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I took a course in grad school on the historiography of the Fall of the Roman Empire. As the professor said, "If I do my job right, by the end of this seminar you won't know what the word 'Fall' means, what the word 'Roman' means, what the word 'Empire' means, and you may have trouble with 'of' and 'the'."

"Why Did The Roman Empire Collapse With Mary Beard"? I don't think Mary Beard was around at the time. It's a bit mean to blame her for the empires collapse. :D

The fact that an entire empire collapsed with her and Mary Beard was able to dodge all that debris and live to tell the story is truly extraordinary. GIBBON NEVER MENTIONED THIS!

Mary Beard has such a light touch when discussing what is really dense material. Such a talent and she always takes it in interesting directions.

I learned more about Rome in 59 mins and 19 secs than I ever did through education. Mary beard should be on the school curriculum. She does for history what sister Wendy Beckett did for art. Superb.

Mary Beard has to be one of the most legendary historians ever absolutely adore her

You can see the changing roles of centre vs periphery of the Empire also in the arts. Provincial styles started to influence Roman art instead of the earlier dominance of Roman aesthetic values influencing the Barbarians on the outskirts. Fascinating stuff.

Absolutely theee best doc so far. Love your work Mary. Taking us into niches and places not yet seen. Hidden corners and tucked away places. Insights into the minds of those who coloured our history. Awesome facts and stories.

She did it again with the Romans, fantastic every time. I'm lucky enough to have her book "SPQR" autographed by her, very nice person.

Mary Beard's outstanding storytelling has created in me an interest of history where none existed before. Thank you for such an enriching gift!

One of the many reasons to visit modern Istanbul is to see that this is where the Roman Empire went for several hundred years. It still has miles of Roman walls, Roman Aqueducts, and some Roman monuments and buildings, such as the great cistern through which James Bond paddles in "From Russia with Love", and the Hippodrome, featuring an immense Egyptian obelisk of Thutmose III, erected by Theodosius I in the 4th century AD. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obelisk_of_Theodosius

Love Mary Beard, she's taught me a lot. Love the pride and love in her voice as she introduces ' my tour guide, who knows more than me and he's my husband ' ❤

“It’s intriguingly complicated…so bear with me…” I was hooked. Delightful, informative, and fascinating documentary. Thank you! ❤

I WISH she had been one of my professors in college or grad school because I already love history, but she's like a rock star of the intellect!

I did not know Mary beard collapsed! I wasn't aware she was as old as the Roman empire. Hopefully she will regain strength.

Love anything by Mary Beard, her knowledge is outstanding and although getting on a bit, hope she does more of these documetaries.

Ook what will we do without our Professor Mary narrating and knowledge. I love her Wish I knew of her early works . I am enjoying her now .

A fascinating, insightful, and very well presented documentary.

This is the first time that Rome was ever presented as an "idea" rather than a physical place. Growing up as a Roman Catholic, the concept of Rome evolving (transcending) rather than disappearing really makes sense.

I've been waiting for her next story!! I cherish this woman and her passion for history and for the way she tells it. Thank you!!

Mary Beards series about Rome and all the day to day lives of Romans has got to be one of if not the best informative documentaries out there. Her lectures must be wonderful.

Beautiful footage, excellent host! Thanks for posting/sharing!

Brilliant. Mary's delivery makes it all the more enjoyable!

I've always wondered why the Roman empire collapsed with Mary Beard... Couldn't it have collapsed without her? It's a dangerous world, with all these people and things collapsing everywhere! I hope she'll be ok! (Mary, that is... Rome will be fine; she's been collapsing for centuries, we're used to it.)😆

So many layers to the fall of this empire. Great job pulling all these threads together.

Reading SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, Mary's book, currently and it's a great introduction into Roman Socieity highly recommend it as essential reading for everyone

Fabulous documentary! Great job Mary, but in that pizza scene at the restaurant I was thinking that old adage, "You're not suppose to play with your food!" LOL just kidding! I'm fascinated with Roman history and had a photo of me taken while standing between the columns at the ancient ruins when I was in romantic historical Rome many moons ago! Great experience and the very best way to learn about history....travel! ♥♥

"There's a little bit of the Romans inside the heads of every one of us." Wonderful.

Absolutely loving this stream of Mary Beard content on Rome!

What an excellent presentation. Thanks much for this.

Very good documentary. A good description of the religious changes in the later Empire. Not a lot, however, about the political collapse and cultural change which brought about the end of the Western Roman Empire...

LOVE Mary Beard! Thank you for posting this episode.

Mary Beard is one of my favorite story tellers her take on the romans is so overwhelming i love this series thank you

The ebb and flow of power. A non-ending story.

Very informative documentary. Thank you.

Gorgeously presented. Mary Beard is one of the historical geniuses of our times.

Such a pleasure to follow someone making imaginative, well-founded sense of history.

I could listen to Mary all day 🤓❤️

"The conclusion that I come to is that the real heir of the Roman empire was Christendom - not an empire of political domination, or not only that, but an empire of the mind; and in its own ambitions at least, still an empire without limit." ~Dame Winifred Mary Beard, DBE, FSA, FBA, FRSL I love how she began the story at Hadrian's wall and stating its limit, and ended up with her conclusion. What a powerful closing of a documentary!

This is such a huge and complicated question. Keep watching videos and even better, read lots of books. Understanding this question and its many answers is one of my personal quests. Good luck!

Mary Beard extraordinary. She is always creative and provocative. I so enjoyed the views of the Northern Gate. Never saw it before. Full of surprises, splendour and wonder. My regret is that when I was to University, I never attended a lecture by Mary Beard. Question. Which is more the treasure? The empire of Rome or she? Answer. Allow me a moment. I'm thinking.

all empires fall. facts of life. LOVED the video

Glad you having fun Mary God bless you and xo

Love your fascinating documentaries.

"To ravage, to slaughter, to steal, this they give the false name of empire; and where they create a desert, they call it peace." ― Tacitus

Ummm, the title of the video was "Why did the Roman Empire Collapse". Anyone notice that she really didn't address the question directly at all? The whole gist of the video was the Roman Empire didn't really go away but just morphed into Christianity? Sigh. No details on the series of Roman civil wars and their impact on Rome's ability to defend itself from barbarian invasion. No discussion of the nightmare consequences of "dividing the empire into smaller pieces" theme. (Like the massive increase in Roman administrative bureaucracies with corresponding increase in taxes) No discussion of the large trade deficits that led to the depletion of physical specie (ie. export of gold/silver to far away lands). No discussion of the crushing tax burden on Romans at the end of the empire, that led many to WELCOME the barbarians, anything to escape the Roman tax machine. No mention of corruption and inefficiency of the later empire. The list goes on and on. Marxists don't actually believe the Roman Empire collapsed, but rather just transitioned into Feudalism as a natural part of the dialectic of history. But the collapse of Rome did occur and it did set civilization back more than a thousand years technologically. (Medicine and engineering for sure, we forgot how to make concrete and toilets for Pete's sake.) This video was a fluff piece PERIOD.

I'd like to thnak Mary Beard because your book SPQR was of great benefit to me having read it before I read Mommsen's History of Rome. So thanks again.

Mary Beard is great. I love her doing the narration. I will watch just because it's her doing the documentary.

I have to confess; I’m madly, wildly jealous of Ms. Mary Beard, professor and narrating goddess. She gets into so many lovely, rarefied places, and is able to be close to so many wonderful and obscure items from history, I can’t help but be a tad green about it! I’m so grateful that she shares with us. She pockets us and takes us with her, as intimately as is possible, along on her excursions. This is the closest and best I’ll ever experience, as far as having access to these wonderful places and things that teach us so much about ourselves… The small votive figures are absolutely fabulous! So often in her videos, we’re allowed to view things that are simply not on display in museums. But thanks to her, we are allowed to view them. Thank you, dear lady Beard!

To me, it's incredible that the Empire held together as long as it did, without the benefit of modern electronic communication.

Fascinating. Well done.

Fantastic production thank you.

Great to see Mary's husband make an appearance in this documentary! And it looks like he's a ancient civilisations expert too!

Excellent. Thank you. One suggestion. Include dates for those of us who can't remember precisely when various things happened in the Roman empire.

_…the first time that the Roman’s actually seemed to speak to me…_ I don’t know why, but this line gave me chills. It’s as if I could imagine all of the people of the past trying to tell her their stories, so she could tell them to us. Also, whoever produces these documentaries always seems to pick some really good music! Especially for the end!

Interesting video, clear explanation, but in particular,very nice presenter💯💯💯💯

If I had 3 wishes, one of them would be to be gifted for a day with Mary's brilliant mind, and walk through Rome being able to read ALL the old words etched in stone.

I suggest The Fate of Rome Climate, Disease, and the End of An Empire by Harper, Kyle as a current idea based on the most current science.

As a teenager I sometimes used to dream about what would have been if the Roman Empire lasted up to our days… how would the world look like today…and I always concluded that our advancement and progress would have been infinitely faster, like the trains of Japan are today compared to many other countries…something like that.

What an excellent production, well done Mary.

I could watch her 24/7/365 Oh how I wish she would make a million documentaries!

One of my favorite historians. Thank for explaining what happened at the end Roman Empire. It’s very complicated but you really explained it.

Great work, thank you!

Marvelous! Answering questions I have had but were never answered; been a while that I saw such a good documentary!

So GLAD she has done this. I love Roman History and her narrative of history in General, although I do NOT think she was DIRECTLY involved with Rome's fall.

Marvellous! A great summary of the factors at play 2,000 years ago.

Just excellent. What finesse and grace at discussing so many really "Byzantine" aspects of the history of Rome. Thank you!

Oh how I love her 💕 She is so excited about Roman History and it's infectious! I know most agree and comment the same but Mary Beard and Joann Fletcher (Egyptologist) are my fave two women in the history field. I love their videos. I'd love to see a filmed lunch with them just talking

Love this channel.....and Love Mary Beard!

Fabulous with a unique perspective!

Excellent again❤

I have look at this via Tv and now UKposts and all seemed fresh and relevant

Loved your presentation. One name that should also be listed is Emperor Galerius. He wrote the Edict of Tolerance 2 years prior to the Edict of Milan. Its a very interesting document and has a sadness to it. He seems to be handing over the keys to a new generation as the temples to the old Gods are bankrupted. He appeals the the new keepers to respect the older Roman traditions.

Brilliant as usual!

That gate is in my mothers home town of Trier Germany. It’s called Porta Negra or Black Gate. My father loved that building and did several oil paintings of it.

I love that the title is worded like it was her fault. I forgot who Mary was at first and saw it in my feed and thought "OMG what did she DO?!" I still watched of course cause Mary rocks, even if she did bring upon Rome's collapse.

Bravo! What an impressive documentary. Mary is the quintessential classicist. I could listen to her speak all day.

Her documentaries are excellent, especially the one on the Roman slums.

In reading the title, I had no idea that Mary was present there at the time or even she's that old. No wonder she's so knowledgeable on the subject!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - I’m such a ridiculous Mary Beard groupie that I even embarrass myself at times. It’s the angle Mary looks at history from. Mary shows you what the average citizen was like, how they lived what they ate, how they loved etc. For me this is the most fascinating aspect. To look at historical events through the eyes of its people. It’s all this and, to be honest it’s the clothes that Mary wears. Mary is incredibly knowledgeable but so approachable at the same time. You can imagine having Mary as a neighbour, as a friend or family member. I’m kinda envious of anyone that can clam those things. I’m not saying that she’s perfect, far from it. It’s her “real person” language and appearance that has me listening and learning more than ever before in my life. Thanks HC and thanks Ms Mary Beard. Ha ha I told you that I’m a big fan. I’m gushing and I’m embarrassing myself. ❤

More emphasis need to be on the manpower shortages starting in the late 2nd century; the why & how. "THE FATE OF ROME" makes some very convincing arguments. Among many other things, Harper has a very new & different take on why Christianity became the popular religion of the people. A history book for our time as much as a new explanation of Rome's fall.

Waves of refugees, waves of economic migrants...hmmm, sounds familiar

Wonderfull storytelling thanks very much

Thanks Mary. Love this Roman stuff.

Mary, you rock! I love your excitement the way you teach us history

Mary Beard is a Roman goddess and should get her own temple!

Read Growing a Revolution by David R Montgomery. Undoubtedly all the causes for the demise of Rome listed at the start of the article probably contributed but an added, very significant one is that they destroyed their soil. At the beginning, they had found the formulas for conserving their soil but then they lost this and had to get their food from Northern Africa.

Curious fact: in Portuguese we have a word MAÇADA (the Ç reads like two Ss), it means something boring: a situation, a book, a piece of music, a person is a MAÇADOR male or MAÇADORA female, or anything else that is boring. In the sources I consulted it does come from Masada...no one is really really certain. Best wishes to all from Lisbon Portugal

"Rome was built to last... ... But it didn't" - Mary Beard, an absolute gangster

That was excellent thanks

Excellent and I learnt a lot.

Wonderful narration.It's like living in those time periods...my she had my full attention throughout...Thank you so much Professor Mary Beard!

Amazing! Thank you, Mary.

Dear Mary Beard! Would you possibly make a film about the collapse of Great Britain as this is happening currently in our eyes!

12:12. Girl in the back: There is that crazy British lady playing with the pizza again. 😂😂

Auntie Pls tell us more about Syrmium and all the emperor's born in there ...Probably more about " Illyrian emperor's" ,places where they were born and how many of them were there

Mary Beard's book is one of the best ones I've read on the subject.

Thank you!!!

My god, I had to pause when Mary Beard's husband came on screen. The sheer enthusiasm and joy for the discipline, in addition to that of her own fills my heart