Everything You Need to Know About King Alaric!

Alaric, the well-known Gothic general who sacked Rome. Alaric was a Gothic military leader who was best known for attacking Rome in 410 CE, the city's first sacking in over 800 years. He led his fellow Goths on a rampage through the Balkans and into Italy, sacking the Roman capital, and then moving further south and dying soon after in 410 CE. A young, former Roman commander took advantage of this situation and sacked the once-eternal city. His name was Alaric. Although labeled as a barbarian, Alaric was a Christian who received his military training in the Roman army. He led the Gothic allies in the Battle of River Frigidus in 394 CE, in which the Eastern Emperor Theodosius I and the Western usurper Emperor Eugenius fought with the Romans. The ambitious Flavius Stilicho, 359-408 CE, Alaric's enemy, and then ally, became regent, or at least claimed to be, for the former emperor's two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, 395-423 CE. Arcadius became emperor in the east, dying in 408 CE, while the younger Honorius would eventually assume the throne in the west. When the Silurian gate was opened by an unnamed sympathizer, an army of barbarians led by Alaric entered Rome, and three-day pillage began. Stilicho, magister militum or commander-in-chief, and son of a Roman mother and vandal father, clashed with Alaric. After the Gothic war, the Romans and the Goths negotiated a pact in 382 CE that permitted them to settle in the Balkans as allies rather than citizens, but only as allies. In order to force a rewriting of the pact, Alaric and his army took advantage of the growing tension between east and west and plundered cities across the Balkans and into Greece, eventually conquering Italy in 402 CE. He wanted not just grain for his people, but also recognition as citizens of the empire and his appointment as magister militum, or equal in the Roman army, which Stilicho flatly denied. The Roman commander listened to Alaric's demand for legal rights to their land in exchange for annual payments of money and grain through his agent, Jovius. In return, Alaric was to assist Stilicho in his plan to invade the east, with Arcadius in full power in the east, Stilicho had already secured himself in the west, he had married his daughter to Emperor Honorius, and with the help of Alaric, he would attack the east, dethroning Arcadius. Stilicho was delayed due to problems somewhere in the west. The Gothic king Radogaisus conquered Italy, the Vandals, Alans, and Servus conquered Gaul, and the next Emperor Constantine III emerged victorious from Britain. The Gothic army ravaged the cities of Aquileia, Concordia, Altynum, Cremona, Benonia, Urbanum, and Piscinum in 408 CE, but avoided Ravenna, the western empire's capital and the home of Emperor Honorius. As Alaric's soldiers grew stronger, Emperor Honorius did little to aid the city or combat Alaric. The Goths were still seen as barbarians who couldn't stand up to the empire's forces. While temporarily agreeing to Alaric's demands, something he never intended to honor, 6,000 Roman soldiers were sent to the city but were quickly defeated by Alaric's brother-in-law Athaelf. Realizing further negotiations were impossible, especially after an ambush from the Roman commander Sarus, Alaric returned to the gates of Rome. He had tried everything, including appointing Attalus, a sympathetic senator, as the new Roman emperor, but it had failed. Alaric had little options, so he prepared to enter Rome on August 24, 410 CE, the first time it had been sacked since 390 BCE. Alaric fled the city with the intention of traveling to Sicily and then Africa. Athaelf took command of the army and led the Goths through Gaul. Alaric had made every attempt to secure a home for his fellow Goths, the sack of Rome was his final hope. The burning of Rome was, according to Pagan interpretation, the result of the city becoming Christian. In 476 CE, 66 years after Alaric, the city finally fell to Odoacer, spelling the end of the Roman Empire in the west.