Flavius Honorius Augustus was Emperor of the Western Roman Empire as the City of Rome fell to a foreign power for the first time in over seven centuries, when Visigoths under Alaric sacked the ancient capital in 410. Sixty-six years after this event the Western Roman Empire finally collapsed.
Jean-Luc Picard, facing the Borg threat of 2366, asked rhetorically:
- "I wonder if the Emperor Honorious, watching the Visigoths coming over the seventh hill, could truly realize that the Roman Empire was about to fall. This is really just another page of history, isn't it? Will this be the end of our civilization?" (TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds")
Rome was not the capital of the Western Roman Empire during this time, nor was it the seat of the Imperial government. Honorius would have been in Ravenna at the time of the sack of Rome. Picard seems to have been unaware of this fact.