Rome Fell and Nobody Noticed
Key takeaways
- Fried Kielbasa Jun 12, 2026121Share When I first began learning about the Roman Empire in middle school, I was most interested in what everyone else seems to be interested in — the time of Caesar and Augustus.
- My favorite figure in the post-Roman period is Theoderic — ruling 493 to 526, twenty years after the “fall” of Rome.
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Fried Kielbasa Jun 12, 2026121Share When I first began learning about the Roman Empire in middle school, I was most interested in what everyone else seems to be interested in — the time of Caesar and Augustus. Recently, however, I’ve become far more interested in the decline & fall of the Roman Empire. You always hear the date 476 as the definitive end. As far as dates go, 476 is as good a date as any to mark the end of the official Roman Empire, but it always struck me as a bit weird. After that date, could it be said that Rome no longer existed? When I investigated what Rome was like after 476, it seemed oddly continuous. The fundamental institutions mostly existed, and life went on as usual. Nobody at the time figured that was the end.
My favorite figure in the post-Roman period is Theoderic — ruling 493 to 526, twenty years after the “fall” of Rome. He took over the structure of the Roman Empire and ruled it as a functionally emperor-like figure. He was a Goth and an Arian Christian, or in other words, a barbarian and a heretic. He spent his youth as a hostage in Constantinople, which enabled him to understand the Roman system from the inside.
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