biography
pronunciation:
[alarik]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (c.370–410)
|
| biography:
| King of the Visigoths (395–410), born in Dacia. After his election as king, he invaded Greece (395), but was eventually driven out by Flavius Stilicho. In 401 he invaded Italy until checked by Stilicho at Pollentia (402). He agreed to join the Western emperor, Honorius, in an attack on Arcadius, but when Honorius failed to pay the promised subsidy Alaric laid siege to Rome, and in 410 pillaged the city, an event which marked the beginning of the end of the Western Roman Empire. Later that year he set off to invade Sicily, but died at Cosenza. |
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