barbarians that were with him, in 410, "took Rome itself, which they pillaged, burning the greatest part of the magnificent structures and other admirable works of art it contained" (Socrates, "E. H." v. 10). In 417 Honorius again entered Rome in triumph, and endeavoured to restore the city, and invited fugitives from all parts to people it. This benefactor of the city was buried near the supposed remains of S. Peter in the Vatican basilica. In 425 Valentinian III., whilst still a boy, received the imperial purple in the ancient Palace of the Cæsars, at the hands of an ambassador of Theodosius; and, although Ravenna was the seat of his government, he frequently visited Rome and inhabited the imperial palace. During one of these visits, in 454, Aetius, the general, fell in the imperial palace, stabbed by the hand of the licentious emperor, who drew his sword for the first time to kill the general who had saved his empire. In the following year, March 27, he was himself assassinated in the Campus Martius during a review; and Petronius Maximus was declared emperor, but was in his turn soon after murdered. The third day thereafter, Genseric and his Vandals entered Rome, and plundered it of everything they could carry off, from the seven-branched candlestick to the common utensils of Cæsar's Palace, which they completely stripped. Avitus, a Gaul, the successor of Petronius, visited Rome for a short time, and was murdered on his return to Auvergne. After the throne had been vacant for ten months, Majorianus was made emperor by Ricimer, 457. He published an edict from Ravenna against destroying the ancient monuments of Rome and using the materials for building. Severus Libius was his successor, and he was poisoned within the walls of the Palatine, August 465. Anthemius entered Rome in a triumphal procession in April 467, and revived the Lupercalia games; he was put to death in the palace by Ricimer, who captured Rome, July 11, 472. From 472 to 476 there were four emperors, the last of whom, Romulus Augustus, abdicated in presence of the senate, who proclaimed the extinction of the Western Empire. [Illustration: ARCH OF TITUS, BEFORE RECENT EXCAVATIONS.]