Nick Holmes, an argument in audio
Echoes of Empires
47 episodes indexed · 17 hours
Presented by Nick Holmes
Holmes writes books about the end of the Roman world and the podcast is the argument from them, told in his own voice. Worth knowing before you go looking: it ran as The Fall of the Roman Empire until 2026, so that name now finds a different show by somebody else. He commits to a position and defends it for 47 episodes, which makes it better to argue with than a survey.
Where to start. The fall sequence, in order. Introduction and the Origins of Rome · 15 min
I feel like…
ThinkingAny
Cogitare, how it was thought and ordered
FeelingAny
Sentire, what was lived and endured
DoingAny
Facere, what hands made and did
PeriodAny
when it happens
All 47 episodes, in order. Every title links straight to the episode.
- Introduction and the Origins of Rome15m
- Rome's Path to Glory21m
- Hail Caesar20m
- Augustus21m
- The Pax Romana18m
- The Reign of Commodus20m
- Tacitus and the Secret of the Empire25m
- The Defeat of Palmyra15m
- Diocletian's New Empire18m
- Diocletian's New Economics17m
- Tetrarchs and Christians22m
- Constantine's Conversion18m
- Constantinople17m
- The Sons of Constantine23m
- Theodosius the Not So Great23m
- The Roman Empire Divided24m
- Stilicho Triumphant24m
- The Sack of Rome, AD 41024m
- The Decline of the Roman Army26m
- Was Climate Change Rome's Real Killer?17m
- Restoring the Roman Name?22m
- BONUS Episode "The Strange Tale of Attila, Honoria and Milan""8m
- Attila the Hun23m
- Dinner with Attila22m
- Attila's Bride21m
- Attila and the Last of the Romans21m
- The End of Attila's Empire21m
- The Sack of Rome by the Vandals, AD 45520m
- Majorian: The Last Hope of the West22m
- Catastrophe at Carthage, AD 46821m
- The End of Rome: Not with a Bang but a Whimper22m
- The Rise of the Ostrogoths23m
- Anastasius: The New Diocletian25m
- Justin and Justinian23m
- Justinian, Theodora, and the Secret History23m
- Belisarius and the Battle of Dara25m
- The Problem with Justinian25m
- Next Stop Carthage27m
- The Last Vandal King25m
- The Kingdom of the Ostrogoths22m
- The Gothic Siege of Rome28m
- Belisarius is Back!28m
- Did Justinian Make or Break the Roman Empire?23m
- The Romans' Lucky Break21m
- The Siege of Constantinople in AD 62627m
- The Battle of Yarmuk: Rome's Greatest Defeat?21m
- The Siege of Constantinople in 717/718: Byzantium's Greatest Victory24m