Alaric the Goth : an outsider's history of the fall of Rome

In the conventional story of Rome’s collapse, violent “barbarians” destroy “civilization.” Yet from a different point of view, those stale generalities become a history shockingly alive and relevant. Alaric grew up near the river border that separated Gothic territory from the Romans. He survived the emperor’s decision to separate immigrant children from their parents, sending them hundreds of miles from their families or forcing them into slavery. Later, he was denied citizenship despite his service in the army, as Romans were deeply conflicted over who should enjoy its privileges: they wanted to buttress their global power, yet were insecure about Roman identity; they depended on foreign goods, but scoffed at foreign ways and mocked foreigners with a potent mix of bigotry and intolerance. The three nights of riots the Goths brought to the capital in ad 410—led by Alaric—struck fear into the hearts of the powerful, but were not without cause. Through Alaric’s story, Douglas Boin reveals the Goths’ complex and fascinating legacy in shaping the history we thought we knew, but had never imagined from their perspective. Denied citizenship by the Roman Empire, a soldier named Alaric changed history by unleashing a surprise attack on the capital city of an unjust empire. Stigmatized and relegated to the margins of Roman society, the Goths were violent “barbarians” who destroyed “civilization,” at least in the conventional story of Rome’s collapse. But a slight shift of perspective brings their history, and ours, shockingly alive. Alaric grew up near the river border that separated Gothic territory from Roman. He survived a border policy that separated migrant children from their parents, and he was denied benefits he likely expected from military service. Romans were deeply conflicted over who should enjoy the privileges of citizenship. They wanted to buttress their global power, but were insecure about Roman identity; they depended on foreign goods, but scoffed at and denied foreigners their own voices and humanity. In stark contrast to the rising bigotry, intolerance, and zealotry among Romans during Alaric’s lifetime, the Goths, as practicing Christians, valued religious pluralism and tolerance. The marginalized Goths, marked by history as frightening harbingers of destruction and of the Dark Ages, preserved virtues of the ancient world that we take for granted. The three nights of riots Alaric and the Goths brought to the capital struck fear into the hearts of the powerful, but the riots were not without cause. Combining vivid storytelling and historical analysis, Douglas Boin reveals the Goths’ complex and fascinating legacy in shaping our world. "Did 'barbarians' really cause the catastrophic collapse of civilization? Boin is the first to give an historically sound account from the 'barbarian' perspective, through the life of Alaric the Goth. On August 24, 410 A.D., the Senate and the people of Rome awoke to a seismic shock. Intruders, led by a disaffected forty-year-old immigrant, known only as Alaric, had stormed the city. There were kidnappings, robbery, and acts of arson. The effects were long-lasting. Within two generations, Rome's world fell apart. A city predicted to rule an empire without end, in the words of its famous Latin poet Virgil, was governed by a savage band of foreigners, called Goths. Alaric the Goth offers a deeply researched look at the end of the Roman Empire but from a surprising point-of-view. Offering the first full-length biography of Alaric, a talented and frustrated immigrant living in a time of pervasive bigotry, state-supported Christian violence, and irrational xenophobia, it breaks out of decades of tired, traditional approaches to the period, most of which overidentify with the Roman people. And it reveals the lasting contributions Goths made to legal history, to the values of religious toleration, and to modern ideas of citizenship. By moving this man from the borders to the center of Rome's story, it asks readers to think deeply and differently about the lives of marginalized people too often invisible in our history books."-- Provided by publisher The first biography of Alaric to appear in English tells the history of the fourth- and fifth-century Roman Empire through the life of the Goth who attacked it. In the conventional story of Rome's collapse, violent "barbarians" destroy "civilization." Yet from a different point of view, those stale generalities become a history shockingly alive and relevant. Alaric grew up near the river border that separated Gothic territory from the Romans. He survived the emperor's decision to separate immigrant children from their parents, sending them hundreds of miles from their families or forcing them into slavery. Later, he was denied citizenship despite his service in the army, as Romans were deeply conflicted over who should enjoy its privileges: they wanted to buttress their global power, yet were insecure about Roman identity; they depended on foreign goods, but scoffed at foreign ways and mocked foreigners with a potent mix of bigotry and... Epub3