Alaric captured Rome in 410 CE during the late Roman Empire.
Alaric was king of the Visigoths, a Gothic people who had entered the Roman world through a combination of migration, military service, and conflict. He first became prominent as a military leader opposing the eastern Roman government in the late fourth century.
After failed negotiations and repeated campaigns in Italy, Alaric’s army entered Rome on 24 August 410. The city was plundered for three days, although many churches and religious sites were reportedly protected. The event shocked the Roman Mediterranean because Rome had not been captured by a foreign army for roughly eight centuries.
The sack did not immediately destroy the Western Roman Empire. Roman political authority continued, and Alaric soon moved south into Italy, where he died later in 410. A common mix-up is to confuse Alaric with Odoacer, who deposed the last western emperor in 476, or with Genseric, whose Vandals sacked Rome in 455.