The Fall of the West

In 376 Goths fleeing the Huns were let into the empire. Two years later they killed the emperor at Adrianople.

Over the next century Goths, Vandals, Franks and others carved out kingdoms. Rome itself was sacked in 410 and 455, and the loss of Africa in 439 cut off the west's richest taxes.

In 476 a Germanic general deposed the last western emperor. The east, richer and better defended, lived on as the Byzantine Empire.