Events on 24 August In 410 - Visigoths management chief Alaric conquered and plundered Rome. The Sack of Rome occurred on August 24, 410. The city was attacked by the Visigoths, led by Alaric I. At that time, Rome was no longer the capital of the Western Roman Empire, having been replaced in this position by Mediolanum in 286 and then by Ravenna in 402. Nevertheless, the city of Rome retained a paramount position as the eternal city and a spiritual center of the Empire. The sack was to prove a major shock to contemporaries, friends and foes of the Empire alike. This was the first time in almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to an enemy. The previous sack of Rome had been accomplished by the Gauls under their leader Brennus in 387 BC. The sacking of 410 is seen as a major landmark in the fall of the Western Roman Empire. St. Jerome, living in Bethlehem at the time, wrote that The City which had taken the whole world was itself taken. Barbarian tribes had grown stronger for some time, and united themselves to challenge Roman hegemony. In the late 4th century, however, the Huns began to overrun barbarian territories. In 376, they forced many Thervings, led by Fritigern, to seek exile into the Eastern Roman Empire. Soon after, high taxes, Roman prejudice, and government corruption turned them against the Empire. The group began looting and pillaging throughout the Eastern Balkans. In the Battle of Adrianople in 378, Fritigern decisively defeated the Eastern Emperor Valens, who died during, or soon after, the battle. Peace was eventually established in 382, when the new Eastern Emperor, Theodosius I, signed a treaty with the aggressors, later known as the Visigoths. The Treaty of 382 made the Visigoths subjects of the empire. They were allotted the northern dioceses of Dacia and Thrace, and the land was to remain under Roman sovereignty, but the Visigoths were considered autonomous. Soon after, Alaric I, who would later become King of the Visigoths, began rising through the ranks. He accompanied Theodosius army invading the West in 394, where, at the Battle of the Frigidus, around half the Visigoths present died fighting the Western Roman army led by Eugenius and his general Arbogast. Theodosius won the battle, but Alaric was likely convinced that the Romans sought to weaken the Goths by making them bear the brunt of warfare. Alaric was practically ruler of the Visigoths by the time Theodosius died in 395; Fritigern had died in 380 Illustration:Sack of Rome by the Visigoths on 24 August 410 by JN Sylvestre 1890
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 10:03:05 +0000
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