Visigoths Begin Pillaging Rome

Date: August 24, 410 • Location: Rome, Italy

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 410.

The Visigoths under King Alaric I begin to pillage Rome.

The Visigoths were a Gothic people who emerged in the Balkans during late antiquity. Probably descended from the Thervingi who entered the Roman Empire in 376 and defeated the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople (378), they were first united under Alaric I (395–410), whose forces alternately fought and allied with Rome before famously sacking the city in 410.