Study Guides > Alaric
Alaric (c. 370-410), a Gothic chieftain, Arian Christian, and eventually, pillager of Rome, led the Goths under him out of the Balkans and into the Roman Empire where he sought land for their settlement. Alaric served in a military capacity under Emperor Theodosius I and helped crush the usurper Eugenius. When Theodosius died, his young heirs, Honorius and Arcadius, thwarted Alaric and refused him and his Goths pay and land for settlement. Alaric tried to obtain these goals without sacking Rome, but failed. When they did breach the city of Rome, he and his men took great wealth with them. Alaric died shortly after the sack of Rome, which had started on August 24, A.D. 24 and probably ended three days later, but before a lasting settlement.
