The sack of Rome on 24 August 410 AD was undertaken by the Visigoths led by their king, Alaric. At that time, Rome was no longer the administrative capital of the Western Roman Empire, having been replaced first by Mediolanum (now Milan) in 286 and then by Ravenna in 402. Nevertheless, the city of Rome retained a paramount position as "the eternal city" and a spiritual center of the Empire. This was the first time in almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy, and the sack was a major shock to contemporaries, friends and foes of the Empire alike.
The sacking of 410 is seen as a major landmark in the fall of the Western Roman Empire. St. Jerome, living in Bethlehem, wrote: "the city which had taken the whole world was itself taken".St Jerome, Letter CXXVII. To Principia, s:Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume VI/The Letters of St. Jerome/Letter 127 paragraph 12.
Background
The Germanic tribes had undergone massive technological, social, and economic changes after four centuries of contact with the Roman Empire. From the first to fourth centuries, their populations, economic production, and tribal confederations grew, and their ability to conduct warfare increased to the point of challenging Rome.Peter Heather, The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, (Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 84–100.
The Goths, one of the Germanic tribes, had invaded the Roman Empire on and off since 238.The Cambridge Medieval History, Volume 1, (Cambridge University Press, 1911), p. 203. But in the late 4th century, the Huns began to invade the lands of the Germanic tribes, and pushed many of them into the Roman Empire with greater fervor.Gordon M. Patterson, Medieval History: 500 to 1450 AD Essentials, (Research & Education Association, 2001), p. 41. In 376, the Huns forced many Therving Goths led by Fritigern and Alavivus to seek refuge in the Eastern Roman Empire. Soon after, starvation, high taxes, hatred from the Roman population, and governmental corruption turned the Goths against the empire.The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 13, (Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 95–101.
The Goths rebelled and began looting and pillaging throughout the eastern Balkans. A Roman army, led by the Eastern Roman emperor Valens, marched to put them down. At the Battle of Adrianople in 378, Fritigern decisively defeated emperor Valens, who was killed in battle. Peace was eventually established in 382 when the new Eastern emperor, Theodosius I, signed a treaty with the Thervings, who would become known as the Visigoths. The treaty made the Visigoths subjects of the empire as foederati. They were allotted the northern part of the dioceses of Dacia and Thrace, and while the land remained under Roman sovereignty and the Visigoths were expected to provide military service, they were considered autonomous.Herwig Wolfram, History of the Goths, Trans. Thomas J. Dunlap, (University of California Press, 1988), p. 133.
Fritigern died around 382.Thomas S. Burns, Barbarians Within the Gates of Rome: A Study of Roman Military Policy and the Barbarians, (Indiana University Press, 1994), p. 77. Possibly in 391, a Gothic chieftain named Alaric was declared king by a group of Visigoths, though there is debate over the nature of his position and the year of his ascension (Jordanes says 400Thomas S. Burns, Barbarians Within the Gates of Rome: A Study of Roman Military Policy and the Barbarians, (Indiana University Press, 1994), p. 176., Peter Heather says 395Peter Heather, The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 462.).Herwig Wolfram, The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples, (University of California Press, 1997), 91.Herwig Wolfram, History of the Goths, Trans. Thomas J. Dunlap, (University of California Press, 1988), pp. 143–146. He then led an invasion into Eastern Roman territory outside of the Goths' designated lands. Alaric was defeated by Theodosius and his general Flavius Stilicho in 392, who forced Alaric back into Roman vassalage.Herwig Wolfram, History of the Goths, Trans. Thomas J. Dunlap, (University of California Press, 1988), p. 136.
In 394, Alaric led a force of Visigoths as part of Theodosius's Eastern Roman army to invade the Western Roman Empire. At the Battle of the Frigidus, around half the Visigoths present died fighting the Western Roman army led by the usurper Eugenius and his general Arbogast.Herwig Wolfram, The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples, (University of California Press, 1997), 91–92. Theodosius won the battle, and although Alaric was given the title comes for his bravery, tensions between the Goths and Romans grew as it seemed the Roman generals had sought to weaken the Goths by making them bear the brunt of the fighting. Alaric was also enraged he had not been granted a higher office in the imperial administration.Herwig Wolfram, The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples, (University of California Press, 1997), 92.
Visigothic invasion of Rome
When Theodosius died on 10 January 395, the Visigoths considered their 382 treaty with Rome to have ended.Herwig Wolfram, History of the Goths, Trans. Thomas J. Dunlap, (University of California Press, 1988), p. 139. Alaric quickly led his warriors back to their lands in Moesia, gathered most of the federated Goths in the Danubian provinces under his leadership, and rose in rebellion, invading Thrace and approaching the Eastern Roman capital of Constantinople.Herwig Wolfram, The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples,(University of California Press, 1997), 92–93.Herwig Wolfram, History of the Goths, Trans. Thomas J. Dunlap, (University of California Press, 1988), p. 140. The Huns, at the same moment, invaded Asia Minor.
The death of Theodosius had also wracked the political structure of the empire: Theodosius's sons, Honorius and Arcadius, were given the Western and Eastern empires, respectively, but they were young and needed guidance. A power struggle emerged between Stilicho, who claimed guardianship over both emperors but was still in the West with the army that had defeated Eugenius, and Rufinus, the praetorian prefect of the East, who took the guardianship of Arcadius in the Eastern capital of Constantinople. Stilicho claimed that Theodosius had awarded him with sole guardianship on the emperor's deathbed and claimed authority over the Eastern Empire as well as the West.Warren T. Treadgold, A History of the Byzantine State and Society, (Stanford University Press, 1997), pp. 77–78.
Rufinus negotiated with Alaric to get him to withdraw from Constantinople (perhaps by promising him lands in Thessaly). Whatever the case, Alaric marched away from Constantinople to Greece, looting the diocese of Macedonia.Warren T. Treadgold, A History of the Byzantine State and Society, (Stanford University Press, 1997), p. 79.Herwig Wolfram, History of the Goths, Trans. Thomas J. Dunlap, (University of California Press, 1988), p. 141.
Magister utriusque militiae Stilicho marched east at the head of a combined Western and Eastern Roman army out of Italy. Alaric fortified himself behind a circle of wagons on the plain of Larissa, in Thessaly, where Stilicho besieged him for several months, unwilling to seek battle. Eventually, Arcadius, under the apparent influence of those hostile to Stilicho, commanded him to leave Thessaly.
Stilicho obeyed the orders of his emperor by sending his Eastern troops to Constantinople and leading his Western ones back to Italy.The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 13, (Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 113–114, 430. The Eastern troops Stilicho had sent to Constantinople were led by a Goth named Gainas. When Rufinus met the soldiers, he was hacked to death in November 395. Whether that was done on the orders of Stilicho, or perhaps on those of Rufinus's replacement Eutropius, is unknown.The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 13, (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 114.
The withdrawal of Stilicho freed Alaric to pillage much of Greece, including Piraeus, Corinth, Argos, and Sparta. Athens was able to pay a ransom to avoid being sacked. It was only in 397 that Stilicho returned to Greece, having rebuilt his army with mainly barbarian allies and believing the eastern Roman government would now welcome his arrival.The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 13, (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 115. After some fighting, Stilicho trapped and besieged Alaric at Pholoe.Herwig Wolfram, History of the Goths, Trans. Thomas J. Dunlap, (University of California Press, 1988), p. 142. Then, once again, Stilicho retreated to Italy, and Alaric marched into Epirus.
Why Stilicho once again failed to dispatch Alaric is a matter of contention. It has been suggested that Stilicho's mostly-barbarian army had been unreliable or that another order from Arcadius and the Eastern government forced his withdrawal. Others suggest that Stilicho made an agreement with Alaric and betrayed the East.Herwig Wolfram, The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples, (University of California Press, 1997), p. 94. Whatever the case, Stilicho was declared a public enemy in the Eastern Empire the same year.
Alaric's rampage in Epirus was enough to make the eastern Roman government offer him terms in 398. They made Alaric magister militum per Illyricum, giving him the Roman command he wanted and giving him free rein to take what resources he needed, including armaments, in his assigned province. Stilicho, in the meantime, put down a rebellion in Africa in 399, which had been instigated by the eastern Roman empire, and married his daughter Maria to the 11-year-old Western emperor, Honorius, strengthening his grip on power in the West.
First Visigothic invasion of Italy Aurelianus, the new praetorian prefect of the east after Eutropius's execution, stripped Alaric of his title to Illyricum in 400.Thomas S. Burns, Barbarians Within the Gates of Rome: A Study of Roman Military Policy and the Barbarians, (Indiana University Press, 1994), p. 178. Between 700 and 7,000 Gothic soldiers and their families were slaughtered in a riot at Constantinople on 12 July 400.Herwig Wolfram, History of the Goths, Trans. Thomas J. Dunlap, (University of California Press, 1988), pp. 149–150.John Bagnell Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire volume 1, (Dover edition, St Martins Press, 1958), p. 134. Gainas, who at one point had been made magister militum, rebelled, but he was killed by the Huns under Uldin, who sent his head back to Constantinople as a gift.
With these events, particularly Rome's use of the feared Huns, and cut off from Roman officialdom, Alaric felt his position in the East was precarious. So, while Stilicho was busy fighting an invasion of Vandals and Alans in Rhaetia and Noricum, Alaric led his people into an invasion of Italy in 401, reaching it in November without encountering much resistance. The Goths captured a few unnamed cities and besieged the Western Roman capital Mediolanum.
Stilicho, now with Alan and Vandal federates in his army, relieved the siege, forcing a crossing at the Adda river. Alaric retreated to Pollentia.Herwig Wolfram, History of the Goths, Trans. Thomas J. Dunlap, (University of California Press, 1988), p. 151. On Easter Sunday, 6 April 402, Stilicho launched a surprise attack which became the Battle of Pollentia. The battle ended in a draw, and Alaric fell back.Herwig Wolfram, History of the Goths, Trans. Thomas J. Dunlap, (University of California Press, 1988), p. 152. After brief negotiations and maneuvers, the two forces clashed again at the Battle of Verona, where Alaric was defeated and besieged in a mountain fortress, taking heavy casualties.