Relics of Rome, or Savage Tribes in Countless Numbers

RELICS OF ROME,
or
SAVAGE TRIBES IN COUNTLESS NUMBERS

Chapter 1: GOTHS IN ROME


Part 1: Alaric the Goth

Alaric I of the Visigoths, Alareiks I of the Goths, Alaric the Goth, or Alaric the Great, was a Visigothic King from 395 to 414, succeeded by Ataulf in 414.

Alaric was born in about 370. Around this time, the Visigoths were a people called the Thervingian Goths [1] living north of the Danube. During Alaric’s childhood, the Goths mass-migrated across the Danube river to escape the Huns. Initially, they actually had sponsorship from the Eastern Romans, for Emperor Valens believed that accepting the Goths as foederati would assist him in expanding his army and tax base. However, the Romans mistreated the Goths. They supposedly left the old and weak on the other side of the river where they would be vulnerable to the Huns, while those who did cross the river were forced into a small area of land. The Romans also failed to confiscate the Goths’ weapons--though the officials in charge were supposed to do so, they were bribed, and thus the Goths were not only angry but armed.

Due to all this, and a famine that struck the Goths, the Gothic War began in 376. The Goths ravaged Roman territories in the Haeman Peninsula [2], destroyed a Roman army, and even killed Emperor Valens. They were then driven back to Thrace in 381, and in 382, peace was made. But the Gothic War had irrevocable effects--other barbarian tribes became more confident that they might be able to invade Rome and succeed, while the territories that the Goths had ravaged would take many years to recover.

Alaric himself started to become important in the early 390s. He led a band of Goths and others to attack Thrace, but was stopped by the Roman general Stilicho, who was half-Vandal. After this, he decided to start a career in service of the Romans. Initially, he served under the Gothic magister militum Gainas. In 394, Alaric led foederati to crush the usurper Eugenius, who opposed Theodosius I, the last Emperor of both the West and the East. During this campaign, which terminated at the Battle of the Frigidus, Alaric learned the weaknesses of Italy’s natural defensive barrier, the Alps.

In 395, Theodosius died, and his sons Arcadius and Honorius became the Eastern and Western emperors respectively. Arcadius, who showed no interest in ruling, had his reign controlled by his Praetorian Prefect, Rufinus. On the other hand, Honorius, who was still a minor, had magister militum Stilicho as his guardian. And Stilicho also claimed to be the guardian of Arcadius, causing tension between West and East.

Alaric the Goth had hoped that, during the switching of offices after Theodosius’s death, he would be promoted from commander to general. But he did not get promoted. Alaric, though disappointed, saw an opportunity. The Visigoths in Moesia were restless, partly due to having endured many losses at Frigidus, and were ready to rebel. Alaric decided to arrive there, and was promoted to the status of King. Supposedly, they raised him up on a shield during this proclamation. No longer would the Goths slumber in peaceful subjection to others; rather, they would seek their own kingdom ruled by their own hand.

King Alaric attempted to strike Constantinople. However, finding it unfeasible to undertake a siege, he went westward along the same path he had taken eastward, then went south into Thessaly. It is said that he may have gone through the pass of Thermopylae, which was unguarded.

Meanwhile, the Romans and most of their army were fighting Hunnic raids. Rufinus decided to go negotiate with Alaric directly. This was futile, and only caused Constantinopolitans to suspect that Rufinus was in league with the Goths. Stilicho had been marching east and was in a position to destroy Alaric’s army, but Rufinus was hacked to death by his own soldiers and Stilicho ordered by Arcadius to depart from Illyricum.

The absence of Rufinus and Stilicho allowed Alaric to ravage Greece with little opposition. Attica was particularly ravaged, though Athens itself was spared. The Peloponnesus was invaded subsequently. Alaric looted its famous cities, including Corinth, Sparta, and Argos, and sold their inhabitants into slavery.

In 397, Stilicho arrived in Greece, crossing the sea. He managed to trap the Goths in the mountains of Pholoe. But Alaric still managed to escape, possibly because Stilicho was once again called back. Suspicions arose that he had been conniving with Alaric.

Alaric, crossing the Gulf of Corinth, conquered Epirus. He rampaged and ransacked until he was appointed as the magister militum of Illyricum, or Greece and southern Illyria. And for the next few years the Visigoths would remain there.

[1] They may have been merely related to them.
[2] In Antiquity, the Balkans were called the Peninsula of Haemus.
 
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Chapter 1: GOTHS IN ROME

Part 2: Goths in Italy

Despite controlling Greece, King Alaric and his Visigoths were not satisfied. Alaric, with his imperial command and the ability to resupply his forces from the Imperial arsenal, invaded Italy in 401, supposedly due to supernatural visions. But, even though he managed to rage easily through parts of northern Italy, he once again met with Stilicho, who, this time, actually fought a complete battle with Alaric. In the battle, which, coinciding with Easter, took place on April 6, 402, the Goths were defeated, and their progress was halted. But this had been of great cost to the Romans. Not only were many troops lost, but Stilicho’s reputation took a hit, for he attacked on the sacred festival of Easter, which Alaric (Christian, though an Arian) had expected to be a day of peace during his campaign.

After Alaric’s wife was captured and imprisoned after the battle, and the Visigoths were defeated near Verona, Alaric decided to leave Italy. Though he felt he had failed since he had not taken the city of Rome itself, he had in fact caused much change. The Western capital was moved from Milan to Ravenna, and the Romans realized that barbarians were a threat even to Italy itself. It is hypothesized that, also as a result of Alaric’s first invasion of Italy, the Legio XX Valeria Victrix had to be withdrawn from Britannia.

In following years, Alaric surprisingly became a friend and ally of his former rival Stilicho. In 407, after a period of rising tension and alienation between the western and eastern courts, civil war seemed imminent. In fact, when Illyricum became disputed between the West and the East, Stilicho proposed using Alaric’s troops to enforce the claim of Honorius, the Western Emperor, on the region. Alaric marched into Epirus. But in May 408, Arcadius of the East died and the dispute between East and West calmed. Alaric demanded threateningly that if he were suddenly ordered to discontinue preparations for conflict, he should be paid handsomely for the expenses of doing so. Pressured by Stilicho, the Roman Senate consented to pay Alaric four thousand pounds of gold.

However, three months afterward, Stilicho and the leaders of his party were slain on Honorius’ orders. Unrest followed which spread throughout Italy, and the wives and children of the foederati were purportedly slain. 30,000 widowers flocked to Alaric’s camp as a result. These barbarians desired to get revenge for their enemies’ barbarity, and they did. Alaric led them across the Julian Alps, and by September 408, he had arrived outside of Rome. Standing before the walls of the former capital of the Mediterranean’s largest empire, he began a strict blockade of the city, which did not have a capable general like Stilicho to lead its defense.

Alaric used hunger as his weapon, and no violent bloodshed occurred. Ambassadors from the Senate attempted to intimidate Alaric by suggesting that the desperate citizens of Rome might do something drastic and, with their numbers, manage to repel the Visigoths. But Alaric, who did not fall for this false threat, noted that the population of Rome only made it weaker and more susceptible to famine. The siege continued and soon the starving Romans agreed to pay a ransom, which consisted of 5,000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, 3,000 scarlet hides, about 4,000 silken tunics, and about 3,000 pounds of pepper. 40,000 Gothic slaves were freed, and Alaric’s first siege of Rome came to a successful conclusion.

But Alaric was not satisfied. Ever since becoming involved in Roman politics, he had desired a quite vast plot of land in Illyria, Raetia, and Noricum between the River Danube and the northern Adriatic Sea, which would be nominally dependent on the Romans, as well as the position of commander-in-chief of the imperial army. However, Honorius for obvious reasons did not want to cede land after already losing much wealth and popularity. He also thought himself safe, protected by the marshes around Ravenna.

Alaric’s negotiation with the Emperor failed, with Honorius insulting Alaric and attempting to sneak reinforcing soldiers from Illyria into Rome. As a result, in 409, Rome was sieged and blockaded once again. Coming to terms with the Senate, Alaric had himself appointed a magister utriusquae militiae and had his brother Ataulf appointed a comes domesticorum equitum. He also set up a rival emperor named Priscus Attalus, who was ceremonially deposed after the governor of Africa threatened to cut off Rome’s grain supply, but was in turn threatened by Alaric into backing down.

The ceremonial deposition of Attalus almost put Honorius and Alaric on speaking terms again, but Alaric was attacked by a Gothic ally of Honorius, Sarus, who was a sworn enemy of Ataulf. Alaric, fighting his way out of the Ravenna region, returned to Rome and sieged it again.

Quickly, Alaric abandoned earlier ambitions for a Gothic homeland in Raetia. No, he wanted something better. He planned to conquer it--the city of cities, former capital of the world's greatest empire. Rome, of course.
 
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POD is in 380s or so, with few immediate butterflies.

Criticize as much as you want. Though all but the last few sentences of the stuff I've already put is OTL.

After I post the rest of the first chapter there will be a map.
 
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Chapter 1: GOTHS IN ROME

Part 3: Goths in Rome

On August 24, 410, Visigoths somehow got through the Porta Salaria, the Salarian Gate, probably opened by slaves. The Goths looted the city of Rome, taking its treasures as their personal wealth, barbarically forcing themselves on the city’s women, and, despite Alaric’s best wishes, ransacking and pillaging many buildings including the mausoleum of Hadrian. Many Romans were taken captive, including Emperor Honorius’s sister, Gallia Placidia. In the chaos, Romans, seeking refuge, fled the city to the countryside or to other locations in the Empire, such as the Africa province. This sacking and conquest of Rome lasted for almost three whole days.

Alaric was then proclaimed Alaric I the Great, King of Italy. Honorius remained the official Western Emperor, but in reality was merely a puppet of Alaric. Meanwhile, King Alaric would have a lot of work to do to consolidate control over his new lands, which he declared a new home for the Goths--though to avoid estranging the Romans, he tolerated non-Arian Christians and proclaimed that Italy was also a ‘kingdom of Romans’.

Meanwhile, Gallia Placidia and Ataulf got married in a magnificent ceremony in 411, in an attempt to eventually have their son become a Western Roman Emperor, and simultaneously to try to pacify relations with Honorius.

Alaric sent Ataulf, only three weeks married, and a large army southward to enforce Gothic control over the south of Italy. He did not go himself, because he would have to leave Ataulf in Rome and he knew that Ataulf was popular enough to attempt to declare himself the ruler of Italy. While Ataulf’s army was in the south, Honorius attempted to rebel. Alaric and his reduced army had a hard time fighting the Roman rebels, but, suddenly, Sarus and a small army arrived in the city, surprisingly coming to the rescue of Alaric. Honorius’s troops were defeated by Sarus, and Alaric now almost trusted Sarus, just as Sarus had planned. Honorius was not executed, merely imprisoned in fairly luxurious conditions. Alaric did so to avoid alienating the governor of Roman Africa, Apringius, who was appointed by Honorius, any more than he already had by conquering Rome, as, of course, the governor of Africa was in control of the grain shipments to Rome.

The grain shipments continued, and Alaric ascertained this by sending a diplomat to convince Apringius, who was in an uncertain position and not really obeying the puppet Honorius (even though he appointed him) or the Easterner Theodosius II, that letting the Romans starve would be worse than a Goth controlling Rome. This succeeded primarily because it was in governor Apringius’s interest to have the Goths as an opponent to the Eastern Empire, allowing him to remain relatively independent and have a great deal of influence over an also-independent Italy thanks to African grain.

However, though the grain issue was taken care of, other problems popped up. Alaric became quite ill and laid bedridden for a week. During this time, Sarus, who had partially gained the trust of Alaric, hired an assassin to kill Gallia Placidia during her sleep, then left Rome to serve the usurper Jovinus in Gallia. Alaric was furious, but there was nothing he could do at this point. After his illness cleared up he continued to rule in Rome and waited for Ataulf’s return. Another Roman rebellion occurred, much smaller than the first, which was defeated.

A few months later, Ataulf arrived in Rome, successful with his conquest of southern Italy. He was enraged towards Alaric for allowing Gallia Placidia to be killed, by none other than a minion of Sarus. To appease Ataulf, Alaric offered co-rule. This worked and Ataulf was appeased. But Ataulf, still somewhat angry, requested that Alaric march north to secure northern Italy while Ataulf could “rule luxuriously and carefree as the King” like he claimed Alaric did when Gallia Placidia was murdered. Meanwhile, a few thousand Goths from outside of Italy arrived in Rome.

Alaric did succeed in securing the north, even taking control of small parts of Illyria. He returned to Rome. Ataulf was pleased, and the brothers were now on good terms. Ataulf moved the capital to Ravenna, and Alaric decided to subjugate Sicily. However, he died of a fever shortly after landing on the coast of Sicily, and the Visigoths decided to call off the idea for the time being.

Thus in 414, Ataulf became the sole king of the Visigoths and the sole King of Italy.
 
What is the POD? The earliest change I see is Alaric deciding to be king of Italy (which, I guess, leads directly into not going south and not catching fever).
 
What is the POD? The earliest change I see is Alaric deciding to be king of Italy (which, I guess, leads directly into not going south and not catching fever).
The POD is with the birth of the usurper Maximus of Hispania--he becomes a slightly different person, leading to a different result of his attempted usurpation in the west. Which will be detailed more in an update soon.
 
YES! A new Remnants! TL's like this are the inspiration for mine- I do love some alt-Migrations. It's like alt-colonialism, but better.
 
Chapter 1: GOTHS IN ROME

Part 4: Other Savages

On the 31st of December in the year 405 or 406, a group of barbarian tribes crossed the Rhine. This was a devastating event; the Rhine was the most important and secure of the Roman Empire’s limites, or boundaries, and its infiltration, despite attempted defense by Franks and Romans, was a climactic moment in the fall of the Western Empire. The tribes who crossed, including the Vandals, who were split into the Silingi and Hasdingi, and their allies, the Alans, also split into two groups, as well as the Suebi and the Burgundians, wreaked havoc in Gallia. Many Roman cities, the first of them Mogontiacum, were pillaged as the tribes ventured southwest. The chaos that ensued resulted in a collapse of civic order in most of Gallia and the rise of multiple usurpers to the Western Empire.

In 409, the Gunderic-led Vandals, the Respendial-led Alans, the Hermeric-led Suebi, and the Gundahar-led Burgundians then reached, and subsequently crossed, the Pyrenees. The Vandals and Alans crossed in the east, through Septimania. The Romans granted them land and foederati status as long as they swore fealty to Honorius; the Silingi were settled in Southern Lusitania, the Hasdingi were settled in Baetica, and the Alans were settled in two land grants north and northwest of Carthago Nova.

On the other hand, the Burgundians and Suebi crossed the Pyrenees in their western periphery, then passed through the lands of the Vascons with few or no troubles. The Suebi headed south, while the Burgundians continued west. The Burgundians were settled as foederati in Gallaecia, while the Suebi were settled in two swathes of land, one around the upper Ebro and the other some distance south of the Ebro delta.

The Suebi would play an important role in the rise of the usurper Maximus.
 
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Burgundians in Spain instead of Gaul.

Well that's an interesting twist. I can't help but wonder what this will mean later down the road.
 
I'm very doubtful that the Goths could have attempted to set up an Italian kingdom as early as the 410s- the Empire at this part is just much, much stronger than they are. Plus, Constantinople won't be properly tied up in the East now for a generation, so she'll be able to intervene (as IOTL) effectively in Western Imperial politics. I can't see this Gothic state lasting long.
 
I'm very doubtful that the Goths could have attempted to set up an Italian kingdom as early as the 410s- the Empire at this part is just much, much stronger than they are. Plus, Constantinople won't be properly tied up in the East now for a generation, so she'll be able to intervene (as IOTL) effectively in Western Imperial politics. I can't see this Gothic state lasting long.

this could be true, but my guess the western empire really issnt in the position to do very mucht at this moment, considering the whole spain situation. and we dont know what usurper Maximus wil do:eek:
 
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