Alaric (
Gothic language: Ala-reiks, "All-ruler"), (around A.D. 370-410), the first Teutonic leader who stood as a conqueror
in the city of Rome, was probably born about 370 in an island
named Peuce (the Fir) at the mouth of the
Danube. He was of
noble descent, his father being a scion of the family of the
Balthi or Bold-men, next in dignity among Gothic warriors
to the Amals. He was a Goth and belonged to the western
branch of that nation --sometimes called the
Visigoths--who
at the time of his birth were quartered in the region now
known as Bulgaria, having taken refuge on the southern shore
of the Danube from the pursuit of their enemies the
Huns.
In the year 394 he served as a general of foederati? (Germanic
irregular troops under Roman command, organized by their own tribal structures) under the emperor Theodosius I in the campaign in which he crushed the usurper Eugenius. As the battle which terminated this campaign, the battle of the Frigidus, was fought near the passes of the Julian Alps, Alaric probably learnt at this time the weakness of the natural defences of Italy on her northeastern frontier.
The employment of barbarians as foederati, became a common practice with the emperors in the 4th century. The provincial population, crushed under a load of taxation, could no longer furnish soldiers in the numbers required for the defence of the empire; and on the other hand, the emperors, ever fearful that a brilliantly successful general of Roman extraction might be proclaimed Augustus by his followers, preferred that high military command should be in the hands of a man to whom such an accession of dignity was as yet impossible. But there was obviously a danger that one day a barbarian leader of barbarian troops in the service of the empire might turn his armed force and
the skill in war, which he had acquired in that service,
against his trembling masters, and without caring to assume
the title of Augustus might ravage and ruin the countries
which he had undertaken to defend. This danger became a
reality when in the year 395 the able and valiant Theodosius
died, leaving the empire to be divided between his incapable
sons Arcadius and Honorius?, the former taking the eastern and the latter the western portion, and each under the control
of a minister who bitterly hated the minister of the other.
In the shifting of offices which took place at the beginning
of the new reigns, Alaric apparently hoped that he would
receive one of the great military commands of the empire, and
thus instead of being a mere commander of foederati would
have under his orders a large part of the imperial legions.
This, however, was denied him. His disappointed ambition
prompted him to take the step for which his countrymen were
longing, for they too were grumbling at the withdrawal of the
"presents," in other words the veiled ransom-money, which
for many years they had been accustomed to receive. They
raised him on a shield and acclaimed him as a king; leader and
followers both resolving (says Jordanes the Gothic historian)
"rather to seek new kingdoms by their own labour, than
to slumber in peaceful subjection to the rule of others."
Alaric struck first at the eastern empire. He marched to
the neighbourhood of Constantinople, but finding himself
unable to undertake the siege of that superbly strong city,
he retraced his steps westward and then marched southward
through Thessaly? and the unguarded pass of Thermopylae? into Greece. The details of his campaign are not very clearly
stated, and the story is further complicated by the plots and
counterplots of Rufinus?, chief minister of the eastern, and
Stilicho?, the virtual regent of the western empire, and the
murder of the former by his rebellious soldiers. With these
we have no present concern; it is sufficient to say that
Alaric's invasion of Greece lasted two years (395-396), that
he ravaged Attica but spared Athens, which at once capitulated
to the conqueror, that he penetrated into Peloponnesus and
captured its most famous cities, Corinth, Argos and Sparta,
selling many of their inhabitants into slavery. Here,
however, his victorious career ended. Stilicho, who had
come a second time to the assistance of Arcadius and who was
undoubtedly a skilful general, succeeded in shutting up the
Goths in the mountains of Pholoe on the borders of Elis and
Arcadia. From thence Alaric escaped with difficulty, and
not without some suspicion of connivance on the part of
Stilicho. He crossed the Corinthian Gulf and marched with
the plunder of Greece northwards to Epirus. Next came an
astounding transformation. For some mysterious reason,
probably connected with the increasing estrangement between
the two sections of the empire, the ministers of Arcadius
conferred upon Alaric the government of some part--it can
hardly have been the whole--of the important prefecture of
Illyricum?. Here, ruling the Danubian provinces, he was on
the confines of the two empires, and, in the words of the poet
Claudian?, he "sold his alternate oaths to either throne,"
and made the imperial arsenals prepare the weapons with which
to aim his Gothic followers for the next campaign. It was
probably in the year 400 (but the dates of these events are
rather uncertain) that Alaric made his first invasion of
Italy, co-operating with another Gothic chieftain named
Radagaisus?. Supernatural influences were not wanting to
urge him to this great enterprise. Some lines of the Roman
poet inform us that he heard a voice proceeding from a sacred
grove, "Break off all delays, Alaric. This very year
thou shalt force the Alpine barrier of Italy; thou shalt
penetrate to the city." The prophecy was not at this time
fulfilled. After spreading desolation through North Italy
and striking terror into the citizens of Pome, Alaric was met
by Stilicho at Pollentia? (a Roman municipality in what is now
Piedmont?), and the battle which then followed on the 6th of
April 402 (Easter-day) was a victory, though a costly one for
Rome, and effectually barred the further progress of the
barbarians. Alaric was an Arian Christian who trusted to
the sanctity of Easter for immunity from attack, and the
enemies of Stilicho reproached him for having gained his
victory by taking an unfair advantage of the great Christian
festival. The wife of Alaric is said to have been taken
prisoner after this battle; and there is some reason to suppose
that he was hampered in his movements by the presence with
his forces of large numbers of women and children, having
given to his invasion of Italy the character of a national
migration. After another defeat before Verona?, Alaric quitted
Italy, probably in 403. He had not indeed "penetrated to
the city," but his invasion of Italy had produced important
results; it had caused the imperial residence to be transferred
from Milan? to Ravenna?, it had necessitated the withdrawal
of the Twentieth Legion from Britain, and it had probably
facilitated the great invasion of Vandals, Suevi? and Alani?
into Gaul, by which that province and Spain were lost to the
empire. We next hear of Alaric as the friend and ally of his
late opponent Stilicho. The estrangement between the eastern
and western courts had in 407 become so bitter as to threaten
civil war, and Stilicho was actually proposing to use the arms
of Alaric in order to enforce the claims of Honorius to the
prefecture of Illyricum. The death of Arcadius in May 408
caused milder counsels to prevail in the western cabinet, but
Alaric, who had actually entered Epirus, demanded in a somewhat
threatening manner that if he were thus suddenly bidden to
desist from war, he should be paid handsomely for what in
modern language would be called the expenses of mobilization.
The sum which he named was a large one, 4000 pounds of gold, but under strong pressure from
Stilicho the Roman senate consented to promise its payment.
Three months later Stilicho himself and the chief ministers
of his party were treacherously slain in pursuance of an
order extracted from the timid and jealous Honorius; and in
the disturbances which followed the wives and children of the
barbarian foederati throughout Italy were slain. The natural
consequence was that these men to the number of 30,000 flocked to
the camp of Alaric. clamouring to be led against their cowardly
enemies. He accordingly crossed the Julian Alps, and in
September 408 stood before the walls of Rome (now with no capable
general like Stihcho to defend her) and began a strict blockade.
No blood was shed this time; hunger was the weapon on which Alaric
relied. When the ambassadors of the senate in treating for peace
tried to terrify him with their hints of what the despairing
citizens might accomplish, he gave with a laugh his celebrated
answer, "The thicker the hay, the easier mowed!" After much
bargaining, the famine-stricken citizens agreed to pay a ransom
of more than a quarter of a million sterling, (question for reviewers: did sterling have a meaning in late Roman context, or has the 1911 author helpfully converted some Roman amount to 1911 British pounds sterling? This should be checked against other sources) besides precious
garments of silk and leather and three thousand pounds of
pepper. Thus ended Alaric's first siege of Rome.
At this time, and indeed throughout his career, the one
dominant idea of Alaric was not to pull down the fabric of
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---the concession
of a block of territory 200 m. long by 150 wide between the
Danube and the Gulf of Venice (to be held probably on some
terms of nominal dependence on the empire), and the title
of commander-in-chief of the imperial army. Yet large as
the terms were, the emperor would probably have been well
advised to grant them; but Honorius was one of those timid
and feeble folk who are equally unable to make war or peace,
and refused to look beyond the question of his own personal
safety, guaranteed as it was by the dikes and marshes of
Ravenna. As all attempts to conduct a satisfactory negotiation
with this emperor failed before his impenetrable stupidity,
Alaric, after instituting a second siege and blockade of
Rome in 409, came to terms with the senate, and with their
consent set up a rival emperor and invested the prefect of the
city, a Greek named Attalus, with the diadem and the purple
robe. He, however, proved quite unfit for his high position;
he rejected the advice of Alaric and lost in consequence the
province of Africa, the granary of Rome, which was defended by
the partisans of Honorius. The weapon of famine, formerly in
the hand of Alaric, was thus turned against him, and loud in
consequence were the murmurs of the Roman populace. Honorius
was also greatly strengthened by the arrival of six legions sent
from Constantinople to his assistance by his nephew [Theodosius II]?. Alaric therefore cashiered his puppet emperor Attalus
after eleven months of ineffectual rule, and once more tried
to reopen negotiations with Honorius. These negotiations
would probably have succeeded but for the malign influence of
another Goth, Sarus, the hereditary enemy of Alaric and his
house. When Alaric found himself once more outwitted by the
machinations of such a foe, he marched southward and began in
deadly earnest his third, his ever-memorable siege of Rome.
No defence apparently was possible; there are hints, not well
substantiated, of treachery; there is greater probability of
surprise. However this may be--for our information at this
point of the story is miserably meagre--on the 24th of
August 410 Alaric and his Goths burst in by the Salarian
gate on the north-east of the city, and she who was of
late the mistress of the world lay at the feet of the
barbarians. The Goths showed themselves not absolutely ruthless
conquerors. The contemporary ecclesiastics recorded with
wonder many instances of their clemency: the Christian churches
saved from ravage; protection granted to vast multitudes both
of pagans and Christians who took refuge therein; vessels
of gold and silver which were found in a private dwelling,
spared because they "belonged to St. Peter"; at least one
case in which a beautiful Roman matron appealed, not in vain,
to the better feelings of the Gothic soldier who attempted
her dishonour; but even these exceptional instances show that
Rome was not entirely spared those scenes of horror which
usually accompany the storming of a besieged city. We do
not, however, hear of any damage wrought by fire, save in
the case of Sallust?'s 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.
His work being done, his fated task, and Alaric having
penetrated to the city, nothing remained for him but to
die. He marched southwards into Calabria?. He desired to
invade Africa, which on account of its corn crops was now
the key of the position; but his ships were dashed to pieces
by a storm in which many of his soldiers perished. He died
soon after, probably of fever, and his body was bulied under
the river-bed of the Busento?, the stream being temporarily
turned aside from its course while the grave was dug wherein
the Gothic chief and some of his most precious spoils were
interred. When the work was finished the river was turned
back into its usual channel, and the captives by whose hands
the labour had been accomplished were put to death that
none might learn their secret. He was succeeded in the
command of the Gothic army by his brotherin-law, Ataulphus?.,
Our chief authorities for the career of Alaric are the historian
Orosius? and the poet Claudian?, both strictly contemporary;
Zosimus, a somewhat prejudiced heathen historian, who lived
probably about half a century after the death of Alaric;
and Jordanes, a Goth who wrote the history of his nation
in the year 551, basing his work on the earlier history of
Cassiodorus? (now lost), which was written about 520. (T. II.)
See also:
Alaric II
Initial text from 1911 encyclopedia -- Please update as needed