Part I ── Ancient Roman Empire and Its Demise

I’m beginning this in-depth series of articles ── of which I’m sure will eventually become sermons ── because it’s such an intriguing subject, and there were some requests that we do so. 

FEW OF our peoples – even globally – have come to realize that what has been taking shape since roughly 1993 (and even long before this date) in Europe- the formation and the establishment of a European Union, is not unique to the Continent. There have been outstanding periods throughout the ages when Europe was united in some fashion.

Throughout Europe’s history, it can be summed up with one war after another, one chaos after another ── punctuated with occasional periods of unity and peace. It has always struggled to achieve political, social, cultural, and religious unity.

But, just as there is danger in a nation being a “melting pot,” there is danger in unity as well.

Studying the history of Europe, she has suffered most from her own bloody periods of chaos in her attempts at unity. Anyone who honestly studies the history of Catholicism in combination with Europe surely must grapple with this truth.

EUROPE – Reviving an ancient Roman Empire

Since early 1981, I have been studying the fascinating and unique history of Europe concerning the Roman Empire. Within my home library, I have a few books on European history. On her modern kingdoms ── which have their roots deep in an ancient empire that stretched from the Euphrates even to Scotland (my ancestral land), from the Rhine and Danube rivers in Europe to the Sahara Desert. 

History, when not bastardized or changed, is one of our greatest teachers. It allows us to dissect and examine Europe’s chaotic past, its revivals, its catastrophes, and its unities.

There are some important events I would like to cover, chronological if possible ── using the old ‘50s style teletype in many news broadcasts of the time.

Notice the “fall” of the Roman Empire in the West nearly 2,000 years ago. 

DATELINE ── A.D. 9. The Roman Empire’s expansion checked

Publius Quinctilius Varus, Roman general, whose loss of three legions to Germanic tribes in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest caused great shock in Rome and stemmed Roman expansion beyond the Rhine River.

The Germans, however, found in Arminius, a prince of the Germanic Cherusci tribe, a leader of extraordinary resource. Arminius formed the design of freeing his people from Roman rule and soon came to a secret understanding with influential German chiefs. In September of the year A.D. 9, Varus, who had been falsely informed that a distant tribe was in revolt, led his legions into the Teutoburg Forest to put down the uprising. Here, the Germans were lying in wait for him, and everything was in their favor, the narrow defiles having caused disorder among the troops and the ground having been made muddy by heavy rains. The battle that ensued lasted three days, during which the Romans were altogether destroyed; and Varus killed himself by falling upon his sword. 1

The grave consequences of this will become evident approximately 400 years later. The Germanic tribes are left unconquered. 

DATELINE ── A.D. 100. The Roman Empire at its Height 

THE ROMAN WORLD at the death of Trajan in A.D. 117 stretched from the shores of the Caspian Sea in the east to Spain’s Atlantic coast in the west; from Britain in the north to Egypt in the south. In all, Rome’s 43 provinces occupied some two million square miles. Some 50,000 miles of roads served to bind these scattered provinces to Rome. Although the roads were originally built to allow rapid military movements throughout the provinces, they soon became busy arteries of commerce and travel. The Romans also built many hundreds of miles of fortifications along the exposed borders of Dacia, Raetia, Syria, Germania, and the African frontiers, thus helping to ensure peace within the Empire, which was to last for more than a hundred years. 2 

DATELINE ── A.D. 180. A Fading Glory

THE THREE CENTURIES between the great age of Marcus Aurelius and the overwhelming of Rome by barbarians in the Fifth Century A.D. is often called the epoch of Rome’s “decline and fall.”

At the same time that Marcus was securing his trans-Danubian frontiers, Egypt, Spain, and Britain were troubled by rebellions or invasions. By 175, the general Avidius Cassius, who earlier had served under Verus, had virtually become a prefect of all of the eastern provinces, including control of the important province of Egypt. In that year, Avidius Cassius took the occasion of a rumor of Marcus’s death to proclaim himself emperor. 3

The end of an era of greatness, might, and prosperity is coming into sight. Military anarchy and economic problems are beginning to take their toll on the empire. Marcus’s choice of his only surviving son as his successor has always been viewed as a tragic paradox. Commodus (reigned as sole emperor 180–192) turned out badly. 4

DATELINE ── A.D. 312-325 The Official Religion of the Empire 

The Battle of the Milvian Bridge took place between the Roman Emperors Constantine I and Maxentius on 28 October AD 312. … According to Christian chroniclers Eusebius of Caesarea and Lactantius, the battle marked the beginning of Constantine's conversion to Christianity. 5 Constantine was the first emperor to stop the persecution of Christians and to legalize Christianity, along with all other religions/cults in the Roman Empire. 

What the world, at that time, came to know of as Christianity was increasingly becoming the official religion of the empire ── though paganism was allowed and often integrated into Christianity. The Roman Catholic Church begins to play a vital role in the empire. 

DATELINE ── A.D. 370-378. THE BARBARIAN INVADERS BEGIN

THE GERMANIC INCURSIONS of the Fourth and Fifth Centuries A.D. overwhelmed the Empire, while leaving intact the institutions that had made Rome great. The invasion process was triggered thousands of miles from Rome by the Huns. These Asiatic barbarians moved into Europe over many years, and displaced the Alani and ultimately the Ostrogoths and Visigoths. These peoples retreated until most of the Empire was overrun. The city of Rome was sacked twice and finally occupied. 6

In 324, Constantine relocated the imperial capital to Byzantium (which was renamed Constantinople), a move whose strategic and economic benefits helped reinvigorate the state for some time. But Constantine failed to save the empire from decline. The last of his line, Theodosius I (379–395), was the last emperor to rule over a unified Roman Empire. The Western Empire, suffering from repeated invasions and the flight of the peasants into the cities, had grown weak compared with the East, where spices and other exports virtually guaranteed wealth and stability. When Theodosius died in 395, Rome split into Eastern and Western empires. 7 

How could a barbarian tribe with possibly upwards of 100,000 men, women, and children destroy an empire of 50-70 million people with a professional military? 

DATELINE ── A.D. 394. NICENE CHRISTIANITY STATE RELIGION 

EMPEROR Theodosius I (reign: 379-395) turned up the heat on the ban on pagan religious practices, along with the Olympic Games, and made Nicene Christianity the official state religion. All ancient gods and goddesses are outlawed in the empire. Between 389 and 391, he issued the “Theodosian Decrees,” which established a practical ban on paganism; visits to the temples were forbidden, the remaining pagan holidays were abolished, the sacred fire in the Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum was extinguished as the Vestal Virgins were disbanded, and auspices and witchcraft were deemed punishable offenses. 8 

The freedom of worship was no longer allowed in the empire. The Roman Catholic Church becomes a state within the Roman state. 

While most people of that time didn’t understand the grave implications of this, it would become very clear in the Fifth century. The fall of the Roman state. A political and social vacuum developed, and only one institution remained that could provide some unity ── the Roman Catholic Church.

DATELINE ── A.D. 406. Invasion of the Hordes 

IN A.D. 406, a significant barbarian invasion occurred when a coalition of tribes, including the Vandals, Alans, and Suebi, crossed the Rhine River. This event marked a pivotal moment in the decline of the Western Roman Empire, leading to widespread destruction of Roman cities and the collapse of Roman civic order in northern Gaul. The crossing of the Rhine is often considered a climactic event in the Migration Period, which saw various Germanic tribes moving westward and southward from southern Scandinavia and northern Germania. 9 

The end is near for the Western Roman Empire. Within twenty-five years, the empire will be surrounded by barbarian kingdoms in Gaul, Spain, Africa, and Eastern Europe ── including Italy itself. 

DATELINE ── 24 August 410 AD. Rome Sacked

“Rome, once the capital of the world, is now the grave of the Roman people,” wrote the scholar Jerome of a cataclysm that no one could have predicted. After several generations of Roman superiority and arrogance, Visigothic mercenaries entered Rome on this date, and reminded their erstwhile masters of where the real military power lay. 10 

The sacking of Rome was bemoaned throughout the empire! Again, Jerome, writing from Bethlehem, lamented, “Whilst these things were happening in Jebus, a dreadful rumor came from the West. Rome had been besieged, and its citizens had been forced to buy their lives with gold. Thus despoiled, they had been besieged again so as to lose not their substance only but their lives. My voice sticks in my throat, and, as I dictate, sobs choke my utterance. The City, which had taken the whole world, was itself taken; …” 11  

DATELINE ── A.D. 410-415. Visigoths In Italy, France, and Spain 

Not only had Rome's sack been a significant blow to the Roman people's morale, but they had also endured two years' worth of trauma brought about by fear, hunger (due to blockades), and illness. However, the Goths were not long in the city of Rome, as only three days after the sack, Alaric marched his men south to Campania, from where he intended to sail to Sicily—probably to obtain grain and other supplies— when a storm destroyed his fleet. During the early months of 411, while on his northward return journey through Italy, Alaric took ill and died at Consentia in Bruttium. His cause of death was likely fever. Alaric was succeeded in the command of the Gothic army by his brother-in-law, Ataulf, who had an international approach to government – a convert to the Roman system. 12

Christian apologist Orosius put into his mouth Athaulf's Declaration: 

“At first, I wanted to erase the Roman name and convert all Roman territory into a Gothic empire: I longed for Romania to become Gothia, and Athaulf to be what Caesar Augustus had been. … therefore I have more prudently chosen the different glory of reviving the Roman name with Gothic vigor, and I hope to be acknowledged by posterity as the initiator of a Roman restoration, since it is impossible for me to alter the character of this Empire” 13

Ataulf leaves Italy, thereafter migrates to Gaul, and begins the conquest of Spain. However, his dream for himself and his people will never become a reality. In 415, Athaulf withdrew with his people into northern Hispania. That same year, Athaulf was killed while he was bathing.

There are now THREE FEDERATE KINGDOMS IN GAUL – the Visigoths, the Burgundians, and the Franks. 

DATELINE ── A.D. 440-476. The Papacy Begins 

Leo I, one of only three popes accorded the appellation “the Great,” played a pivotal role in the early history of the papacy. Assuming the title pontifex maximus, or chief priest, he made an important distinction between the person of the pope and his office, maintaining that the office assumed the full power. He himself becomes the leading figure in Italy. 

Leo I further enhanced the prestige of the papacy and helped to place Western leadership in its hands by dealing with invading tribes. He persuaded the Huns, a nomadic people terrorizing northern Italy, not to attack Rome in A.D. 452, and the Vandals, a Germanic people, not to sack Rome when they occupied it three years later. 14 

Even to the casual observer, the point that this pope of Rome symbolized a new Roman emperor was not lost. 

The Roman Civil War of A.D. 456 was a civil war fought in the Western Roman Empire. Eastern Roman emperor Leo I appointed Majorianus and Ricimer as magister militum before Majorianus appointed himself Western emperor with support from the Senate and army. 

Majorianus fell into Ricimer’s hands (Aug. 2, 461) and was compelled to abdicate. Five days later, he was executed. On Nov. 19, 461, Ricimer appointed Libius Severus as Western emperor. On Aug. 15, 465, Severus died; almost two years passed before Anthemius was appointed to rule the West by the Eastern emperor Leo I. 15

The empire in the West is clearly falling to pieces. The stage is being set for its complete destruction. 

Then, in A.D. 475, Orestes, the regent of Italy and minister to Attila, king of the Huns, obtained control of the Roman army and made his own son Romulus, nicknamed Augustulus, the last Western Roman emperor. 

In A.D. 476, however, the barbarian troops mutinied, proclaiming as king one of their own number, Odoacer, and besieging and killing Orestes in Pavia and exiling Romulus. 16 

For twenty years, the Western empire had merely been a puppet of various Germanic generals and chieftains, all vying for mastery in Italy. Truly, the Roman Empire has been at death’s door many times from different political and military wounds, but now, a death blow came.

DATELINE ── A.D. 476. The Death of the Empire 

Romulus Augustulus, known to history, the last of the Western Roman emperors. The empire was but a mere shadow of its glory. Interestingly enough, the first Romulus was one of the fabled founders of Rome; this Romulus, a usurper and puppet not recognized as a legitimate ruler by the Eastern emperor. He was often colloquially referred to as “Augustulus” (meaning “little Augustus”) even in his own time, in reference to his youth. For about 12 months, Orestes ruled Italy in his son’s name, but eventually his troops mutinied and found a leader in the German warrior Odoacer. Odoacer’s forces captured and executed Orestes on August 28, 476. Romulus, however, was spared because of his youth; Odoacer gave him a pension and sent him to live with his relatives in Campania, a region of southern Italy. His subsequent fate is unknown. 17

All these Germanic kingdoms made Christian Arianism their state religion. It was proposed early in the 4th century by the Alexandrian presbyter Arius and was popular throughout much of the Eastern and Western Roman empires, even after it was denounced as a heresy by the First Council of Nicaea in 325. 18

The terms “Arian” and “Germanic” came to be used interchangeably in opposition to “Roman” and “Catholic.”

When the Germanic peoples entered the provinces of the Western Roman Empire and began founding their own kingdoms there, most of them were Arian Christians. The creed of Arian Christianity will spell the downfall of each of these Germanic kingdoms. The conflict in the 4th century had seen Arian and Nicene factions struggling for control of Western Europe. In contrast, among the Arian German kingdoms established in the collapsing Western Empire in the 5th century, there existed entirely separate Arian and Nicene Churches with parallel hierarchies, each serving different sets of believers. The Germanic elites were Arians, and the Romance-majority population was Nicene. 19 

DATELINE ── A.D. 533-565. Emperor Justinian I “Restores” the Byzantine Empire to the territorial extent of the Old Roman Empire. 

The 6th century opened, in effect, with the death of Anastasius and the accession of the Balkan soldier who replaced him ── Justin I. 

The reign opened with external warfare and internal strife. The strength of the East Roman armies is revealed in the fact that, while containing Persian might, Justinian could nonetheless dispatch troops to attack the Huns in Crimea and to maintain the Danubian frontier against a host of enemies. In A.D. 532, Justinian decided to abandon military operations in favor of diplomacy. Thus, Justinian succeeded in attaining the first of the objectives needed for reconquest in the West: peace in the East.

After A.D. 532, Justinian ruled more firmly than ever before. With the subsequent proclamation of the “Endless Peace,” he could hope to use his earlier-won reputation as a champion of Chalcedonian orthodoxy and appeal to those Western Romans who preferred the rule of a Catholic Roman emperor to that of an Arian German kinglet. In those early years of the 530s, Justinian could indeed pose as the pattern of a Roman and Christian emperor. 

Despite the continued resistance of certain Gothic garrisons, coupled with the intervention of Franks and Alamanni, after A.D. 554, the land was essentially a province of the East Roman Empire. 20

In A.D. 554, Emperor Justinian I issued the Pragmatic Sanction setting forth its terms: Italy was made a province of the Byzantine Empire, with its capital still at Ravenna (Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, however, were to remain administratively separate), and the Ostrogothic political system was to be dissolved.

Toward the end of his reign, Justinian to some extent withdrew from public affairs and was occupied with theological problems. He even lapsed into heresy. Eventually,  the matter was dropped with the emperor’s death, at which time the throne passed to his nephew Justin II in A.D. 565. 21

DATELINE ── A.D. 568. The Invasion of Italy By The Lombards

The devastation of the long war was so great that Italy was opened for invasion by the Lombards. In A.D. 568–569, a different Germanic tribe, the Lombards, invaded Italy under their king, Alboin. The Lombards, along with the Saxons and other Teutonic people, conquered the northern part of Italy. The Lombards crossed the Julian Alps. Their invasion of northern Italy was almost unopposed, and by late 569, they had conquered all the principal cities north of the Po River except Pavia, which fell in 572. At the same time, they occupied areas in the central and southern parts of the peninsula. Shortly afterward, Alboin was murdered, and the 18-month rule of his successor, Cleph, was marked by the ruthless treatment of the Italian landowners. 22 

Upon the death of Cleph, the Lombards chose no successor; instead, the dukes exercised authority in their particular city-territories. The 10-year “rule of the dukes” was later viewed as one of violence and disorder. In 584, threatened by a Frankish invasion, the Lombards made Cleph’s son Authari king. He was succeeded by Agilulf, duke of Turin.

The Lombards converted from Arianism to Catholicism in the latter part of the 7th century.

Meanwhile, theological and cultural differences magnified the gulf between Rome and the Eastern Roman Empire. However, once the Lombards converted to Catholicism, the gulf between the Lombards and the Catholics was narrowed. 

The Pope at Rome and the Roman Catholic Church are the only ones who can give the kind of leadership necessary to preserve Roman culture and religious traditions spawned by the Roman Empire. “ … the hierarchy of the early Church reflected, or ‘mimicked’, the organization of the Empire, … The Church also adopted the same organizational boundaries as the Empire: geographical provinces, called dioceses, corresponding to imperial governmental territorial divisions. In the words of Charles Norris Cochrane: ‘Ecclesiastical councils functioned as parliaments embodying the philosophic […] wisdom of the Empire.’” 23

However, another power is coming. A power willing to offer military protection to the Roman Catholic Church. The Frankish kingdom is coming to the heart of Western Europe. □  

Bibliography

1 Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, “Publius Quinctilius Varus” – Retrieved 20 May 2025. 

2 a Time-Life book entitled Great Ages of Man IMPERIAL ROME, Time-Life Books, New York, 1965, pg. 66.

3 Ibid. (2) pg. 141 

4 Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, “Marcus Aurelius” – Retrieved 20 May 2025. 

5 Wikipedia contributors. "Battle of the Milvian Bridge." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 30 Jan. 2025. Web. 20 May. 2025.

6 Ibid. (2) pg. 158. 

7 Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, “Roman Empire” – Retrieved 20 May 2025. 

8 Wikipedia contributors. "Persecution of pagans under Theodosius I." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 28 Apr. 2025. Web. 20 May. 2025. 

9 Crawford, J., Barbarian Invasion: The Beginning of the End for Rome? The Collector, 13 April 2013. 10 Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, “Sack of Rome” – Retrieved 20 May 2025. 

11 Jerome, Letter cxxvii. To Principia. §12.

12 Wikipedia contributors. "Alaric I." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 10 May. 2025. Web. 20 May. 2025. 

13 Orosius, Historiae adversum paganos (vii.43. §4-6), translated in Stephen Williams, Diocletian and the Roman Recovery, Routledge, 1985, 2000, p. 218.

14 Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, “St. Leo I” 18 May 2025 – Retrieved 20 May 2025. 

15 Ibid. (14), “Ricimer.” 

16 Ibid. (14), “Orestes.”

17 Ibid. (14) “Odoacer.” 

18 Ibid. 19 May 2025, “Arianism” 

19 Wikipedia contributors. "Arianism." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 17 May. 2025. Web. 20 May. 2025.

20 Ibid. (14), 15 May 2025, “Justinian I.” 

21 Ibid. (20) 

22 Ibid. (17), “Lombard.” 

23 Gay, T., The Influence of the Roman Empire on the Catholic Church, Retrospect Journal, Retrieved 21 May 2025.