400 CE: SACKING of ROME by ALARIC, King of the Visigoths

King of the Visigoths

Some historians mark the beginning of the Middle Ages, a.k.a. The Dark Ages, with this 400 CE point. Others demarcate the commencement of the Middle Ages with the deposing of Romulus Augustus as Emperor of Rome (76 years later) in 476 CE, which marked the end of the Western Roman Empire, the “fall of Ancient Rome.”