Alaric - 'Roman Officer'?

[Robert Vermaat]

Interestingly, one of the best refutals of the 'barbarian invasions brought down the empire' thesis comes from Adrian Goldsworthy, who suggests that the empire collapsed from within, in a process going back to the third century, and small bodies of outside invaders took advantage of the chaos... But as Goldsworthy seems to be considered a 'popular historian' his work is seldom considered in these debates.




Yes, I agree. Certainly in terms of the Goths and their various movements 378-418: the usual big swooping arrows make them look like one united people, with a plan, perhaps directed by Goth-Command... Ultimately all these big movement maps resemble divisional battle plans from the Franco-Prussian war or something, which was probably around the time they first appeared in historical studies!


But this is a long way, I think, from presenting Alaric as a 'normal' Roman general, like Stilicho or Arbogast, leading a normal-for-the-5th-century Roman army, and that the sack of Rome was 'the most genteel of sacks, with all sorts of niceties being observed... and has more the appearance of a troop of soldiers getting a bit out of hand' (as Ralph Mathison puts it, in 'Roma a Gothis Alarico duce capta est', 2013).

@Goldsworthy - I was not impressed by his book about the Late Roman period, but this view I can get behind. It was far more complicated of course, push and pull from within and without, but I'm certainly looking more at Roman weakness than at barbarian invasion.

@Goth-command, love that. It's the lure of simplification of course that leads historians (et al) towards views like those. But we know that the Goths were not ethnically unified and that many diverse groups were circulating inside and outside the Empire, willing to be employed or leaving after defeat. 

@normal general - Stilicho & Arbogast had risen trough the ranks and were fully-fledged Roman dignitaries, something Alaric, the rebel from the marshes, would never reach. Perhaps that was his tragedy - he wanted to bcome a Roman as much as they were, and the sack of Rome put an end to that dream. 
If the ack of Rome only spared those inside chuches, it would have been a bloodbath.. I think Isidore is writing fibs.