Barbarian peoples—Swabians, Vandals, Alans, Visigoths ... culminating in the Goth invasion of Italy and the sack of Rome in 410. As Gothic hordes looted the capital that year, the Huns were ...

Soon after Valentinian was himself murdered, but his successor proved incapable of ruling, and was torn to pieces by the citizens as he fled Rome on the eve of the Vandal sack of 455. In contrast, in ...

Pope St. Leo the Great famously rode out to meet the warlord Atilla the Hun and convince him not to sack Rome. Later, Leo negotiated with the Vandals to spare the lives of Roman citizens when the ...