gothic sack.

Narrator: While Alaric's sacking of Rome certainly hastened its demise, the mother of the world had been terminally ill for quite some time.

As early as the third century AD, the Empire had fallen into the hands of a series of inept emperors,

whose obsession with personal gain, threatened the public welfare and fostered civil war.

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.

While Rome gradually imploded from within, external threats, both natural and man-made, only aided its self destruction.

Daileader: Diseases, such as smallpox and measles, entered the European population pool for the first time during the second and third centuries.

In this sense, the Roman Empire paid the price for its success. It had become so wealthy,

and had established contacts with other parts of the world to such an extent, that now,

it was not only importing the very valuable wares of those regions, it was also importing the diseases that came from those regions.

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.

But as the Romans became more and more dependent on foreign defenders, they also became more openly hostile toward them.

Kulikowski: When the Goths first entered the Empire, they came really as refugees, and they were forced into rebellion

by the treatment that they received at the hands of Roman officials.

Famously, the Roman officials allowed slave traders to profit by selling dog meat to the Goths in exchange for Gothic children as slaves,

and so, both the incompetence and the cruelty of Roman officialdom drove the Goths into rebellion.

Narrator: Alaric, the leader and living symbol of that rebellion, died of fever in 410, shortly after his historic sacking of Rome.

While he wouldn't live to enjoy much of his success, future generations of barbarians would.