Category: Season 1
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22. The End of the Beginning
474 to 476 CE In which we kill off the Western Roman Empire, and then dig through the remains to try and figure out what happened. More importantly, where do we go from here? Here we are ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, come to witness the end of the Roman Empire in the west,…
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21. Alas, Britain
c. 367 to c. 460 CE Britain was abandoned by Rome early compared to the rest of it’s territory, and what followed wasn’t pretty. Okay, so, we have arrived at the much-teased episode about post Roman Britain. Hopefully I haven’t hyped this too much; I do try my best to manage expectations. A few days…
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20. Gepids East Goths and Huns, Oh My
453 CE to 460 CE Out of the wreckage of Attila’s empire, new peoples emerge. New actors inject new elements into the political game of the late Roman empire British Museum entry for the Gepids, with some artefacts History Files Article and Regnal List of the Gepids Scirian Earring found at Bakod Puszta The problem…
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19. King Euric
466 to around 473 The Visigoths break out, under the leadership of their new and aggressive King Euric. Inside the empire, another emperor falls to Ricimer’s scheming. An appropriate map for this episode is here. Over the last few episodes, we’ve been pretty tied up in Imperial politics, with the coup of Majorian and Ricimer,…
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18. All or Nothing: The Battle of Cape Bon
461 to 468 CE If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss… -Rudyard Kipling, If The East and West combine forces in one great push to take Africa backs…
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17. The Phantom Kingdom
456 to 464 CE Emperor Majorian and his Right-Hand man Ricimer attempt to pull the empire back from the brink after the departure of Avitus. But there’s a snake in the grass, a fly in the ointment, and a bad apple in the barrel. It all leads to the creation of a new entity called…
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16. Speaking Frankly
The Franks, Part I 280 to 480 CE We welcome the Franks onto the stage of Europe, and look at their origins, early history, ferocious reputation, and the way modern politics work their way into the telling of history. The floodgates have opened, and now the puns cannot be stopped. Kyrie eleison. We have arrived…
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15. Unmitigated Gaul
418 CE to 456 CE A senator by the name of Eparchius Avitus is dragooned into filling the imperial shoes left behind by the well-aimed brick that took out Petronius Maximus. His life gives a framework for discussing the place of southern Gaul within the Roman empire, and how the Visigoths were settling in. And…
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14. More Serpent than Dove
The Vandals Part III 439 to 455 CE “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be therefore as wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” Matthew, 10:16 Gaiseric weathers Roman attempts to recover the African provinces, and begins to set his house in order. Marriage deals are made and broken,…
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13. The Apostle of Noricum
The life and times of Saint Severinus c. 450 to c. 482 CE “At the time of the death of Attila, confusion reigned in the two Pannonias and the other borderlands of the Danube. Then Severinus, the most holy servant of God, came from the east to the marches of Noricum, and tarried in a…
The Dark Ages Podcast 