There's a standard date and there are a variety of other dates. Lately, every time I pick up a book on the Roman Empire and Late Antiquity, I find a different date. You're welcome to add your own pros and cons for other dates to the comments section here, but first, take a look at my list of 10 dates, their pros and cons: Dates for the Fall of Rome: Pros and Cons.
This is the second in my series on the rise of kingdoms in the Roman Empire. The first was: Ancient History: From Prehistory to the Early Middle Ages.
Picture of Alaric sacking Rome courtesy of Wikipedia.
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Comments
The date of the last vestiges is not clear. That is the main issue here.
I believe 476 AD is the correct date. The Roman Empire, even with its multicultural and linguistic diversity, was in essence Roman…Italian at its core. The Eastern “Roman” empire was also multicultural, but in essence Greek, not Roman in the classical definition of the word. Once Rome fell in 476 AD, it marked the end of the classical era of the Empire. Furthermore, to say that 1453 was the end of the Roman Empire because of the Fall of Constantinople is ludicrous. The significance of 1453 is a clear delineation for the end of the Middle Ages…not the Roman Empire.
I believe 476 AD is the correct date. The Roman Empire, even with its multicultural and linguistic diversity, was in essence Roman…Italian at its core. The Eastern “Roman” empire was also multicultural, but in essence Greek not Roman. Once Rome fell in 476 AD, it marked the end of the classical definition of the Empire. Furthermore, for some to argue that 1453 was the end of the Roman Empire because of the Fall of Constantinople is ludicrous. The significance of 1453 is a clear delineation for the end of the Middle Ages…not the Roman Empire.
There is one more problem with Rome and the date it truely fell and that is the culture and feeling of people at the time did not really feel nationalistic as we do today. Their mindset was on the local, their tribe, their family, their village or city. As a result, since they hardly thought on the principle of the whole, it was easy to fragment, and keep fragmenting, what we call the Roman Empire today. If we were to go back in history as travellers, I am sure that it would be an exception to find some person, other than an imported official, who would have given a hoot about what happened 100 miles in any direction.