Sack of Rome (410)

Sack of Rome (410)
	Part of the fall of the Western Roman Empire
	; The Sack of Rome in 410 by the Barbarians by Joseph-Noël Sylvestre, 1890
Date	24 August 410 AD
Location	Rome
Result	Visigothic victory
Belligerents
Visigoths	Western Roman Empire; Huns
Commanders and leaders
Alaric I; Athaulf	Honorius
Strength
Possibly 40,000 soldiers; Unknown number of civilian followers	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown

The sack of Rome on 24 August 410 AD was undertaken by the Visigoths led by their king, Alaric. At that time, Rome was no longer the administrative capital of the Western Roman Empire, having been replaced in that position first by Mediolanum (now Milan) in 286 and then by Ravenna in 402. Nevertheless, the city of Rome retained a paramount position as "the eternal city" and a spiritual center of the Empire. This was the first time in almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy, and the sack was a major shock to contemporaries, friends and foes of the Empire alike.

The sacking of 410 is seen as a major landmark in the fall of the Western Roman Empire. St. Jerome, living in Bethlehem, wrote: "the city which had taken the whole world was itself taken".