Radagaisus

Radagaisus (died 23 August 406) was a Gothic king who led an invasion of Roman Italy in late 405 and the first half of 406. A committed pagan, he was executed after being defeated by the general Stilicho.

Invasion

Radagaisus's force probably consisted of about 20,000 fighting men. Many of the fighters were accompanied by their families and other noncombatants, meaning that the total size of Radagaisus's group may have approached 100,000. was devastated by fire. An indeterminate number of refugees fled ahead of his army as it marched over the Alps.

The Western Roman Empire under Stilicho mobilized thirty numeri (about 15,000 men) from the Italian field army in response to Radagaisus's invasion. A second contingent of Roman troops, possibly recalled from the Rhine frontier, complemented the Italian forces.

Radagaisus's army had the run of northern Italy for at least six months while the Empire mobilized its forces. He was executed on 23 August 406. 12,000 of his higher-status fighters were drafted into the Roman army. Some of the remaining followers were dispersed, while so many of the others were sold into slavery that the slave market briefly collapsed. These Goths later joined Alaric I in his sack of Rome in 410.

Ancient sources History of Orosius History of Zosimus Chronicle of Prosper of Aquitaine Chronicle of Marcellinus Comes Augustine of Hippo, City of God, Book 5, Chapter 23

Other accounts Edward Gibbon in the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776), Chapter 30