Lecture Access

This lecture will be available to view until 6 April 2026

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OVERVIEW

Watch on Demand | Online Lecture


At its peak, the Roman Empire controlled nearly a quarter of the world’s population,extending from North Africa’s Atlantic coast to Persia, from Anatolia to Britannia’s northern frontiers. 

This extensive and intricate empire thrived on military strength, innovative administration, economic unity, and a shared political culture that lasted for centuries.

However, by late antiquity, Rome itself had changed significantly. Once a city of over a million people, its population declined sharply, and imperial authority broke apart across the western provinces. Instead of a sudden collapse, the fall of Roman rule in the West occurred gradually and unevenly, differing by region and period.

In this second lecture of the Fall of Civilisations series, Dr Eireann Marshall explores the complexity of Rome’s transformation, separating myth from evidence. The lecture considers how and why Roman systems faltered, what replaced them, and why the fall of Rome remains one of the most influential and contested developments in the ancient world.

LECTURER

Biography

Eireann is an Honorary Research Associate and Associate Lecturer with The Open University. Raised in the Veneto and educated at Barnard College, Columbia University, and the Universities of Birmingham and Exeter, she brings a rich international perspective to classical civilisation. With extensive experience as a lecturer and tour leader across Italy, Tunisia, Sicily and beyond including Venice, Pompeii and Ravenna – Eireann is bilingual in English and Italian, and combines scholarly rigour with engaging storytelling. Her lectures for Academy Travel invite listeners to explore the ancient world not just as history but as a living dialogue between past and present – bringing monuments, art and ideas vividly to life.

Dr Eireann Marshall

Classicist & Historian