Echoes of Empires

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• Echoes of Empires: New Name, Same Show! 04.07.2026 1分

  The Fall of the Roman Empire podcast is now called Echoes of Empires. Why change the name? Well, as you know, this podcast has already moved beyond the fall of Rome to cover a broader range of historical topics. In the last few episodes, we’ve covered Charlemagne, the Arab Caliphates, the Vikings and Byzantium. And going forward I want to cover a host of new subjects including the Crusades, Medieval Europe, the Seljuk Turks, Saladin, Genghis Khan and much more! And I’m going to begin with the...
• Episode 131: The First Crusade: A New Hero in Byzantium 04.07.2026 26分

  Welcome to Echoes of Empires, my new podcast which is the successor to the Fall of the Roman Empire. In this episode, I want to look at the First Crusade. This crusade was quite different from all the others. Not only did it establish and define the entire crusading movement, but it was also probably the largest military expedition put together in Europe since the days of the Roman Empire. Over 100,000 people, a large proportion of whom were knights and foot soldiers, marched east to gi...
• BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: The Inheritors of Rome 21.06.2026 2分

  I wanted to let you know that my latest book, The Inheritors of Rome, is now available in both paperback and ebook on Amazon and will be available through most major book retailers soon. Click here for the Amazon link. Why did I write the book? I wanted to close my series on the fall of the Roman Empire with an examination of what happened after the fall. I look at a period often called the Dark Ages. And yes, I think they were dark for many people. But they were also the birthplace for not j...
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 130 "The Rise and Fall of Byzantium" 14.02.2026 30分

  In the century from 860 to 960 Byzantium was reborn as the greatest power in western Eurasia. Its armies were invincible, spearheaded by regiments of heavy cavalry which terrified its opponents. In this episode, I want to look at how Byzantium achieved this and why, in my view, in its hour of triumph, it lay the foundations for its fall in the eleventh century. For a free ebook, maps and blogs check out my website nickholmesauthor.com
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 129 "Byzantium: The Slow Road to Recovery" 31.01.2026 25分

  In today’s episode, I’d like to switch from the Abbasid Caliphate to the Byzantine Empire. The fortunes of both were of course connected and the Caliphate’s decline during the ninth century created an opportunity for Byzantium. But it wasn’t an easy path for the Byzantines and there were some serious setbacks in the first half of the ninth-century. Nevertheless, ultimately Byzantium would emerge once again as the strongest power in western Eurasia, which was a truly remarkable achievement. Fo...
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 128 "The Abbasids: Golden Age or Age of Collapse?" 17.01.2026 25分

  Many historians call the Abbasid caliphate ‘the Golden Age of Islam’ but in this episode I want to analyse the contradiction in this description since, at a time when Islam underwent an undisputed cultural flowering, it also collapsed politically. For a free ebook, maps and blogs check out my website nickholmesauthor.com
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 127 "The Rise and Fall of the Umayyads" 03.01.2026 24分

  First, let me wish you a Happy New Year and I hope you had a good break if you took time off. This episode tells the story of one of the greatest empires in history – the Umayyad Caliphate. Its territories stretched from Samarkand to the Atlantic. Like the Roman Empire, it straddled three continents – Asia, Europe and Africa. But appearances can be deceptive, and to most contemporaries the Umayyad Caliphate seemed much more fragile than it does to us today with the benefit of 1,400 years of h...
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 126 "Eirene: The Monstrous Empress of Byzantium?" 20.12.2025 24分

  In this episode, we’ll hear about one of the most chilling rulers of Byzantium – the empress Eirene. She was Byzantium’s only empress to take on the reins of government in a sole capacity. Her reign is controversial because she took sole power only after she’d killed the reigning emperor by gouging out his eyes. And the emperor in question was her own son. Even by the shocking standards of the Dark Ages, this stands out as pretty extreme parenting. And yet despite that, today she is a saint i...
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 125 "The Forgotten Heroes of Byzantium" 06.12.2025 24分

  In the first half of the eighth century, Byzantium stemmed the Arab advance into Europe. Critical to this achievement were two emperors: Leo III and Constantine V. In this episode, I explain why I think these two men were heroes of the Dark Ages who changed history. And their lack of visibility is explained by a conspiracy against them which echoes the cancel culture of our own times. For a free ebook, maps and blogs check out my website nickholmesauthor.com
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 124 "Byzantium: The Empire That Refused To Die" 22.11.2025 21分

  In this episode we turn east to consider Byzantium. We last spoke about the eastern Romans, or the Byzantines, in episode 113 when I described the emperor Leo III’s victory in the winter of 717/718 over an immense Umayyad army and navy intent on taking Constantinople. This was a pivotal moment in history. Few people at the time would have expected Byzantium to survive. But it did. And the Umayyad Caliphate’s advance into Europe was blocked. But before we move on to the rest of Leo’s rei...
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 123 "The Holy Roman Empire" 08.11.2025 26分

  The final political legacy of the Roman Empire in western Europe was the Holy Roman Empire. Amazingly, this curious political institution lasted until Napoleon abolished it in 1806. In the eighteenth century, the French political philosopher Voltaire famously described it as neither Holy nor Roman nor an Empire. He may have been right in his own age, but it was originally born with the dream of restoring Charlemagne's empire, itself a restoration of the once mighty Roman Empire. It was ...
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 122 "The Vikings" 25.10.2025 25分

  The Vikings transformed European history, impacted the worlds of both Byzantium and the Abbasid Caliphate, and even, some 500 years before Christopher Columbus, discovered North America. In this episode, I want to look at how and why the Viking diaspora first began, before moving to their initial impact on the world outside Scandinavia, especially on the Carolingians and the establishment of the Viking-Frankish state of Normandy. For a free ebook, maps and blogs check out my website nic...
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 121 "The Fall of the Frankish Empire" 11.10.2025 25分

  Charlemagne created the largest empire in western Europe since the Romans. But it didn’t last. Within only a few decades of his death, it had broken up and one half of it was fighting for its survival against a new and terrifying enemy from the north: the Vikings. In this episode, I want to ask why did that happen? For a free ebook, maps and blogs check out my website nickholmesauthor.com
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 120 "Charlemagne's Empire" 27.09.2025 24分

  In this and the next episode, I want to look beyond the legend of Charlemagne to find the real man and his achievements and failings. His legend has made him into a symbol of power and authority as well as a figurehead for the cause of European integration. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that after his death, his empire quickly broke up and his accomplishments were shown to be hollow. So, what is the truth about him? Let’s find out. For a free ebook, maps and blogs check out my website nickhol...
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 119 "The Rise of the Carolingians" 13.09.2025 25分

  In this episode, we explore how the Carolingians rose to become the dynasty that would claim to be the inheritors of Rome. For a free ebook, maps and blogs check out my website nickholmesauthor.com
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 118 "The Battle of Tours, AD 732" 30.08.2025 24分

  In this episode, I’m going to focus on one of the most famous battles in history: the battle of Tours, or Poitiers as it’s sometimes called, in 732. It’s famous because some historians think it stopped the Arabs from conquering Europe. But others think its significance has been exaggerated and, even if the Arabs had won, they did not intend to conquer Europe. So, in this episode let’s try to find out what really happened. For a free ebook, maps and blogs check out my website nickholmesauthor....
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 117 "The Slow Death of the Merovingians" 16.08.2025 23分

  In modern France, the Frankish king, Clovis, is often celebrated as the first French king. But Clovis’ Merovingian dynasty was in fact destined to fade and die. In its place, there arose a new dynasty that would become more famous: the Carolingian. But before we say goodbye to the Merovingians, I want in today’s podcast to ask the question why did they die out and why was it such a slow death? For a free ebook, maps and blogs check out my website nickholmesauthor.com
• BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT - 'The End of Antiquity' Book 5 in The Fall of the Roman Empire 11.08.2025 2分

  I wanted to let you know that my latest book, The End of Antiquity, is now available in both paperback and ebook on Amazon and will be available through most major book retailers soon. It explores the final days of the Roman and Persian empires, and how they were ultimately overwhelmed by the rise of Islam in the seventh century AD. It covers the warfare, politics, and religious upheaval of the time, but also introduces a compelling new angle: climate change. Drawing on the latest scientific ...
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 116 "Clovis, King of the Franks" 02.08.2025 26分

  By the year AD 719, the Arab/Berber army had conquered Iberia and was invading Gaul or what is modern France. They seemed unstoppable. Would western Europe fall to Islam? And would the Qu’ran be taught in the schools of Oxford, as Edward Gibbon rather mischievously speculated. Of course, Gibbon knew the outcome. The Arab advance into France came to a shuddering halt at the battle of Poitiers, or Tours as it’s sometimes called, in 732 when Charles Martel, or Charles the Hammer, would inflict t...
• The Fall of the Roman Empire Episode 115 "Arabs and Visigoths" 19.07.2025 26分

  So, we’re starting the final season in this podcast which is on the Dark Ages. But just how dark were they? One of the main themes of this new season will be to show the striking diversity of experience within western Eurasia and North Africa during the period from AD 700 to 1000 since, while the Dark Ages were, in my view, very dark for most of Europe, outside Europe, in the Middle East and North Africa, the period after the fall of the Roman Empire wasn’t necessarily that dark. The Dark Age...