Civilisations: Rise and Fall - The BBC Series May Have Warning Parallels With Wealth Concentration For Us

28th November 2025

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Many of the parallels drawn in Civilisations: Rise and Fall especially in its "Rome / decline" episode echo strongly with what we see today in the United Kingdom regarding wealth concentration. Analysts are indeed warning those parallels aren't just symbolic and they carry real social risk.

What the Series - and Rome's collapse - highlights, and how that applies to the UK

What the show says about Rome

In the Rome episode, the documentary notes how a vast share of wealth became concentrated in the top 1 % of Roman elites, rather than being distributed more broadly across society. Among many artefacts, the ornate silver "Projecta casket" (AD 350-400) is used as a symbolic illustration of how elite luxury masked a draining of public resources and broader inequality.

Commentators in the series (for example from the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk) argue that extreme inequality of wealth is "the most common and crucial element in societal collapse." They suggest that when wealth—and therefore power and resources—are hoarded by a tiny elite, the rest of society becomes a "brittle shell" vulnerable to shocks (economic, social, military, environmental).

The show draws broader patterns of wealth a spiral-upward, elite ostentation, deep social divisions, and vulnerability to external pressures (e.g. migration, conflict, economic stress).

How that resonates with reality in the UK (and recent data)

Recent analysis shows inequality in the UK has increased sharply between 2011 and 2019, the absolute wealth gap between the richest 10 % and poorest 10 % grew roughly 48 %.

The richest 10% households now own a large chunk of wealth nationally; and the disparity between asset owners and those without meaningful assets has become stark.

More dramatically the top 50 richest families in the UK reportedly hold more wealth than the poorest half of the entire population (tens of millions of people).

This concentration comes largely through property, inheritance, and financial assets — not necessarily through productive economic activity, but often via "rent-seeking," passive appreciation, and profiteering from broader economic and property trends.

There is concern among researchers, civil-society groups and even some academics that this extreme concentration of wealth and assets undermines social cohesion, equality of opportunity, democratic legitimacy — and could constitute a "strategic risk" that threatens long-term stability.

The broad arc of what the series shows for ancient Rome (inequality → elite dominance → fragility) is echoed in UK today, at least in terms of raw structural patterns.

There are also important differences — history isn't a simple repeat

Unlike ancient Rome, the modern UK (and similar democracies) have institutions, welfare states (albeit increasingly strained), some redistributive mechanisms (taxation, benefits, public services) — which historically have acted as buffers against total societal collapse.

Collapse in the ancient sense (invasion, civil war, mass starvation, imperial breakdown) involved many more catastrophic pressures (military collapse, external enemies, sudden shocks). Modern states and even unequal ones rarely break down overnight. The risks in modern times tend to be more gradual - social instability, political distrust, fragmentation, rising poverty — not necessarily empire-wide collapse.

Also, inequality doesn't always equate to collapse. Some wealthy societies manage to remain stable for decades despite high inequality though usually at the cost of social mobility, fairness, solidarity, public trust, and democratic functioning.

What UK analysts are warning about — and what "collapse" might look like in practice

From recent UK research and reports:

The growing inequality already appears to erode social cohesion and a report published earlier this year argued that wealth inequality is a major risk factor for "societal collapse" in the coming decade if unaddressed.

Public confidence in institutions may degrade: in one survey a large share of Britons said that "very rich people have too much influence on politics" — a signal of declining trust in democratic legitimacy when economic inequality overlaps with political power.

The wealth gap and unequal access to assets (property, pensions, investments) restrict social mobility, especially across generations. That can entrench class stratification, erode opportunity, and increase instability in a more subtle long-term sense.

Especially in London and some regions, unequal property wealth and rising housing costs make the contrast sharper — leading to housing insecurity, homelessness, displacement, and disillusionment among younger generations.

So if "collapse" were to happen in UK, it's more likely to be a slow unravelling loss of trust in governance, increasing social fragmentation, economic immobility, political polarization, declining living standards, perhaps periodic crises (housing, welfare, social unrest), rather than a dramatic collapse akin to Rome.

Is collapse inevitable? And what could help avoid it

It's not inevitable because modern states have tools that ancient societies lacked. But absent meaningful reforms or interventions, the structural pressures are growing. What might help avoid a downward spiral.

Policies that reduce extreme inequality: progressive taxation, wealth taxes, better social housing, redistribution mechanisms.

Strengthening public institutions including welfare, healthcare, education, social safety nets so that wealth doesn't equate as directly to security or opportunity as it currently does.

Political and democratic reforms to limit undue influence of wealth on politics (e.g. campaign finance, lobbying, disproportionate media control).

Recognising and addressing systemic risk: inequality is not just a moral issue — many analysts now treat it as a national security risk.

Are the parallels from Rome useful warnings for us in 2025 UK?

Yes very much, if we treat them as warnings rather than deterministic predictions. The concentration of wealth and power in very few hands, along with the erosion of broad-based prosperity, creates structural fragility.

The same patterns that undermined empires in the past may not lead to a single cataclysmic "fall," but they can very plausibly produce a gradual weakening of societal resilience leading to recurring crises — economic, political, social — and diminished quality of life for many.

Watch the series on the iplayer
Civilisations: Rise and Fall

Read about the series

An Article in The Guardian
www.kelvinprobe.com

Does BBC Civilisations get its four stories of collapse correct? Experts weigh in

In four episodes, the BBC's Civilisations series tells the story of the fall of the Romans, Aztecs, Egypt's Ptolemies and Japan's Edo Samurais. The show tells these stories through a combination of recreated dramatic scenes, explanation from experts and discussions of objects from the British Museum. Here, four experts in each period have reviewed the episodes and shared their recommendations for further reading.

The Collapse of the Roman Empire
The canonical date of the fall of the Western Roman Empire is 476, when the general Odoacer deposed the last emperor, Romulus Augustulus - a child who had been on the throne for less than a year. I teach my students that this relatively muted event was probably not noticed by many ordinary people at the time, as very little likely immediately changed in their daily lives.

Instead, the much more dramatic events of 410 were the real collapse moment of the ancient world: the metropolis of Rome, the capital of the empire, was sacked by King Alaric and his Gothic army. As one of the expert contributors to this episode puts it, you would remember where you were when the news reached you.

The episode's key achievement is to depict the way that Roman mistreatment of the Goths - a Germanic-speaking people many of whom fled war with Huns into the Roman Empire - effectively threatened their survival and backed them into a corner. While historians have long discussed these realities, it's refreshing to see this message presented in such a compelling and humane way to the wider public. The contemporary resonances are obvious, and while history cannot provide us with answers, it can give us food for thought.

Further reading To learn more about the end of the Western Roman Empire, I would recommend starting with the very readable and provocative introduction by Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization. It looks at the very real changes that ordinary people would have experienced as a centuries-old empire fell apart.

Tim Penn is Lecturer in Roman and Late Antique Material Culture at University of Reading

The Last Days of the Ptolemies in Egypt
Neither the gradual decline nor the final fall of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt in 30 BC is accurately realised in this episode. It presents a simplistic narrative riddled with factual inaccuracies. It also features inadvertent misreadings or deliberate misrepresentations that play fast and loose with the historical chronology of the reign of Cleopatra VII, and the significant historical figures that were part of it.

Such inaccuracy is not helped by the fact that, with the exception of two contributors, no one participating is actually an expert on this specific period of ancient Egyptian history. One prominent figure is not even an historian or archaeologist at all.

Most of the artefacts that are incorporated in an attempt to provide insight don't date to this period of Egyptian history, and lead the narrative off in irrelevant directions. It's not clear who the intended audience is, nor what they are expected to take away from this, beyond appreciation for the sumptuous dramatisation that unfolds in the background. There was potential here, such as the contribution of climate change and the wider geopolitical context, that was unfortunately squandered.

Further reading

If you want to read about Cleopatra's reign specifically, then Duane W. Roller's Cleopatra: A Biography is good. For the Ptolemaic dynasty more broadly, from start to end, I'd recommend Lloyd Llewelyn-Jones's The Cleopatras: The Forgotten Queens of Egypt.

Jane Draycott is Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Glasgow

The Collapse of the Aztec Empire

The episode on the Aztecs focuses on the Aztec emperor Moctezuma in the 15th century. It offers a refreshing shift from the Eurocentric narrative that often paints him as indecisive while glorifying his nemesis, the conquistador Hernán Cortes. Here, the roles are reversed: Cortes's ambition and brutality are exposed, while Moctezuma appears as a thoughtful and capable leader. Their confrontation feels less like a simple conquest and more like a high-stakes chess match - Moctezuma had Cortes in check until one audacious move changed history.

If you're looking for a comprehensive account of the Aztec collapse, this episode won't deliver that. Experts such as Matthew Restall, known for challenging colonial myths, are used sparingly, and the story remains selective. Key events are skipped, and contradictory sources are left out. All of this is inevitable in a single-episode format.

What it does offer is a visually stunning, well narrated introduction to imperial collapse, framed through iconic artefacts that bring the past to life.

Further reading

To learn more about the fall of the Aztecs, read The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, Volume 4 by Bernal Díaz del Castillo - a Spaniard who served under Cortes during conquest of the Aztec Empire. There are many translations but the first edition of the text, edited by Mexican historian Genaro García and translated by Alfred Percival Maudslay, is my pick.

Jay Silverstein is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry and Forensics at Nottingham Trent University

The End of the Samurai in Japan

This episode deals with the military encounter between the American "black ships" (kurofune 黒船) under naval commodore Matthew Perry and the Tokugawa shogunate 徳川幕府 between 1852 and 1855. The interviewed historians are certainly familiar with the event, yet the conceptual framing is not quite right.

"Traditional Japan" is introduced as an unchanging and isolated place. In reality, Japan had lived in close economic and cultural symbiosis with continental East Asia since at least the rise of Buddhism in the 6th century.

A 1637 proclamation, known as sakoku, by the Tokugawa shogunate did make Japan a hostile place for Christians and foreigners. However, the Protestant Dutch, arch-enemies of their former Spanish overlords, were granted the right to send annual expeditions. These became the basis for Japan's "Dutch studies" (rangaku 蘭學), an exchange of scientific knowledge which is ignored by the programme. Meanwhile, contact with China and Korea continued, albeit under stricter regulations.

The documentary dwells on the image of a powerful and conservative samurai class without alluding to the social transformations which had eroded its influence. The capital Edo was not only the largest city on earth, but a veritable engine of urbanisation and commercialisation.

This documentary is still a pleasure to watch, but the premise that Perry's western gunboats led to the "fall" of Japanese civilisation is erroneous.

Further reading If you want to know more about the political and social turmoil that led to the end of the samurais and the Tokugawa shogunate, I recommend The Emergence of Meiji Japan by Marius B. Jansen.

Lars Laamann is Senior Lecturer in the History of China At Soas, University of London

Authors
Jay Silverstein
Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry and Forensics, Nottingham Trent University
Jane Draycott
Lecturer, Classics, University of Glasgow
Lars Laamann Lars Laamann is a Friend of The Conversation.
Lecturer on the History of China, SOAS, University of London
Tim Penn
Lecturer in Roman and Late Antique Material Culture, University of Reading

Note
This article Does BBC Civilisations get its four stories of collapse correct is from The Conversation web site. To read it with links to more information go HERE