The sack of Rome in AD 410 was the plundering of the city by the Visigoths under Alaric, who looted it for three days. It shocked the Roman world, but it did not end the empire. Rome was sacked again in 455 by the Vandals.
Key takeaways
- Alaric's Visigoths entered Rome on 24 August 410 and looted it for three days.
- Rome had stopped being the working capital of the West by then, because the court had moved to Milan and then Ravenna.
- Rome was sacked again in 455, when the Vandals under Gaiseric plundered it for about two weeks.
- On our map Italy is still inside the empire at AD 395, and the peninsula is marked lost in AD 476.
How the sack of Rome works
Rome has been sacked more than once, and the name usually refers to the most famous case, in AD 410. The Visigoths, led by their king Alaric, entered the city through the Salarian Gate on 24 August 410 and pillaged it for three days [1]. They took treasure and prisoners, among them Galla Placidia, the sister of the emperor Honorius, and then moved on towards southern Italy [1].
The Romans were horrified for several reasons. Rome was old, rich and symbolic, and it had not fallen to an enemy for a very long time. But the sack did not hit the machinery of government. By 410 Rome was no longer the administrative capital of the Western empire. The court had moved first to Mediolanum (Milan) in 286 and then to Ravenna in 402 [1].
The second great sack came in 455. Gaiseric, king of the Vandals, sailed from North Africa after the Western emperor Petronius Maximus was lynched by a Roman mob. The Vandals looted the city for two weeks, from 2 to 16 June [2]. The pope, Leo I, is said to have persuaded Gaiseric not to kill or burn, and the city was stripped of its valuables rather than destroyed [2].
Other sacks are on record too. The Gauls took Rome in 390 BC after the Battle of the Allia, and Totila's Ostrogoths took it in 546. Both are listed as sacks of Rome [3], which is why the plural is common.
An example from our data
Our map shows the world in which the sacks happened. At AD 395, before any of the sacks, the whole of Italy is inside the empire, which then measures 4.72 million km² (the year 395 page). Our data lists Italia with its capital at Roma and marks it as lost in AD 476. That is a map date for when Italy stopped being held, not a statement that Rome fell on that day. By AD 476 the outline has shrunk to 1.94 million km² (the year 476 page).
You can also use the cities layer to find where Rome stood. Italy has 1,043 Roman places in the Pleiades gazetteer on our map. Our data shows the first time Italy appears as 753 BC and the last as AD 1000, which are key dates on the slider, not the real years of conquest or loss. The map has no layer for sieges or battles, so the sacks themselves are not drawn.
The thing people get wrong
The sack of Rome in 410 is often called the fall of the Roman Empire. It was not. Honorius remained emperor, the Western empire lasted for decades after the sack, and the usual end date for the West is 476, when Odoacer removed Romulus Augustulus. The Eastern half went on until AD 1453. What the sack did was shatter the feeling that Rome itself was safe. Contemporaries wrote of it as a catastrophe, and later writers pointed to it as a sign of the West's coming decline [2]. A shock, then, but a long way from the end.
Sack of 410 vs sack of 455
| 410 | 455 | |
|---|---|---|
| Attackers | Visigoths under Alaric | Vandals under Gaiseric |
| Length | Three days | About two weeks |
| Emperor in the West | Honorius | Petronius Maximus, then Avitus |
| Famous captive | Galla Placidia | The empress Eudoxia and her daughters |
Frequently asked questions
Who sacked Rome in 410?
The Visigoths, led by their king Alaric. They entered the city on 24 August 410 and pillaged it for three days before heading south.
Did the sack of Rome end the Roman Empire?
No. The Western empire carried on for decades afterwards, and the Eastern empire lasted until AD 1453. The sack was a huge shock, but it was not the end.
How many times was Rome sacked?
Rome was attacked or sacked many times. Historians list the Gauls in 390 BC, the Visigoths in 410, the Vandals in 455, the Ostrogoths in 546, and later raids and sacks, including the one in 1527.
Sources
- Sack of Rome (410), Wikipedia.
- Sack of Rome (455), Wikipedia.
- Sack of Rome, Wikipedia.
- Every figure from our own map is worked out from the datasets on the data sources page (checked against Ancient World Mapping Center outlines and Pleiades).