Maiorianus

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com Who would have thought that the biggest temple complex the Romans every built, was not in Rome, but in Baalbek also known as Helopolis, in modern day Lebanon. There, the Romans built their largest temple, devoted to Jupiter, even bigger than the largest in Rome. The Baalbek temple was incredibly impressive, with each column having a height of 20 meters and a diameter of 2.5 meters. But even crazier than the temple is the foundation of the temple. Some stones in that foundation weigh as much as 800 metric tons, which is so impressive, that many think that only Aliens or Atlanteans could have built something so incredible. But I have to disappoint Ancient Astronaut theory fans, because it was most likely the Romans. They used such gargantuan stones in order to protect the foundation against earthquakes. But how did they transport them? Well, with an intelligent system of Capstans, ropes, and pulleys, they managed to pull the stones from the quarry, which was actually lying higher than the temple foundation, and just pulled the Stones in place. You can even still see the holes where they attached the ropes. They abandoned two even larger stones, because they realized that moving 1000+ metric ton stones was a bit too insane. But still, this achievement shows what incredible master builders the Romans were, and it is a bit unfair to attribute this to Atlanteans or Aliens, taking this achievement away from the Romans.

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com Now the time has finally come to talk in more detail about certain reasons for the Fall of the Roman Empire. This channel is probably one of the few, if not the only channel, dedicated only to solve the mystery of the Fall of the Roman Empire. It is an extremely complex topic, countless books have been written on it, and by now we have managed ot firmly establish that there is no one single reason for the Fall of Rome, but a complex interplay of many reasons, all of which in their entirety caused the Fall of that massive empire. In this video now, we shall analyze a very big contributing factor for the Fall of Rome, namely the devastation caused by pandemics. How did they happen, what damage did they cause, and in how far were they responsible for the Collapse of the mighty Imperium Romanum?

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com It is very often wrongly said that after the disastrous defeat of Varus, when he was treacherously betrayed by Arminius and his germanic soldiers, Rome gave up its ambitions to make Germania Magna a Roman province. But that is actually completely wrong. Because many forget that Germanicus successfully defeated Arminius and the Germanic tribes in several campaigns that lasted from AD 14 to 16, so only some years after the battle of Teutoburg forest. In three campaigns, Germanicus ventured forth deep into Germania with 8 legions, in order to avenge Varus and to restore Roman prestige and to incite fear into the Germanic tribes. And fascinatingly, it worked. He decisively defeated Arminius, his Cheruski tribe, and several other germanic tribes in Germania. But Germanicus had acted too indepdently from the emperor Tiberius, who deemed Germania a province not worthy of conquering. Thus, Tiberius, growing jealous of Germanicus' growing fame and popularity for his victories, recalled him to Rome before Germanicus could finish the conquest. So it was Tiberius who decided against making Germania a province. This was short-sighted of Tiberius, because having Germania as a province and making the germanic tribes loyal subjects of Rome, would sure have come in very handy 400 years later in the time of the great migrations, and would have changed the course of the entire world histoy.

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com Now it is finally time to explore in more detail one of the most fascinating cities of the ancient world: Alexandria. We have already explored Rome from many different angles, ranging from its urban makeup, to how it changed over the centuries, to its very high population density. And we have also done the same with the New Rome, Constantinople. But long before Constantinople, and even before Rome, Alexandria was the largest, most prosperous and most densely populated large city of antiquity, and in this video, we shall analyze this magnificent city of the ancient world in great detail.

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com A major reason why the Roman Empire ultimately fell, were the repeated and costly wars that Rome waged for an incredible 700 years against the Persian empire. From the time of Julius Caesar, until the time of Heraclius, would the Imperium have to spend incredible manpower to keep the Persians at bay. And the last conflict was so devastating, that the expanding Arabs could easily conqur Persia and large parts of the Roman Empire. Fascinatingly, the capital city of Persia, Ctesiphon was conquered and sacked 5 times by the Roman Empire. And the conquest of Trajan was so complete, that in those days the whole region of Mesopotamia was for a short while a Roman province. But Hadrian pulled out of the Region, and later emperors would also never manage to fully conquer Persia. The problem was that Ctesiphon was strategically not extremely important to the Persian empire as the main forces of Persia were located in the east. Thus, Persia could have sustained a long war, even with Mesopotamia occupied by Rome, and thus keeping the province would have been too costly for the Roman Empire. Conquering Persia once and for all would have needed the entire effort of the whole Roman army, but then all other provinces of the empire would have been left unprotected. Thus, Rome could just never expend the necessary manpower to subjugate Persia, because the germanic tribes were always waiting.

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com Did Christianity cause the Fall of the Roman Empire? What at first sounds like a ridiculous question, since how can a religion cause the Fall of an empire, we will see during the course of this video, might not be such an unfounded question after all. Since we must observe that not long after Christianity became the official state religion of the Roman Empire, did the Western Roman Empire fall, in fact only some 80 years later. So is there a causal relationship? Let us try to be factual here, and find evidence that would support this theory, but also evidence that contradicts it, so that we can maybe find out, if and how much Christianity contributed to the Fall of the Roman Empire.

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com Another key reason why the Eastern Roman often also called Byzantine Empire survived so incredibly long, was besides the excellent fortification and location of Constantinople, a technology that would allow the Eastern Romans to have the upper hand in almost any naval combat. This invention was greek fire. It was invented by a certain Callinicus, an architect and chemist from the city of Heliopolis which was back then located in the Eastern Roman province of Syria. When the Arabs overran the region in the 630s, Callinicus fled to Constantinople and brought the the invetion with him to the Capital of the Roman Empire, and shared the knowledge. Thus, a superior technological advantage was given to the Romans, who now had a secret flammable compound, which was used with devices similar to flamethrowers mounted on ships. Its exact recipe was guarded with utmost care and is unknown even today, although it is thought to have been some mixture of resin, asphalt, sulfur, naphtha, fine quicklime, and calcium phosphide. It was extremely flammable and burned even under water, and thus with this superior military technology, the Eastern Romans were able to time and time again repel the naval forces of the islamic Caliphate, and other attackers, allowing the Roman Empire to survive far longer than it would have otherwise.

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com Isn't it a fascinating irony of history, that quite often, not always, but often, the historical characters who have the title "The Great" in their names, are really only great for a very select few people? It was such for Constantine The supposedly great, whom I analyzed already in this video here, and it is certainly also so for another pious Christian emperor, who will always be remembered for his accomplishments in almost restoring the extent of the Roman Empire, namely the emperor Justinian. Don't worry Theodosius, you're next. Now why would I dare to call Justinian not great? Well, friends of Roman history, let us find out.

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com What, I hear patriotic Britons exclaim enraged, Britannia contributing to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire? Preposterous ! Well, yes, Britannia was a good province, certainly rich in minerals, the Romans mined tin, iron, gold and silver there. But apart from that, the province created a lot of problems for the empire, first and foremost a giant multitude of usurpers over the course of the centuries. In fact, from nowhere else did so many usurpers spawn than from Britannia. From its conquest in 43 AD under emperor Claudius, to the final withdrawal of Roman troops after 407 AD under Constantine III, this island spawned an incredible 9 usurpers to the Roman throne, one of which, namely Constantine, became a legitimate emperor. You can imagine the incredible damage this did to the empire, and especially the last usurpers, Magnus Maximus and Constantine III, were devastating for the Western Roman Empire, as the battles with the legitimate emperors destroyed many legions, draining especially the Western Empire of many troops that would have been necessary in fighting the barbarian invaders. Thus, paradoxically, Britain indirectly contributed to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire.

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com By now, we have firmly established that the date of 476 for the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, was a later fabrication of the Eastern Roman Empire during the reign of Justinian, in order to justify a war against the germanic kingdoms of the West. But if 476 was a fabrication, what then would be the real date for the Fall of the Western Roman Empire?

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com One of the decisive turning points in the Fall of the Western Roman Empire was that the Vandals were able to conquer the rich province of Africa, taking away this important source of tax revenue and grain supply from the Western Roman Empire, which greatly accelerated the Fall of the West. But how were they able to do this? Well, after having breached the Roman border defences at the Rhine in early 407 AD, after a few years of plundering, they settled in southern Spain. But the Vandals being the Vandals, nobody wanted them there. So the Romano Spaniards did everything in their power to get rid of them. It was thus Romans themselves who taught the Vandals how to build Ships in order to cross the straight of Gibraltar in 429 AD. When they then landed in Africa, they met stiff opposition from Roman garrison troops, but in the course of 10 years, they still managed to occupy the whole province. How? Well, they had again help not only from local Romans, but from many tribes such as the Berbers, who were opposed to Roman rule. Thus, without help from destert tribes and local romans, the Vandals would have never been able to conquer Africa. Subsequent tries to reconquer Africa for the West failed, and thus was the doom of Western Rome decided. The irony of history, that the Romans themselves created their own doom by helping the enemy.

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com It is one of my main goals of this channel, to end some misconceptions about the late Roman Empire, for there are many not only misconceptions, but outright wrong beliefs, associated with that fascinating time. For example, we already debunked a common misconception, namely that Rome became a backwater town in the 5th century, which could not be further from the truth as I showed in this video here, in fact, Rome was again the capital of the Western Roman Empire from 450 onwards, until 476. Then we also debunked the notion that the Western Roman Empire fell in 476, and we also saw that the city of Rome continued unchanged after that supposed Fall, and fell into a sharp decline only after the gothic wars of the mid sixth century. And as you can imagine, there are of course also many misconceptions about Constantinople, the magnificent capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. And one of the biggest misconceptions is, that Constantinople continued to be splendorous until its very end in 1453, and this is how it is very often portrayed in popular culture. But what if I told you, that many of the ancient monuments of the city, lay already in ruins as early as the 8th century AD? What if I tell you, that already hundreds of years before Constantinople fell, the city was more a ruin field than a city, more cow pasture, than an urban landscape? Let us then debunk another one of those misconceptions of the late roman empire, that still persists so very strongly to this day.

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com I often have to laugh when I hear that Romulus Augustus was the last Roman Emperor. He was not even the last legitimate emperor of the Western Romans, because that title goes to Julius Nepos. But the last emperor of the Romans as a whole was of course Constantine XI Palaiologos. This last emperor of the Romans is rightfully regarded as one of the most epic. During the siege of Constantinople in 1453, when the city would finally fall for good to the Ottoman turks, Constantine XI fought with a valor and dedication that would have made even Aurelian himself proud. He gave a final speech: "The enemy of our faith wishes to oppress us even more closely by sea and land with all his engines and skill to attack us with the entire strength of this siege force (...). For this reason I am imploring you to fight like men with brave souls, as you have done from the beginning up to this day, against the enemy of our faith." Then on May 29th, he beheld the desolate state of the city, knowing that the city would fall. His final words were: "The city is fallen and I am still alive." He then tore off his imperial ornaments as to look like any other common soldier, leading his remaining soldiers into a final charge, where he was killed. And here we are thinking that real life heroes only exist in movies. Constantine XI proves us wrong.

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com What happened during the last days of the Western Roman Empire? Well, quite a lot actually as we shall find, surprisingly. But the Fall of the West, we have learned by now, was not so much a disastrous fall, but more like a change of government, where instead of an emperor, we would now have a Germanic king. How exactly did it come to that, and how can we imagine these events? So what would we have seen during the final days and weeks of the Western Roman Empire?

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com One paradox of the late Western Roman Empire is, that despite having a very effective army, and actually winning many fights against the Barbarians, the Western field armies still completely dissolved in the course of the fifth century. How could this happen? Well, many civil wars actually caused the dissolution of the Western field armies, but that is only one part of the story, the other is, that the late empire had immense trouble in recruiting new soldiers into the ranks of the late legions. The Romans had become unwilling to fight for their empire, very different from the early empire and late republic, where new armies were raised in short amounts of time, even after giant disasters, such as against Hannibal or at Teutoburg forest. One reason was that an army career was far less rewarding in the late empire than in the early one. In the early empire one got a nice portion of land and could actually earn good money as a soldier, whereas in the late empire, one earned almost nothing, it was forced conscription with very little reward. Thus, new recruits were really difficult to find, and could at some point only be gained in the war-torn border provinces of Illyricum or Pannonia, where the local Romans were used to war, but almost impossible to recruit from Italy, where living standards were much higher. Italians had simply become unwilling to fight for an empire that would not reward them any more for them risking their lives.

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com Finally, the 1st episode of a planned trilogy on the life of Majorian, Julis Valerius Maiorianus, the too underappreciated emperor who almost had managed to save the Western Roman Empire. This video is dedicated to his memory, as is the entire channel. In this video, we shall analyze how Majorian rose to power and became emperor of Western Rome in AD 457. 📚 Main sources for this video: 1. MAX, Gerald Edward, The University of Wisconsin, Ph.D. thesis, 1975 "Majorian Augustus" 2. Luigi Cantarelli, Columbia University, The City of New York, 1883 "The Emperor Majorian" The excellent intro track is by Andrea Krux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBGFueJtOzw (License for use acquired)

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com The year is 477 AD. Julius Nepos, who fled in 475 from Italy, after the usurpation of Flavius Orestes, is now ready to retake Italy and restore the Western Roman Empire. His fleet is ready, a strong Dalmatian army has been recruited, and the Eastern Roman Emperor has sent reinforcements. This of course, dear friends of late roman history, never happened, but could it have? And if yes, how would history have developed?

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com How did Constantinople look shortly after the grandiose inauguration celebration in 330 AD? We did already try to imagine what a time traveller would have seen in the Constantinople during the time of Justinian and Belisarius, and we also tried to imagine how the city looked when it was still called Byzantium, so before the emperor Constantine made it his new capital city of the Roman Empire. But now let's travel back in time and try to imagine, what you would have seen in the Constantinople of 330 AD, when the city was still surprisingly pagan in appearance.

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com Every fan of Roman history knows Aurelian's incredible success story, but very few know that Aurelian's success was actually built on the success of his predecessor, who is unrightfully very underrated and unknown. I am talking about the emperor Claudius II, also known as Claudius Gothicus. This unrightfully neglected man became emperor in 268, and he decisively defeated the Goths at the Battle of Naissus. The Goths were so utterly destroyed, that they would not pose a threat for the Roman Empire for 100 years. This earned him the title Gothicus. Then the Alemanni invaded Italy, and Claudius defeated them at the Battle of Lake Benacus, modern day lake Garda, in 268, thus saving Italy from a barbarian invasion. This awarded him the title Germanicus Maximus. He then defeated the Gallic splitaway empire in some battles, reclaiming the province of Hispania for the Roman Empire. This actually set the stage for the later reconquest of the Gallic Empire by Aurelian. Unfortunately, Claudius reigned for not even 2 years, falling victim to the Cyprian plague. His successor, the famous Aurelian, built upon the successes of Claudius, and saved the Roman Empire. But without the successes of Claudius Gothicus, it is very likely that Aurelian would not have been able to achieve this. Thus, we must give Claudius II the credit he deserves.

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com What would you have seen in Constantinople of the year 1000, during the so-called Golden Age of the heroic emperor Basil II? Was Constantinople now shining in old glory again like in the days of Constantine or of Justinian? Were the monuments of Constantinople rebuilt and now restored to old splendour? Were the old Forums of Theodosius, Arcadius or of Constantine now rebuilt, the old statues of antiquity refurbished, and the old city shone anew like a beacon of light, amidst the darkness of the middle ages? Well, dear friends of late Roman history, we shall see in this video, that the answer is more complicated than we would like. So how then did Constantinople look during the golden age of around the year 1000?

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com The incredible longevity of the Eastern Roman Empire of more than 1000 years was almost exclusively due the excellent strategic location of its capital city, Constantinople. But not only was the strategic location perfect, being surrounded to three quarters by water, but the city had been equipped with the most formidable defensive system the world had ever seen, namely the Theodosian land walls. But as if those two things weren't enough, a giant sea chain was added, that could block enemy vessels from entering the Bosphorus straight, while allowing own vessels to supply the city with goods. And to top it off, an inventor from Heliopolis, brought the invention of greek fire to Constantinople in 672. These 4 things in combination, strategic location, Theodosian land walls, Sea chain and Greek fire, allowed Constantinople to withstand an incredible amount of sieges. In total, the city was besieged 15 times unsuccessfully from 378 AD onwards, until only as late as 1204 AD, was the city finally sacked by the crusaders, which was the real disaster for Constantinople. The city was recaptured for the Eastern Roman Empire and besieged an additional four times unsuccessfully until it finally fell in 1453.

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com Many people say that the late Roman Empire was such a mess that it wasn't worth saving, that it was good that it fell. But that is unfair hindsight. Just because we now live in a modern society with high prosperity, we assume that the Fall of Rome had to be and there was no other way. Well, the Fall plunged the world into hundreds of years of utter darkness, where countless technologies were lost, and where a highly developed urbanized society utterly vanished. Instead, living standards declined dramatically, urbanization vanished for 1000 years, infrastructure and trade completely collapsed, and many works of science, art and literature vanished. A direct consequence of the Fall is the utterly disunited political landscape of Europe, where we now have many bickering and squabbling nation states, loosely united in the very imperfect European union. It was during the era of the Roman Empire that Europe was united for the last time under a common rule for long periods of time. Others tried with brutal methods, but never again would Europe be unified for long, which creates many problems today. And the problems of the middle east and northern Africa are also a direct consequence of the Fall, and had Rome not fallen, we would have a politically much more uniform, prosperous and possibly stable state in the whole mediterranean area.

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com What, I hear your angered thoughts already, Theodosius overrated you say? Blasphemy! Well, he was made great by later Christian writers, because he was very favorable for Christianity. But for most others, he was really not great. He failed to defeat the Goths in 380 AD, not long after the battle of Adrianople, but instead he made them allies of the Empire. In 394 AD then, he decided to attack the Western Roman Empire, and in the battle of the Frigidus river, he sent the Gothic Foederati to their deaths, many Goths died in that battle, fighting for the Eastern Roman Empire. This caused the Goths to hate the Romans, which gave later rise to Alarich, and his campaigns that would eventually culminate in the sack of Rome. But more, this battle destroyed many Western Roman Legions, so that the West would start its 80 year lasting downward spiral. He then caused the final split of the Roman Empire by making his two incompetent infant sons Honorius and Arcadius emperors in this most dire time, when the empire would have needed strong emperors. Oh and he also banned paganism, caused the destruction of classical works of Art and greco-roman temples, instated the death penalty for non-christian worships, and abolished the olympic games of antiquity, thus ending a 1000 year lasting tradition. Thus, Theodosius was really not great for most people.

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com Never was the saying "When it rains, it pours" more true, than in the time of the great migrations. Just when the Western Roman Empire looked as if it could stabilize, one catastrophe bigger than the one before happened, a continuous blow of disasters, relentlessly punching into the weakened Eastern and Western Roman Empires, until one of them would fall. And the appearance of the Huns, can be marked as a decisive moment in the fate of the Western Roman Empire, for this storm came at the worst possible time. But, this dying Western Empire, in a last effort, managed to defeat this formidable enemy against all odds. How could this be? And was this really a victory?

🔴 YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL? 🔴 🤗 Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/Maiorianus 🤗 One-Time Donation? - PayPal: https://paypal.me/Maiorianus - Bitcoin: bc1qv4lsfsplvfecrrgvmfclhga28we7mvh9563xdj 🔗 Share the video with anyone who might be interested (it helps a ton!) 👍 Subscribe to our videos FOR FREE! 📬 Contact us: maiorianus.sebastian@gmail.com In 457 AD, Majorian became emperor of the Western Roman Empire, and in the short timespan of 4 years, he managed to restore the Imperium from this to this. Is it thus so hard to imagine that he could have completely restored the Western Roman Empire? In our timeline unfortunately, the fleet which he had prepared to reconquer Africa from the Vandals was burned by traitors, likely paid off by the Vandals. Then on his way back to Italy, he was killed by the treacherous Magister Militum Ricimer. But had the traitors not managed to burn the fleet, had the safety precautions been better, I am quite positive that Majorian could have destroyed the Vandal kingdom. He had a fleet of 300 ships at his disposal plus an additional 100-200 ships by the Magister Militum of Dalmatia, Marcellinus, a total fleet and army size comparable to that with which Belisarius managed to reconquer Africa 70 years later. In this alternate timeline, Majorian and Marcellinus would have destroyed the Vandal kingdom, making Africa again a province, thus securing grain shipments to Rome, and greatly increasing the tax revenue for the empire. Ricimer would have stood no chance in that timeline, and he would either have been deposed or killed by Majorian. In that alternate reality, the Western Roman Empire might actually have survived for hundreds more years or maybe even until today.