query: rome was sacked in 410 by the goths who were led by

pos: Sack of Rome (410) Italy. Sack of Rome (410) The Sack of Rome occurred on 24 August 410. The city was attacked by the Visigoths led by King Alaric. At that time, Rome was no longer the capital of the Western Roman Empire, having been replaced in that position first 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 a major shock to contemporaries, friends, and foes of the Empire alike. This was the first time in almost 800 years

pos: Sack of Rome (410) Italy. Sack of Rome (410) The Sack of Rome occurred on 24 August 410. The city was attacked by the Visigoths led by King Alaric. At that time, Rome was no longer the capital of the Western Roman Empire, having been replaced in that position first 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 a major shock to contemporaries, friends, and foes of the Empire alike. This was the first time in almost 800 years

pos: Sack of Rome (410) Sack of Rome (410) The Sack of Rome occurred on 24 August 410. The city was attacked by the Visigoths led by King Alaric. At that time, Rome was no longer the capital of the Western Roman Empire, having been replaced in that position first 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 a major shock to contemporaries, friends, and foes of the Empire alike. This was the first time in almost 800 years that

pos: Roman Emperors during the Fall of the Western Empire and was the last Emperor to rule both East and West. After Theodosius's death in 395, the Empire was permanently divided into East and West by his 17-year-old and 10-year-old sons, Arcadius and Honorius, respectively. By the time the Visigoths under their king Alaric entered Italy and sacked Rome in 410 – the first time a foreign army had set foot in Rome since 390 BC, some 800 years earlier – Rome had ceased to be capital of the Empire either in East or West (the capital in the East was Nicomedia from 286 to 330, and Constantinople from 330

neg: Goths the years 395-97. They moved west into Italy in 402. They were held in check but in led by Alaric I sacked Rome in 410. Honorius granted the Visigoths lands in Aquitania after they savaged the Sueves, Alans and Vandals in 417. The Visigoths had taken over the south of France and most of Spain in the 470s. The Visigoths, after the Sack of Rome (410) under Alaric I, were settled by the Romans in Aquitaine in 418 as foederates. Periodically they marched on Arles, the seat of the praetorian prefect but were always pushed back. In 437 they signed

neg: History of France Châlons in 274. A migration of Celts appeared in the 4th century in Armorica. They were led by the legendary king Conan Meriadoc and came from Britain. They spoke the now extinct British language, which evolved into the Breton, Cornish, and Welsh languages. In 418 the Aquitanian province was given to the Goths in exchange for their support against the Vandals. Those same Goths had sacked Rome in 410 and established a capital in Toulouse. The Roman Empire had difficulty responding to all the barbarian raids, and Flavius Aëtius had to use these tribes against each other in order to

neg: Alaric I Alaric I Alaric I (; , "ruler of all"; ; 370 (or 375)410 AD) was the first King of the Visigoths from 395–410, son (or paternal grandson) of chieftain Rothestes. He is best known for his sack of Rome in 410, which marked a decisive event in the decline of the Roman Empire. Alaric began his career under the Gothic soldier Gainas, and later joined the Roman army. He first appeared as leader of a mixed band of Goths and allied peoples, who invaded Thrace in 391 but were stopped by the half-Vandal Roman General Stilicho. In 394, he led

neg: Contarini in the third Consular Triumvirate of Rialto, following the invasions of the Goths under Alaric I, who from 402 pillaged the rich provinces of Istria and Venetia and sacked Rome in 410. From the outset the affairs of the early exiles in the islands of the Venetian lagoon were managed by Roman Consuls elected at Padua, including the Contarini. Following the invasion by the Huns of Attila in 452 and the destruction of the large Roman cities of Padua and Aquileia, the islands became a more permanent refuge for the swelling number of exiles. In 466 the exiles decided upon

neg: State church of the Roman Empire by now already diminished Roman Empire. In the 5th century, the Western Empire rapidly decayed and by the end of the century was no more. Within a few decades, Germanic tribes, particularly the Goths and Vandals, conquered the western provinces. Rome was sacked in 410 and 455, and was to be sacked again in the following century in 546. By 476 the Germanic chieftain Odoacer had conquered Italy and deposed the last western emperor, Romulus Augustus, though he nominally submitted to the authority of Constantinople. The Arian Germanic tribes established their own systems of churches and bishops in the western

neg: History of the East–West Schism Empire all of North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia and other islands of the western Mediterranean and that had sacked Rome in 455. The Visigoths had already invaded Italy and sacked Rome in 410, before settling in Iberia and founding a kingdom that lasted for 200 years. They were followed into Roman territory by the Ostrogoths, led by Theodoric the Great, who settled in Italy. In Gaul the Franks (a fusion of western Germanic tribes whose leaders had been aligned with Rome since the third century AD) entered Roman lands gradually and peacefully during the fifth century, and were accepted as rulers

neg: Stilicho followed was two years of political and military manoeuvering, Alaric, king of the Goths, attempting to secure a permanent peace treaty and rights to settle within Roman territory. He besieged Rome three times without attacking while the Roman army of Italy watched helplessly, but only after a fourth failed attempt at a deal was Alaric's siege a success. After months under siege the people of Rome were dying of hunger and some were resorting to cannibalism. Then, the Gothic army broke through the gates and sacked the city in August of 410. Many historians argue that the removal of Stilicho

neg: Sack of Rome (410) their ability to conduct warfare increased to the point of challenging Rome. The Goths, one of the Germanic tribes, had invaded the Roman empire on and off since 238. But in the late 4th century, the Huns began to invade the lands of the Germanic tribes, and pushed many of them into the Roman Empire with greater fervor. In 376, the Huns forced many Therving Goths led by Fritigern and Alavivus to seek refuge in the Eastern Roman empire. Soon after, starvation, high taxes, hatred from the Roman population, and governmental corruption turned the Goths against the Empire. The Goths

neg: Sack of Rome (410) and the Visigoths were expected to provide military service, they were considered autonomous. Fritigern died around 382. In 391, a Gothic chieftain named Alaric was declared king by a group of Visigoths, though the exact time this happened (Jordanes says Alaric was made king in 400 and Peter Heather says 395) and nature of this position are debated. He then led an invasion into Eastern Roman territory outside of the Goths' designated lands. Alaric was defeated by Theodosius and his general Flavius Stilicho in 392, who forced Alaric back into Roman vassalage. In 394, Alaric led a force of Visigoths

neg: Middle Ages mishandled the situation, the Goths began to raid and plunder. Valens, attempting to put down the disorder, was killed fighting the Goths at the Battle of Adrianople on 9 August 378. As well as the threat from such tribal confederacies from the north, internal divisions within the empire, especially within the Christian Church, caused problems. In 400, the Visigoths invaded the Western Roman Empire and, although briefly forced back from Italy, in 410 sacked the city of Rome. In 406 the Alans, Vandals, and Suevi crossed into Gaul; over the next three years they spread across Gaul and in 409

neg: Battle of Verona (402) strong defenses of Ravenna, his capital, to preserve the court from the Goths, but leaving Rome undefended. This brought about the war which ended with the siege and Sack of Rome by Alaric in 410. Battle of Verona (402) The Battle of Verona was fought in June 402 by Alaric's Visigoths, and a Western Roman force led by Stilicho. Alaric was defeated and was forced to withdraw from Italy. After securing from the ineffectual Arcadius (Honorius' brother and Emperor of the East) the Master-Generalship of Illyricum in 397 AD., Alaric, king of the Goths, immediately began to plan for the

neg: Honorius (emperor) siege in which the city was brought to the verge of famine. A palace revolution in Honorius' court led meanwhile to a change of ministers, and those hostile to the Goths were replaced by officers favorable to Alaric, who began peace negotiations. While the embassy was absent, a new change occurred at Ravenna, and Honorius disclaimed the peace which was on the verge of being concluded. The exasperated Alaric returned to Rome and forced the Senate to elect Priscus Attalus emperor, who ratified Alaric's former treaty with Stilicho. In 410, the Eastern Roman Empire sent six Legions (6,000 men; due

neg: Alaric I River comes from Jordanes. Alaric I Alaric I (; , "ruler of all"; ; 370 (or 375)410 AD) was the first King of the Visigoths from 395–410, son (or paternal grandson) of chieftain Rothestes. He is best known for his sack of Rome in 410, which marked a decisive event in the decline of the Roman Empire. Alaric began his career under the Gothic soldier Gainas, and later joined the Roman army. He first appeared as leader of a mixed band of Goths and allied peoples, who invaded Thrace in 391 but were stopped by the half-Vandal Roman General Stilicho.

neg: Greece in the Roman era Augustulus. Stilicho, who pretented he was a regent for Arcadius, evacuated Thessaly when the Visigoths invaded in the late 4th century. Arcadius' chief advisor Eutropius allowed Alaric to enter Greece, and he looted Athens, Corinth and the Peloponnese. Stilicho eventually drove him out around 397 and Alaric was made magister militum in Illyricum. Eventually, Alaric and the Goths migrated to Italy, sacked Rome in 410, and built the Visigothic Kingdom in Iberia, which lasted until 711 with the advent of the Arabs. Greece remained part of the relatively unified eastern half of the empire, which eventually became the center of

neg: Sack of Rome (410) January 17, 395, the Visigoths considered their 382 treaty with Rome to have ended. Alaric quickly led his warriors back to their lands in Moesia, gathered most of the federated Goths in the Danubian provinces under his leadership, and instantly rebelled, invading Thrace and approaching the Eastern Roman capital of Constantinople. The Huns, at the same moment, invaded Asia Minor. The death of Theodosius had also wracked the political structure of the Empire: Theodosius' sons, Honorius and Arcadius, were given the Western and Eastern empires, respectively, but they were young and needed guidance. A power struggle emerged between Stilicho, who

neg: Sack of Rome (410) as hostages to the Goths as insurance. Alaric would then resume his alliance with the Roman Empire. Honorius, under the influence of Olympius, refused and called in five legions from Dalmatia, totaling six thousand men. They were to go to Rome and garrison the city, but their commander, a man named Valens, marched his men into Etruria, believing it cowardly to go around the Goths. He and his men were intercepted and attacked by Alaric's full force, and almost all were killed or captured. Only 100 managed to escape and reach Rome. A second Senatorial embassy, this time including Pope

neg: Sack of Rome (410) as part of Theodosius' army to invade the Western Roman Empire. At the Battle of the Frigidus, around half the Visigoths present died fighting the Western Roman army led by the usurper Eugenius and his general Arbogast. Theodosius won the battle, and although Alaric was given the title "comes" for his bravery, tensions between the Goths and Romans grew as it seemed the Roman generals had sought to weaken the Goths by making them bear the brunt of the fighting. Alaric was also enraged he had not been granted a higher office in the Imperial administration. When Theodosius died on

neg: Western Roman Empire This led many of the soldiers to instead join with Alaric, who returned to Italy in 409 and met little opposition. Despite attempts by Honorius to reach a settlement and six legions of Eastern Roman soldiers sent to support him, the negotiations between Alaric and Honorius broke down in 410 and Alaric sacked the city of Rome. Though the sack was relatively mild and Rome was no longer the capital of even the Western Empire, the event shocked people across both halves of the Empire as this was the first time Rome (viewed at least as the symbolic heart of

neg: Byzantine Greece for Arcadius, evacuated Thessaly when the Visigoths invaded in the late 4th century. Arcadius' Chamberlain Eutropius allowed Alaric to enter Greece, and he looted Corinth, and the Peloponnese. Stilicho eventually drove him out around 397 and Alaric was made "magister militum" in Illyricum. Eventually, Alaric and the Goths migrated to Italy, sacked Rome in 410, and built the Visigothic Empire in Iberia and southern France, which lasted until 711 with the advent of the Arabs. Greece remained part of the relatively unified eastern half of the empire. Contrary to outdated visions of late antiquity, the Greek peninsula was most likely

neg: Gardens of Sallust Nova (newly conquered Numidia). After the writer's great-nephew it passed to Tiberius in 20 AD and was maintained for several centuries by the Roman Emperors as a public amenity. The Emperor Nerva died of a fever in a villa in the gardens in AD 98, and it remained an imperial resort until it was sacked in 410 by the Goths under Alaric, who entered the city at the gates of the "Horti Sallustiani". The complex was severely damaged and never rebuilt However, the gardens were not finally deserted until the 6th century. In the early 17th century Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi,

neg: Western Roman Empire to do so. Stilicho tried to defend Italy and bring the invading Goths under control, but to do so he stripped the Rhine frontier of troops and the Vandals, Alans, and Suevi invaded Gaul in large numbers in 406. Stilicho became a victim of court intrigues and was killed in 408. While the East began a slow recovery and consolidation, the West began to collapse entirely. Alaric's men sacked Rome in 410. Honorius, the younger son of Theodosius I, was declared "Augustus" (and as such co-emperor with his father) on January 23 in 393. Upon the death of Theodosius, Honorius

neg: Siege of Rome (537–538) crossed over to Italy at Rhegium. After a twenty-day siege, the Romans sacked Naples in early November. After the fall of Naples, the Goths, who were enraged with the inactivity of their king, Theodahad, gathered in council and elected Vitiges as their new king. Theodahad, who fled from Rome to Ravenna, was murdered by an agent of Vitiges on the way. In the meantime, Vitiges held a council at Rome, where it was decided not to seek immediate confrontation with Belisarius, but to wait until the main army, stationed in the north, was assembled. Vitiges then departed Rome for Ravenna,

neg: Sack of Rome (410) would be left to the citizens of Rome. Alaric replied, "Their lives." Ultimately, the city was forced to give the Goths 5,000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, 4,000 silken tunics, 3,000 hides dyed scarlet, and 3,000 pounds of pepper in exchange for lifting the siege. The barbarian slaves fled to Alaric as well, swelling his ranks to about 40,000. Many of the barbarian slaves were probably Radagaisus' former followers. To raise the needed money, Roman senators were to contribute according to their means. This led to corruption and abuse, and the sum came up short. The Romans then

neg: Visigoths Stilicho was executed by Honorius in 408 and the Roman legions massacred the families of thousands of barbarian soldiers who were trying to assimilate into the Roman empire, Alaric decided to march on Rome. After two defeats in Northern Italy and a siege of Rome ended by a negotiated pay-off, Alaric was cheated by another Roman faction. He resolved to cut the city off by capturing its port. On August 24, 410, however, Alaric's troops entered Rome through the Salarian Gate, and sacked the city. However, Rome, while still the official capital, was no longer the "de facto" seat of

neg: Western world Empire provinces eventually were replaced by Northern European Germanic ruled kingdoms in the 5th century due to civil wars, corruption, and devastating Germanic invasions from such tribes as the Goths, the Franks and the Vandals by their late expansion throughout Europe. The three-day Visigoths's AD 410 sack of Rome who had been raiding Greece not long before, a shocking time for Graeco-Romans, was the first time after almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy, and St. Jerome, living in Bethlehem at the time, wrote that "The City which had taken the whole world was itself taken."

neg: Sack of Rome (410) one point had been made "magister militum", rebelled, but he was killed by the Huns under Uldin, who sent his head back to Constantinople as a gift. With these events, particularly Rome's use of the feared Huns and cut off from Roman officialdom, Alaric felt his position in the East was precarious. So, while Stilicho was busy fighting an invasion of Vandals and Alans in Rhaetia and Noricum, Alaric led his people into an invasion of Italy in 401, reaching it in November without encountering much resistance. The Goths captured a few unnamed cities and besieged the Western Roman capital

neg: Sack of Rome (410) that end, Stilicho named Alaric "magister militum" of Illyricum in 405. However, the Goth Radagaisus invaded Italy that same year, putting any such plans on hold. Stilicho and the Romans, reinforced by Alans, Goths under Sarus, and Huns under Uldin, managed to defeat Radagaisus in August 406, but only after the devastation of northern Italy. 12,000 of Radagaisus' Goths were pressed into Roman military service, and others were enslaved. So many were sold into slavery by the victorious Roman forces that slave prices temporarily collapsed. Only in 407 did Stilicho turn his attention back to Illyricum, gathering a fleet to

neg: Rome behind it. He was the last emperor of a unified empire: after his death in 395 his sons, Arcadius and Honorius divided the empire into a western and an eastern part. The seat of government in the Western Roman Empire was transferred to Ravenna after the siege of Milan in 402. During the 5th century, the emperors from the 430s mostly resided in the capital, Rome. Rome, which had lost its central role in the administration of the empire, was sacked in 410 by the Visigoths led by Alaric I, but very little physical damage was done, most of which

neg: Roman Italy part of the Western Roman Empire. As a result of Alaric's invasion in 402 the western seat was moved from Mediolanum to Ravenna. Alaric, king of Visigoths, sacked Rome itself in 410; something that hadn't happened for eight centuries. Northern Italy was attacked by Attila's Huns in 452. Rome was sacked in 455 again by the Vandals under the command of Genseric. According to "Notitia Dignitatum", one of the very few surviving documents of Roman government updated to the 420s, Roman Italy was governed by a praetorian prefect, "Prefectus praetorio Italiae" (who also governed the Diocese of Africa and the

neg: Castel Sant'Angelo approach from the center of Rome and the left bank of the Tiber, and is renowned for the Baroque additions of statues of angels holding aloft instruments of the Passion of Christ. Much of the tomb contents and decorations have been lost since the building's conversion to a military fortress in 401 and its subsequent inclusion in the Aurelian Walls by Flavius Augustus Honorius. The urns and ashes were scattered by Visigoth looters during Alaric's sacking of Rome in 410, and the original decorative bronze and stone statuary were thrown down upon the attacking Goths when they besieged Rome in

neg: Sack of Rome (410) intentions for the province. Counseled by Jovius to do away with his puppet emperor, Alaric summoned Attalus to Ariminum and ceremonially stripped him of his imperial regalia and title in the summer of 410. Alaric then reopened negotiations with Honorius. Honorius arranged for a meeting with Alaric about 12 kilometres outside of Ravenna. As Alaric waited at the meeting place, Sarus, who was a sworn enemy of Ataulf and now allied to Honorius, attacked Alaric and his men with a small Roman force. Peter Heather speculates Sarus had also lost the election for the kingship of the Goths to Alaric

neg: Augustus his last words were, "Behold, I found Rome of clay, and leave her to you of marble." An enormous funerary procession of mourners traveled with Augustus' body from Nola to Rome, and on the day of his burial all public and private businesses closed for the day. Tiberius and his son Drusus delivered the eulogy while standing atop two "rostra". Augustus' body was coffin-bound and cremated on a pyre close to his mausoleum. It was proclaimed that Augustus joined the company of the gods as a member of the Roman pantheon. The mausoleum was despoiled by the Goths in 410

neg: Olympius After Stilicho's execution, Olympius prompted Honorius to take a more hostile stance toward the Goths, mostly notably Alaric I, who had previously been cooperating with the Romans. Olympius, through Honorius, orchestrated the massacre of tens of thousands of wives and children of Goths serving in the Roman military. Subsequently, around 30,000 Gothic soldiers defected to Alaric and took part in the first sack of Rome in 800 years, a key event in the fall of the Western Roman Empire. When Constantius, who had been a friend and supporter of Stilicho, became "magister militum" in 410/11, he had Olympius clubbed to

neg: Sack of Rome (410) the sister of emperor Honorius. The Visigoths ravaged Campania, Lucania, and Calabria. Nola and perhaps Capua were sacked, and the Visigoths threatened to invade Sicily and Africa. However, they were unable to cross the Strait of Messina as the ships they had gathered were wrecked by a storm. Alaric died of illness at Consentia in late 410, mere months after the sack. According to legend, he was buried with his treasure by slaves in the bed of the Busento river. The slaves were then killed to hide its location. The Visigoths elected Ataulf, Alaric's brother-in-law, as their new king. The

neg: Volusianus was notable for the outbreak of a plague, which is said by some to be the reason for Hostilian's death, the invasion of the Sasanian Empire, and the raids of the Goths. Volusianus was killed alongside his father in August 253 by their own soldiers, who were terrified of the forces of the usurper Aemilian which were marching towards Rome. Gaius Vibius Afinius Gallus Vendumnianus Volusianus was born in about 230AD to future Roman Emperor Trebonianus Gallus. Trebonianus Gallus had become emperor after the previous emperors, Decius and Herennius Etruscus, were both killed in July 251 by the Goths, led

neg: Sack of Rome (410) Sarus and his band of Goths, still in Italy, remained neutral and aloof. The city of Rome may have held as many as 800,000 people, making it the largest in the world at the time. The Goths under Alaric laid siege to the city in late 408. Panic swept through its streets, and there was an attempt to reinstate pagan rituals in the still religiously mixed city to ward off the Visigoths. Pope Innocent I even agreed to it, provided it be done in private. The pagan priests, however, said the sacrifices could only be done publicly in the Roman

neg: Pope Gregory I Roman Empire had long since vanished in favour of the Gothic kings of Italy, during the 540s Italy was gradually retaken from the Goths by Justinian I, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire ruling from Constantinople. As the fighting was mainly in the north, the young Gregory probably saw little of it. Totila sacked and vacated Rome in 546, destroying most of its population, but in 549 he invited those who were still alive to return to the empty and ruined streets. It has been hypothesized that young Gregory and his parents retired during that intermission to their Sicilian estates,

neg: Sack of Rome (410) of those regions. Using the number of people on the food dole as a guide, Bertrand Lançon estimates the city of Rome's total population fell from 800,000 in 408 to 500,000 by 419. This was the first time the city of Rome had been sacked in almost 800 years, and it had revealed the Western Roman Empire's increasing vulnerability and military weakness. It was shocking to people across both halves of the Empire who viewed Rome as the eternal city and the symbolic heart of their empire. The Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II declared three days of mourning in Constantinople.

neg: Historiography of the fall of the Western Roman Empire Rome was no longer the capital in the West, it remained the West's largest city and its economic center. But the city was sacked by rebellious Visigoths in 410 and by the Vandals in 455, events that shocked contemporaries and signaled the disintegration of Roman authority. Saint Augustine wrote "The City of God" partly as an answer to critics who blamed the sack of Rome by the Visigoths on the abandonment of the traditional pagan religions. In June 474, Julius Nepos became Western Emperor but in the next year the "magister militum" Orestes revolted and made his son Romulus Augustus

neg: Goths areas of Bithynia and the Propontis, including the cities of Chalcedon, Nicomedia, Nicaea, Apamea Myrlea, Cius and Bursa. By the end of the raids, the Goths had seized control over Crimea and the Bosporus and captured several cities on the Euxine coast, including Olbia and Tyras, which enabled them to engage in widespread naval activities. After Gallienus was assassinated outside Milan in the summer of 268 in a plot led by high officers in his army, Claudius Gothicus was proclaimed emperor and headed to Rome to establish his rule. Claudius' immediate concerns were with the Alamanni, who had invaded Raetia

neg: Visigothic Kingdom defeated the King of the Suevi, Rechiarius, at the battle on the river Orbigo in 456 near Asturica Augusta (Astorga) and then sacked Bracara Augusta (Braga), the Suevi capital. The Goths sacked the cities in Spain quite brutally: they massacred a portion of the population and even attacked some holy places, probably due to the clergy's support of the Suevi. Theoderic took control over Hispania Baetica, Carthaginiensis and southern Lusitania. In 461, the Goths received the city of Narbonne from the emperor Libius Severus in exchange for their support. This led to a revolt by the army and by Gallo-Romans

neg: San Biagio Saracinisco mines, extracted from Mount Meta. Because of its closeness with the way Sora-Venafro-Capua, which winds between the mountains, this village and many around were less controlled than the ones on the way Rome and Naples situated in the plain, so they were the theater of numerous revolts and wars against the Roman power, particularly against the slavery in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the territory was successively occupied by the Barbarians (towards 410), the Goths of Alaric (455), the Vandals (476), the Herules then the Lombards and the Saracens. In 1055 Pandolfo

neg: Siege of Philippopolis (250) too late. After a long siege, Cniva was victorious after the city was betrayed by a citizen. The king subsequently allied himself with the governor of Thrace, Titus Julius Priscus, to take on the Roman Emperor Decius again at Abritus. Siege of Philippopolis (250) The Siege of Philippopolis was fought in about 250 between Rome and the Goths during the invasions of 249–253 at the Thracian city of Philippopolis, modern Plovdiv, Bulgaria. It was part of the long-running series of Gothic Wars. The Goths were led by King Cniva who had crossed the Danube in 249 or 250 with two

neg: Siege of Rome (537–538) of it and brought the 3,000 Isaurians, who had landed at Ostia, along with a large amount of supplies, safely to Rome. During the armistice, the Goths' situation deteriorated for want of supplies, and they were forced to abandon the "Portus", which was promptly occupied by an Isaurian garrison, as well as the city of Centumcellae (modern Civitavecchia) and Albano. Thus, by the end of December, the Goths were virtually surrounded by Roman detachments, and their supply routes effectively cut. The Goths protested these actions, but to no avail. Belisarius even sent one of his best generals, John, with 2,000

neg: The Kurgan During the intervening centuries, the Kurgan took an incalculable number of Immortal heads. Circa 410 AD, the Kurgan joined the Vandals, Goths, and Visigoths in attacking Rome and other Roman settlements, also fighting with the Goths against the Huns. He would then later ally himself with the Huns directly, fighting alongside Attila, around the year 453. From the fifth to thirteenth centuries, the Kurgan would spread terror with the Tatars of the Gobi and ancient Turkey, as well as with Viking raiders and the Mongol horde of Genghis Khan. In the final shooting draft of the "" screenplay, it was

neg: Battle of Mucellium Byzantine army dispersed in disorder. The Goths took many captives, who were treated well and even induced to join the Gothic army, while the Byzantine generals fled to isolated strongholds (Bessas to Spoleto, Justin back to Florence, Cyprian to Perugia and John to Rome), and henceforth failed to cooperate against the Goths. Battle of Mucellium The Battle of Mucellium was an engagement in 542 near Mugello, Italy, between Ostrogoths and Byzantines during the Gothic War. Having lifted a siege of Florence, the Ostrogoths led by Totila turned on the pursuing Byzantines, defeating their numerically superior force. Following his success against

neg: Decline of Greco-Roman polytheism punished men of rank who simply kept silent over any pagan rite performed in their own city or district. The hopes of pagans were revived with the elevation of Priscus Attalus, at Rome, in 409. Alaric, an Arian Christian, soon tired of his puppet, however, and Attalus was deposed in the summer of 410 when Honorius promised to negotiate a peace treaty. When these negotiations failed, Alaric took and sacked the city of Rome. This catastrophe shocked the entire Roman world. Both Christians and pagans quickly began to blame each other for something that had hitherto been thought impossible. In

neg: Livia of Augustus along with her husband's, races were held in her honor, and women were to invoke her name in their sacred oaths. In AD 410, during the Sack of Rome, her ashes were scattered when Augustus' tomb was sacked. Her Villa ad Gallinas Albas north of Rome is currently being excavated; its famous frescoes of imaginary garden views may be seen at National Museum of Rome. One of the most famous statues of Augustus (the Augustus of Prima Porta) came from the grounds of the villa. While reporting various unsavory hearsay, the ancient sources generally portray Livia as a

neg: Siege of Philippopolis (250) Siege of Philippopolis (250) The Siege of Philippopolis was fought in about 250 between Rome and the Goths during the invasions of 249–253 at the Thracian city of Philippopolis, modern Plovdiv, Bulgaria. It was part of the long-running series of Gothic Wars. The Goths were led by King Cniva who had crossed the Danube in 249 or 250 with two armies. His army attacked Novae and Nicopolis ad Istrum unsuccessfully before defeating the army of Emperor Decius at Augusta Traiana and moving on to Philippopolis. Decius had been on his way to relieve Philippopolis with a reinforced army, but arrived

neg: History of Rome what is modern North and Central-East Italy. In 387 BC, Rome was sacked and burned by the Senones coming from eastern Italy and led by Brennus, who had successfully defeated the Roman army at the Battle of the Allia in Etruria. Multiple contemporary records suggest that the Senones hoped to punish Rome for violating its diplomatic neutrality in Etruria. The Senones marched to Rome without harming the surrounding countryside; once sacked, the Senones withdrew from Rome. Brennus was defeated by the dictator Furius Camillus at Tusculum soon afterwards. After that, Rome hastily rebuilt its buildings and went on the offensive,

neg: Sack of Rome (410) Innocent I, was sent with Gothic guards to Honorius to plead with him to accept the Visigoths' demands. The imperial government also received word that Ataulf, Alaric's brother-in-law, had crossed the Julian Alps with his Goths into Italy with the intent of joining Alaric. Honorius summoned together all available Roman forces in northern Italy. Honorius placed 300 Huns of the imperial guard under the command of Olympius, and possibly the other forces as well, and ordered him to intercept Ataulf. They clashed near Pisa, and despite his force supposedly killing 1,100 Goths and losing only 17 of his own men,

neg: Campus Martius were razed, and some were given new roles, such as the Pantheon. In 663 A.D. its bronze roof tiles were removed and replaced with lead, an act that Gregorius said was the result of “excessive avarice and the ‘excessive greed for gold.'” In the fifth century, Rome was burned and sacked twice: by the Visigoths in 410 A.D. and by the Vandals in 455 A.D. Three earthquakes racked the city between 408 and 508 A.D, and two floods washed over low-lying spaces in 398 and 411 A.D. Many marble facings and columns were tossed into kilns to be burned into

neg: Suasa a "municipium". Suasa started to decline from the 3rd century; in 409, it was sacked by Alarich's Goths during his march against Rome (see Sack of Rome). It was abandoned in the 6th century after the Gothic War, the population moving to nearby settlements. The remains have been axcavated by the University of Bologna since 1987. The edifices found include: The Suasa archaeological park is an archaeological area in Castelleone di Suasa (province of Ancona, Marche, Italy). It includes the remains of the ancient town of Suasa, abandoned in the 6th century AD. The open-air museum of a Roman house

neg: Sack of Rome (546) the Goths. As the Goths cautiously advanced into the city, many of the defenders escaped through another gate; according to Procopius, only 500 were left who sought refuge in various churches; 26 soldiers and 60 civilians were killed. Rome was plundered but Totila - who had apparently intended to turn the city into a sheep pasture relented. However he tore down about one third of the defensive walls before leaving in pursuit of Byzantine forces in Apulia. After defeating a force left behind by Totila, Belisarius decided to re-occupy Rome in the spring of 547 and hastily rebuilt the demolished

neg: Sigillo Sigillo Sigillo is a "comune" (municipality) in the province of Perugia in the Italian region Umbria, located about 35 km northeast of Perugia. Sigillo borders the following municipalities: Costacciaro, Fabriano, Fossato di Vico, Gubbio. Before the Roman conquest, the territory of Sigillo was inhabited by the "Suillates", an Umbri tribe; later it was a Roman municipality as Suillum and was a stage on the Via Flaminia. In 410 it was destroyed by the Goths of Alaric I during his march to Rome. Later it was part of the Lombard Duchy of Spoleto and of the gastaldate of Nocera, which, after

neg: Sack of Rome (410) of the urns in both tombs were scattered. Any and all moveable goods were stolen all over the city. Some of the few places the Goths spared were the two major basilicas connected to Peter and Paul, though from the Lateran Palace they stole a massive, 2,025-pound silver ciborium that had been a gift from Constantine. Structural damage to buildings was largely limited to the areas near the old Senate house and the Salarian Gate, where the Gardens of Sallust were burned and never rebuilt. The Basilica Aemilia and the Basilica Julia were also burned. The city's citizens were devastated.

neg: Ostrogothic Ravenna his capital and the empire as a whole, in particular his grandson Athalaric who succeeded him at the age of eight under the regency of his mother Amalasuintha. The Gothic Kingdom eventually fell to the invasions by Belisarius as part of Justinian's ambitious plans of reconquering the territories of the western empire lost to Germanic invasions. In 476 the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, Romulus Augustus, was forced to abdicate under invasions by Goths led by Odovacar. Upon the sacking of Rome by these Goths, Odovacar declared himself King of Italy and was able to conquer the peninsula

neg: Basilica Aemilia hall or court (100 m long and 29.9 m deep) was located behind the shops. The wooden roof, the Tabernae as well as the facade of the basilica were completely destroyed by fire when Rome was sacked by Alaric the Visigoth in 410 AD. On the colored marble floor one still can see the green stains of bronze coins from the early fifth century that melted in the fire. The basilica was rebuilt after the fire by adding a new floor while the central part of the front porch was replaced by a portico in c.420 with columns of pink

neg: Julian (novel) personal memoir. Christianity has, by this stage, become the official religion of the Roman Empire (as decreed by the emperor Theodosius), with rioting and inquisition causing extreme violence between traditionalists and Christians, and even between Christian sects. Only thirty years after the novel took place, the city of Rome would be sacked by the Goths. The memoir relates Julian's life from the time so many members of his family were purged by his cousin, the emperor Constantius II (whom he succeeded on the throne), his "exile" to libraries as a child, and his subsequent negative childhood experiences with Christian hypocrisy

neg: Aemilianus to several attacks by the Goths led by king Cniva. Gallus secured the throne after the death of emperor Decius at the hands of Cniva in the Battle of Abrittus (251), and later had to manage an outbreak of plague that devastated Rome. He was not popular with the army, mainly due to humiliating treaties signed in 251 with the Goths and King Shapur I of Persia who attacked Syria. According to John of Antioch, upon his appointment to the Moesian command, Aemilian was already envious of Gallus and plotted treachery against him. He was also an opponent of the

neg: Nicomedia sacred precinct on a hill above the harbor. The city adopted official cults of Rome avidly, there were temples dedicated to the Emperor Commodus, a sacred precinct of the city dedicated to Octavian, and a temple of Roma dedicated during the late-Republic. The city was sacked in AD 253 by the Goths, but when Diocletian made the city his capital in 283 AD he undertook grand restorations and built an enormous palace, an armory, mint and new shipyards. The ruins of Nicomedia are buried beneath the densely populated modern city of Izmit, which has largely obstructed comprehensive excavation. Before the

neg: Sack of Rome (410) Mediolanum. Stilicho, now with Alan and Vandal federates in his army, relieved the siege, forcing a crossing at the Adda river. Alaric retreated to Pollentia. On Easter Sunday, April 6, 402, Stilicho launched a surprise attack which became the Battle of Pollentia. The battle ended in a draw, and Alaric fell back. After brief negotiations and maneuvers, the two forces clashed again at the Battle of Verona, where Alaric was defeated and besieged in a mountain fortress, taking heavy casualties. At this point, a number of Goths in his army started deserting him, including Sarus, who went over to the

neg: History of the Balkans lands inside the Byzantine realm (south of the Danube), as "foederati" (allies). However, after a period of famine, the proto-Visigoths rebelled and defeated the emperor in 378. The Visigoths subsequently sacked Rome in 410, and in an attempt to deal with them, they were granted lands in France. The Huns, a confederation of a Turkic-Uralic ruling core that subsequently incorporated various Germanic, Sarmatian and Slavic tribes, moved west into Europe entering Pannonia in 400–410 AD. The Huns are supposed to have triggered the great German migrations into western Europe. From their base, the Huns subdued many people and carved out

neg: Visigoths I and sacked Rome in 410. After the Visigoths sacked Rome, they began settling down, first in southern Gaul and eventually in Hispania, where they founded the Visigothic Kingdom and maintained a presence from the 5th to the 8th centuries AD. The Visigoths first settled in southern Gaul as "foederati" to the Romans – a relationship established in 418. However, they soon fell out with their Roman hosts (for reasons that are now obscure) and established their own kingdom with its capital at Toulouse. They next extended their authority into Hispania at the expense of the Suebi and Vandals. In

neg: Fravitta there were two parties, which grew more and more hostile to each other. One was formed by the Arian Christian majority, the "Gothic party", led by Eriulf and opposed to the assimilation of the Goths in the Roman culture. Fravitta, on the other side, led those Goths who wanted to stay faithful to the treaty and who wanted to be assimilated. In 391, while Eriulf and Fravitta were both dining with Theodosius, they quarrelled, and Fravitta killed Eriulf, and only the intervention of the imperial guards saved him from the vengeful followers of Eriulf; while his support among the Goths

neg: Sack of Rome (410) and Jovius swore on the Emperor's head never to make peace with Alaric. Alaric himself soon changed his mind when he heard Honorius was attempting to recruit 10,000 Huns to fight the Goths. He gathered a group of Roman bishops and sent them to Honorius with his new terms. He no longer sought Roman office or tribute in gold. He now only requested lands in Noricum and as much grain as the Emperor found necessary. Historian Olympiodorus the Younger, writing many years later, considered these terms extremely moderate and reasonable. But it was too late: Honorius' government, bound by oath

neg: Role of Christianity in civilization Constantinople as a new imperial city which would be the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Eastern Patriarch in Constantinople now came to rival the Pope in Rome and Rome itself was sacked by the Visigoths in 410 and the Vandals in 455. Although cultural continuity and interchange would continue between these Eastern and Western Roman Empires, the history of Christianity and Western culture took divergent routes, with a final Great Schism separating Roman and Eastern Christianity in 1054AD. The remarkable transformation of Christianity from peripheral sect, to major force within the Empire is illustrated by the influence held

neg: Goths the Roman Emperor Decius was killed. At the time, there were at least two groups of Goths: the Thervingi and the Greuthungs. Goths were subsequently heavily recruited into the Roman Army to fight in the Roman-Persian Wars, notably participating at the Battle of Misiche in 242. The Moesogoths settled in Thrace and Moesia. The first seaborne raids took place in three subsequent years, probably 255-257. An unsuccessful attack on Pityus was followed in the second year by another, which sacked Pityus and Trabzon and ravaged large areas in the Pontus. In the third year, a much larger force devastated large

neg: Nazism light-skinned, light-eyed, blond-haired people. He said that the Roman Empire was developed by the Italics who were related to the Celts who were also a Nordic people. He believed that the vanishing of the Nordic component of the populations in Greece and Rome led to their downfall. The Renaissance was claimed to have developed in the Western Roman Empire because of the Germanic invasions that brought new Nordic blood to the Empire's lands, such as the presence of Nordic blood in the Lombards (referred to as Longobards in the book); that remnants of the western Goths were responsible for the

neg: Fall of the Western Roman Empire offered mutilation, humiliation, and exile). Indeed, Attalus's claim was a marker of threat to Honorius, and Alaric dethroned him after a few months. In 410 Alaric took Rome by starvation, sacked it for three days (there was relatively little destruction, and in some Christian holy places Alaric's men even refrained from wanton wrecking and rape), and invited its remaining barbarian slaves to join him, which many did. The city of Rome was the seat of the richest senatorial noble families and the centre of their cultural patronage; to pagans it was the sacred origin of the empire, and to Christians

neg: Balt dynasty "Baltha, which [in Gothic] means bold" ("Baltha, qui est audax"). The Visigoths as a nation were formed under the rule of Alaric I, the first named Balt, only in 395. He famously sacked Rome in 410. His descendants continued to rule down to 531, when on the death of Amalaric the line went extinct. In 507, the Visigoths were defeated by the Franks at the Battle of Vouillé and lost most of their kingdom. In 511, the Ostrogothic king Theoderic the Great intervened to depose the Balt king Gesalec. He ruled himself until his death in 526, when Amalaric succeded

neg: Sant'Agata de' Goti, Rome Sant'Agata de' Goti, Rome Sant'Agata dei Goti is a church in Rome, Italy, dedicated to the martyr Saint Agatha. It is the "diaconia" assigned to Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. The church was built by Ricimer for the Goths c. 460. The Goths were Arians, so when Arianism was suppressed in Rome, the building was taken over by the Catholic Church, in 592 or 593, and reconsecrated by Pope Gregory the Great. It was restored in the 9th century, and a Benedictine monastery was founded next to it. The apse of the church

neg: Battle of Faesulae (406) or early 406 led by Radagaisus. After overrunning the undefended Rhaetia and northern Italy, heavily devastating the fertile countryside, they halted to besiege Florence, only 180 miles north of Rome. Stilicho, Master-General of the west, hastily gathered forces for the defense of Italy, enrolling in his service a tribe of the Alani, and numbers of the Goths under Sarus and the Huns under Uldin, his army amounting, according to ancient sources, to some 40,000 Romans and auxiliaries. Radagaisus, by comparison, who likewise had in his army miscellaneous detachments of Goths and Alani, had as many as 200,000 barbarian warriors at

neg: Gothic War (376–382) the Roman Empire dealt with barbarian peoples, both without and within. The Therving Goths would now be able to negotiate their position with Rome, with force if necessary, as a unified people inside the borders of the Empire and would transform themselves into the Visigoths. At times they would act as friends and allies to the Romans, at other times as enemies. This change in Rome's relationship with barbarians would lead to the sack of Rome in 410. The Gothic War also affected the religion of the Empire. Valens had been an Arian Christian and his death at Adrianople helped

neg: Campaign history of the Roman military declined. The Carpi and Sarmatians whom Rome had held at bay were replaced by the Goths and likewise the Quadi and Marcomanni that Rome had defeated were replaced by the greater confederation of the Alamanni. The assembled warbands of the Alamanni frequently crossed the "limes", attacking Germania Superior such that they were almost continually engaged in conflicts with the Roman Empire, whilst Goths attacked across the Danube in battles such as the Battle of Beroa and Battle of Philippopolis in 250 AD and the Battle of Abrittus in 251 AD, and both Goths and Heruli ravaged the Aegean and, later,

neg: Radagaisus Radagaisus Radagaisus (died 23 August 406) was a Gothic king who led an invasion of Roman Italy in late 405 and the first half of 406. A committed Pagan, Radagaisus evidently planned to sacrifice the Senators of the Christian Roman Empire to the gods, and to burn Rome to the ground. Radagaisus was executed after being defeated by the half-Vandal general Stilicho. 12,000 of his higher-status fighters were drafted into the Roman army and some of the remaining followers were dispersed, while so many of the others were sold into slavery that the slave market briefly collapsed. These Goths later

neg: Uldin to help defeat the invasion of Italy by the Goths led by king Radagaisus. Orosius numbered 200,000 Goths. At the Battle of Faesulae (406), Hunnic auxiliaries encircled a significant part of Goths, and Radagaisus tried to escape, but was captured and executed in April 406 AD. It is considered that Goths of Radagaisus fled from the Hunnic lands, who themselves were pushed Westward by other nomadic tribes from the East. In the summer of 408, Huns being informed that Stilicho won't push Alaric I Visigoths into Illyricum, and East Roman troops were moved to the Persian frontier, they entered the

neg: Gothic War (535–554) of Dalmatia was in Roman hands. In the late spring of 536 Belisarius crossed into Italy, where he captured Rhegium and made his way north. Naples was besieged for three weeks before the Imperial troops forced their way in during November. The largely barbarian Roman army sacked the city. Belisarius moved north to Rome, which in view of the fate of Naples, put up no resistance; Belisarius entered unopposed in December. The rapidity of the Byzantine advance took the Goths by surprise and the inactivity of Theodahad enraged them. After the fall of Naples he was deposed and replaced by

neg: Battle of Naissus that Claudius' efforts against the Goths (including the battle of Naissus) were no more than a mopping-up operation. After his victory, Gallienus left Marcian in place and hastily left for Italy, intending to suppress the revolt of his cavalry officer Aureolus. After Gallienus was assassinated outside Milan in the summer of 268 in a plot led by high officers in his army, Claudius was proclaimed emperor and headed to Rome to establish his rule. Claudius' immediate concerns were with the Alemanni, who had invaded Raetia and Italy. After he defeated them in the Battle of Lake Benacus, he was finally

neg: Greek Theatre of Syracuse now lost mentioned a Neratius Palmatus as the one responsible for a renovation of the scene: if this was the same person who restored the Curia at Rome after the Sack of Rome by Alaric in 410, then the final works on the theatre at Syracuse can be dated to the beginning of the fifth century AD, by which time the building was nearly nine hundred years old. Remaining abandoned for centuries, it underwent progressive spoliation at the hands of the Spanish under Charles V, who used the stone blocks to construct new fortifications on Ortygia. This process led to

neg: Gothic War (535–554) Vitiges. He left Rome for Ravenna, where he married Amalasuntha's daughter Matasuntha and began rallying his forces against the invasion. Vitiges led a large force against Rome, where Belisarius, who did not have enough troops to face the Goths in the open field, had remained. The subsequent siege of Rome, the first of three in the Gothic War, lasted from March 537 to March 538. There were sallies, minor engagements and several large actions but after 1,600 Slavs and Huns arrived from Constantinople in April 537 and 5,000 men in November, the Byzantines took the offensive and their cavalry captured

neg: Themes in Titus Andronicus worthiness, honour and valour. They serve as a rebuke to the decadence into which Rome has fallen. This is of a piece with the play's persistent dissolution of the binary opposition which associates Rome and the city with virtue, the Goths and the woods with barbarism." Jacques Berthoud argues that the Goths at the end of the play are Germanic whereas Tamora is not a Germanic name, but is instead Asiatic, thus the Goths at the end of the play (the Germanic Goths) are not the Goths ruled over by Tamora (the barbaric Goths). Speaking of Tamora's Goths, Berthoud argues

neg: Visigoths for his army". However, a famine broke out and Rome was unwilling to supply them with either the food they were promised or the land. Generally, the Goths were abused by the Romans, who began forcing the now starving Goths to trade away their children so as to stave off starvation. Open revolt ensued, leading to 6 years of plundering throughout the Balkans, the death of a Roman Emperor and a disastrous defeat of the Roman army. The Battle of Adrianople in 378 was the decisive moment of the war. The Roman forces were slaughtered and the Emperor Valens was

neg: Italy in the Middle Ages great European powers for the next sixty years, finally culminating in the Italian War of 1551–59, which concluded with Habsburg Spain as the dominant power in Italy. The House of Habsburg would control Italy for the duration of the early modern period, until Napoleon's invasion of Italy in 1796. Italy was invaded by the Visigoths in the 5th century, and Rome was sacked by Alaric in 410. The (traditional) last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus, was deposed in 476 by an Eastern Germanic general, Odoacer. He subsequently ruled in Italy for seventeen years as "rex gentium", theoretically under the suzerainty

neg: Roman Catholic Suburbicarian Diocese of Porto-Santa Rufina basin, and in a short time there grew around it a city which soon became independent of Ostia. It was near Porto that Julius Nepos compelled Emperor Glycerius to abdicate (474). During the Gothic War the town served the Goths (537 and 549) and the Byzantines (546–552) as a base of operations against Rome. In the 9th and 10th centuries it was sacked on several occasions by the Saracens. In 849 Pope Leo IV fortified it and established there a colony of Corsicans for the defence of the coast and the neighbouring territory, but the city continued to decay. Christianity

neg: Goths at Adrianople, Julius, the magister militum of the Eastern Roman Empire, organized a widescale massacre of Goths in Asia Minor, Syria and other parts of the Roman East. Fearing rebellion, Julian lured the Goths into the confines of urban streets from which they could not escape and massacred soldiers and civilians alike. As word spread, the Goths rioted throughout the region, and large numbers were killed. Survivors may have settled in Phrygia. Although the Huns successfully subdued many of the Goths, who joined their ranks, a group of Goths led by Fritigern fled across the Danube. Major sources for this

neg: Pelagius laxity of society. He blamed this laxity on the theology of divine grace preached by Augustine, among others. He began to teach a very strict, rigid moralism, emphasizing a natural, innate human ability to attain salvation. When Alaric sacked Rome in 410, Pelagius and his follower Caelestius fled to Carthage, where he continued his work. By 415, he was in Jerusalem. Pelagianism quickly spread, especially around Carthage. Augustine wrote ""De peccatorum meritis et remissione" libri III" (Three Books on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins) in 412, and ""De spiritu et littera"" (On the Spirit and the Letter) in 414.

neg: Orosius "" which is a history focused on the pagan races. The date of the book is not our main focus here, what is more important is Orosius's objective in responding to Saint Augustine's request by writing a book aimed at proving that Rome’s decadence – it should be remembered that Rome was sacked by Alaric I in 410 – had nothing at all to do with the fact that the Romans had relatively recently converted to Christianity. In a more general way Orosius wanted to show that the world has improved since the introduction of Christianity rather than declined as

neg: Cosenza benefited from municipal privileges. In 410 AD Alaric I, king of the Visigoths sacked the city of Rome and became the first foreign enemy to capture the city in over 800 years. After leaving Rome, Alaric had amassed a great amount of treasure from his conquest of the city. According to the Gothic historian Jordanes, After sacking Rome Alaric left and headed south with his troops until reaching the area of Cosenza, where he died. No one is certain how this happened: Some believe he contracted a disease that took his life, while others feel that his death came from

neg: Sack of Rome (410) stripped down and melted pagan statues and shrines to make up the difference. Zosimus reports one such statue was of Virtus, and that when it was melted down to pay off barbarians it seemed "all that remained of the Roman valor and intrepidity was totally extinguished". Honorius consented to the payment of the ransom, and with it the Visigoths lifted the siege and withdrew to Etruria in December 408. In January 409, the Senate sent an embassy to the imperial court at Ravenna to encourage the Emperor to come to terms with the Goths, and to give Roman aristocratic children

neg: Alaric I the Visigoths again surrounded Rome. Alaric lifted his blockade after proclaiming Attalus Western Emperor. Attalus appointed him magister utriusque militiae ("master of both services"), but refused to allow him to send an army into Africa. Negotiations with Honorius broke down, after which Alaric deposed Attalus in the summer of 410 and besieged Rome for the third time. Allies within the capital opened the gates for him on August24, and for three days his troops sacked the city. Although the Visigoths plundered Rome, they treated its inhabitants humanely and burned only a few buildings. Having abandoned a plan to occupy Sicily

neg: Uldin reason as allies of Western Roman Empire they did not attack the Visigoths of Alaric I in Pannonia Secunda and Pannonia Savia because they fought under Uldin in Illyricum and Thrace. Some Hun garrisons were in the West Roman army led by Stilicho, and in Ravenna. In the summer of 409, a large 10,000 strong men Hunnic army was called into assistance by Honorius, but it was probably only few thousand strong as did not stop Alaric I from Sack of Rome (410). Zosimus records that in late 409 some groups of Huns joined the Visigoths from Pannonia Prima who

neg: Siege of Rome (537–538) abandoned Rome, marching northeast along the "Via Flaminia". But Belisarius led out his forces, and waited until half the Gothic army had crossed the Milvian Bridge before attacking the remainder. After initially fierce resistance, the Goths finally broke, and many were slain or drowned in the river. After their victory over a numerically much superior enemy, the Romans gained the upper hand. Reinforcements under Narses arrived, which enabled Belisarius to take several Gothic strongholds and control most of Italy south of the River Po by the end of 539. Eventually, Ravenna itself was taken by deceit in May 540, and

neg: Nicopolis "koinon". Nicopolis is mentioned by Ptolemy Peutinger Tabulae Antonious Itinerary The late third century was a time of troubles for the whole Empire: the city was attacked by the Goths and Heruli, but managed to avoid looting thanks to makeshift fortifications. In 268, the Goths launched a combined land-sea invasion against the Roman Empire, assisted by Heruli sailors and other tribesmen. Their naval forces ravaged Byzantium and Chrysopolis, though the imperial fleet successfully counter-attacked on the Propontis. Meanwhile, the land forces overran Thrace and continued into Achaea as far south as Sparta; the invading Goths and Heruli sacked Athens, crossed

neg: Ostrogothic Kingdom by the Gepids. The campaign was successful, but it also led to a brief conflict with imperial troops, where the Goths and their allies were victorious. Domestically, the Acacian schism between the patriarchates of Rome and Constantinople, caused by imperial support for the "Henotikon", as well as Anastasius' Monophysite beliefs, played into Theoderic's hands, since the clergy and the Roman aristocracy of Italy, headed by Pope Symmachus, vigorously opposed them. Thus, for a time, Theoderic could count on their support. The war between the Franks and Visigoths led to renewed friction between Theoderic and the Emperor, as Clovis successfully portrayed

neg: Rome: The World's First Superpower history of the Eternal City did away with the nuances – and was all the better for it" The second episode starts at the Roma Termini railway station where we are led to discover how the city of Rome was sacked and razed to the ground by the Gauls who also killed many of its citizens, which led to the construction of a great wall to protect the city from future raids, many parts of the wall are preserved around Rome to the present day. In this episode we learn how Tiberius Gracchus became a "champion of the common citizen

neg: Roman Italy Milan), and the Eastern Roman Empire, with its capital at Constantinople (now Istanbul). In 402, the capital was moved to Ravenna from Milan, confirming the decline of the city of Rome (which was sacked in 410 for the first time in seven centuries). The name "Italia" covered an area whose borders evolved over time. According to Strabo's "Geographica", before the expansion of the Roman Republic, the name was used by Greeks to indicate the land between the strait of Messina and the line connecting the gulf of Salerno and gulf of Taranto (corresponding roughly to the current region of Calabria);