The peace between the Visigoths and the Roman Empire has held essentially unbroken, but the serious loss of military manpower in the Gothic War has forced the Roman Empire to rely much more on foederati, of whom the Goths are the largest contingent.

They have adopted many elements of Roman culture, some becoming literate in Latin.

The Goths living in Lower Moesia have meanwhile been converted to Arian Christianity, apparently during the past dozen years.

Following the death of Theodosius on January 17, 395, a few days after his forty-eighth birthday, the Visigothic mercenaries, having suffered severe losses in the campaign against Eugenius and considering their treaty of 382 to have ended with the emperor’s' death, renounce their allegiance to the empire and rebel under the leadership of their chieftain Alaric, who had begun his career leading a band of Gothic foederati.

Alaric charges that his tribe has not been given subsidies promised by the Romans; …