Sack of Rome Roman history [410] Actions Cite verifiedCite While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Select Citation Style MLA APA Chicago Manual of Style Copy Citation Share Share Share to social media Facebook X URL https://www.britannica.com/event/Sack-of-Rome-410 Give Feedback External Websites Feedback Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Feedback Type Select a type (Required) Factual Correction Spelling/Grammar Correction Link Correction Additional Information Other Your Feedback Submit Feedback Thank you for your feedback Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

　　External Websites Academia - “ ‘Roma a Gothis Alarico duce capta est’: The Sack of Rome in 410 CE” World History Encyclopedia - Sack of Rome 410 CE Colorado Pressbooks Network - War and Society Sourcebook: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Gunpowder - Accounts of the Sack of Rome BBC News - 24 August 410: the date it all went wrong for Rome? History Today - The Sack of Rome, 410 Warfare History Network - The Goth Sack of Rome: Barbarians at the Gate in 410 AD Print Cite verifiedCite While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Select Citation Style MLA APA Chicago Manual of Style Copy Citation Share Share Share to social media Facebook X URL https://www.britannica.com/event/Sack-of-Rome-410 Feedback External Websites Feedback Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Feedback Type Select a type (Required) Factual Correction Spelling/Grammar Correction Link Correction Additional Information Other Your Feedback Submit Feedback Thank you for your feedback Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

　　External Websites Academia - “ ‘Roma a Gothis Alarico duce capta est’: The Sack of Rome in 410 CE” World History Encyclopedia - Sack of Rome 410 CE Colorado Pressbooks Network - War and Society Sourcebook: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Gunpowder - Accounts of the Sack of Rome BBC News - 24 August 410: the date it all went wrong for Rome? History Today - The Sack of Rome, 410 Warfare History Network - The Goth Sack of Rome: Barbarians at the Gate in 410 AD Written by Michael Kerrigan Michael Kerrigan has written many books, including volumes on Greece and the Mediterranean and Rome for the BBC Ancient Civilizations series and Ancients in their Own Words (2009). Coauthor of... Michael Kerrigan Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Last Updated: Jul 22, 2024 • Article History Table of Contents

　　Alaric See all media Date: August 24, 410 (Show more) Location: Italy Rome (Show more) Participants: ancient Rome Visigoth (Show more) Key People: Alaric Honorius (Show more) On the Web: Colorado Pressbooks Network - War and Society Sourcebook: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Gunpowder - Accounts of the Sack of Rome (July 18, 2024) (Show more) See all related content → “Rome, once the capital of the world, is now the grave of the Roman people,” wrote Saint Jerome of a cataclysm that no one could have predicted. After several generations of Roman superiority and arrogance, Visigothic mercenaries entered Rome on August 24, 410 ce, and reminded their erstwhile masters of where the real military power lay.

　　Alaric, leader of the Visigoths, had been left embittered by the experience at the Battle of Frigidus. For years he waged war on the Eastern Roman Empire; yet the Western Empire feared the Visigoths’ anger, so much so that in 402 the Romans moved their capital from Rometo the more readily defensible city of Ravenna, in northeastern Italy. That same year, Alaric invaded Italy, but was turned back by the great general Flavius Stilicho at Pollentia in Piedmont. Another Gothic warlord, Radagaisus, was stopped by Stilicho in 406, but the Visigoths kept coming. By 408 Alaric was back in Italy, besieging Rome, now unchecked by Stilicho, who had been executed for suspected treason that year.

　　Even now, the Romans hoped to bring the tenacious Visigoths back into harness as defenders of the empire. Several barbarian peoples, from Germanic warriors such as the Vandals and Sueves to Asiatic nomads such as the Alans and the Huns, had crossed the Rhine and now roamed and ransacked at will beyond the Alps. Alaric was ready to compromise with Rome: he offered to spare the city in return for the promise of an annual payment and a place in the official military hierarchy of the empire. Yet, even with Rome itself at stake, Emperor Honorius haughtily refused.

　　On the night of August 24, 410, some unknown person or persons quietly opened the gates of Rome to admit the Visigoths. Exacting vengeance for Honorius’s slight, as well as the money they were owed, they embarked on a three-day spree of plunder, raiding the treasury and imperial palaces. Throughout, Alaric and his forces, Christians all, were respectful of ordinary Roman citizens and confined destruction to a handful of public buildings. Alaric then marched south, planning to conquer Roman North Africa, but died of illness soon after entering Calabria. His army marched on for Spain, where the Visigoths would settle.

　　Much of the symbolic significance of the Sack of Rome owes to Augustine of Hippo, whose City of God, begun in 413, treats it as a sign of the moral decay wrought by earthly power.

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