Played by the Western and by the Eastern courts, having sacrificed 10.000 soldiers to crush an usurper without proper reward, Alaric is tired of being the toy of the Romans and decides to take matter in his own hands.

Unable to conquer Constantinople, Alaric was bested by Stilicho until this one was recalled in the West for internal matters. Alaric made the most of that time by turning his attention towards Greece, and Zosimus paints a dire picture of his time there:

Upon arriving there, they immediately began to pillage the country and to sack all the towns, killing all the men, both young and old, and carrying off the women and children, together with the money. In this incursion, all Boeotia, and whatever countries of Greece the Barbarians passed through after their entrance at Thermopylae, were so ravaged, that the traces are visible to the present day.

But in 397, Stilico, having managed to keep things under control in the West, returned with fresh forces and managed to trap Alaric in the mountains of Greece and had him at his mercy, but, as Zosimus, says, he missed the opportunity:

Arriving in the Peloponnesus, he compelled the Barbarians to fly to Pholoe, where he might with ease have destroyed them all, through the want of provisions, had he not yielded himself up to luxury and licentiousness. He likewise permitted his soldiers to plunder what the Barbarians had left; thus giving the enemy an opportunity to depart from Peloponnesus, to carry their spoils with them to Epirus

However, the same author strongly suggests that Alaric escaped destruction thanks to Stilico's double-dealings:

Stilico, perceiving that the ministers of Arcadius were averse to him, intended, by means of the assistance of Alaric, to add to the empire of Honorius all the Illyrian provinces. Having formed a compact with Alaric to this purpose, he expected shortly to put his design in execution.

Whatever the reason, Alaric escaped with his plunder and was eventually appeased by the Eastern Empire by receiving the control of Illyricum with the title of Magister Militum. As far away as possible from Constantinople, as you can see on a map, and far too close from Italy for comfort for the Western Empire.

The Emperor and the Italians were nervous at having the Goths so close to their frontiers. Stilico managed to extract 3000 pounds of silver from them to keep Alaric happy on its side of the Julian Alps while he was campaigning against the Vandals in Switzerland. However, all the money in the world would not have been enough to keep Alaric away from the Eternal City. Even if it was quickly losing ground compared with Constantinople, it still maintained an aura of power and glory which acted like a magnet on a Barbarian's mind.

Therefore, in November 401, Alaric was on the move again and crossed into Northern Italy. The court of Honorius fled to Ravenna while Alaric devastated northern Italy. Stilico, of course, could not let a feoderati dictate its terms to the Emperor and rushed to confront him. Once again he had the upper hand: at the battle of Pollentia (April 402), first, and later at the battle of Verona (June 402), Alaric was once again soundly beaten by the half-Vandal general, and even had the misfortune to see his wife and children captured, and I can't help but include this quote:

"With what cunning, with what skill, did Stilico, that ever fatal enemy, ensnare me! His pretended mercy did but blunt my warlike spirit, and availed him to shift the war backwards across the Po. A curse on that armistice, more damaging than the yoke of slavery. 'Twas then the cause of the Getae was undone, then that I signed my own death-warrant. More rudely than any weapon did mercy destroy our people, beneath that semblance of peace lay the deadliest form of war, and I myself fell into the snare I had laid for others. I am weary of it all; where shall I find comfort or counsel? I fear my friends more than my foes.

It was however written by the poet Claudian who made his best to milk the defeat of Alaric and to prop up the glory of his patron Stilico. However, it had been a close call and Alaric was far from finished: Stilicho understood that Alaric should be appeased rather than humiliated - but at the imperial court not everyone thought alike.

Plots and Treachery

The inhabitants of Italy had heard everything about the horrors of the Gothic wars in the Eastern Empire. This first incursion of Alaric terrified them: they were by no means inclined to see Alaric come back - and didn't understand why Stilico kept giving him a free pass. Why didn't he crush Alaric once and for all?

Stilicho - however cunning politician as he was - disregarded those threats and doubts. Still dreaming of uniting the Western and Eastern Empires under his hegemony, he promised Alaric money AND the full control of Illyricum if he turned against Constantinople.

Everything was planned and Alaric was even on the march when the death of Arcadius, on the Eastern throne, ruined the plan. Stopped right in his track, Alaric still wanted his payment, and Stilico had to force Rome to cough up the money... Which sealed Stilico's death. The Emperor Honorius was convinced to dispatch his former guardian, triggering the mass murder of thousands of Barbarian troops and inhabitants inside Italy:

When this was known to the relations of those who were murdered, they assembled together from all quarters. Being highly incensed against the Romans for so impious a breach of promises they had made in the presence of the gods, they all resolved to join with Alaric, and to assist him in a war against Rome.

---

Alaric probably could not believe his luck when he learned the news: the Western Empire had not only gotten rid of his most formidable opponent for him, he had sent him reinforcements by the thousands and given him the perfect casus belli to invade for a second time.

SOURCES

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/28587/28587-h/28587-h.htm
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Claudian/De_VI_Consulatu_Honorii*.html#ref10
http://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=dittman
http://www.ccel.org/g/gibbon/decline/volume1/chap26.htm

PREVIOUS EPISODES

Alaris 8.1 - Let’s Goth to Rome
Alaric 8.2 - Like a Wrecking Ball

PREVIOUS “ENEMIES OF ROME”

Boudicca - The Warrior Queen
Zenobia - The new Cleopatra
Sertorius - The Last Man Standing
Vercingetorix - One man to rule them all
Arminius - Magna Germania
Genseric - The Vandals are Coming