ABSTRACT
After 406, the Roman West was torn apart by insurrection and ravaged by barbarian incursion. In 408, Stilicho was accused of plotting usurpation and toppled in a bloody coup. Two years later, Alaric sacked Rome, capturing the emperor’s sister Placidia in the process. Large swathes of western territory were forfeited by the western government, and while some of these losses were reversed, the British provinces were not recovered. By 415, through the concerted efforts of Honorius, and his new magister militum Constantius, the worst was over, but at a high cost.
