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Late Antiquity
Rome
Rome didn't so much fall as it slowly unravelled. Or, you might picture a polar ice cap that is melting. It doesn't melt at a steady rate; rather, parts of it trickle away unseen while other parts break away in large chunks, continuing to exist for some time independently. In the end, though, all analogies fail because the transition from the ancient to the medieval world has no parallels. It can only be studied in its own terms.
We will begin with the city of Rome itself. The city had long since ceased to be the seat of Empire, even before the building of Constantinople. In the chaos of the third century, Emperors had resided in several places besides Rome, because the city itself was sometimes so unsafe. Once Constantine constructed his city, the government officially moved east.
Yet, certain elements remained. The Senate, for example, continued to meet, and it met in Rome; but it was a Senate that governed little more than the city itself. Rome retained great prestige throughout the Empire, but its political power was gone and even its population was dwindling.
Rome was still Rome, though, at least until the Goths arrived. They had ravaged Greece, then in 402, led by King Alaric, they entered Italy. It is indicative of conditions in the West to note that the Roman armies in Italy were commanded by a Vandal by the name of Stilicho. This general defeated Alaric and forced him to leave—barbarians fighting barbarians.
Stilicho fell from favor and was murdered. Scarcely was he dead before Alaric returned to Italy, in 409. There was no one to stop him this time, and Rome saved itself only by an enormous bribe of gold that impoverished the city.
Alaric came back the following year and threatened again, but this time there was no gold left. So he entered Rome, nearly unopposed, and looted it. No foreigner had taken the city since the Gauls had done in in the 4th century BC—a run of nearly 800 years. Rome indeed had seemed eternal to many, and when it proved mortal, many people were dismayed. St. Augustine certainly had the sack in mind when he was working on The City of God, for he deliberately contrasted the city of man, which no matter how glorious is destined to wither and fail, with the city of God that is eternal and proof against all calamities.