The Fall of Rome and Its Myth

The course is devoted to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century and the historiographical, philosophical, and cultural concepts which emerged as responses and reactions to this event in the Western culture from the Middle Ages to contemporary times. The course will be held online in the form of once a week class sessions on Microsoft Teams.

The complex historical process that transformed the forms of governance and social organization in the West of Europe from the fifth to the seventh century was conceptualized in the European historical, political and cultural traditions as „the fall of Rome”. The idea of the collapse of the great empire was not an innocent description of the „historical facts” but a powerful philosophical and historiographical construct that was variously employed in the following centuries up to contemporary times. During the course, we will investigate four main motives which recur in various retellings and explanations of the „fall of Rome”: a) stagnation and decadence; b) the barbarian invasions; c) Christianity; d) resilience. We will examine the genealogy of these concepts in the primary sources, their development in the modern interpretations and their reverberations in contemporary culture.

The primary sources:

Ammianus Marcellinus, Res gestae

Augustine of Hippo, The City of God

Orosius, History against the pagans

Procopius, Wars

Salvian of Marseille, On the Governance of God

Theodosian Code

Victor of Vita, History of the Vandal Persecution

also: the Latin chronicles from the 4th to 6th centuries and the selected letters of Augustine, Jerome, Sidonius Apollinaris, Ruricius of Limoges, Ennodius of Pavia, Cassiodorus

late Latin poetry: Prudentius, Orientius, Dracontius, Venantius Fortunatus

The scholarship on the late Roman empire and the fall:

Brown, P. R. L., The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, Oxford 2003

Cameron A., The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity AD 395–600, London 1993

Geary P., The Myth of Nations: the Mediaeval Origins of Europe, Princeton 2002

Halsall, G., Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West 376–568, Cambridge 2007

Jones, A.H.M., The Later Roman Empire 284–602: A Social, Economic and Administrative Survey, Oxford 1964

Ward-Perkins, B., The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization, Oxford 2006

Wickham, C., Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean 400–800, Oxford 2004

The reception:

W. H. Auden, selected poems and prose

Douthat R., The Decadent Society: How We Became Victims of Our Own Success, New York 2020

Dreher R., The Benedict Option, New York 2017

Duggan A., The Little Emperors, London 1951

Gibbon E., The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman empire, London 1788

We will also look at newspaper articles, tv interviews, comic books and graphic novels, and other cultural texts which showcase how differently „the fall of Rome” functions in the contemporary Western culture.

Assessment methods:

– activity during the class – U1, K1

– written examination – W1

Assessment criteria:

The final grade consists of the assessment of class participation (50%) and the result of the written test at the end of the semester (50%). Both requirements have to be met to receive a grade.

The student is expected to attend class regularly: those that miss more than 50% or more of their classes (unexcused) will receive an F. The student is also expected to prepare reading assignments at home to contribute to discussions in class.

Grading scale of the written test:

fail - 50% or less

satisfactory – 51-63%

satisfactory plus- 64–70%

good – 71–80%

good plus- 81–87%

very good- 88–100%

not applicable