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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: AJA-ALL |
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ALARIC (Ala-reiks, " All-ruler "), (c. 370-410) , Gothic conqueror, the first Teutonic leader who stood as a conqueror in the city of Rome, was probably born about 370 in an islandnamed Pence (the Fir) at the mouth of the Danube. He was of noble descent, his father being a scion of the family of the Balthi or Bold-men, next in dignity among Gothic warriors to the Amals. He was a. Goth and belonged to the western branch of that nation sometimes called the Visigothswho at the time of his birth were quartered in the region now known as Bulgaria, having taken refuge
In the year 394 he served as a general of foederati (Gothic irregulars) under the emperor Theodosius in the campaign in which he crushed the usurper Eugenius. As the battle which terminated this campaign, the battle of the Frigidus, was fought near the passes of the Julian Alps, Alaric probably learnt at this time the weakness of the natural defences of Italy on her north-eastern frontier. The employment of barbarians as foederati, which became a common practice with the emperors in the 4th century, was both a symptom of disease in the body politic of the empire and a hastener of its impending ruin. The provincial population, crushed under a load of unjust taxation, could no longer furnish soldiers in the numbers required for the defence of the empire; and on the other hand, the emperors, ever fearful that a brilliantly successful general of Roman extraction might be proclaimed Augustus
Augustus
In the shifting of offices which took place at the beginning of the new reigns, Alaric apparently hoped that he would receive one of the great war ministries of the empire, and thus instead of being a mere commander
ransom -money, which for many years they had been accustomed to receive. They raised him on a shield and ac-claimed him as a king; leader and followers both resolving (says; Jordanes the Gothic historian) " rather to seek new kingdoms by. their own labour, than to slumber in peaceful subjection to the rule of others."Alaric struck first at the eastern empire. He marched to the neighbourhood of Constantinople, but finding himself unable to undertake the siege of that superbly strong city, he retraced his steps westward and then marched southward through Thessaly and the unguarded pass of Thermopylae into Greece. The details of his campaign are not very clearly stated, and the story is further complicated by the plots and counterplots of Rufinus, chief
Corinthian Gulf and marched with the plunder of Greece north-wards to Epirus. Next came an astounding transformation. For some mysterious reason, probably connected with the increasing estrangement between the two sections of the empire, the ministers of Arcadius conferred upon AIaric the government of some partit can hardly have been the wholeof the important prefecture of Illyricum. Here, ruling the Danubian provinces, he was on the confines of the two empires, and, in the words of the poet Claudian, he " sold his alternate oaths to either throne," and made the imperial arsenals prepare the weapons with which to arm his Gothic followers for the next campaign. It was probably in the year 400 (but the dates of these events are rather uncertain) that Alaric made his first invasion of Italy, co-operating with another Gothic chieftain named Radagaisus. Supernatural influences were not wanting to urge him to this great enterprise. Some lines of the Roman poet inform us that he heard a voice proceeding from a sacred grove, " Break off all delays, Alaric. This very year thou shalt force the Alpine barrier of Italy; thou shalt penetrate to the city." The prophecy was not at this time fulfilled. After spreading desolation through North Italy and striking terror into the citizens of Rome, Alaric was met by Stilicho at Pollentia (a Roman municipality in what is now Piedmont), and the battle which then followed on the 6th of April 402 (Easter-day) was a victory, though a costly one for Rome, and effectually barred the further progress of the barbarians. Alaric was an Arian Christian who trusted to the sanctity of Easter for immunity from attack, and the enemies of Stilicho reproached him for having gained his victory by taking an unfair advantage of the great Christian festival. The wife of Alaric is said to have been taken prisoner after this battle; and there is some reason to suppose that he was hampered in his movements by the presence with his forces of large numbers of women and children, having given to his invasion of Italy the character of a national migration. After another defeat before Verona, Alaric quitted Italy, probably in 403. He had not indeed " penetrated to the city," but his invasion of Italy had produced important results; it had caused the imperial residence to be transferred from Milan to Ravenna, it had necessitated the withdrawal of the Twentieth Legion from Britain, and it had probably facilitated the great invasion of Vandals, Suevi and Alani into Gaul, by which that province and Spain were lost to the empire. We next hear of Alaric as the friend and ally of his late
Three months later Stilicho himself and the chief
No blood was shed this time; hunger was the weapon on which Alaric relied. When the ambassadors of the senate in treating for peace tried to terrify him with their hints of what the despairing citizens might accomplish, he gave with a laugh his celebrated answer, " The thicker the hay, the easier mowed!" After much bargaining, the famine-stricken citizens agreed to pay a ransomof more than a quarter of a million sterling, besides precious garments of silk and leather and three thousand pounds of pepper. Thus ended Alaric's first siege of Rome. At this time, and indeed throughout his career, the one dominant idea of Alaric was not to pull down the fabric of the empire but to secure for himself, by negotiation with its rulers, a regular and recognized position within its borders. His demands were certainly largethe concession of a block
commander
house
earnest his third, his ever-memorable siege of Rome. No defence apparently was possible; there are hints, not well substantiated, of treachery; there is greater probability of surprise. However this may befor our information at this point of the story is miserably meagreon the 24th of August 410 Alaric and his Goths burst in by the Salarian gate on the north-east of the city, and she who was of late
refuge
His work being done, his fated task, and Alaric having penetrated to the city, nothing remained for him but to die. He marched southwards into Calabria. He desired to invade Africa, which on account of its corn crops was now the key of the position; but his ships were dashed to pieces by a storm in which many of his soldiers perished. He died soon after, probably of fever, and his body was buried under the river-bed of the Busento, the stream being temporarily turned aside from its course while the grave was dug wherein the Gothic chief and some of his most precious spoils were interred. When,the work was finished the river was turned back into its usual channel, and the captives by whose hands the labour had been accomplished were put to death that none might learn their secret . He was succeeded in the command of the Gothic army by his brother-in-law, Ataulphus.Our chief authorities for the career of Alaric are the historian Orosius and the poet Claudian, both strictly contemporary ; Zosimus, a somewhat prejudiced heathen historian, who lived probably about half a century after the death of Alaric; and Jordanes, a Goth who wrote the history of his nation in the year 551, basing his work on the earlier history of Cassiodorus (now lost), which was written about 520. (T. H.) End of Article: ALARIC (Ala-reiks, " All-ruler "), (c. 370-410) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/AJA_ALL/ALARIC_Ala_reiks_All_ruler_c_3.html"> ALARIC (Ala-reiks, " All-ruler "), (c. 370-410) </a> |
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