<P> Diocletian undertook what was to be the most severe and last major persecution of Christians, lasting from 303 to 311 . Christianity had become too widespread to suppress, and in 313, the Edict of Milan made tolerance the official policy . Constantine I (sole ruler 324--337) became the first Christian emperor, and in 380 Theodosius I established Christianity as the official religion . </P> <P> Under Theodosius, visits to the pagan temples were forbidden, the eternal fire in the Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum extinguished, the Vestal Virgins disbanded, auspices and witchcrafting punished . Theodosius refused to restore the Altar of Victory in the Senate House, as asked by remaining pagan Senators . </P> <P> The Empire's conversion to Christianity made the Bishop of Rome (later called the Pope) the senior religious figure in the Western Empire, as officially stated in 380 by the Edict of Thessalonica . In spite of its increasingly marginal role in the Empire, Rome retained its historic prestige, and this period saw the last wave of construction activity: Constantine's predecessor Maxentius built buildings such as its basilica in the Forum, Constantine himself erected the Arch of Constantine to celebrate his victory over the former, and Diocletian built the greatest baths of all . Constantine was also the first patron of official Christian buildings in the city . He donated the Lateran Palace to the Pope, and built the first great basilica, the old St. Peter's Basilica . </P> <P> Still Rome remained one of the strongholds of Paganism, led by the aristocrats and senators . However, the new walls did not stop the city being sacked first by Alaric on 24 August, 410, by Geiseric in 455 and even by general Ricimer's unpaid Roman troops (largely composed of barbarians) on 11 July, 472 . This was the first time in almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to an enemy . The previous sack of Rome had been accomplished by the Gauls under their leader Brennus in 387 BC . The sacking of 410 is seen as a major landmark in the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire . St. Jerome, living in Bethlehem at the time, wrote that "The City which had taken the whole world was itself taken ." These sackings of the city astonished all the Roman world . In any case, the damage caused by the sackings may have been overestimated . The population already started to decline from the late 4th century onward, although around the middle of the fifth century it seems that Rome continued to be the most populous city of the two parts of the Empire, with a population of not less than 650,000 inhabitants . The decline greatly accelerated following the capture of Africa Proconsularis by the Vandals . Many inhabitants now fled as the city no longer could be supplied with grain from Africa from the mid-5th century onward . </P>

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