Alaric Sacks Rome — The City Falls for the First Time in 800 Years
The sack of Rome in 410 CE was both a military event and a psychological earthquake that shattered the Roman world's self-understanding. Alaric had been seeking a military command in the Roman army and an autonomous settlement for his Visigoths within imperial territory. He besieged Rome three times; twice the Romans bought him off. The third siege in August 410 CE ended with the gates being opened — possibly by slaves or sympathisers. The sack lasted three days. The Visigoths were nominally Christian, and churches were declared sanctuaries; the population that took refuge in basilicas was spared. Property was pillaged but the structural fabric of the city was not destroyed. By ancient standards the sack was almost moderate. But the psychological impact was enormous. Rome had been the eternal city, the mistress of the world, unconquered for eight centuries. Refugees spread across the Mediterranean carrying the news. Jerome, in Bethlehem, wrote that he could not speak for weeping. St Augustine, in North Africa, spent thirteen years writing The City of God to answer pagans who blamed Rome's fall on its abandonment of the traditional gods. Alaric died of fever in southern Italy shortly afterward. His followers buried him in the riverbed of the Busento, then diverted the river back, executing the slaves who dug the grave — the burial place remains unfound.
- Year: 410 CE
- Category: Military
