Rome paid the Goths in pepper.

408 · 410 · apart: 2 years

In 408 Alaric demanded 5,000 pounds of gold, 30,000 of silver and 3,000 of pepper to lift his siege. Two years later he took the city anyway.

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The event

• Sack of Rome by the Visigoths410 · Rome. The Visigoths under Alaric captured Rome and plundered it for three days — the first time in almost 800 years that the city fell to a foreign enemy. The shock was immense and moved Augustine to write The City of God.

5th century

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