[Right_Wing_Madman]

Did the often phrased ‘Fall of Rome’ ever truly happen?

476 AD is normally considered the "fall of Rome," when the German barbarian king Odoacer deposed the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire in Italy.

However, a better date for the fall of Rome might be the Gothic Wars in 535-554 when the great city was finally destroyed.

[buwaya]

The western empire had already been through a massive population collapse in the course of the fifth century (the 400’s). Trade, agriculture beyond subsistence, and administration had evaporated across Western Europe.