Western Roman Empire - Sack of Rome and Fall of The Western Roman Empire

Sack of Rome and Fall of The Western Roman Empire

See also: Fall of the Western Roman Empire

Remaining as emperor after the death of Stilicho in 408, Honorius reigned until his own death in 423. His reign was filled with usurpations and invasions. In 410, Rome was sacked by Alaric's forces. This event made a great impression on contemporaries, as this was the first time since the Gallic invasions of the 4th century BC that the city had fallen to a foreign enemy. Under Alaric's successors, the Goths then settled in Gaul (412–418), from where they operated as Roman allies against the Vandals, Alans, and Suevi in Spain, and against the usurper Jovinus (413). Meanwhile, another usurper, Constantine (406–411), had stripped Roman Britain of its defenses when he crossed over to Gaul in 407, leaving the Romanized population subject to invasions, first by the Picts and then by the Saxons, Angli, and the Jutes who began to settle permanently from about 440 onwards.

Honorius' death in 423 was followed by turmoil until the Eastern Roman government with the force of arms installed Valentinian III as Western Emperor in Ravenna, with Galla Placidia acting as regent during her son's minority. After a violent struggle with several rivals, and against Placidia's wish, Aetius rose to the rank of magister militum. Aetius was able to stabilize the Western Empire's military situation somewhat, relying heavily on his Hunnic allies. With their help, he defeated the Burgundians, who had occupied part of southern Gaul after 407, and settled them in Savoy as Roman allies (433). Later that century, as Roman power faded away, the Burgundians extended their rule to the Rhone valley.

Meanwhile, pressure from the Visigoths and a rebellion by Bonifacius, the governor of Africa, induced the Vandals under their king Gaiseric to cross over from Spain in 429. They temporarily halted in Numidia (435) before moving eastward and capturing Carthage, from where they established an independent state with a powerful navy (439). The Vandal fleet became a constant danger to Roman sea trade and the coasts and islands of the western and central Mediterranean.

In 444, the Huns, who had been employed as Roman allies by Aetius, were united under their ambitious king Attila. Turning against their former ally, the Huns became a formidable threat to the Empire. Attila then received a plea for help and the ring of Honoria, the Emperor's sister. Threatening war, he claimed half of the Western Empire's territory as his dowry.

Faced with refusal, he invaded Gaul and was only stopped in the battle of the Catalaunian Plains by a combined Roman-Germanic army led by Aetius. The next year, Attila invaded Italy and proceeded to march upon Rome, but an outbreak of disease in his army, Pope Leo's plea for peace, and reports of a campaign of Marcianus directed at his headquarters in Pannonia induced him to halt this campaign. Attila unexpectedly died a year later (453).

Aetius was slain in 454 by Valentinian, who was then himself murdered by the dead general's supporters a year later. With the end of the Theodosian dynasty, a new period of dynastic struggle ensued. The Vandals took advantage of the unrest and sailed up to Rome, which they plundered in 455.

The instability caused by usurpers throughout the Western Empire helped these tribes in their conquests, and by the 450s the Germanic tribes had become usurpers themselves. During the next twenty years, several Western Emperors were installed by Constantinople, but their authority relied upon barbarian commanders (Ricimer (456–472), Gundobad (473–475)). In 475, Orestes, a former secretary of Attila, drove Emperor Julius Nepos out of Ravenna and proclaimed his own son Romulus Augustus as emperor.

In 476, Orestes refused to grant Odoacer and the Heruli federated status, prompting an invasion. Orestes was killed and Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustus, installed himself as ruler over Italy and sent the Imperial insignia to Constantinople. Although isolated pockets of Roman rule continued even after 476, the city of Rome itself was under the rule of the barbarians, and the control of Rome over the West had effectively ended.

Three rump states continued under Roman rule in some form or another after 476: Julius Nepos controlled Dalmatia until his murder in 480. Syagrius ruled the Domain of Soissons until his murder in 487. Lastly, a Roman-Moor realm survived in north Africa, resisting Vandal incursions, and becoming a part of the Eastern Roman Empire c.533 when Belisarius defeated the Vandals.