appointed day had come, Alaric armed his whole force for the attack and
was holding them in readiness close by the Salarian Gate; for it
happened that he had encamped there at the beginning of the siege. And
all the youths at the time of the day agreed upon came to this gate,
and, assailing the guards suddenly, put them to death; then they opened
the gates and received Alaric and the army into the city at their
leisure. [Aug. 24, 410 A.D.] And they set fire to the houses which were
next to the gate, among which was also the house of Sallust, who in
ancient times wrote the history of the Romans, and the greater part of
this house has stood half-burned up to my time; and after plundering the
whole city and destroying the most of the Romans, they moved on. At that
time they say that the Emperor Honorius in Ravenna received the message
from one of the eunuchs, evidently a keeper of the poultry, that Rome
had perished. And he cried out and said, "And yet it has just eaten from
my hands!" For he had a very large cock, Rome by name; and the eunuch
comprehending his words said that it was the city of Rome which had
perished at the hands of Alaric, and the emperor with a sigh of relief
answered quickly: "But I, my good fellow, thought that my fowl Rome had
perished." So great, they say, was the folly with which this emperor was
possessed.

But some say that Rome was not captured in this way by Alaric, but that
Proba, a woman of very unusual eminence in wealth and in fame among the
Roman senatorial class, felt pity for the Romans who were being
destroyed by hunger and the other suffering they endured; for they were
already even tasting each other's flesh; and seeing that every good hope
had left them, since both the river and the harbour were held by the
enemy, she commanded her domestics, they say, to open the gates by
night.