The attack of Alaric to the Urbs Aeterna: A measure of pressure that ended in disaster for the Romans

Abstract

When Alaric invaded Italy, his primordial objective was not to take Rome. The sac­king of the old imperial capital and the sieges that he city underwent previously can be seen as measures of pressure that Alaric resorted to with the idea of forcing the imperial government to sign a peace treaty. This same interpretation can be made of the marriage of Ataulf and Galla Placidia. But although none of the “instruments of pressure” turned out to be operative, in the long run it was the circumstances surrounding the sacking of Rome that brought the greatest benefits to the Goths, both in the material sense, at he economic and human level, and on an ideological plante.