Alaric I, also called Alaric the Goth c.AD370-410
King of the Visigoths

Born in Dacia, he led the Gothic auxiliaries of the eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius I, the Great in AD394. He was elected King of the Visigoths (395) and invaded Greece, but was eventually driven from the Peloponnese by Flavius Stilicho and the troops of the Roman western empire. He was appointed Governor of Illyria by the eastern Emperor Arcadius, but in 401 he invaded Italy where Stilicho defeated him again (402). He agreed to join the western Emperor Honorius in an attack on Arcadius, but when Honorius failed to pay the promised subsidy Alaric laid siege to Rome (408). In 410 he entered the city, which his troops looted for three days, though he prohibited rape or the destruction of religious buildings. The sack of Rome, the first capture of the city by foreigners in 800 years, is vividly described by Edward Gibbon. Both contemporaries and later historians consider 410 as the end of the Roman Empire. Alaric set off to invade Sicily, but died at Cosenza.

Bibliography: Colin D Gordon, The Age of Attila (1960)