We had talked about Alaric in the entry dedicated to the battle of the Frigid River as one of the generals that accompanied the emperor Theodosius . From that moment the Visigoth began a peculiar love-hate relationship with Rome, in which the emperor Honorius and his main adviser, Stilicho, played a leading role, and which ended with the entry into Rome of Alaric's army in the year 410.
Although the objective of this entry is to talk about the peculiar way in which Alaric was buried by his followers after his death, we cannot fail to make a brief reference to the reason why this character went down in history. His army fought against the troops led by Stilicho and was defeated by him up to three times and the general spared his life on all of them. This fact is strange, because Stilicho did not behave like this with other barbarian leaders; Moreover, he even asked for Alaric's help to defend the interests of Rome, which is why Alaric asked the Senate for financial compensation.
After the fall from grace and the execution of Stilicho, Alaric advanced almost unopposed on Italy and offered himself to the Emperor Honorius, who had installed his court in Ravenna, to set himself up as the defender of the decimated Empire against the various rebellions of the generals of his provinces. . Honorius, weak and stubborn, opposed it at all times.
Alaric besieged Rome up to three times and ended up taking the city in the year 410, putting an end to the myth of the invulnerability of Rome and shaking the foundations of the Empire. His troops sacked the city for three days, while sparing the lives of its citizens. Some sources indicate that this was due to the intervention of Pope Innocent I.
After sacking Rome, Alaric and his army headed for Brindisi, where our hero's good fortune came to an end. The fleet he had built was destroyed by a severe storm and Alaric contracted a fever that killed him.
The day before his death Alaric, born on the banks of the Danube, asked to be buried in the nearby river bed. His followers decided that they would not bury his general in a grave that would be recognizable and desecrated. They put thousands of slaves to work in order to divert the course of the Busento River, they buried Alaric in an undetermined place in the dry river bed, and redirected the current to its original channel, in such a way that it could not be accessed. to Alaric's tomb.
But not content with this, and in order that no one could reveal the secret of the place where Alaric was buried, they executed all those who had taken part in the execution of the work that had been necessary to fulfill the last wish of the victor. of Rome.