Hundreds of goths descended on Whitby in 2024 as the town’s popular biannual event returned. They were pictured wearing dark period dress over the two Goth Weekend events in April and November.

But Rome’s fall a few days before Christmas 546 – as a result of some of its hunger-stricken defenders opening the gates to the besieging Goths – was a symbol of the hard times that the ‘Dark Ages’ ...