| Siege of Florence | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Germanic Wars | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Goths |  Western Roman Empire Hunnic Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Radagaisus | Stilicho Uldin the Hun Sarus the Goth | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 20,000 [2] | 15,000-20,000 [3] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 12,000+ [2] | Unknown | ||||||
The siege of Florence took place in 405 or 406 AD between the Goths and the Roman Empire in Florence.
In 402, the Geougen, a nomadic Tartar people of northern Asia who had gradually replaced the Sienpi as the dominant people of the vast plains of Mongolia and Siberia during the fourth century, extended their conquests by defeating the Huns on the upper Volga, who themselves had once been masters of the lands from which their victors had come. [4] Pushed westwards by this advance of the East Asian hordes, the Huns retreated further into Europe, driving from their homeland the Suevi, Vandals and Burgundians who had occupied central Europe from the Vistula to the Elbe. [5]
Radagaisus, a warrior from the area of present-day Mecklenburg, took command of a formidable section of these tribes, who were determined to unite for the invasion of the Roman Empire, in whose territory they hoped to find ample space for settlement, undisturbed by the constant attacks of the Asian barbarians who were overrunning the areas of present-day Poland and Germany. [6]
In late 405 or early 406, Radagaisus and his vast army, recruited from some of the wandering tribes of the Alani and some of Alaric's Goths, angered by their recent defeat, broke across the undefended Danube frontier and entered Rhaetia. Stilicho, Master General of the West, had recently stripped the other provinces, including those on the Rhine and Danube, of their regular garrisons in order to repel Alaric's first invasion of Italy. [7] This allowed Radagaisus to cross the Alps into Italy before meeting Stilicho's resistance.
Radagaisus marched south into Italy, leaving behind the devastated farmlands and cities of the province, while Stilicho took up residence in Pavia, which he declared the rendezvous point for the Roman and barbarian auxiliaries he was calling in from all directions to defend Italy. [8] Meanwhile, the cowardly figurehead of the Western Empire, Honorius, took refuge in the fortified city of Ravenna, which had been made the capital of the West (rather than the more exposed Milan) after Alaric's invasion in 401. [9]
For reasons unknown, Radagisus halted his march on Rome to besiege the great and prosperous city of Florence. The city was defended by a small garrison, but with remarkable devotion and patriotism. [8] When the defenders of the city faltered in the face of the relentless barbarian assault, their spirits were revived by the timely report of the appearance of Bishop Ambrose of Milan in a night vision to a citizen of the city, in which he promised the intercession of Providence for the succour of the inhabitants. [10] Shortly afterwards, Stilicho arrived with his army and crushed the besieging barbarian army in the decisive battle of Faesulae (406). [11]
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.
The 400s decade ran from January 1, 400, to December 31, 409.
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.
Constantine III was a common Roman soldier who was declared emperor in Roman Britain in 407 and established himself in Gaul. He was recognised as co-emperor of the Roman Empire from 409 until 411.
The fall of the Western Roman Empire, also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome, was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vast territory was divided between several successor polities. The Roman Empire lost the strengths that had allowed it to exercise effective control over its Western provinces; modern historians posit factors including the effectiveness and numbers of the army, the health and numbers of the Roman population, the strength of the economy, the competence of the emperors, the internal struggles for power, the religious changes of the period, and the efficiency of the civil administration. Increasing pressure from invading barbarians outside Roman culture also contributed greatly to the collapse. Climatic changes and both endemic and epidemic disease drove many of these immediate factors. The reasons for the collapse are major subjects of the historiography of the ancient world and they inform much modern discourse on state failure.
This is a chronology of warfare between the Romans and various Germanic peoples. The nature of these wars varied through time between Roman conquest, Germanic uprisings, later Germanic invasions of the Western Roman Empire that started in the late second century BC, and more. The series of conflicts was one factor which led to the ultimate downfall of the Western Roman Empire in particular and ancient Rome in general in 476.
The six-volume work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by the English historian Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) has been reprinted many times over the years in various editions.
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 Gothic wars or Roman–Gothic wars were a long series of conflicts between the Goths and the Roman Empire between the years 249 and 554 AD. The main wars are detailed below.
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.
The crossing of the Rhine River by a mixed group of barbarians which included Vandals, Alans and Suebi is traditionally considered to have occurred on the last day of the year 406. The crossing transgressed one of the Late Roman Empire's most secure limites or boundaries and so it was a climactic moment in the decline of the Empire. It initiated a wave of destruction of Roman cities and the collapse of Roman civic order in northern Gaul. That, in turn, occasioned the rise of three usurpers in succession in the province of Britannia. Therefore, the crossing of the Rhine is a marker date in the Migration Period during which various Germanic tribes moved westward and southward from southern Scandinavia and northern Germania.
The Battle of Faesulae was fought in 406 AD as part of the Gothic invasion of the Western Roman Empire. After General Flavius Stilicho repelled the Visigoths at Pollentia and Verona, he encountered a new incursion of Vandals and Goths led by Radagaisus whose forces attacked Florence. Stilicho ultimately defeated the invaders at Faesulae with support from Uldin the Hun and Sarus the Goth. Radagaisus was executed after the battle and survivors of his armies fled to Alaric.
Sarus or Saurus was a Gothic chieftain known as a particularly brave and skillful warrior. He became a commander for the Emperor Honorius. 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.
Olympius was a minister of the Western Roman Empire, in the court of the emperor Honorius. Olympius orchestrated the fall and execution of the capable general Stilicho, who had effectively been ruling the Western Roman Empire as regent of Honorius for over twelve years.
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.