The Coming of the Visigoths

Stilicho, the half-barbarian, half-Roman general, did his best to protect Rome from the barbarian invaders. He fought the Visigoths for years. But the Romans executed him because they thought he wasn’t doing his best for Rome.

They shouldn’t have! Stilicho was the only general who could keep the Visigoths away from Rome. Only two years after Stilicho’s execution, the Visigoths finally marched all the way down through Italy to the city of Rome itself.

When the emperor and his court heard that the Visigoths were coming, they packed up all their belongings and left the city of Rome. They traveled to a much smaller city that sat in the middle of a swamp. The Visigoths couldn’t get through the soft, muddy ground of the swamp with their horses, so the emperor was safe. From now on, this tiny, dirty, damp city would serve as the capital of the Western Roman Empire.

The people who stayed in Rome were terrified. For eight hundred years, the city of Rome had been safe from attack. Its thick walls and world-famous army had protected it from invasion. But now, the army was weak and frightened, and the walls were unprotected. The people of Rome sent desperate messages to the Eastern Roman Empire. “The Visigoths are coming!” they wrote. “Please, come and help us!”

But the army of the Eastern Roman Empire was afraid to fight the Visigoths. And the Eastern Roman emperor didn’t dare send his army away from Constantinople, all the way to Rome. If he did, other barbarians might attack his city while it was unprotected.

So no one came to help Rome. The Visigoths poured over the walls and overwhelmed the soldiers who had remained on duty. The Visigoth commander, Alaric, ordered, “Gather up all the gold you can find! Take Rome’s treasures! Now they belong to us!”

The Visigoths were happy to obey! They ripped down Rome’s beautiful golden statues and melted them. They stole coins and jewelry.

But the Visigoths didn’t kill the unarmed people of Rome. And because many of the Visigoths had converted to Christianity, they didn’t destroy Rome’s churches. They took everything valuable that they could put their hands on, and then marched away.

When they heard the news, people all over the old Empire mourned. Over in the Eastern Roman Empire, a monk named Jerome wrote, “Terrifying news has come to us from the West. Rome has been taken by assault. Sobs disturb my every word. The city has been conquered which had once ruled the whole world.”

Rome would never again be a great world power. Some Romans still lived in the city. But forty-five years after the Visigoth attack, another barbarian tribe invaded the city again. This tribe, called the Vandals, took everything valuable that the Visigoths had left behind. They were even worse than the Visigoths. They captured the frightened people of Rome and led them off to be slaves and hostages. They burned buildings made from wood, and tore bricks and stones out of walls that wouldn’t burn. They even peeled the gold decorations off the roofs of Rome’s temples! Today, we call someone who destroys things for fun a “vandal,” after the Vandals who destroyed what was left of the city of Rome.

The Western Roman Empire still survived, but just barely. Its capital city was gone, and its emperor was ruling in the middle of a swamp. Soon, the Western Roman Empire would be gone forever.

Note to Parent: Attila’s birthdate is unknown; he died in AD/CE 453. Stilicho became regent for the Western Roman Empire in 395, after Theodosius. Stilicho drove Alaric away in 397 but fell from favor and was executed in 408. The Visigoths sacked Rome in 410.