SEPT. 27:  BARBARIAN SETTLEMENT.  GOTH AND VANDAL KINGDOMS.

Map:  The Roman World in 500 AD                In 600 AD

A page from the Gothic Bible of Wulfila

Check out this website devoted to the Gothic Bible.

Isidore of Seville (Spain, c.600):

Crown of the Visigothic King Recceswinth (649-672)

Ravenna, capital of the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy:

The Mausoleum of Theodoric the Great

Mosaic from the Arian Baptistery

Mosaic in Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, depicting facade of Theodoric's palace.    After the Byzantine conquest, Theodoric and friends are erased from the picture, but if you look carefully at the columns, you can see a couple of hands they left behind!

Helm of the Lombard King Agilulf (Italy, 590-616).  Despite the "barbaric" workmanship, the king presents himself in Roman imperial style.

Explaining Rome's "Decline and Fall":  Edward Gibbon

"TOGA!"  Roman "decadence" in modern imagination