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Suspicions about the circumstances in which the ancient city of Rome fell to barbarians in the 4th –5th century AD have been the center of many archaeologists work for decades. How could an empire so powerful in economy and armed forces just be defeated? Some say that lead poisoning was weakening and killing civilians, some say it was a shortage of food but now a new possibility has be brought to light. An illness that still affects people on earth today. Malaria. In the early 1990’s the excavation of an ancient Roman villa began. The excavators never expected to find anything more than a typical small town home but not only did they find a much larger structure, they also found 47 children’s bodies. These were the bodies that began the revelation of the epidemic. The first 7 bodies were found in the cellar of the villa. Pots dating back to around 450 AD had been broken and reassembled around the dead children’s bodies. Gradually the