Alaric I

Biography

Alaric was the first king of the Visigoths and the man who did the unthinkable: he sacked Rome. He had served Rome as a federate commander and fought in its civil wars, but, denied the rank and lands he believed his people were owed, he turned to war. For years he maneuvered, negotiated, and raided across the Balkans and Italy, repeatedly checked by Stilicho but never destroyed. When Stilicho was murdered in 408 and the court of Honorius — secure behind the marshes of Ravenna — refused all his demands, Alaric finally marched on Rome. In August 410 his Visigoths entered the city and plundered it for three days, sparing the churches and most of the people but breaking forever the spell of Roman invulnerability. Alaric died of fever soon after, while planning to cross to Africa; his followers, legend holds, buried him with his treasure beneath the diverted course of the Busento River and killed the slaves who dug the grave to keep its location secret.

Key Battles