ALARIC AGAIN IN ITALY.--_Stilicho_ had kept up friendly relations with _Alaric_, and had retained in Italy thirty thousand barbarians in the pay of the empire. The brave general became an object of suspicion to _Honorius_, who caused him to be assassinated, and the wives and children of the barbarian troops to be massacred. The men fled to _Alaric_. He came back with them to avenge them. He appeared under the walls of Rome. "It was more than six hundred years since a foreign enemy had been there, and Hannibal had advanced so far, only to retreat." When the envoys of the Senate represented to Alaric how numerous was the population, he answered, "The thicker the hay, the easier it is mowed." But he consented to accept an enormous ransom, and retired to winter quarters in Tuscany. The court at Ravenna refused to assign lands to the Visigoths for a permanent settlement in Northern Italy. Alaric demanded the post of master-general of the Western armies. Once more he advanced to Rome, seized the "Port" of _Ostia_, and compelled the Senate to appoint _Attalus_, the prefect of the city, emperor. He besieged _Ravenna_ without effect, quarreled with Attalus, and deposed him, and for the third time marched upon Rome. Slaves within the city opened the Salarian gate to their countrymen, and on the 24th of August, 410, the sack of the city began. To add to the horrors of the scene, a terrific thunderstorm was raging. For three days Rome was given up to pillage. Only the Christian temples were respected, which were crowded by those who sought within them an asylum. Rome had been the center of Paganism. The scattering and destruction of its patrician families was the ruin of the old religion. Alaric did not long survive his victory. He died at _Consentia_ in _Bruttium_. He was buried under the little river _Basentius_, which was turned out of its course while the sepulcher was constructing, and then restored to its former channel. The slaves employed in the work were put to death, that the place of his burial might remain a secret (410). ATHAULF: WALLIA.--_Athaulf_ (called Adolphus), the brother and successor of Alaric, was an admirer of the empire. He enlisted in the service of _Honorius_, and married his sister, _Placidia_, who was in the hands of the Goths, either as a captive or as a hostage. He put down usurpers in the south of Gaul who had set themselves up as emperors, and entered _Spain_, in order to drive out the barbarians from that country. But he was assassinated (415). His successor, _Wallia_, carried forward his plans, in the name of Honorius, against the Alans, the Suevi, and the Vandals. He partly exterminated the Alans, chased the Suevi into the mountains on the north-west, and the Vandals into the district called after them, _Andalusia_.