"Where did I ever say such a thing? I never said liberals favored letting the barbarians in, I said they were responsible by allowing the laws to be lax, the barbarians were already on the move, the Vandals, by name..."
Looks to me like you gotta blame the Pope for the deal that opened the gates of Rome. Of course, the Vandals had been being pacified by the emperors for a hundred years...
roman-empire.net
For the fourth time in less than half a century, a barbarian stood at the gates of Rome. Fearing for the safety of Rome, Pope Leo I decided to speak with the leader of the barbarians on the behalf of his city. He was met by King Gaiseric and persuaded him not to burn and slaughter. Gaiseric decided to give certain promises: there would be no killing, no torturing to discover the location of hidden treasure and no destruction of buildings, public or private. On these terms the gates of Rome were wide open to him allowing him to enter teh city with no ressistance. The Vandals plundered for two weeks. While Gaiseric stayed at the Imperial palace, his men took all the treasures, statues, Solomon’s Temple (menorab), even part of the gilded roof of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was removed. Yet his greatest prize were Empress Eudoxia, her two daughters, Eudocia and Placidia, and Gaudentius, the son of Aetius. Everything was carted to Ostia, loaded into the waiting ships, from where he and his men departed in good order and sailed back to their stronghold in North Africa. The people of Rome and its buildings were left unharmed (if indeed this story was true). |
