The Visigoths Sack Rome
August 24, 410
Augustine wrote The City of God in response to the sacking of Rome in AD 410, which sent shockwaves throughout the empire.
Alaric (b. 370) and his Visigoths did not appear out of the barbarian blue and sack Rome. The Visigoths had been given land in the Eastern Empire after defeating Emperor Valens in 378. Alaric, an Arian Christian, came of age there. He rose to military leadership and served in the Roman army under Emperor Theodosius.
After Theodosius died in 395, Alaric rebelled and took to pillaging; he sacked Athens in 396. He invaded Italy in 401 but was defeated on Easter Sunday, 402, at Pollentia and at Verona a year later. In the midst of turmoil in the Western Empire, he invaded Italy again in 407 but was paid off by the Roman general Flavius Stilicho and given some rights to lands and taxes.
Stilicho, guardian of the underage Emperor Honorius, was overthrown in 408, and Alaric was declared an enemy of the emperor. After local Romans massacred families of foreign troops loyal to Stilicho, those troops defected to Alaric and were joined by barbarian auxiliaries. Alaric led 30,000 troops to avenge the murders and regain legitimacy. He blockaded Rome, the wealthiest city in Europe, but was pacified with gold, silver, and luxury goods. When that agreement was broken by the emperor (who ruled from Ravenna), Alaric marched again on Rome in 409, and new concessions were made to avoid a siege.
Sarus, a Gothic commander and foe of Alaric, served Honorius. When Sarus attacked Alaric’s men in 410, Alaric assumed the emperor had ordered the attack, so he marched on Rome for the third time—this time successfully. The three-day sack was relatively restrained and Christian churches largely spared. Alaric died in early 411.
Augustine, observing all this, saw that the true Eternal City is the City of God.
James M. Kushiner is the Director of Publications for The Fellowship of St. James and the former Executive Editor of Touchstone.
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