Battle of Ostia (409)

Last updated
Battle of Ostia
Date409 AD
Location
Result Visigothic victory
Belligerents
Visigoths Western Roman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Alaric I Unknown
Strength
Unknown Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown Unknown

The Battle of Ostia was fought in 409 AD between the Visigoths and the Western Roman Empire. The battle was part of the invasion of Italy by the Visigothic king Alaric I. Having driven the emperor Honorius into Ravenna, Alaric laid siege to Rome. In order to support his siege, Alaric attacked the nearby city of Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber. He took the city port along with a massive amount of food supplies destined for the capital. A year after seizing Ostia, Alaric sacked Rome.

Sources


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alaric I</span> 1st King of the Visigoths (r. 395–410)

Alaric I was the first king of the Visigoths, from 395 to 410. He rose to leadership of the Goths who came to occupy Moesia—territory acquired a couple of decades earlier by a combined force of Goths and Alans after the Battle of Adrianople.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alaric II</span> King of the Visigoths from 484 to 507

Alaric II was the King of the Visigoths from 484 until 507. He succeeded his father Euric as king of the Visigoths in Toulouse on 28 December 484; he was the great-grandson of the more famous Alaric I, who sacked Rome in 410. He established his capital at Aire-sur-l'Adour in Aquitaine. His dominions included not only the majority of Hispania but also Gallia Aquitania and the greater part of an as-yet undivided Gallia Narbonensis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Honorius (emperor)</span> Roman emperor from 393 to 423

Honorius was Roman emperor from 393 to 423. He was the younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla. After the death of Theodosius, Honorius ruled the western half of the empire while his brother Arcadius ruled the eastern half. In 410, during Honorius's reign over the Western Roman Empire, Rome was sacked for the first time in almost 800 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">537</span> Calendar year

Year 537 (DXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Second year after the Consulship of Belisarius. The denomination 537 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Lake Benacus</span> Battle during the Roman-Germanic wars (268/269)

The Battle of Lake Benacus was fought along the banks of Lake Garda in northern Italy, which was known to the Romans as Benacus, in 268 or early 269 AD, between the army under the command of the Roman Emperor Claudius II and the Germanic tribes of the Alamanni and Juthungi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stilicho</span> Roman army general (c. 359 – 408)

Stilicho was a military commander in the Roman army who, for a time, became the most powerful man in the Western Roman Empire. He was of Vandal origins and married to Serena, the niece of emperor Theodosius I. He became guardian for the underage Honorius. After nine years of struggle against barbarian and Roman enemies, political and military disasters finally allowed his enemies in the court of Honorius to remove him from power. His fall culminated in his arrest and execution in 408.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ostia Antica</span> Large archaeological site of a harbour city near Rome, Italy

Ostia Antica was an ancient Roman city and the port of ancient Rome located at the mouth of the Tiber River. It is near modern Ostia, 25 kilometres southwest of Rome. Due to silting and the invasion of sand, the site now lies 3 km (2 mi) from the sea. The name Ostia derives from Latin os 'mouth'.

Sack of Rome may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Porta San Paolo</span> Gate of the Aurelian walls, a landmark of Rome, Italy

The Porta San Paolo is one of the southern gates in the 3rd-century Aurelian Walls of Rome, Italy. The Via Ostiense Museum is housed within the gatehouse. It is in the Ostiense quarter; just to the west is the Roman Pyramid of Cestius, an Egyptian-style pyramid, and beyond that is the Protestant Cemetery.

The Battle of Verona was fought in June 402 by Alaric's Visigoths and a Western Roman force led by Stilicho. Alaric was defeated and forced to withdraw from Italy.

The Battle of Pollentia was fought on 6 April 402 (Easter) between the Romans under Stilicho and the Visigoths under Alaric I, during the first Gothic invasion of Italy (401–403). The Romans were victorious, and forced Alaric to retreat, though he rallied to fight again in the next year in the Battle of Verona, where he was again defeated. After this, Alaric retreated from Italy, leaving the province in peace until his second invasion in 409, after Stilicho's death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sack of Rome (410)</span> Visigoth siege and looting of Rome in 410

The sack of Rome on 24 August 410 AD was undertaken by the Visigoths led by their king, Alaric. At that time, Rome was no longer the capital of the Western Roman Empire, having been replaced in that position first by Mediolanum in 286 and then by Ravenna in 402. Nevertheless, the city of Rome retained a paramount position as "the eternal city" and a spiritual center of the Empire. This was the first time in almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy, and the sack was a major shock to contemporaries, friends and foes of the Empire alike.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duchy of Sorrento</span>

The Duchy of Sorrento was a small peninsular duchy of the Early Middle Ages centred on the Italian city of Sorrento.

The Arab raid against Rome took place in 846. Muslim raiders plundered the outskirts of the city of Rome, sacking the basilicas of Old St Peter's and St Paul's-Outside-the-Walls, but were prevented from entering the city itself by the Aurelian Walls.

<i>Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire</i> British documentary drama television series

Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire is a 2006 BBC One docudrama series, with each episode looking at a different key turning point in the history of the Roman Republic and Empire. This docudrama focuses on the Latin western half of the Roman Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ostia (Rome)</span> Frazione in Lazio, Italy

Ostia is a large neighbourhood in the X Municipio of the comune of Rome, Italy, near the ancient port of Rome, which is now a major archaeological site known as Ostia Antica. Ostia is also the only municipio or district of Rome on the Tyrrhenian Sea, and many Romans spend the summer holidays there.

The First Siege of Rome during the Gothic War lasted for a year and nine days, from 2 March 537 to 12 March 538. The city was besieged by the Ostrogothic army under their king Vitiges; the defending East Romans were commanded by Belisarius, one of the most famous and successful Roman generals. The siege was the first major encounter between the forces of the two opponents, and played a decisive role in the subsequent development of the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Papal Navy</span> Navy of the Papal States

The Papal Navy was the maritime force of the Papal States. Loosely construed, it was in sporadic existence from approximately the Battle of Ostia (849) during the pontificate of Leo IV until the ascension of Pope Leo XIII in 1878.

The siege of Florence was a battle that occurred in either 405 or 406 AD, between the Goths and the Roman Empire at Florence.