The Gothic Storm

## The Fall of Paradise On a sweltering August night in 410 CE, the unthinkable happened. For the first time in nearly 800 years, the Eternal City fell to a foreign enemy. Through the Salarian Gate, warriors of the Visigothic army poured into Rome like a torrent of destruction unleashed. Their leader, Alaric I, had achieved what generations of Rome's enemies could only dream of – breaching the walls of the capital itself. The sound of Gothic war horns echoed through streets that had once hosted triumphal parades. Wealthy senators barricaded themselves in their villas while common citizens fled to churches, desperately hoping Christian sanctuaries would protect them from the Gothic warriors who were nominally Christian themselves. The night sky glowed orange as fires broke out across the city's seven hills. In her luxurious villa on the Caelian Hill, the noblewoman Anicia Faltonia Proba watched in horror as looters ransacked neighboring homes. She had lived through food shortages and...