The sack of Rome by the Goths. Capture of Rome by the Goths led by Alaric. Huns - a new threat to the empire and the Goths

The Roman Empire

The first serious blow was dealt to her by the Goths. Among them, even during the life of Theodosius, there was a strong party, dissatisfied with the treaty concluded with the emperor and standing for the resumption of hostilities. Its influence increased after the death of Theodosius, when the salary promised to them under the contract was reduced for the Goths. At the head of the dissatisfied was one of the Gothic tribal leaders Alaric. He participated in the expedition against Arbogast and believed that his services were not sufficiently rewarded.

Taking advantage of internal unrest in the Eastern Empire, the Goths raised a new uprising. As before, slaves, columns and deserters from the emperor's army flocked to them. Almost without resistance, the Goths captured Macedonia and Greece, and the government was forced to make peace with them, giving them the eastern Danubian provinces. According to the customs of the ancient Germans, the Goths raised Alaric on a shield and proclaimed him their konung (king). Now they wanted him to lead them to Italy.

Having received excellent weapons from the workshops in the provinces they captured, the Goths set out on a new campaign. Government forces Western empire were small. It pinned its main hope on the army of the Sarmatian tribe of the Alans, who lived as federates in the province of Retsia.

With their help, he managed to repel the first onslaught of the Goths. However, having retreated to the Balkans, the Goths quickly began to recruit a new army. At the same time, a 300,000-strong army of Suebi, Vandals and Burgundians invaded Italy from Germany. Only by an extreme effort of forces, with the help of the same Alans, did the Roman army defeat them.

Part of the Germans managed to break into Gaul and Spain. Some areas of these provinces willingly recognized their authority, which delivered them from Roman oppression. The population of other parts of Gaul, along with Britain and Spain, took the side of the next contender for the title of emperor.

Then Alaric offered his alliance and help to the emperor Honorius. He promised to return to him the fallen provinces so that one of them would be given to the Goths. The commander-in-chief and de facto ruler of the Western Empire, the vandal Stilicho, who was well aware of the weakness of the empire, insisted on an alliance with Alaric.

But the Roman nobility, hostile to the “barbarians” who were pushing it away from higher positions, achieved the breakdown of negotiations and the resignation and execution of Stilicho himself. At the same time, in all the cities of Italy, under the pretext of the persecution of the Arians, a mass slaughter of the families of the Germans in the Roman service began. Then about 30 thousand Germans came to Alaric, demanding that he lead them to Rome. Having concluded an alliance with the Huns, who by that time had already reached Pannonia, Alaric again entered Italy and approached Rome.

The city was besieged, a terrible famine began in it. The daily distribution of bread was reduced to 1/2, then to 1/4 of a pound, and finally abolished altogether. The army of the Goths was replenished daily with slaves, columns, artisans who fled to them, without receiving help from the emperor who lived in Ravenna, the senate began negotiations with Alaric.

He agreed to lift the siege if he was given all the property and all the slaves of the Romans. "What will you leave us?" - asked the parliamentarians. "Life," he replied. Finally they agreed on a ransom of 5,000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, 4,000 pieces of silk, 3,000 red skins and 3,000

pounds of pepper. When the ransom was paid, Alaric lifted the siege and settled in Tuscany. Soon his army numbered already 40 thousand fugitives alone from different parts Italy. Negotiations began again with the government of Honorius and again they did not lead to anything, Alaric again laid siege to Rome, vowing that he would not leave without taking it.

On the night of August 24, Alaric entered Rome. According to some authors, the city's slaves opened the gates of the city to the Goths. For three days the Goths devastated Rome, and the slaves and columns that joined them dealt with the hated masters.

Many of the nobility managed to flee to their provincial estates, spreading the news of the capture of the "capital of the world". The impression was amazing. "The light of the world went out," wrote famous figure Church of Jerome. Despite the fact that the weakness of the empire was obvious, most Romans were sure that Rome was eternal and would never fall. Now that confidence is gone.

The secret adherents of paganism blamed the Christians for averting the mercy of the gods from Rome, the Christians grumbled at God for allowing such a catastrophe. Link to

) - Weser
Marcomannic War of the 2nd century
Scythian war III century
Roman-Alemannic Wars
Mediolanus - Lake Benac - Placentia - Fano - Pavia (271) - Lingones - Vindonissa - Remuses (356) - Brotomagus (356) - Senones (356) - Rhine (357) - Argentoratus (357) - Catalaunae (367) - Solicinium ( 368) - Argentary (378)
Gothic War (367-369)
Gothic War (377-382)
Makrianopolis (377) - Salicius (377) - Adrianople (378) - Sirmium (380) - Thessaloniki (380)
Roman-Visegoth Wars
Pollentia (402) - Verona (403) - Rome (410)- Narbonne (436) - Tolosa (439)

background

Alaric's first campaign in Italy. - gg.

At first, Alaric led his tribesmen to Constantinople, but after negotiations with the prefect Rufinus, a favorite of the Eastern Emperor Arcadius, he turned to the south of the Balkans. In Thessaly, the Visigoths faced superior forces under the command of the Roman general Stilicho, who led the still united forces of the already split Roman Empire. Emperor Arcadius, fearing the strengthening of Stilicho, ordered him to return the legions of the Eastern Roman Empire and withdraw from its territory. The Goths broke into Greece, which they devastated. Corinth, Argos, Sparta were devastated, Athens and Thebes miraculously survived. In 397, Stilicho landed in the Peloponnese and defeated the Goths, but did not defeat them due to political contradictions between Western and Eastern empires. Alaric went to Epirus, where he made peace with the emperor Arcadius.

When discussing the terms of peace, Alaric demanded all the gold and silver in Rome, as well as all the property of the townspeople and all the slaves from the barbarians. One of the ambassadors objected: If you take all this, what will be left for the citizens? The king is ready answered briefly: Their lives". The Romans, in desperation, heeded the advice to bring pagan sacrifices, which allegedly saved one of the towns from the barbarians. Pope Innocent, for the sake of saving the city, allowed the ceremony to be held, but among the Romans there were no people who would dare to publicly repeat the ancient ceremonies. Negotiations with the Goths resumed.

Alaric agreed to lift the siege on the terms of paying him 5 thousand pounds (1600 kg) of gold, 30 thousand pounds (9800 kg) of silver, 4 thousand silk tunics, 3 thousand purple bedspreads and 3 thousand pounds of pepper. For ransom, the Romans had to tear off the decorations from the images of the gods and melt down some of the statues. When, after paying an indemnity in December 408, the gates of the city opened, most of the slaves, up to 40 thousand, left for the Goths.

Alaric withdrew the army from Rome to the south of Etruria, waiting for the conclusion of peace with the emperor Honorius.

Second siege of Rome. 409 year

Third siege and capture of Rome. 410 year

The overthrow of Attalus and the breakdown of negotiations

Alaric, suspecting the will of the emperor in the attack, stopped negotiations and moved his army to Rome for the 3rd time.

Capture of Rome

Historians accept the view that Roman slaves let the Goths into the city, although there is no reliable evidence of exactly how this happened. For the first time in 8 centuries Rome, The largest city collapsing Western Empire, was plundered.

The destruction of Rome by the Goths

The ruin of the city went on for 2 full days and was accompanied by arson and beating of the inhabitants. According to Sozomen, Alaric ordered not to touch only the church of the Apostle St. Peter, where, thanks to its spacious size, many inhabitants found refuge, who later settled in depopulated Rome.

The Goths had no reason to exterminate the inhabitants, the barbarians were primarily interested in their wealth and food, which was not in Rome. One of the reliable evidence describing the fall of Rome is contained in a letter from the famous theologian Jerome dated 412 to a certain Principia, who, together with the noble Roman matron Marcellus, survived the raid. Jerome expressed his shock at what had happened:

“The voice gets stuck in my throat, and as I dictate, sobs interrupt my presentation. The city that took over the whole world was itself taken; moreover, hunger preceded the sword, and only a few of the townspeople survived to become captives.

Jerome also told the story of Marcellus. When the soldiers broke into her house, she pointed to her rough dress and tried to convince them that she had no hidden valuables (Marcellus donated all her wealth to charity). The barbarians did not believe it and began to beat the elderly woman with whips and sticks. However, then they nevertheless sent Marcellus to the Basilica of the Apostle Paul, where she died a few days later.

On the 3rd day, the Goths left the famine-ravaged Rome.

Effects

Life in Rome quickly recovered, but in the provinces occupied by the Goths, travelers observed such devastation that it was impossible to travel through them. In travel notes written in 417, a certain Rutilius notes that in Etruria (Tuscany), after the invasion of the Goths, it is impossible to move due to the fact that the roads are overgrown and the bridges have collapsed. Paganism revived in the enlightened circles of the Western Roman Empire; the fall of Rome was explained by apostasy from the ancient gods. Against these sentiments, Blessed Augustine wrote the work “On the City of God” (De civitate Dei), in which, among other things, he pointed to Christianity as the highest power that saved the inhabitants of Rome from complete extermination.

Thanks to the prohibition of Alaric, the Goths did not touch the churches. However, the valuables preserved there became the prey of vandals after 45 years. In 455, the Vandals made a naval raid on Rome from Carthage, captured it without a fight and robbed it not for 2 days, like the Goths, but for two whole weeks. The vandals did not spare the Christian churches, although they refrained from killing the inhabitants.

historical sources

Alaric's campaigns in Italy and his first two sieges of Rome are described in most detail by the Byzantine historian of the 2nd half of the 5th century Zosima (books 5, 6). Book 6 ends with the flight of the Goth Sarah from the warriors of Ataulf to the emperor Honorius (which eventually caused the 3rd siege and sack of Rome). According to excerpts from Photius, Zosima copied material from Eunapius of Sardis, only transcribing it in a more abbreviated and clearer style. The work of Eunapius himself came down only in the form of fragments.

Another Byzantine historian, Sozomen, wrote an Ecclesiastical History in the 440s, where a less detailed account of events generally coincides with Zosimas. Sozomen cited a story about a young Roman Christian woman who, in captured Rome, rejected the harassment of a Goth warrior, not being afraid of a sword wound inflicted on him, and thereby aroused his respect.

see also

Notes

1. Federates are barbarians who, for a certain reward, fought for the empire, but were not considered its subjects.
2. Stilicho commanded the legions of the Western Roman Empire and led the troops of the Eastern Roman Empire, which participated in the overthrow of the usurper Eugene.
3. Zosima, book. 5
4. Prefecture of Illyricum: the Danubian provinces of Upper Moesia and Dacia, Dardania, Macedonia, Thessaly, Epirus, Greece, Crete, that is, all the lands in the strip from Greece in the south to the Danube in the north.
5. Photius in the retelling of Olympiodorus reported that Alaric received 40 centinaries (fr. 5). However, Zosimas speaks only of the consent of the Senate (because of the fear of Stilicho) to pay this tribute, but not of Alaric's receipt of money. One of the reasons for the invasion of Italy was the delay in paying tribute.
6. Stilicho's father came from Vandals and commanded troops recruited mainly from barbarians.
7. Photius, retelling Olympiodorus (fr. 3), reported that Alaric attacked Rome because he did not receive the promised payment.
8. Zosima, Prince 5.37-41
9. Zosima, Prince 5.42
10. According to Sozomen (9.8), Alaric received the title of commander of all troops (magister utriusque militiae).
11. According to Sozomen (9.8), Honorius invited Attalus to become co-ruler.
12. According to Sozomen (9.8), 4 thousand soldiers from Byzantium arrived to help Honorius.
13. Ravenna was located on the coast and was surrounded by swamps and water channels, “like an island enclosed in a flood of flowing waters” (Jordan, 148). It was the surrounding area that made this city impregnable.

Rome fell for the first time in 8 centuries (after the capture of the city by the Gauls around 390 BC) and was soon sacked again in 455 as a result of a naval raid by Vandals from North Africa.

background

Alaric's first campaign in Italy. - gg.

At first, Alaric led his tribesmen to Constantinople, but after negotiations with the prefect Rufinus, a favorite of the Eastern Emperor Arcadius, he turned to the south of the Balkans. In Thessaly, the Visigoths faced superior forces under the command of the Roman general Stilicho, who led the still united forces of the already split Roman Empire. Emperor Arcadius, fearing the strengthening of Stilicho, ordered him to return the legions of the Eastern Roman Empire and withdraw from its territory. The Goths broke into Greece, which they devastated. Corinth, Argos, Sparta were devastated, Athens and Thebes miraculously survived. In 397, Stilicho landed in the Peloponnese and defeated the Goths, but did not defeat them due to political contradictions between the Western and Eastern empires. Alaric went to Epirus, where he made peace with the emperor Arcadius.

When discussing the terms of peace, Alaric demanded all the gold and silver in Rome, as well as all the property of the townspeople and all the slaves from the barbarians. One of the ambassadors objected: If you take all this, what will be left for the citizens? The king is ready answered briefly: Their lives". The Romans, in desperation, heeded the advice to bring pagan sacrifices, which allegedly saved one of the towns from the barbarians. Pope Innocent, for the sake of saving the city, allowed the ceremony to be held, but among the Romans there were no people who would dare to publicly repeat the ancient ceremonies. Negotiations with the Goths resumed.

Alaric agreed to lift the siege on the terms of paying him 5 thousand pounds (1600 kg) of gold, 30 thousand pounds (9800 kg) of silver, 4 thousand silk tunics, 3 thousand purple bedspreads and 3 thousand pounds of pepper. For ransom, the Romans had to tear off the decorations from the images of the gods and melt down some of the statues. When, after paying an indemnity in December 408, the gates of the city opened, most of the slaves, up to 40 thousand, left for the Goths.

Alaric withdrew the army from Rome to the south of Etruria, waiting for the conclusion of peace with the emperor Honorius.

Second siege of Rome. 409 year

Third siege and capture of Rome. 410 year

The overthrow of Attalus and the breakdown of negotiations

Alaric, suspecting the will of the emperor in the attack, stopped negotiations and moved his army to Rome for the third time.

Capture of Rome

Historians accept the view that Roman slaves let the Goths into the city, although there is no reliable evidence of exactly how this happened. For the first time in eight centuries, Rome, the largest city of the crumbling Western Empire, was sacked.

The destruction of Rome by the Goths

The ruin of the city went on for two full days and was accompanied by arson and beating of the inhabitants. According to Sozomen, Alaric ordered not to touch only the church of the Apostle St. Peter, where, thanks to its spacious size, many inhabitants found refuge, who later settled in depopulated Rome.

The Goths had no reason to exterminate the inhabitants, the barbarians were primarily interested in their wealth and food, which was not in Rome. One of the reliable evidence describing the fall of Rome is contained in a letter from the famous theologian Jerome dated 412 to a certain Principia, who, together with the noble Roman matron Marcellus, survived the raid. Jerome expressed his shock at what had happened:

“The voice gets stuck in my throat, and as I dictate, sobs interrupt my presentation. The city that took over the whole world was itself taken; moreover, hunger preceded the sword, and only a few of the townspeople survived to become captives.

Jerome also told the story of the Roman woman Marcellus. When the soldiers broke into her house, she pointed to her rough dress and tried to convince them that she had no hidden valuables (Marcellus donated all her wealth to charity). The barbarians did not believe it and began to beat the elderly woman with whips and sticks. However, then they nevertheless sent Marcellus to the Basilica of the Apostle Paul, where she died a few days later.

Life in Rome quickly recovered, but in the provinces occupied by the Goths, travelers observed such devastation that it was impossible to travel through them. In travel notes written in 417, a certain Rutilius notes that in Etruria (Tuscany), after the invasion, it was impossible to move because the roads were overgrown and the bridges were destroyed. Paganism revived in the enlightened circles of the Western Roman Empire; the fall of Rome was explained by apostasy from the ancient gods. Against these sentiments, Blessed Augustine wrote the work “On the City of God” (De civitate Dei), in which, among other things, he pointed to Christianity as the highest power that saved the inhabitants of Rome from complete extermination.

Thanks to the prohibition of Alaric, the Goths did not touch the churches. However, the valuables preserved there became the prey of the vandals. Photius Zosima copied the material from Eunapius of Sardis, only transferring it in a more abbreviated and clear style. The work of Eunapius himself came down only in the form of fragments.

Another Byzantine historian, Sozomen, wrote an Ecclesiastical History in the 440s, where a less detailed account of events generally coincides with Zosimas. Sozomen cited a story about a young Roman Christian woman who, in captured Rome, rejected the harassment of a Goth warrior, not being afraid of a sword wound inflicted on him, and thereby aroused his respect.

slide 2

Division of the Roman Empire

In 395, the Roman Empire was divided into Eastern (Byzantine) and Western. Very soon, the Western ceased to exist under the blows of Germanic peoples. Separate Romano-Germanic states arose on its remains, which were briefly united by Charlemagne in the 8th-9th centuries.

slide 3

Goths go to Italy

A few years after the division of the empire, a formidable danger loomed over Italy. Dreaming of taking possession of the treasures of Rome, Alaric, the leader of the Germanic tribe of the Goths, moved his hordes to the "eternal city". All the way from the Danube regions, where the Goths lived, to the Alpine mountains, the oppressed people supported Alaric.
rice. Goths go to Italy.

slide 4

Slaves and columns joined the Goths, showing them hiding places where the Romans, who fled in fear, hid their weapons and bread.
In the foothills of the Alps, the path of the Goths was blocked by the Roman army. True, there were few Romans in it - most of the soldiers were Gauls and Germans.

slide 5

Stilicho

The imperial army was commanded by the brilliant commander Stilicho, a German from the Vandal tribe. He defeated the Goths, only Alaric managed to lead the cavalry from the battlefield. At that time, the cowardly and envious Gondrias was the emperor in the West. During the days of the Gothic invasion, he sat out in northern Italy in a fortress surrounded by powerful walls and marshy swamps.

slide 6

Honorius vilely deals with Stilicho

Honorius did not have any merit in the victory over the Goths. However, it was he who celebrated the triumph, as if he were a great commander. Soldiers followed the emperor's chariot along the streets of Rome, carrying spoils of war and a statue of Alaric in chains.

Slide 7

Honorius entertained the inhabitants of the "eternal city" by baiting animals and horse races. Gladiator fights were no longer arranged: at the request of Christians, they were banned forever. Noisily Rome celebrated the victory, everyone seemed to have forgotten that only Italy is subject to the emperor.

Slide 8

peace offer

Meanwhile, Alaric gathered an army stronger than before and again moved to Rome. He was ready for peace, but demanded a huge ransom for it.

Slide 9

Stilicho understood better than anyone how few forces there were to repulse enemies. He convinced Honorius that he needed to win time and collect the required amount among the rich. The emperor's associates were reluctant to part with their gold.

Slide 10

When the danger had passed, they turned the emperor against his commander. They slandered that Stilicho planned to seize the supreme power, conspired with Alaric: after all, they are both Germans!

slide 11

Honorius believed the lie and ordered the execution of Stilicho. In vain he sought refuge in the church. He was captured, declared an enemy of the fatherland and beheaded. And immediately the beating of Stilicho's associates began: the Germans, who were on the Roman military service, their wives and children. Outraged by the wild and senseless massacre, thirty thousand barbarian legionnaires ran to the Goths, demanding to lead them to Rome.

slide 12

“The city to which the earth was subject was conquered!”

After the death of Stilicho, Alaric had no worthy opponents. He decided to lay siege to Rome. The mediocre and worthless Honorius again left Rome, leaving its inhabitants to their fate.
The Goths surrounded the city, took possession of its harbor at the mouth of the Tiber, where bread was delivered. Hunger and terrible diseases tormented the besieged.

slide 13

Many believed that in order to be saved, one must return to the faith of their ancestors and make sacrifices to the rejected gods. They remembered how a few years ago Serena, the widow of Stilicho (she was a zealous Christian), broke into the temple of Vesta and tore off the necklace that adorned her from the statue of the goddess.

Slide 14

Superstitious people began to say that by this act Serena brought trouble to Rome.
At the same time, she was accused of allegedly calling on Alaric to avenge the death of her husband. Serena was doomed to death. However, neither the execution of a woman nor the sacrifices to ancient deities could save Rome.

slide 15

The Romans entered into negotiations with Alaric, convincing him that there were a lot of people in the city who could resist: “The thicker the grass, the easier it is to mow,” Alaric answered mockingly.

slide 16

Capture of Rome

On the night of August 410, slaves opened the gates of Rome to the Goths.
« The eternal City", which once did not dare to storm Hannibal, was taken.
For three days the Goths sacked Rome. The imperial palaces and houses of the rich were devastated, statues were broken, priceless books were burned, many people were killed or captured.

Slide 17

The capture of Rome made a terrible impression on the inhabitants of the empire. “My voice stopped when I heard that the city was conquered, to which the whole earth was subject! The light of the "peace" went out," wrote a contemporary of this event.

Slide 18

After the sack of Rome, the Goths with huge booty moved south. On the way, Alaric died suddenly. The legend about his unprecedented funeral has been preserved: the Goths forced the captives to divert the bed of one of the rivers, at the bottom of it they buried Alaric with untold riches. Then the waters of the river were returned to the channel, and the captives were killed so that no one would know where the great leader of the Goths was buried.

“The city to which the earth was subject was conquered!” - a contemporary of the events will exclaim, as a result of which the Eternal City will be captured by barbarian tribes, and the powerful empire will cease to exist. Why did the mighty Roman Empire fall, what state became its successor? You will learn about this in our today's lesson.

background

In the III century. Germanic tribes regularly raided the Roman Empire. In the IV century. the Great Migration of Nations began (see lesson), the Huns invaded the empire. The situation was further complicated by the fact that the Roman Empire by this time had already been significantly weakened from the inside.

Events

395- The Roman Empire is divided into Western (with its capital in Rome) and Eastern (capital - Constantinople).

410- The Goths, led by Alaric, entered Rome and sacked it.

451- battle on the Catalaunian fields with the Huns led by Attila. The Huns were stopped.

455 Rome is captured and sacked by the Vandals.

476- the last Roman emperor - Romulus - was deprived of power. The Western Roman Empire ceased to exist.

Members

In 395, the final political division of the previously unified Mediterranean Empire into two states took place: the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) (Fig. 1). Although both were headed by the brothers and sons of Emperor Theodosius, in fact they were two independent states with their own capitals (Ravenna and Constantinople).

Rice. 1. Division of the Roman Empire ()

In the III century. Rome was in grave danger. Germanic tribes made devastating raids on the territory of Italy. The Romans lost some of the provinces, but continued to resist. The situation will change at the end of the 4th century, when the so-called great migration of peoples begins, caused by the movement of tribes led by the Huns from the Caspian steppes in a westerly direction.

During the great migration of peoples at the end of the 4th-5th centuries. occurred on an unprecedented scale of movement of numerous peoples, tribal unions and tribes of Eastern and Central Europe. By the middle of the IV century. From the unification of the Gothic tribes, alliances of the Western and Eastern Goths (otherwise the West and Ostrogoths) emerged, occupying, respectively, the lands between the Danube and the Dnieper and between the Dnieper and the Don, including the Crimea. The composition of the unions included not only Germanic, but also Thracian, Sarmatian, and possibly Slavic tribes. In 375, the Ostrogothic alliance was defeated by the Huns - nomads of Turkic origin, who came from Central Asia. Now the same fate befell the Ostrogoths.

Fleeing from the Hun invasion, the Visigoths in 376 turned to the government of the Eastern Roman Empire with a request for asylum. They were settled on the right bank of the lower Danube Moesia, as allies with the obligation to guard the Danube frontier in exchange for food supplies. Literally a year later, the interference of Roman officials in the internal affairs of the Visigoths (who were promised self-government) and the abuse of supplies caused an uprising of the Visigoths; separate detachments from other barbarian tribes and many slaves from the estates and mines of Moesia and Thrace joined them. In the decisive battle at Adrianople in 378, the Roman army was utterly defeated, while the emperor Valens died.

In 382, ​​the new emperor Theodosius I managed to suppress the uprising, but now the Visigoths were given not only Moesia, but also Thrace and Macedonia for settlement. In 395 they revolted again, devastating Greece and forcing the Romans to give them a new province - Illyria, from where, starting from 401, they raided Italy. The army of the Western Roman Empire by this time consisted mostly of barbarians, led by the vandal Stilicho. For several years, he quite successfully repulsed the attacks of the Visigoths and other Germans. A good commander, Stilicho, at the same time, understood that the forces of the empire were exhausted, and sought to pay off the barbarians whenever possible. In 408, accused of indulging his fellow tribesmen, who were ruining Gaul in the meantime, and in general of excessive compliance with the barbarians, he was deposed and soon executed. After the death of Stilicho, the Germans had no worthy opponents. The Visigoths invaded Italy again and again, demanding Roman treasures, slaves and new lands. Finally, in 410, Alaric (Fig. 2), after a long siege, took Rome, sacked it and moved to the south of Italy, intending to cross over to Sicily, but died suddenly along the way. The legend about his unprecedented funeral has been preserved: the Goths forced the captives to divert the bed of one of the rivers, at the bottom of it they buried Alaric with untold riches. Then the waters of the river were returned to the channel, and the captives were killed so that no one would know where the great leader of the Goths was buried.

Rome could no longer resist the barbarians. In May 455, a fleet of Vandals (a Germanic tribe) suddenly appeared at the mouth of the Tiber; panic broke out in Rome, the emperor Petronius Maxim failed to organize resistance and died. The vandals easily captured the city and subjected it to a 14-day rout, destroying many cultural monuments (Fig. 3). This is where the term “vandalism” comes from, which refers to the intentional senseless destruction of cultural property.

Rice. 3. Capture of Rome by the Vandals in 455 ()

Rome encountered the Huns as early as 379, when they, following on the heels of the Visigoths, invaded Moesia. Since then, they have repeatedly attacked the Balkan provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire, sometimes they were defeated, but more often they left only after receiving a ransom. In 436, the Huns, led by Attila (called the Scourge of God for their violence by Christian writers), defeated the kingdom of the Burgundians; this event formed the basis of the plot of the Nibelungenlied. As a result, part of the Burgundians joined the Hunnic union, the other was resettled by the Romans to Lake Geneva, where later, in 457, the so-called Burgundian kingdom arose with its center in Lyon. In the late 1940s, the situation changed. Attila began to interfere in the internal affairs of the Western Roman Empire and claim part of its territory. In 451, the Huns, in alliance with the Germanic tribes, invaded Gaul. In the decisive battle on the Catalaunian fields, the Roman commander Aetius, with the help of the Visigoths, Franks and Burgundians, defeated the army of Attila. This battle is rightfully considered one of the most important in world history, since the fate of not only Roman rule in Gaul, but of the entire Western civilization was decided on the Catalaunian fields to a certain extent. However, the strength of the Huns was by no means exhausted. The following year, Attila undertook a campaign in Italy, taking Milan and a number of other cities. Deprived of the support of the German allies, the Roman army was not able to resist him, but Attila, fearing the epidemic that struck Italy, himself went beyond the Alps. In 453 he died, and strife began among the Huns. Two years later, the Germanic tribes subordinate to them revolted. The state of the Huns fell apart.

In 476 the barbarians demanded land in Italy for settlement; the refusal of the Romans to satisfy this demand led to a coup d'état: the leader of the German mercenaries, Odoacer, deposed the last Western Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, and was proclaimed king of Italy by the soldiers. Odoacer sent the insignia of imperial dignity to Constantinople. The Eastern Roman basileus Zeno, forced to recognize the current state of affairs, granted him the title of patrician, thereby legitimizing his power over the Italians. Thus the Western Roman Empire ceased to exist.

Bibliography

1. A.A. Vigasin, G.I. Goder, I.S. Sventsitskaya. Ancient world history. Grade 5 - M.: Education, 2006.
2. Nemirovsky A.I. History Reading Book ancient world. - M.: Enlightenment, 1991.
3. Ancient Rome. Book for reading / Ed. D.P. Kallistova, S.L. Utchenko. - M.: Uchpedgiz, 1953.

1. istmira.com ().
2. Bibliotekar.ru ().
3. Ischezli.ru ().

Homework

1. What states were formed on the territory of the Roman Empire?
2. What tribes took part in the Great Migration?
3. How did the winged words "vandals", "vandalism" come about? What do they mean?