Images of weakness and the fall of Rome – an analysis of reputation management’s impact on political history

It will be argued that PR may constitute an interpretative tool when exploring the causes of and reasons for what Peter Heather calls the most dramatic event in ancient history: the decline and ultimate collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476. The appearance of the Goths at the Danubian border leading to the devastating defeat of the imperial army at Adrianople in 378 was the most visible incident in a chain of events that within a century led to the forced abdication of the last West Roman emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476. This article does not give a detailed and chronological account of events that have been related by historians of antiquity. Instead, it presents the concept of reputation and critiques both its political significance and its potential to offer an alternative answer to the question of why Rome fell