Alaric Besieges Rome

So the Eastern Empire was kept safe from the evils of war and was governed in very good order, against all expectation, for its ruler was still young. Meanwhile the Western Empire fell into disorder, because many usurpers arose. After the death of Stilicho, Alaric, the leader of the Goths, sent an embassy to Honorius to seek peace, but it came to nothing. He advanced on Rome and laid siege to it. By posting a large army of barbarians on the banks of the Tiber, he effectively cut off every shipment of supplies into the city from Portus. When the siege had lasted some time, and famine and plague had done terrible damage in the city, many of the slaves, and most of those within the walls who were barbarians by race, deserted to Alaric. Those senators who still clung to pagan superstition proposed to offer sacrifices in the Capitol and in the other temples. Certain Tuscans, summoned by the prefect of the city, promised to drive out the barbarians with thunder and lightning. They boasted that they had done the same thing at Larnia, a city of Tuscany, which Alaric had passed by on his way to Rome without taking it. The outcome, however, showed that the city could get no help from these people. All people of good sense knew that the calamities this siege brought on the Romans were signs of God’s wrath, sent to punish them for their luxury, their debauchery, and their many acts of injustice toward one another and toward strangers. It is said that when Alaric was marching against Rome, a good monk of Italy begged him to spare the city and not become the cause of so many calamities. Alaric answered that he had no wish to begin the siege, but that some force he could not resist compelled him and commanded him to go against Rome. And in the end he did so. While he was besieging the city, its people gave him many gifts, and he lifted the siege for a time when the Romans agreed to persuade the emperor to make a treaty of peace with him. [a]