In July 390 B.C. it was devastated by fire. Up to 120 B.C. it was subject to numerous raids by the Northerners, who, with the help of civil war, and a devouring fire in 50 B.C., caused the destruction of several of its most splendid buildings. In 64 A.D., during the reign of Nero, a terrible fire ravaged the city for six days; and again in 89 A.D. another fire took place, lasting three days. In the reign of Commodus a third fire occurred, which consumed a large portion of the city. In 330 A.D. Constantine took from Rome a number of monuments and works of art to embellish Constantinople. From 408 to 410 A.D. Rome was three times besieged by the Goths, under Alaric, who plundered and fired the city; and in 455 A.D. the Vandals took possession of Rome and plundered it. On June the 11th, 472 A.D., the city was captured by the Germans, under Ricimer, and in 476 A.D. the Roman Empire was broken up. About 590 A.D. continual wars with the Lombardians devastated the Campagna. In 607 A.D. the Bishop of Rome was made Pope. In 755 A.D. the Lombards again desolated Rome; and up to 950 A.D. it was held successively by the Emperor Louis II., Lambert Duke of Spoleto, the Saracens, the German king Armilph, and the Hungarians. In 1083 it was taken by Henry IV. of Germany; and in 1084 it was burned, from the Lateran to the Capitol, by Robert Guiscard. From the eleventh to the sixteenth century many of its buildings were turned into fortresses by the nobles, who made continual war upon each other; and during the "dark ages" the Romans themselves destroyed many monuments, in order to make lime for building their new palaces and houses. Thus we see that when, in 55 B.C., Julius Cæsar, with his "_Veni, vidi, vici_," conquered the little island now called Great Britain, Rome contained in ruins many evidences of past splendour, and whilst the Romans were overrunning the rest of Europe, their empire was hastening to decay. We, the savages of those days, have ever since been growing in strength and wisdom, laying the foundations of future empires, overturning others, but not with the idea of "universal conquest," but simply for a "balance of power." Ancient Rome, by the help of invaders, flood, fire, the Popes, and its inhabitants, was reduced to ruins, which have been in considerable part preserved by an immense accumulation of soil, which, again, caused them to be forgotten till recent explorations once more brought them to light.