About this episode

This episode explores how Justinian's reconquest of Italy led to more destruction of Rome than the barbarian invasions.

Rome wasn't killed by its enemies. It was killed by a rescue. Everyone knows the fall of Rome — 476, the last emperor, the barbarian king, the lights going out. Almost nobody knows what happened when the Eastern Empire under Justinian tried to take Italy back. The Gothic Wars of 535-554 emptied the peninsula. Milan — one of the great cities of the north — was leveled, its men slaughtered, its women and children enslaved. Rome itself was besieged over and over. The aqueducts were cut for the first time in the city's history. And the Plague of Justinian rode the exact same roads Belisarius had reopened for trade, killing perhaps a third of the Mediterranean world. By the time Justinian declared victory in 554, Rome held maybe 50,000 people — down from hundreds of thousands under Theodoric. There was almost no one left to govern. So the Pope started doing it. Not because God willed it — because no one else was left standing. This is Episode 3 of the "Life After the Fall of Rome" series. We're going to follow the 20-year kill chain from Justinian's decision to reconquer Italy through Belisarius's early successes, the sieges, Milan's destruction, the plague, the Gothic king Totila…

People in this episode

Host: Jeremy Ryan Slate

Topics covered

• Fall of Rome
• Justinian's Reconquest
• Gothic Wars
• Byzantine Empire
• Historical Impact
• Plague
• Italian History

Keywords

• Justinian
• Gothic Wars
• Rome
• Milan
• Plague of Justinian
• Byzantine Empire
• Italy
• Theodoric
• Belisarius
• Lombards

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Eastern Empire

Places: Italy, Milan, Rome, Mediterranean, Lombards

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• Napoleon Didn't Take Power. France Voted To Give It To Him. · July 8, 2026 · 26 min
• The Wars of the Roses: How England's Aristocracy Killed Itself in 30 Years · July 1, 2026 · 1h 8m
• The Kingdom That Tried to Be Roman · June 29, 2026 · 40 min

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