CCS Research Seminar 4 - Public Lecture presented in association with the Friends of the ANU Classics Museum 

During the two millennia that the Roman state lasted nearly everything changed. Rome began as an Italian city state in which people spoke Latin and worshiped pagan gods and evolved into an empire centered in Constantinople and dominated by Greek speaking Christians. This lecture explains how Rome could so completely transform itself while never losing the connection that bound its current citizens to their political ancestors. It explains why Rome endured three moments when the state might have failed – the beginning of the Roman Republic in 509 BC, Augustus's creation of the empire after 30 BC, and the usurpation of Odoacer in 476 AD that has traditionally been considered the fall of the Roman Empire–  were transformations not ruptures, in much the same way that the Magna Carta transformed but did not end the English state. It then concludes by narrating how the fourth Crusade and the capture of Constantinople in 1204 A.D. killed the Roman state by destroying the institutions on which its continuity depended. This will show both what it takes to make a state last and the danger of disrupting the institutions that guarantee its survival.

Speaker:
Professor Edward Watts is Distinguished Professor and Alkiviadis Vassiliadis Endowed Chair in Byzantine Greek History at the University of California, San Diego. Educated at Brown University and Yale University, he is the author of seven books, including most recently, The Romans: A 2000-Year History, published by Basic Books in 2025.