Romans and Goths: Allies?!?

[Beck Reilly]

In A.D. 406, the Western Roman Emporer, Honorius, planned for a war against the Eastern Roman Empire and its new Emporer, Arcadius. He soon persuaded the Goth King, Alaric I, to join as allies with the Western Roman Empire in their war.

In OTL, Arcadius died in A.D. 408 and Rome abandoned its plan to move against the East, whereupon Alaric demanded 1814 kg (4000 lb) of gold as indemnity. On the insistence of Flavius Stilicho, the only Roman general to defeat Alaric in battle, the Roman government agreed to this demand, but soon afterward Honorius had Stilicho executed and abrogated the agreement. Alaric then invaded Italy, besieged Rome, and exacted a vast ransom. In A.D 410, his troops captured and sacked Rome.

What if, however, Arcadius had not died in A.D. 408 and the war being planned actually unfolded? Old enemies Alaric and Stilicho would have led Gothic and Roman troops into battle, side by side. Rome would never have been sacked and burned in A.D. 410 and Alaric would not have died that same year. What would the war look like? What would be the consequences, both short and long term, of the West/Goth vs. East War?

[Straha]

longer survival of west is possible but other than that IDK... and take a look at the first part of my magnum opus athttp://www.alternatehistory.net/discussion/showthread.php?p=3562#post3562

[DominusNovus]

I get the feeling that I'm not the only one watching the History Channel's Barbarian week...

[Norman]

I saw it and thought it was pretty good, but slightly inaccurate. For example, the Goths are portrayed as 'peace loving farmers', kind of big happy hobbits, who are set upon by the evil huns.

In fact, by the year 370, the Goths had already engaged in many raids on the Empire as early as 267, only being driven out of the empire by the Battle of Naissus in 271.

Additionally (I thought this was very interesting), they had captured several Black Sea ports, and very early on began to use the ships to raid other (non-gothic) cities.)