Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/117

THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS 81 siege. He lingered in Italy, however, and, when after long negotiations Honorius failed to come to terms with him, he marched on Rome again and forced the senate to select a new emperor, Attalus. Attalus, however, was unable tc secure Africa and its grain supply, so Alaric deposed him. His negotiations with Honorius were again a failure and he marched upon Rome a third time. The siege led to famine as before, and one night a city gate was treacherously opened to the besiegers. For three days Alaric's army plundered the great metropolis ; then departed with their spoil for the south of Italy, whence they intended to embark for the wheat-fields of Sicily and Africa. A storm, however, de- stroyed their fleet, and before the year 410 was over, Alaric died. Slaves turned a river from its bed, buried the dead monarch there, restored the waters to their course, and then were executed, that none but German warriors might know the secret of the grave of the Goth who was the first, since the Gauls had burned it just eight centuries before, to sack the city that had so long ruled the world. The Visigoths, under Ataulf, Alaric's successor, roamed about Italy for a while longer, but in 412 entered Gaul. Here Ataulf helped Constantius, one of Hono- Further rius' generals, by defeating a usurper whom the ofTheWest Franks, Burgundians, and Alani had set up; but Goths then he was unable to come to terms with Honorius and so set up Attalus again as emperor. It is remarkable how even the barbarians felt that some one must be emperor and kept putting up their own candidates. Constantius soon cut off Ataulf s supplies and forced him to retreat to Spain, where at Barcelona one of his own followers assassinated him. The Goths then tried to cross from Spain to Africa, but the same misfortune befell their fleet as in southern Italy. They therefore made peace with Honorius, were provided with grain, and proceeded to reconquer much of Spain from the Vandals, Alani, and Suevi, — who had recently overrun it. For this service they were rewarded with lands in south- western Gaul with Toulouse as their capital and what amounted to an independent kingdom. About the same