Analysis: Description of the Devastation of Rome

Dates: c. 409–410 CE

Geographic Region: Western Europe; Rome

Author: Saint Jerome

Summary Overview

Between 376 CE and 410 CE, Western Europe and parts of the Middle East witnessed with growing alarm the continuing harassment of the Roman Empire by tribes from northern and eastern Europe. Long considered the civilizing force on two continents, the empire grew increasingly weak and ceded territory to various tribal factions. The empire's capitulation to people whom the Romans termed “barbarians” was marked most significantly by the fall of the city of Rome to forces led by the Visigoth leader Alaric in 410 CE. The priest and Roman citizen Eusebius Hieronymus, later known throughout the Christian world as Saint Jerome, expressed the fears of many fellow Romans in a series of letters and documents that linked the decline of the empire and fall of the city with the end of civilization—and perhaps the end of the world.

Defining Moment

The Roman Catholic priest and scholar known widely after the fifth century as Saint Jerome began commenting on the worsening situation in Rome as early as 378 CE, shortly after the Roman forces lost the decisive Battle of Adrianople to the Goths in Thrace (western Turkey). Although there had been uprisings and occasional battles of some significance since the founding of the empire, after 378 CE, groups of tribes from northern Europe and the areas beyond the Caucasus continually harassed Roman provinces. To preserve the empire, Roman authorities ceded territory and offered bribes to foreign chieftains.

In 395 CE, a foray against Rome was made by Alaric (370 CE–410 CE), leader of the Visigoths, a Germanic tribe that had been invited to settle within the boundaries of the empire twenty years before. A year later Alaric was given an important position by Roman authorities who believed they could buy his loyalty. For the next fifteen years, Roman armies fought border wars as barbarian tribes continued to make incursions into territories claimed by the empire. Cities and entire regions fell under control of one or more of these groups, until the area controlled by Rome shrank noticeably. In 410 CE, when Emperor Honorius (384 CE–423 CE) refused Alaric's demands for territory within the borders of the empire and a title as commander-in-chief of the Roman army, Alaric led his Visigoth army into Rome and sacked it.

Roman citizens like Jerome perceived the incursion of barbarian tribes as an existential threat. The barbarians worshiped strange gods (hardly any were Christian), they practiced strange cultural rituals, and they showed little or no regard for the politics, culture, art, or lifestyle that had come to characterize the Roman Empire and its predecessor, the Roman Republic, over more than five centuries. Although not a native of Rome, Jerome was educated there as a youth and returned in 382 CE to serve as secretary to Pope Damasus I. He remained in the city until approximately 385 CE, when he left for the Middle East to resume his life as a scholar. No doubt while living in the city, he witnessed firsthand the concern of ordinary citizens and public officials over the growing bravado of foreign tribes not content to be assimilated into the empire.

After settling in Bethlehem, Jerome maintained a lively and voluminous correspondence with people across Western Europe, but especially with a group of women for whom he served as spiritual advisor. Letters from abroad and stories from travelers who stopped at the monastery where he lived and worked kept him informed of the political situation that worsened each year. As a result, the comments he made in letters and even in documents prepared as religious commentaries reflect his growing concern that the empire was on the verge of extinction.

Author Biography

Eusebius Hieronymus (Saint Jerome of Stridon) was born around 347 CE in Dalmatia, a Roman province that stretched along the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. After completing his education in Rome, he traveled through the western and central parts of the Roman Empire before settling in the east. After living briefly as a hermit, he returned to Rome in 382 CE and became confidante and secretary to Pope Damasus I (c. 304 CE–384 CE). While in Rome, he began translating the New Testament into Latin and became spiritual director for several Christian women looking to lead a more ascetic life. When Damasus died, Jerome returned to the Middle East. A prolific writer, in addition to his monumental translation of the Bible into Latin, Jerome produced histories, theological commentaries, defenses of Church doctrine against various heresies, and numerous epistles that offer spiritual direction and insight into contemporary matters. He died in 420 CE.

Document Analysis

These excerpts are taken from two documents written by Jerome shortly before and after the Visigoths sacked Rome. The first is from a letter to Ageruchia, a widow to whom he was providing spiritual advice. Designated “Epistle 123” by later scholars, the letter is an extended exhortation for Ageruchia to remain single. Jerome uses the precarious situation within the empire as one of several reasons she should avoid taking on the burden of a new family. The language he uses to describe the events occurring throughout Western Europe is emotionally charged; words like “savage” and “devastated” characterize the havoc many tribes (he names eleven of them) are wreaking throughout the region. His mention of specific cities and provinces (nearly a dozen) that have fallen to the barbarians may have been prompted by personal memories of at least some of these places; others he would have known from reports and stories told to him by acquaintances. In a ploy typical of classical rhetoric, he says he will “keep silence concerning the rest,” leaving it to his reader to imagine the calamity that had befallen the peoples of the civilized world. As he points out, the empire had been at war inside its own borders for thirty years by the time he writes this letter; as a consequence, many in the younger generation will never know the freedom that people experienced when Rome was strong. While the point may be overemphasized for rhetorical effect, Jerome is clearly contrasting the presently dismal situation with the empire's former days of glory.

The final paragraph is taken from Jerome's Commentary on Ezekiel, written between 410 and 414 CE. In the preface to Book III, Jerome expresses his dismay and incredulity that Rome, capital of a great empire and center of modern civilization, could be toppled. He is clearly dismayed at the efforts of officials to save the city; instead of mounting a strong military defense, they had resorted to bribery. In a series of parallel rhetorical questions, he contrasts the greatness of the past with the present misery. Personifying Rome as a warrior, he says the city that conquered the whole world has been cast to the ground. He laments that subject nations, once ruled by the “queenly city” (a nod to the majesty associated with royalty) would now be “filled”—and ostensibly ruled—by inferior classes. He observes how the impact of Rome's collapse has been felt even in the Middle East, where those who “once abounded in wealth” have fled to Bethlehem as “beggars.” For Jerome, the entire world has been turned upside down.

Bibliography and Additional Reading

Heather, Peter. The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians. New York: Oxford UP, 2006. Print.

Kelly, J. N. D. Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies. New York: Harper, 1975. Print.

Murphy, Francis X., ed. A Monument to Saint Jerome: Essays on Some Aspects of His Life, Works and Influence. New York: Sheed, 1952. Print.

Ward-Perkins, Bryan. The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization. New York: Oxford UP, 2005. Print.