History Re-Summarized: The Roman Empire

The plot twist of Rome is that it was always a mess, now sit back and enjoy the marble-covered mayhem.

SOURCES & Further Reading:
Books – "The Roman Way" By Edith Hamilton, "Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants" By Garrett Ryan, "The Classical World" by Robin Lane Fox, "Rome A History in Seven Sackings" by Matthew Kneale, "SPQR" by Mary Beard, "The Enemies of Rome" by Stephen Kershaw.
Great Courses Lectures – "The Pax Romana", "Rome's Golden and Silver Ages", "Late Antiquity - Crisis and Response", "Barbarians and Emperors" from "Foundations of Western Civilization" by Thomas F.X. Noble, lectures "From Commodus to Caracalla", "The Crisis of the Third Century" and "Diocletian and Late Third-Century Reforms" from "The Roman Empire: From Augustus to The Fall of Rome" by Gregory Aldrete.
University Credentials – I have a Bachelor's Degree in Classical Studies.

Extra special thanks to our Discord community members who looked over my initial draft and provided invaluable assistance & insights: Catia, Chehrazad, Chrisps989, Jacob, and Jonny. Any remaining errors are my B.

This video is a Remastered, Definitive Edition of three previous videos from this channel — "History Summarized: The Roman Empire", "History Hijinks: Rome's Crisis of the Third Century", and "History Summarized: The Fall of Rome". This video combines them all into one narrative, fully upgrading all of the visuals and audio, with a substantially re-written script in parts 1 and 3.
If you want more Histories to be Re-Summarized, please comment and let me know!

TIMECODES:
0:00 1 – The Empire
10:44 2 – The Crisis of the Third Century
21:32 3 – The Fall

Our content is intended for teenage audiences and up.

[LeviathanNightDragon]

Only Blue can be so bold as to compare the beauty of his wife to a road. What a guy.

[luigiboi]

I’m personally *TERRIFIED* of what the Roman Construction Crew could accomplish with modern-day architectural studies. They definitely were rabid when they encountered a building project.

[black_]

Death: "time to go."

Rome: "wait, I have 1 more thing to do."

Death: "okay, just hurry."

[several decades later]

Death: "wait, how did you recover?"

Rome: "I have no idea."

[bradyweed]

So basically, Rome was an ever-changing Ship of Theseus and historians, not knowing exactly when Rome ceased to be a different Rome, just pointed to when the ship had been burned and said of the pile of ashes, “Well, THAT’s definitely not Rome”.

[billywarren]

Rome wasn’t made in a day, but this video will definitely make mine 😁

[OhMightyWeirdOne]

The man's love for his wife is only overshadowed by his love for Mediterranean history.😂
Excellent video!

[kaybadberg]

Blue calling the Roman Road map the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen, even above CYAN is really saying something.

[cocalicoman]

So sad you glossed over Antoninus Pius. Dude basically ruled over 20+ years of peace, which in the Roman Empire was basically like finding an actual unicorn

[TheTrainmobile]

It's really interesting how most empires don't really collapse immediately but rather fade into the background as new political entities are forged on the map.

[anothisflame]

"The Fall was always there... But so was Rome!"

Man that is a solid final line wow.

[Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

Ah yes, the Roman Empire. The indisputable goldmine of Prequel memes which, while comedic, also have a spice of historical relevancy. You gotta love it.

[maxteraform]

Finally, the video we were waiting for. Blue gave us the beginning, then we got the fall, we got the sequel, and we got the legacy. And now, it is piled into one video. Perfect

[hyhena-gaming]

He literally even gave his wife a color instead of a name, this channels dedication to colors is astounding

[rashkavar]

I love Diocletian's story. He takes most of a century of Rome absolutely disintegrating, comes up with a more or less functional solution, and then just goes... "And that's done. Next guy can be Emperor now, I did my bit!" Truly an example of the rare supreme ruler who wasn't obsessed with personal power.

[shivangshandilya]

"The beautiful city of Rome is great to visit year around because you can see all the seasons - winter, spring, summer, FALL - OH NO!!" 🤣🤣
Blue you're awesome. I'll not be able to forget this bit for the next few weeks.

[alexgroot]

21:09 "What's impressive are the moments when Rome stares into the pale face of death and tells him to wait his god damn turn." Absolute banger of a line man.

[willfrommel]

"This road map is one of the single most beautiful sites I've ever laid eyes on, and my wife Cyan is really pretty!"

Love that, one of my favorite OSP quotes now.

[SpaceMonkey]

Friendly reminder that Caligula also reportedly had his men WHIP THE LITERAL SEA to get back at Neptune for the weather conditions not being conducive for sailing to Britain to conquer it. AKA, he had a legit hissy fit against the god of the ocean.

[templarw]

Said it many times. Rome, when you get down to it, was a cultural identity that lasted for two freaking thousand years (from Kingdom to Republic, to Empire, to the Byzantines...). That's a good run. And I remember noting when John Paul II died, the succession of popes in the Roman Catholic Church was originally codified by the Roman Senate, and is largely still adhered to.

[happenstancially]

I’m always amazed at how liquid borders were through history, and how concrete they generally are now.