Alaric Crosses Alps: Visigoths Invade Italy

The Visigoths under King Alaric I crossed the Julian Alps and descended into the Po Valley of northern Italy in November 401 AD, opening a campaign that would shake the foundations of the Western Roman Empire. Alaric had been a Roman ally and military commander before his relationship with the imperial court deteriorated. Now he led his people as both a king seeking a homeland and a general seeking leverage. The invasion was not a barbarian raid in the popular sense. The Visigoths were a confederation of Gothic peoples who had lived within or near the Roman frontier for decades. Many had served in the Roman army. Alaric himself held a Roman military title. What he wanted was not Rome's destruction but a permanent settlement and an official military command for his people. The empire's refusal to provide either drove the conflict. The Roman general Stilicho, himself of Vandal descent, rallied the Western army to meet Alaric. He withdrew legions from the Rhine frontier and from Britain, weakening Roman defenses in those regions to concentrate forces in Italy. He confronted Alaric at the Battle of Pollentia on Easter Day 402, achieving a tactical draw that forced Alaric to withdraw from Italy temporarily. But the damage was strategic. The withdrawal of troops from the Rhine left that frontier exposed. Within five years, a massive crossing of Vandals, Suevi, and Alans across the frozen Rhine in December 406 would overwhelm the weakened defenses and begin the permanent loss of Roman control over Gaul and Spain. Alaric returned to Italy in 408, after Stilicho was executed by Emperor Honorius on suspicion of treason. Without Stilicho's military leadership, the Western Empire had no effective response. Alaric besieged Rome three times. On August 24, 410, the Visigoths entered the city. The sack of Rome, the first time the city had been taken by a foreign enemy in eight hundred years, sent shockwaves across the Mediterranean. Saint Jerome, writing from Bethlehem, said: "The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken."