During the civil war following Nero's death, Tolosa native M. Antonius Primus led the armies of Vespasian into Italy, entered Rome in 69 AD and established the Flavian dynasty. Emperor Domitian, son of Vespasian and Primus' friend, granted Tolosa the honorific status of Roman colony. Another sign of imperial favor was Domitian's bestowal of the title of Palladia on the city in reference to Pallas Athena, goddess of arts and knowledge. Palladia Tolosa was a major Roman city, with aqueducts, circus and theaters, thermae, a forum and an extensive sewage system. Protected by its walls and its distance from the Rhine, it escaped unscathed from the third-century invasions. With much of Gaul destroyed, Toulouse was the fourth-largest city in the western half of the Roman Empire after Rome, Treves and Arles. Around that time, Christianity entered the city; the Christian community expanded under Saint Saturnin (locally known as Saint Sernin), the first bishop of Toulouse, who was martyred in Toulouse about 250. In 313 the Edict of Milan established religious freedom in the empire, ending persecution of the Christians, and in 403 the Saint-Sernin basilica opened as a shrine for relics of Saint Saturnin. On 31 December 406 the Rhine frontier was breached by tribes seeking to escape starvation during a harsh winter. In 407, Toulouse was besieged by the Vandals. Under its bishop, Saint Exuperius, the city resisted; the Vandals lifted the siege, moving into Spain and settling in North Africa. "The provinces of Aquitaine and of the Novempopulana (Gascony), of Lyon and of Narbonne are, with the exception of a few cities, one universal scene of desolation. And those which the sword spares without, famine ravages within. I cannot speak without tears of Toulouse which has been kept from failing hitherto by the merits of its reverend bishop Exuperius", wrote Jerome to a Roman widow in 409 (Letters cxxiii.16). In 413 (three years after they sacked Rome), the Visigoths under King Ataulf captured Toulouse; under pressure from Roman forces, they soon withdrew south of the Pyrenees. After the murder of Ataulf, his successor Wallia resolved to make peace with Rome. In exchange for peace, in 418 Emperor Honorius gave the Visigoths Aquitania and Toulouse (in Gallia Narbonensis, at the border of Aquitania). The Visigoths chose Palladia Tolosa as their capital, ending Roman rule of the city. 418–508: Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse The Visigothic kings of Toulouse, one of