Why was Alaric, the King of the Visigoths very famous?

             Alaric was a Gothic prince, born into a tribe that had settled south of the Danube in Roman territory. He became King of the Visigoths in 394. Upon gaining command of the Visigoths, Alaric immediately overran Greece. The Eastern Roman Emperor was too weak to resist him, and called upon Stilicho, the general in charge of the Western Empire, to aid him in driving out Alaric. Then, Alaric escaped to a province of Greece that lay on the east side of the Ionian Sea.

              Alaric next launched an invasion of Italy. In fact, the rest of his days would be spent fighting and negotiating with emperors of Rome for his people’s livelihood, or attacking Roman territories when negotiations fell through. In 410, during his third attack on Italy, Alaric led the Visigoths in a sack of the city of Rome. This event is sometimes considered the beginning of the Middle Ages.