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Visigoths sack Rome by Musée Paul Valéry from

Top 10 Facts about the Sack of Rome by the Goths

The Visigoths, led by their ruler Alaric, captured Rome on August 24th, 410 AD. Rome was no longer the seat of the Western Roman Empire at that time. Instead, Mediolanum (present-day Milan) and Ravenna had taken up that role in 286 and 402, respectively. The capital city of the Empire, Rome, continued to hold a privileged position as “the eternal city” and its spiritual heart. The sack of Rome was a tremendous shock to both supporters and enemies of the Empire because it was the first time in about 800 years that the city had been overrun by a foreign adversary.

Here are a few facts about the Germanic people who are well remembered for seizing Rome in 410 CE. Despite being labelled “savages” and “barbarians” by the Romans, they were actually sophisticated, intellectual, and misunderstood individuals.

1. They most likely originated in Scandinavia

Getica, a chronicle written by Jordanes, a 6th-century Roman historian of Gothic descent, is the only document that still exists about the origins of the Goths. Jordanes claims that “the Goths are claimed to have arisen long ago from this island of Scandza, as from a hive of races or a womb of countries.”

Scandza has generally been recognised as Scandinavia by academics. In order to establish their jurisdiction there, outside of the Roman Empire, the Goths are said to have driven away and subjugated a number of peoples along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea. Archaeological findings from the 20th-century point to such a migration throughout the first three centuries.

2. The Goths were advanced in trade, diplomacy, hunting, and agriculture

Gothic tribes by Therontherod from

Roman sources, which saw the Goths (at various points) as pests, threats, and inferior subjects of the Empire, are where the Goths’ barbaric reputation originates. In reality, the Goths were peaceful farmers and archers who were proficient in falconry, riding, and archery while they were based between the Baltic and Black Seas. They engaged in significant trading with both sedentary and nomadic neighbours, and Gothic furs were much sought-after.

3. Contrary to what people think they were not pagans…not all

Gothic Script by Omniglot from

The Goths being pagans is a different myth. A missionary by the name of Ulfilas was sent to convert the Goths in the fourth century by the bishop of Constantinople. He converted many people to Christianity despite the fact that it was not a worldwide religion and developed the entire Gothic alphabet in order to translate the Bible. (It’s important to remember that Ulfilas adhered to and led the Goths to an Arian form of Christianity, which the Catholic Church regarded as heretical.)

4. For some time the Goths had no king

The Goths didn’t have a king until the final decades of the fourth century. Instead, they had a network of clan chieftains who chose a central figure to lead them in dangerous situations or to represent them in diplomatic relations (usually with the Roman Empire).

When such circumstances arose the king did not distinguish himself from other Goths in his habits, at sports or play and he did not set himself different in clothes or appearance.

5. There were two Goths branches

Hunnen by Peter Johann Nepomuk Geiger from

The Huns attacked the Goth territory in 370 CE and massacred and pillaged communities. As a result, their community was uprooted and split into two forever. The Ostrogoths, who are referred to as “the eastern Goths” in low Latin, remained east of the Dniester River and were mostly controlled by the Huns before being made vassals in what was essentially a transcontinental protective ring. The Visigoths, often known as “the excellent Goths” or “the noble Goths,” founded a realm that stretched from the Dniester River to the Danube River and fought the Romans for several centuries after that.

The division between the two branches might, however, have occurred considerably earlier. Three boats were used by the Goths on their journey, according to Jordanes, suggesting that there were many branches of the population when they departed Scandza. One of the most enigmatic tribes of the Germanic peoples, the Gepidae, was in the third boat. Because their boat arrived last, their name signifies “the late ones.”)

6. Goths were selling their children into slavery

Valens Honorius by Capitoline Museums from

King Fritigern led a group of Visigoths who petitioned Emperor Valens, who ruled the Eastern Roman Empire, for protection as they sought to flee the Huns and war with another Visigoth king. In 376 CE, Valens consented in exchange for being conscripted into the Roman Army and undergoing a mass conversion to Christianity (which, thanks to Ulfilas’s efforts, was largely inconsequential).

Around 80,000 people were followed by Fritigern as he crossed the Danube River, the old Goth land border. The Roman rule did not significantly improve their situation. Grains intended for the Gothic refugees were stolen by corrupt Roman rulers. Goths sold their kids into slavery at their lowest point. For one child, the Romans sacrificed the meat of a dead dog.

7. Europe was changed by Fritigern’s revenge

A large portion of Thrace was devastated when the starving, despairing Visigoths rose up in revolt against their Roman masters. When Valens led an army to repel Fritigern, the Goths slaughtered between 10,000 and 20,000 Roman soldiers, including Valens, at Adrianople. The battle altered Europe as a result of its effects. A “barbarian” force killed an emperor during the defeat of such a nation, which was humiliating and may have signalled the beginning of the long-decaying Roman Empire.

Theodosius I, Valens’ successor, was compelled to negotiate a settlement with the Visigoths. They were granted the right to areas between the Danube River and the Balkan Mountains by a contract signed in 382 CE, which recognised them as a separate ethnic group inside the Roman Empire. The ability to marry Roman citizens, known as connubium, was denied to them. Theodosius couldn’t help but insist that the Goths fight in Rome’s army, a condition that ultimately proved to be Rome’s downfall in the face of an endless string of external foes and internal usurpers.

8. The Visigoth sieges lasted for two years, and the sacking for three years

Alaric ultimately marched to Rome, the centre of the empire, in 408 CE, encountering little resistance as the Roman army was preoccupied with wars against the Franks and Vandals. Rome had not been the capital since the third century CE when Milan and subsequently Ravenna were chosen. On his march to Rome, he initiated the first siege by assimilating former slaves and people from other outside tribes.

Several tonnes of gold and silver, countless tunics and hides, and three thousand pounds of pepper were all obtained by Alaric and his troops as a result of the first successful siege. A puppet Emperor was installed on the throne as a result of the siege in 409 CE, and Rome was famously sacked as a result of the siege in 410 CE.

The “Eternal City” succumbed to outside assailants for the first time in 800 years, however, the siege was light by standards of the fifth century and there was no widespread massacre of civilians. The Visigoths razed houses, vandalised statues, took property and collected prisoners for ransom or sale as slaves. Even though they were small in number, the Goths stole books because to the Romans, books were a symbol of riches. Alaric continued to the southernmost part of Italy with the intention of occupying a region of Africa and sustaining his people there, but he perished on the route.

9. The Goths afterwards ruled over Italy and reunited in France

Tomb of Theodoric by Ravenna from

Theoderic the Great established the Ostrogoth Kingdom, which covered all of Italy, in the wake of the fall of the Roman Empire. He subsequently made an effort to bring his tribe back together with the Visigoths by accepting a post as regent of the Kingdom of Toulouse, the Visigoth capital built after they fled Rome in what is now France.

10. They also preserved Roman culture in a way

Iberian peninsula by NASA world from

Invading the Iberian Peninsula, the Visigoths established Toledo as their capital. Many aspects of this kingdom’s dress, language, architecture, and legal codes exhibited Roman influence because they had mingled with the Romans so often, and this was during a time when the civilization of the Empire was decaying.

After converting to Catholicism and assimilating militarily and culturally with the indigenous people of the peninsula, the Visigoths formed the alliance that gave rise to Spain.