The administrative divisions of the Roman Empire in 395, under Theodosius I Alaric was also enraged he had not been granted a higher office in the imperial administration. Theodosius won the battle, and although Alaric was given the title comes for his bravery, tensions between the Goths and Romans grew as it seemed the Roman generals had sought to weaken the Goths by making them bear the brunt of the fighting. At the Battle of the Frigidus, around half the Visigoths present died fighting the Western Roman army led by the usurper Eugenius and his general Arbogast. In 394, Alaric led a force of Visigoths as part of Theodosius' army to invade the Western Roman Empire. Alaric was defeated by Theodosius and his general Flavius Stilicho in 392, who forced Alaric back into Roman vassalage. He then led an invasion into Eastern Roman territory outside of the Goths' designated lands. In 391, a Gothic chieftain named Alaric was declared king by a group of Visigoths, though the exact time this happened ( Jordanes says Alaric was made king in 400 and Peter Heather says 395 ) and nature of this position are debated. They were allotted the northern part of the dioceses of Dacia and Thrace, and while the land remained under Roman sovereignty and the Visigoths were expected to provide military service, they were considered autonomous. The treaty made the Visigoths subjects of the empire as foederati. Peace was eventually established in 382 when the new Eastern emperor, Theodosius I, signed a treaty with the Thervings, who would become known as the Visigoths. At the Battle of Adrianople in 378, Fritigern decisively defeated emperor Valens, who was killed in battle. A Roman army, led by the Eastern Roman emperor Valens, marched to put them down. The Goths rebelled and began looting and pillaging throughout the eastern Balkans. Soon after, starvation, high taxes, hatred from the Roman population, and governmental corruption turned the Goths against the empire. In 376, the Huns forced many Therving Goths led by Fritigern and Alavivus to seek refuge in the Eastern Roman Empire. But in the late 4th century, the Huns began to invade the lands of the Germanic tribes, and pushed many of them into the Roman Empire with greater fervor. The Goths, one of the Germanic tribes, had invaded the Roman Empire on and off since 238. From the first to fourth centuries, their populations, economic production, and tribal confederations grew, and their ability to conduct warfare increased to the point of challenging Rome. The Germanic tribes had undergone massive technological, social, and economic changes after four centuries of contact with the Roman Empire. Jerome, living in Bethlehem at the time, wrote "the city which had taken the whole world was itself taken." įurther information: Migration period and Fall of the Western Roman Empire The sacking of 410 is seen as a major landmark in the fall of the Western Roman Empire. This was the first time in almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy, and the sack was a major shock to contemporaries, friends and foes of the Empire alike. Nevertheless, the city of Rome retained a paramount position as "the eternal city" and a spiritual center of the Empire. At that time, Rome was no longer the capital of the Western Roman Empire, having been replaced in that position first by Mediolanum (now Milan) in 286 and then by Ravenna in 402. The Sack of Rome on 24 August 410 AD was undertaken by the Visigoths led by their king, Alaric.