Alaric I: Did you mean...?

The Battle of Adrianople on August 9, 378 CE ranks among the worst military defeats in all of Roman history. Its estimated losses of over 10,000 are comparable to Roman defeats at Cannae (216 BCE) and Carrhae (53 BCE). The...

Edmund I ruled the Kingdom of the English from 939 to 946. In his youth, alongside his brother, King Aethelstan (reign 924-939), he defeated a Celtic-Viking alliance at the Battle of Brunanburh (937). Yet when...

Fritigern (also Fritigernus, died c. 380 CE) was a Visigothic king best known as the victor of the decisive Battle of Adrianople in 378 CE, which decimated the Roman army and haunted Roman military commanders for decades afterwards...

The cataclysmic end of the Roman Empire in the West has tended to mask the underlying features of continuity. The map of Europe in the year 500 would have been unrecognizable to anyone living a...

The Rites of Eleusis, or the Eleusinian Mysteries, were the secret rituals of the mystery school of Eleusis and were observed regularly from c. 1600 BCE - 392 CE. Exactly what this mystic ritual was no...

After the Roman emperor Claudius (r. 41-54 CE) successfully conquered Britain in 43 CE, four legions were left there to maintain the peace: XIV Gemina, II Augusta, IX Hispana, and XX Valeria Victrix. However, by the end of the...

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (c. 477-524/525) was a scholar in Late Antiquity who was imprisoned and executed by Theodoric (r. 493-526 CE) but was later idolised by medieval intellectuals. His most famous work...

After Julius Caesar’s (100-44 BCE) conquest of Gaul, Roman legions pushed the borders of the Roman Empire’s frontier to the banks of the Rhine River. Augustus (r. 27 BCE - 14 CE) divided the newly acquired region into...

Sack of Rome by the Visigoths on 24 August 410, by J.N. Sylvestre, 1890 CE. Musée Paul Valéry

This episode of Ten Minute History (like a documentary, only shorter) covers the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire. It deals with the division of the empire by Theodosius I and the rule...