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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Tejas, post: 7942312, member: 84905&quot;]Interesting question in the title and one that legions of professors of late antiquity have pondered over. The debate, however, is not whether Rome (the western Empire) fell in AD 476, when Odovacer (who btw was a Thuringian on his fathers side and a Skirian on his mothers side) send Romulus Augustulus in retirement, but it is a question of whether it was a collapse or a transition.</p><p><br /></p><p>There is no doubt that the western empire disintegrated not in AD 476, but over a period of around 100 years. Important sign posts of the disintegration are AD 378, the defeat at the battle of Adrianople, when Rome lost its emperor and its eastern army in one single battle with the Goths. The Gothic foedus of AD 382, when foreign people were accepted to live and rule independently within the empire. 406/407, when the Vandals, Suevians and Burgundians crossed the Rhine frontier into Gaul. 410, when Rome lost control over Britain and the Goths sacked Rome.</p><p><br /></p><p>In 429 the Vandals took Africa from the Romans, cutting off grain supply. The city of Rome had not been self-sufficient since BC 200. For the first time in 600 years the city could no longer feed its inhabitants from its own hinterland. In the course of the 5th century, Rome lost control over much of Spain and Gaul to Suevians, Visigoths and Franks.</p><p><br /></p><p>When Attila entered northern Italy in around 450 the emperor was ineffective. He barricaded himself in Ravenna, which was a nearly impregnable fortress at the time. Most significantly, at that time the church, i.e. the pope was the only institution that could negotiate with the Huns. Indeed, the Roman Catholic church is a Roman institution that survived the disintegration of the empire to this day.</p><p><br /></p><p>At least since the middle of the 5th century, all western Roman emperors were puppets of Germanic generals who effectively ran the empire. In AD 476, Odovacer only made overt, what had long been known, when he declared that no emperor of the west was needed. The last pretence of a western empire seized to exist, which makes this event so significant.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Goths in Italy stabilized the decline, by recreating effective government and making attempts to preserve what was left of the western Empire and Roman culture. Unfortunately, Justinian never realized what great service the Goths were doing to the people in Italy and adjacent regions. Instead, he started a war, which devastated the Roman heartland and paved the way for more barbarian people, like the Langobards to take control.</p><p><br /></p><p>I show here a coin from my collection that is closely linked to the decline of Empire and the emergence of medieval society.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is an imitative Solidus <b>found in Kent, England</b>. The model was probably a Solidus of Valentinian III (425-455) from Ravenna, minted around AD 430-445, or possibly a Gallic imitation of such a Solidus.</p><p><br /></p><p>I think the coin dates to say 475 to 550, so decades after the death of Valentinian III and maybe even 100 years after the Romans had lost control over Britain. However, the people who made the coin, possibly Angles, Saxons or Jutes still looked back to Roman models, as they would do for centuries to come.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1374921[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>PS: The coin is hard to photograph. I chose a black background this time, which brings out the detail. However, the color is much paler, which betrays a low gold content.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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