In 410 CE, for the first time in 800 years, the city of Rome fell to a foreign invader. The Visigoths, led by King Alaric, breached the walls and spent three days looting the city. While the Goths were relatively restrained—sparing many churches because they were Christians themselves—the psychological impact on the Mediterranean world was devastating. St. Jerome famously wrote, 'The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken.' The sack was not the final fall of the Western Roman Empire (which would happen in 476 CE), but it was a clear signal that the Roman order was collapsing. It prompted St. Augustine to write 'The City of God' to defend Christianity against claims that the Roman gods had abandoned the city because it had turned to the Christian faith. The event marked the beginning of the end of classical antiquity and the transition into the Early Middle Ages.