It all started when the Huns charged into eastern Europe near the end of the fourth century, sending terrified tribes running for their lives and in search of new homes. The Roman emperor Valens granted the Visigoths permission to settle a parcel of land along the south bank of the Danube river, but when famine broke out, the Romans chose not to supply the refugees with food. The Goths revolted and the Romans struck back, with the emperor himself leading the Roman army into battle against the barbarians. The defeat of the Roman army and the death of the emperor at the battle of Adrianople boosted the confidence of the Visigoths who petitioned Rome for better treatment and for a homeland to call their own. Alaric, king of the Visigoths, began a series of sieges on Rome, broken periodically by sessions of attempted negotiation. After four years, his forces entered the city, by which time the citizens of Rome were diseased and starving.
"By a skilful disposition of his numer forces, who impatiently watched the moment of an assault, Alaric encompassed the walls, commanded the twelve principal gates, intercepted all communication with the adjacent country, and vigilantly guarded the navigation of the Tyber, from which the Romans derived the surest and most plentiful supply of provisions. The first emotions of the nobles, and of the people, were those of surprise and indignation, that a vile Barbarian should dare to insult the capital of the world: but their arrogance was soon humbled by misfortune; and their unmanly rage, instead of being directed against an enemy in arms, was meanly exercised on a defenceless and innocent victim.
"The senate, who in this emergency assumed the supreme powers of government, appointed two ambassadors to negotiate with the enemy. When they were introduced into [Alaric's] presence, they declared, perhaps in a more lofty style than became their abject condition, that the Romans were resolved to maintain their dignity, either in peace or war; and that, if Alaric refused them a fair and honorable capitulation, he might sound his trumpets, and prepare to give battle to an innumerable people, exercised in arms, and animated by despair. “The thicker the hay, the easier it is mowed,” was the concise reply of the Barbarian; and this rustic metaphor was accompanied by a loud and insulting laugh, expressive of his contempt for the menaces of an unwarlike populace, enervated by luxury before they were emaciated by famine.
"At the hour of midnight, the Salarian gate was silently opened, and the inhabitants were awakened by the tremendous sound of the Gothic trumpet. Eleven hundred and sixty-three years after the foundation of Rome, the Imperial city, which had subdued and civilized so considerable a part of mankind, was delivered to the licentious fury of the tribes of Germany and Scythia."
(Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 31)
Below is a dramatization by the BBC of the events surrounding the sack of Rome. What the video fails to mention, however, is that the Roman Empire continued for another thousand years in the East after Rome fell.
After the Visigoths conquered Rome, they didn't stay put, but continued south looking for ships to transport them to Africa. When Alaric died en route, his second-in-command Athaulf took over as king and led his people north, where they eventually settled in the Aquitaine region of what is not southwestern France. Their territory grew into what is now Spain and in the late sixth century, the Visigoths, who had been Arians, adopted the Nicene Faith.
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