Sarus or Saurus (d. 413 AD) was a Gothic chieftain known as a particularly brave and skillful warrior. He became a commander for the Emperor Honorius. [1] He was known for his hostility to the prominent Gothic brothers-in-law Alaric I and Athaulf, and was the brother of Sigeric, who briefly ruled the Goths in 415.
Nothing is known of his life before he came to prominence in 406, when he commanded a force of Gothic troops along with other barbarian foederati against the invasion of Italy by Radagaisus in 405–6 (War of Radagaisus). [2] Roman and foederati forces eventually defeated the invaders at the Battle of Faesulae.
According to Wijnendaele, Saru's arrival can be explained on the scene by connecting him to one of the three groups in which Radagaisus' army was divided. His army force consisted of two divisions Goths and a division of Alans and Vandals. [3] Wijnendaele bases his hypothesis on a mysterious sentence in the report of Orosius in which Sarus and Uldin are mentioned as leaders of the Goths and Huns and of which Orosius says: "who were still enemies before". [4] Uldin was captain of the Huns auxiliary troops who joined the Stylicho's army. In his view, this makes it clear that Sarus and his men surrendered to Stilicho in Faesulae and were then deployed by him to help defeat Radagaisus' division while he besieged Florence.
Heather also argues that behind Stilicho's acquisition of 12,000 of Radagaisus' best warriors "lies a significant diplomatic coup, [5] because with the Roman army it was not unusual to buy opponents. Orosius' account of the events contains clues that point to this. Just before his description of Radagaisus' invasion of Italy, Orosius adds a crucial but often overlooked remark: “I will not say anything about the deadly battles between the barbarians, when two divisions of the Goths, and then the Alans and the Huns, destroyed each other in several massacres.” Orosius no longer dedicates words to the rest of this history, so it is unknown where the massacre between the two Gothic groups took place and therefore not where the Alans and Huns fought with each other.
In 407 Sarus was chief in the campaign against the British usurper Constantine III. [6] First he defeated and killed Iustinianus, one of Constantine's magistri militum , then he tricked and killed the other, Nebiogastes. Sarus then besieged Constantine himself in Valentia, but fled back to Italy at the approach of Constantine's new generals Edobichus and Gerontius, and was forced to surrender all his booty to the Bacaudae (late Roman bandits or rebels) for passage across the Alps. [7] Since he must have commanded an army, he may have been appointed magister militum (general) for this expedition; [8] elsewhere he is said to have had a following or warband of only about three hundred. [9]
Early in 408, while commanding a force of barbarians at Ravenna, Stilicho induced him to mutiny in an attempt to prevent Honorius from traveling there. Then, when Stilicho was recalled by the emperor on suspicion of treason, Sarus, apparently angry that Stilicho continued to obey orders and refused to use the available barbarian troops for defense, fought his way through Stilicho's Hun bodyguard in protest. [10] Later in 408, after Stilicho's fall, Sarus' name was put forward as Stilicho's successor as the most suitable candidate for the office of magister militum in praesenti (supreme commander), but the Emperor Honorius refused to promote him. [11] It is possible that his resentment of Honorius, as evidenced by later actions, began here. [12]
We next hear of Sarus in 410, apparently living independently in the Picenum region. Athaulf, coming to join his brother-in-law Alaric, decided to attack him in passing, and Sarus, thinking that his force of three hundred would be no match for the Gothic army, fled to Honorius. [13] Later that year, while Alaric was negotiating with Honorius near Ravenna, Sarus attacked him with his warband, apparently on his own initiative. This caused Alaric to finally abandon the negotiations and sack Rome on August 24. [14]
Sarus seems to have remained in the emperor's service for the next two years, but he developed a grudge against Honorius for failing to investigate or avenge the murder of his servant. [15] In 412, another usurper, Jovinus, approached from northern Gaul, initially supported by Ataulf; Sarus went to join Jovinus. Sarus had only twenty-eight men with him, but Ataulf gathered a force of ten thousand to ambush him. Despite this, Sarus fought with remarkable courage and was barely taken alive before being killed. [16]
Sarus' final contributions to the events of the time were posthumous. Ataulf had been foolish enough to take one of Sarus' followers into his own service; this man waited until Ataulf visited his stable alone and killed him there (September 415). [17] Sarus' brother, Sigeric, then ruled for seven days before Wallia killed him and took over the kingship. [18]
Sarus was active for only six years during a time of great turmoil, but he is remembered as a figure of some importance in many of the major and minor events of those years. Unfortunately, a mere account of his deeds gives a very disjointed picture of him, but he obviously made an impression on those of his time, who describe him as "a brave and invincible warrior", possessing "marvelous heroism", [19] who "excelled all the other confederates in power and rank", and possessing "intrepidity" and "experience in warlike affairs". [20]
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.
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 in 395, Honorius, under the regency of Stilicho, ruled the western half of the empire while his brother Arcadius ruled the eastern half. His reign over the Western Roman Empire was notably precarious and chaotic. In 410, Rome was sacked for the first time in almost 800 years.
Galla Placidia, daughter of the Roman emperor Theodosius I, was a mother, tutor, and advisor to emperor Valentinian III. She was queen consort to Ataulf, king of the Visigoths from 414 until his death in 415, briefly empress consort to Constantius III in 421, and managed the government administration as a regent during the early reign of Valentinian III until her death.
The 400s decade ran from January 1, 400, to December 31, 409.
The 390s decade ran from January 1, 390 to December 31, 399
The 410s decade ran from January 1, 410, to December 31, 419.
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.
Athaulf was king of the Visigoths from 411 to 415. During his reign, he transformed the Visigothic state from a tribal kingdom to a major political power of Late Antiquity.
Olympiodorus of Thebes was a Roman historian, poet, philosopher and diplomat of the early fifth century. He produced a History in twenty-two volumes, written in Greek, dedicated to the Emperor Theodosius II, detailing events in the Western Roman Empire between 407 and 425.
Marcus was a Roman usurper who was proclaimed Emperor of Roman Britain. He was killed later that same year in a subsequent mutiny.
Gratian or Gratianus was a Roman usurper in Roman Britain from 406-407.
Radagaisus was a Gothic king who led an invasion of Roman Italy in late 405 and the first half of 406. A committed pagan, Radagaisus evidently planned to sacrifice the Senators of the Christian Roman Empire to the gods, and to burn Rome to the ground. Radagaisus was executed after being defeated by the general Stilicho. 12,000 of his higher-status fighters were drafted into the Roman army and some of the remaining followers were dispersed, while so many of the others were sold into slavery that the slave market briefly collapsed. These Goths later joined Alaric I in his conquest of Rome in 410.
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.
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.
Uldin, also spelled Huldin is the first ruler of the Huns whose historicity is undisputed.
Gainas was a Gothic leader who served the Eastern Roman Empire as magister militum during the reigns of Theodosius I and Arcadius.
Heraclianus was a provincial governor and a usurper of the Western Roman Empire (412–413) opposed to Emperor Honorius, who had originally brought him to power. Heraclianus helped put down a rebellion by Priscus Attalus. However, he decided to stage his own rebellion and during his invasion of the Italian peninsula, was either defeated in battle or captured and executed.
The Gothic War (401-403) was a war between the Western Roman Empire and the Visigoths. The commander of the Roman army was Flavius Stilicho, the Visigoths were led by Alaric. The war was fought in the north of Italy and, in addition to a number of small fights, consisted of two major battles, both of which were won by the Romans.
The War of Radagaisus was a military conflict in northern Italy in the period 405–406. This conflict was caused by the invasion of Radagaisus in 405. He invaded the Western Roman Empire with a huge population shortly after the empire had ended a war with the Visigoths. Due to the size of Radagaisus' army, it required a tremendous effort by the Romans to avert this danger. Commander-in-chief Stilicho was closely involved in the preparations that were made and personally directed the army's operations.