This dismal calamity is but just over, and you yourself are a witness to how Rome that commanded the world was astonished at the alarm of the Gothic trumpet, when that barbarous and victorious nation stormed her walls, and made her way through the breach. Where were then the privileges of birth, and the distinctions of quality? Were not all ranks and degrees leveled at that time and promiscuously huddled together? Every house was then a scene of misery, and equally filled with grief and confusion. The slave and the man of quality were in the same circumstances, and everywhere the terror of death and slaughter was the same, unless we may say the fright made the greatest impression on those who had the greatest interest in living.^(\[96\]) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Rome_(410#cite_note-97 )
Many Romans were tortured into revealing the locations of their valuables. One was the 85-year-old^(\[97\]) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Rome_(410#cite_note-98 ) Saint Marcella https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Marcella , who had no hidden gold as she lived in pious poverty. She was a close friend of St. Jerome, and he detailed the incident in a letter to a woman named Principia who had been with Marcella during the sack.
When the soldiers entered \Marcella's house\] she is said to have received them without any look of alarm; and when they asked her for gold she pointed to her coarse dress to show them that she had no buried treasure. However they would not believe in her self-chosen poverty, but scourged her and beat her with cudgels. She is said to have felt no pain but to have thrown herself at their feet and to have pleaded with tears for you \[Principia\], that you might not be taken from her, or owing to your youth have to endure what she as an old woman had no occasion to fear. Christ softened their hard hearts and even among bloodstained swords natural affection asserted its rights. The barbarians conveyed both you and her to the basilica of the apostle Paul, that you might find there either a place of safety or, if not that, at least a tomb.[^(\[98\]) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Rome_(410#cite_note-99 )