Page 77 - 100 Events That Made History

Alaric was
The sack
born in what is
now Romania.

of Rome

How BARBARIANS brought the world’s

greatest empire to its knees

Barbarians seize their chance
In 286 CE, the Roman emperor Diocletian split the Roman
empire in two because it was too big to govern alone.
Seeing an opportunity, Germanic tribes (known to the
Romans as “barbarians”), such as the Goths and the Vandals,
soon targeted the weaker, western half. In 376, the Goths
pushed into Roman territory, and in 410 ALARIC, king of
the Visigoths, looted Rome itself. Vandal raiders sacked
the city again in 455. Rome was weakening.

When Alaric died, the Visigoths
hid his grave by diverting a river,
burying him in the channel, and
then diverting the river back
over his grave.

Odoacer knocking off
Romulus’s crown

End of an empire How it changed
The last Roman emperor in the There was instability in
west, Romulus Augustulus, was Europe for a while, but
just a boy. He was overthrown slowly, new kingdoms
in 476 CE by a “barbarian” leader medieval age began.
emerged and the
named ODOACER. Slowly,
different peoples took over the the world
western lands. The eastern half of
the empire, Byzantium, survived
for another thousand years.
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