Capture and plunder of Rome by Vandals in 455 CE
Rome! Eternal City! The capital of the world empire and its heart even when Rome was not officially the seat of Roman emperors. Over a thousand-year history of the Roman state, i.e. from 753 BCE (the legendary year of the foundation of the city by Romulus) to 476 CE (the year considered the fall of the Western Roman Empire), the Eternal City was captured and plundered by barbarians three times.