The Rise of Alaric and the Gothic Threat

In the spring of 396 CE, the Visigothic chieftain Alaric launched his second major campaign against the Eastern Roman Empire. With the formidable general Stilicho occupied in the Western Empire, the Balkans lay vulnerable. Alaric, a shrewd strategist, avoided direct assaults on heavily fortified cities, recognizing that prolonged sieges would weaken his mobile forces. Instead, his warriors swept southward through Greece like a storm, leaving devastation in their wake.

This was not the first time Rome had faced Gothic incursions. Since the 3rd century, Germanic tribes had tested the empire’s frontiers. The Goths, originally from the Danube region, had grown increasingly assertive after their victory at the Battle of Adrianople (378 CE), where they killed Emperor Valens. Alaric, a product of this militant tradition, sought not just plunder but legitimacy within the Roman imperial system.

The Sack of Greece: A Trail of Destruction

Alaric’s forces descended upon Macedonia before surging into Achaea. Athens, the intellectual heart of the ancient world, fell with little resistance. Corinth, a vital commercial hub, was sacked. Even Eleusis—sacred site of the Mysteries attended by emperors like Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius—was desecrated. The Goths pushed into the Peloponnese, ravaging Argos and Sparta, cities once synonymous with military discipline but now helpless against the invaders.

The Gothic strategy was systematic: capture able-bodied youths for slavery and extort wealth from the terrified populace. Those who could not pay ransoms saw their children sold into bondage. Contemporary accounts describe a landscape stripped of valuables, its people traumatized. Remarkably, Constantinople, under the passive Emperor Arcadius, did nothing. The Eastern court prioritized defending the capital over aiding the provinces, leaving Greece to its fate.

Stilicho’s Intervention and a Hollow Victory

By 397 CE, Alaric’s forces, laden with loot, began a slow retreat northward. This was when Stilicho, the half-Vandal general defending the Western Empire, finally acted. Sailing from Italy, he landed in northwestern Greece, aiming to trap the Goths. Roman military doctrine favored overwhelming force—a legacy of earlier centuries—but Stilicho’s army was a shadow of Rome’s former might. Estimates suggest he commanded only 20,000 men, a fraction of the empire’s peak strength.

Stilicho’s forces erected barricades, planning a decisive strike. Yet his hoped-for reinforcements from Constantinople never arrived. The Eastern Empire, perhaps distrusting Stilicho’s Germanic heritage, left him isolated. Though he defeated Alaric in battle, the victory was incomplete. The Goths escaped into the mountains, abandoning spoils but surviving to fight again.

The Political Fallout: Rome’s Self-Destructive Divisions

Constantinople’s court, dominated by Empress Eudoxia and the eunuch Eutropius, responded not with gratitude but suspicion. Accusations flew that Stilicho had spared Alaric due to their shared “barbarian” origins. The Senate even debated declaring Stilicho a hostis publicus (public enemy). Humiliated, Stilicho withdrew to Italy, enabling Alaric to regroup.

Meanwhile, the Eastern Empire adopted a startling strategy: co-opt the enemy. In 397 CE, Alaric was appointed Magister Militum per Illyricum (Master of Soldiers for Illyria), granting him command over a strategic region stretching from the Danube to the Adriatic. This move legitimized Gothic power while offloading the problem onto the Western Empire, as Illyria traditionally fell under Western jurisdiction.

The Illusion of Unity: Rome’s Looming Partition

The appointment exposed the deepening rift between East and West. Theodosius I (d. 395 CE) had envisioned his sons Arcadius (East) and Honorius (West) ruling a united empire. Yet Constantinople, increasingly Greek in culture, viewed the Latin West as a burden. By handing Illyria to Alaric, the East effectively severed a key defensive zone from the West, accelerating the empire’s fragmentation.

Geographically, Illyria was the West’s linchpin. Its roads linked Italy to the Danube defenses, vital for repelling invasions. Surrendering it to the Goths was tantamount to abandoning the West’s security. The East’s decision reflected not just pragmatism but a growing indifference to Rome’s shared legacy.

Legacy: The Gothic Crisis and the End of Roman Unity

Alaric’s rampage through Greece was more than a military campaign; it was a symptom of imperial decay. The Eastern Empire’s short-sighted diplomacy—buying peace at the West’s expense—only postponed conflict. By 410 CE, Alaric would sack Rome itself, a symbolic death knell for the Western Empire.

The events of 396–397 CE also revealed a tragic irony: Rome’s reliance on “barbarian” generals like Stilicho and Alaric underscored its inability to defend itself. The empire’s greatness had always stemmed from assimilation, but now, its fragmented identity hastened its collapse.

For modern historians, this period offers a cautionary tale about the perils of division. The Roman Empire’s fall was not inevitable but the result of choices—mismanagement, distrust, and the abandonment of collective defense. As Alaric’s Goths marched north from Greece, they carried with them the seeds of a new order, one in which Rome was no longer the undisputed master of the Mediterranean world.