Background:

The Visigoths are a group of Germanic people who lived on the delta of the Danube River north of Italy in Bulgaria. This territory was under control of the Roman Emperor. However, their area came under the attack of the Huns, "barbarian" invaders from Asia, and they were pushed further west deeper into the Roman Empire.

Alaric was the leader of the Visigoths. For protection, in 394, he and the Visigoths allied with Rome, and Alaric led the Visigoths in the Roman army against the Huns. They were successful in keeping the Huns from further attacks for a while. [It was common practice at this time for the Roman Army to hire one group of barbarians to fight against another group.]

But when the Roman Emperor Theodosius I died in 395, the Roman Empire was divided into East and West. The rule of the Roman Empire was divided between Theodosius's incapable [not able to rule well] sons. Rome was no longer safe.

The Visigoths knew that the Roman Empire was weak and they renounced their allegiance with Rome. Alaric and the Visigoths saw this as their opportunity to take what they wanted from the collapsing empire.

Alaric struck first at the Eastern Empire. He marched to the neighborhood of Constantinople, but was unable to undertake the siege of that strong city. Then he retraced his steps westward and then marched southward into Greece. Alaric's invasion of Greece lasted two years (395-396), selling many of their inhabitants into slavery.

After attacking and taking what they wanted from the Empires of East, Alaric was defeated by General Flavius Stilicho of the Western Roman Empire. To make peace, he then received from the Eastern Emperor Arcadius the command of the province of Illyricum. This was an attempt to keep the Visigoths from doing further damage. It kept him satisfied for only a few years.

In 402, Alaric again invaded Italy, and was again defeated by Stilicho. How could he defeat this enemy?

Alaric found a way. He allied himself with the Western Emperor Honorius who wanted to get rid of Stilicho out of jealousy. The Romans were at war with each other!

Three months later Stilicho himself was treacherously slain by order of the timid and jealous Emperor Honorius. In the disturbances which followed the wives and children of the barbarian groups throughout Italy were slain. The natural consequence was that 30,000 men flocked to the camp of Alaric demanding to be led against their cowardly enemies. Alaric crossed the Julian Alps, and in September, 408 stood before the walls of Rome (now with no capable general like Stilicho to defend her) and began a strict blockade [not letting anything get in or out].

No blood was shed this time; hunger was the weapon on which Alaric relied. When the ambassadors of the Senate in trying for peace tried to terrify him with their hints of what the Roman citizens might accomplish, he laughed and said, "The thicker the hay, the easier mowed!" After much bargaining, the famine-stricken [dying of hunger] citizens agreed to pay a ransom of more than two thousand pounds in weight of gold, besides precious garments [clothes] of silk and leather and three thousand pounds of pepper. Thus ended Alaric's first siege of Rome in 408.

Alaric's primary goal was not to destroy the empire, but to secure for himself, by negotiation with its rulers, a regular and recognized position within its borders. His demands were certainly large: a block of territory 200 miles long by 150 wide between the Danube and the Gulf of Venice, and the title of commander-in-chief of the imperial army. But Honorius refused. Alaric, after starting a second siege and blockade of Rome in 409, came to terms with the senate. They paid him off again.

In 410 Alaric marched southward and began in deadly earnest his third and most memorable siege of Rome. No defense apparently was possible. On August 24, 410 Alaric and his Goths burst in through the north-eastern gate of the city, and Rome lay at the feet of the barbarians. The Christian churches were saved from attack. Protection was granted to vast multitudes[large numbers] both of pagans [non-Christians] and Christians who took refuge in the churches. But much of Rome experienced scenes of horror which usually accompany [go along with] the storming of a city besieged [under attack]. We do not, however, hear of any damage caused by fire, except for one palace, which was situated close to the gate by which the Goths had made their entrance; nor is there any reason to attribute any extensive destruction of the buildings of the city to Alaric and his followers.

Mighty Rome could be defeated. Barbarians could not be kept out. Mighty Rome's days were numbered.

- Adapted from the biography at Wikipedia.

Alaric's death in that same year stopped him from carrying out his next campaign; to Sicily and north Africa. He probably died from an illness, and not as a result of war.

Learn more about Alaric and the Visigoths Alaric I, King of the Visigoths (a brief biography) Alaric (a more complete biography from Wikipedia)

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