F.R.S.

(360-410)

[Illustration: Men on a river raft. [TN]]

Alaric, the "All-ruler," surnamed the Baltha, or Bold, was born, about
360, on an island in the delta of the Danube. As long as the great
Theodosius lived, the Goths continued in his pay; but when he died in
395, and Alaric was elevated on the shield as king of the Visigoths,
he determined to lead his nation to independent victory. In 395 and
396 he invaded Greece,[7] and Stilicho, the Vandal general of the
Western Emperor, advanced against him. The strategy of Stilicho was
masterly, and it would probably have gone hard with Alaric had not
Stilicho been suddenly bidden by the Eastern Emperor, Arcadius, to
withdraw his western troops. Again, in 396, Stilicho penned Alaric in
the Peloponnesus, but for some unknown reason allowed him to escape
into Illyricum. The Gothic chief had, however, struck deadly terror
into the Eastern Empire; and by way of pacifying him Arcadius made him
Master-General of Illyricum.

[Footnote 7: In this first invasion he overran all Greece,
and took Athens with little resistance. He spared her art
treasures, and acted with great moderation and humanity. Our
illustration "Alaric in Athens" represents him seated among
the inhabitants, who welcomed him as a conqueror, with every
demonstration of reverence.]

Alaric had already found the way to Italy when he accompanied
Theodosius in his campaign against the usurper Maximus in 394. In 400
he descended into Italy, not with an army only, but with the migration
of his entire people. He defeated the Romans under the walls of
Aquileia, and in 401 besieged Honorius in Milan. In 402 a vast army
under Stilicho met him at Pollentia; and when an old chieftain advised
him to retire, Alaric, with fierce indignation, silenced his timid
counsellor, and told him that he had been assured by a voice which
came from the grave and said to him, "_Thou shalt penetrate to the
City_" (_ad Urbem_). But the oracle on this occasion had "paltered"
with him in a double sense. He penetrated indeed _ad Urbem_, not
however "to the _City_" but to the little river _Urbis_ (or Borbo),
near Pollenzo. On Good Friday, April 4, 402, the Western army, under a
dwarfish Hun chieftain named Saulus, attacked and routed Alaric,
recovering the splendid spoils of Greece, freeing his captives, and
winning back the purple robes which the Emperor Valens had lost in the
battle