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Professor of medieval history and acclaimed author of Fall of the Roman Empire Peter Heather tells the story of three great pretenders who attempted to revive the Roman Empire in Western Europe, Theoderic, Justinian and Charlemagne. He also shows how their successors failed to uphold the imperial dream, proof that a Roman empire of the old kind, created by conquest, was not possible in the Middle Ages. Instead, Heather shows how churchmen from the barbarian north reinvented the papacy and restored imperial power that has lasted more than 1,000 years.

Heather is professor of medieval history at King’s College London. He is author of the bestselling Fall of the Roman Empire and Empires and Barbarians.
This event is part of the festival’s Italian Day.