True History - Veritas Card # 32 (Green Card) - End of the Western Roman Empire

End of the Western Roman Empire - 476 A.D.

    The Roman Empire had become a very strong, powerful empire. It had control over much of the known world at that time. Barbarians were people who were not of the powerful kingdoms of Greece, Persia, or Rome. Some of the groups of the Barbarians were the Visigoths, Huns, and the Vandals (possibly where the word for 'vandalism' comes from?). The emperors who came after Constantine were rather weak, and this lent itself to the demise of the Roman Empire due to the continual attacking of the Barbarians.
    The fall of the Roman Empire came about from the breaking up of the empire into separate countries. The Vandals invaded Rome in 455. The last emperor of the West was Romulus Augustulus, and in 476, a German captain declared himself as King of Italy. Now the Western part of the Roman Empire was no longer in power. It was gone forever. But the influence of this empire will always be with us.