<Li> Catalaunian Plains (Chalons) </Li> <Li> Rome (455) </Li> <P> The Sack of Rome occurred on August 24, 410 . The city was attacked by the Visigoths led by King Alaric . At that time, Rome was no longer the capital of the Western Roman Empire, having been replaced in that position first by Mediolanum in 286 and then by Ravenna in 402 . Nevertheless, the city of Rome retained a paramount position as "the eternal city" and a spiritual center of the Empire . The sack was a major shock to contemporaries, friends and foes of the Empire alike . </P> <P> This was the first time in almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy . The previous sack of Rome had been accomplished by the Gauls under their leader Brennus in 390 or 387 / 6 BC . The sacking of 410 is seen as a major landmark in the 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 ." </P>

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