In a stunning reversal of fate, Rome fell to an unlikely conqueror: Alaric, a Gothic leader once allied with the Roman Empire. His story reveals ambition, betrayal, and resilience against a fading empire unprepared for its fall.
The rise of Alaric and the Gothic threat to Rome
Alaric, a Gothic chieftain from the region we now call Eastern Europe, rose to power amid Rome’s own transformations. Trained in the Roman military, Alaric knew the Empire’s strengths—and its vulnerabilities. Under Diocletian, the Empire had divided, with Rome slowly losing power to Constantinople. Alaric would prove himself a formidable leader who pressed Rome into concessions, only to find himself betrayed by broken promises.
In his early years, Alaric served the Empire as part of the Gothic federates, or allied troops. His chance for greater influence came at the Battle of the Frigidus River in 394 CE, where his Gothic forces suffered heavy losses fighting under Theodosius I, Emperor of the East, against the usurper Eugenius. Alaric’s troops, placed at the front as expendable forces, were devastated, and Rome’s disregard for his people left him embittered. When Theodosius died in 395 CE, Alaric emerged as a leader of the Goths, with a vision for securing a permanent homeland within the Empire.
A fractured Empire and a brewing storm
As the Empire divided, Alaric saw opportunities. In the east, Arcadius, a weak and inexperienced ruler, took the throne, while the young Honorius inherited the western Empire. Honorius, however, was effectively under the control of Stilicho, Rome’s powerful military general and advisor, who had his own designs for maintaining dominance.
The Roman-Gothic relationship, though labeled an alliance, was fraught. The Goths lived uneasily under a 382 CE treaty that relegated them to the Balkans without citizenship rights. This arrangement grated on Alaric, who felt Rome’s promises should secure his people’s future more fully. The two powers clashed repeatedly, with Alaric’s demands for food and recognition continually dismissed by the suspicious Stilicho. These unresolved tensions led Alaric to begin his rampage across the Balkans and Greece in 395 CE, a precursor to his Italian campaign.
Alaric’s invasions and Stilicho’s political games
Despite conflicts with Stilicho, Alaric continued pressing for official Roman status and better treatment for his people. His army swept through Italy in 402 CE, though he was defeated outside Verona. Still, Rome’s increasingly visible weaknesses fueled Alaric’s ambitions. Eventually, he demanded the rank of magister militum (master of soldiers) and regular grain provisions for his followers.
In 406 CE, Stilicho and Alaric considered a truce. Stilicho, entangled in other crises—including invasions by the Vandals, Alans, and Suevi, and political threats from Gaul and Britain—saw potential in enlisting Alaric for an eastern campaign. Yet, political missteps led to Stilicho’s downfall when he was accused of conspiring with Alaric. His execution in 408 CE left Rome defenseless as tens of thousands of Gothic soldiers defected to Alaric’s ranks, driven by loyalty or desperation.
More Affairs
The sacking of Rome: Alaric’s ultimatum
Alaric’s forces reached Rome in 408 CE, surrounding the city and cutting off supplies. Famine and disease followed as the people of Rome grew increasingly desperate. In a last-ditch effort, the Senate offered him two tons of gold, thirteen tons of silver, and other valuables, hoping this massive ransom would appease him. Although Alaric lifted the siege briefly, Honorius’s regime remained indifferent, and the truce failed. Alaric’s attempts to secure an alliance, including naming a new emperor in Attalus, failed as well.
In 410 CE, Alaric returned to Rome with a final ultimatum. On August 24, a sympathizer opened the city’s Salarian Gate. The Goths surged into the city, beginning a three-day pillage. Alaric’s forces, though brutal, observed certain restraints, sparing Christian churches like St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s while looting the estates of the wealthy. The sack shattered the illusion of Rome’s invincibility; the city had not suffered such an invasion in eight centuries.
Alaric’s legacy and the beginning of Rome’s end
Following his sack of Rome, Alaric planned to continue his campaign into Africa to secure stable provisions for his people, but he died suddenly in 410 CE. His brother-in-law Athaulf succeeded him, leading the Goths into Gaul and cementing the Gothic presence in Western Europe. Alaric’s vision of a Gothic homeland within the Empire went unrealized, but his actions signaled the start of a new era where Rome was no longer the unassailable center of the world.
The sack of Rome marked more than the plundering of a city; it underscored the Empire’s vulnerabilities and the shifting power toward the barbarian kingdoms that would reshape the continent. Rome would falter, and finally, in 476 CE, just sixty-six years after Alaric’s invasion, the last Roman emperor in the West would fall, marking the end of ancient Rome and the dawn of the medieval age.
