Alaric: Rome's Gothic Menace

Rome burns. The city is stunned. Under foreign occupation for the first time in 800 years, the tombs of the emperors have been desecrated. Moveable wealth has been lifted from its ancient seat. A man whom they call a barbarian holds sway over the Roman world. He is a Goth, and his name is Alaric. Historians have been unable to determine Alaric's precise birth date, but he was likely a child during the periods of major conflict with Rome during the 370s. During this decade, two major Gothic tribes, the Grithungi and Tervingi, migrated across the Danube and started the Great Gothic War, defeating the Emperor Valens at Adrianople, and ravaging the Balkans for years. To end the Gothic War, the new Emperor Theodosius made an agreement with Gothic leaders in 382 to resettle the Gothic nation within Roman territory in exchange for Gothic military cooperation with the Romans. Alaric, who was coming of age in the first years of this agreement, saw his first military service in cooperation with the Romans. As a young man, Alaric rose to prominence as a leader among the Goths. He likely distinguished himself in military service before becoming the commander of a major Gothic force that accompanied Theodosius' army. When Theodosius went west to defeat the usurper Eugenius in 394, Alaric and his Goths followed, forming a major component of the Roman army. It was here that Alaric first saw the Romans' true colors. Theodosius ordered the Gothic contingent to launch a full frontal attack on the enemy positions, which resulted in heavy casualties and thousands of deaths. Through some skill and some luck, Theodosius managed to lead his army to victory anyway, unifying the Roman Empire for what would be the last time. But he had done so on the backs of Alaric and his Goths, who had been used as meat shields for the Roman army. They were disillusioned and angry, especially after Theodosius refused to award them special distinctions and privileges for their sacrifices. Theodosius died in early 395, leaving the empire to his two young sons Arcadius and Honorius. In this divided Roman world, both the Eastern and Western Empires were struggling to maintain strong field armies, making Alaric's role as a powerful military strongman and potential ally to Rome a very important one. In the early years after Theodosius, the Western and Eastern Empires were in conflict. Ambitious men like Stilicho in the West and Eutropius in the East were vying for power and avoiding cooperation. Alaric became an important player in these conflicts. He reportedly pillaged some of Greece and Thrace before being pushed out by Stilicho, who then performed his own pillaging operations. Stilicho was wrapped up in a feud with the East, and his moves against Alaric were seen as aggressive, particularly when Stilicho returned to the Balkans and made further moves against Alaric. After initial frictions with the East, the Eastern court under Eutropius actually warmed to Alaric and made him the magister militum of Illyria, positioning him as an ally against Stilicho in the West. His army was the largest and most powerful in the region, so it only made practical sense. In 399, after the overthrow of Eutropius in the East, the court decided that Alaric was no longer necessary, transferring his services to the West and cutting off official supplies from the East. Stilicho, his enemy and new boss, was obviously unwilling to endorse Alaric as a Roman officer, which forced Alaric into conflict. Alaric invaded Italy in late 401, catching Stilicho off guard. His hope was to force concessions from the Western court, secure himself a high-ranking position in the Roman army, and secure his people a prosperous place to settle down. As such, Alaric launched some attacks and raids on Roman towns, but kept the destruction and ravaging to a minimum. The magister militum of the West raced to face Alaric, encountering his Goths in early 402. At Polentia on Easter Sunday, Stilicho defeated the Goths, capturing prisoners and loot. However, Alaric slipped away with much of his army, and in the aftermath, Stilicho seemed willing to negotiate for an alliance, likely because he now saw the benefits of making Alaric his friend. By 405, Alaric was again occupying Illyria with the Western blessing. Stilicho, however, was struggling to face numerous crises in the West. First it was Radegeisis and his Goths, invading and nearly breaking into Italy. Then it was the infamous Crossing of the Rhine by an assortment of tribes on New Year's Eve 406. And finally it was the revolt of a Roman general in Britain. Amidst this volatile political situation, Alaric again saw a fantastic opportunity, invading Northern Italy in 407, and demanding a ransom to call off a march on Rome. Stilicho paid the massive ransom, 4,000 pounds of gold. Which was definitely the right choice, by the way. There was no chance for him to defend Italy with his limited military resources stretched so thin. However, this choice destroyed his popularity and sealed his fate. Suspected of a corrupt bargain with Alaric, Stilicho was assassinated in 408, marking the Western court's turn away from Alaric's Goths. The anti-Gothic officials that took over Honorius' court after Stilicho's death declared Alaric and the Goths enemies of Rome. They then ordered that the families of the Federate troops in Italy be slaughtered. Thousands of innocent civilians, including children, were killed for no reason. This was an atrocity. The Federate soldiers all defected to Alaric, who took his status of public enemy number one as an invitation to combat. Even at this late hour, however, Alaric was still trying to negotiate. He proposed that his army withdraw to Pannonia in exchange for a Roman military title and a further ransom. But Honorius' court, despite being completely helpless, rejected the deal. In response to this intransigence, Alaric decided to hit Rome where it hurt. He marched his army down the Italian peninsula and besieged the city of Rome itself in 408. This was the first time that the city of Rome had found itself in true danger since the days of Hannibal, with a foreign army on Italian soil and no standing Roman army in the field. This first siege ended with a negotiated settlement, under which Alaric received an even greater ransom than he previously asked. Afterwards, Honorius again reneged on the terms of the agreement, refusing to grant Alaric his position within the Roman army. In response, Alaric appointed his own puppet emperor, a man named Priscus Attalus, to oppose Honorius. This backfired though, as Honorius remained stubborn and held his position in Ravenna. Alaric disposed of his puppet. His patience was running out. The final straw came when a contingent of Goths allied with Honorius attacked Alaric's army. His Goths fended this attack off, but Alaric was done. He had had enough with disrespect and dishonor and duplicity from Honorius. He marched his army on Rome for a second time. This was when he conducted his famous sack, starting on the 24th of August 410, which lasted three days and saw the Goths seize loot, desecrate ancient monuments, and take much-needed food supplies. Shortly after, the Goths withdrew. While marching in northern Italy in early 411, Alaric became ill from a fever and died. He was probably about 40 years old, and had been an enemy and friend to Rome. Alaric is fascinating to me because of how misunderstood his motivations and actions have become. Despite the fact that he sacked Rome, it was clearly one of his last choices, and his primary objectives were always a mix of personal ambition and selfless desire for his people to find a home. He exploited the Roman system, but the Roman system certainly exploited him and his people as well. He was an outsider, which made him an enemy of Rome, but in a better time, a time without a cold war between the eastern and western empires, a time without incompetent and intransigent imperial leadership, Alaric may have become a Stilicho, an Aetius, a great defender of Rome, as well as a great king to his Goths. As it stands, Alaric was one of Rome's most formidable enemies. He imposed his will on the status quo in a way that few other men throughout all of history could match, and his efforts eventually brought his Gothic people a place in the sun. When Alaric died, his people buried their leader with his greatest earthly possessions and a lot of treasure. They redirected a river for this, burying him with his loot in the riverbed, and then brought the river back to its original course. Neither his body nor his treasure have ever been found.