Alaric Raid Rome
Alaric soon realized that he has been deceived by the Roman Empire once again. Time and time again, the Romans demonstrated to Alaric that they will barely tolerate the Goths and would massacre them at any available opportunity. Following the ambush, Alaric realized that there was no chance of formulating a treaty with the Empire. Ultimately, what was most important to Alaric was feeding his people. His people were in desperate need of land and food and “At last it was felt that the famine could be borne” (Bradley 92). Therefore, Alaric decided the best course of action would be to raid Rome itself.
On August 24, 410 Alaric began his siege on the city of Rome. Jerome writes in Letter CXXVII (To principia), "My voice sticks in my throat; and, …show more content…
His decision was made out of frustration that 2 years of negotiation had failed to get him anything he had been promised. After attempting to formulate treaty after treaty, he was forced to give into the demands of his followers and sack Rome. Throughout history, the role of barbarians in Roman culture had been contested. When the Romans lacked infantry, they outsourced troops through barbarian mercenary groups. Through this process, the Romans arrived at a conflict. They needed the barbarian groups to defend them. However, they did not feel this entitled the Goths to equal rights. This conflict perpetually placed the barbarians in a state of confusion and was at the root of their sack of Rome. Would the sack of Rome have been avoided had the Romans allowed barbarian assimilation?
While Alaric was considered the king of the Goths, he still tried everything in his power to assimilate his people into Roman society. This was evident in the lines of Themistius, a Roman orator and imperial propagandist, who stated following Stilicho’s deal, “These fire-breathers, harder on the Romans than Hannibal was, have now come over to our side. Tame and submissive, they entrust their persons and their arms to us, whether the emperor wants to employ them as farmers or as soldiers” (Themistius 124). Themistius believed that in time, the Barbarian Goths would be able to assimilate into loyal Romans
On August 24, 410 Alaric began his siege on the city of Rome. Jerome writes in Letter CXXVII (To principia), "My voice sticks in my throat; and, …show more content…
His decision was made out of frustration that 2 years of negotiation had failed to get him anything he had been promised. After attempting to formulate treaty after treaty, he was forced to give into the demands of his followers and sack Rome. Throughout history, the role of barbarians in Roman culture had been contested. When the Romans lacked infantry, they outsourced troops through barbarian mercenary groups. Through this process, the Romans arrived at a conflict. They needed the barbarian groups to defend them. However, they did not feel this entitled the Goths to equal rights. This conflict perpetually placed the barbarians in a state of confusion and was at the root of their sack of Rome. Would the sack of Rome have been avoided had the Romans allowed barbarian assimilation?
While Alaric was considered the king of the Goths, he still tried everything in his power to assimilate his people into Roman society. This was evident in the lines of Themistius, a Roman orator and imperial propagandist, who stated following Stilicho’s deal, “These fire-breathers, harder on the Romans than Hannibal was, have now come over to our side. Tame and submissive, they entrust their persons and their arms to us, whether the emperor wants to employ them as farmers or as soldiers” (Themistius 124). Themistius believed that in time, the Barbarian Goths would be able to assimilate into loyal Romans