The sudden death of Alaric I (c. 370–410AD), the vanquisher of Rome: A tale of malaria and lacking immunity

Galassi, Francesco M; Bianucci, Raffaella; Gorini, Giacomo; Paganotti, Giacomo M; Habicht, Michael E; Rühli, Frank J

doi:10.1016/j.ejim.2016.02.020

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Galassi, F. M., Bianucci, R., Gorini, G., Paganotti, G. M., Habicht, M. E., & Rühli, F. J. (2016). The sudden death of Alaric I (c. 370–410AD), the vanquisher of Rome: A tale of malaria and lacking immunity. European Journal of Internal Medicine, 31, 84–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejim.2016.02.020

Abstract

BACKGROUND Alaric I (c. 370-410AD), King of the Visigoths, sacked Rome for the second time in over eight centuries of history. Historians suggest that malaria, probably contracted either in Rome or in the Pontine Marshes, was responsible for his sudden death in Cosenza (Calabria) in the autumn of 410AD, where he was allegedly buried in the River Busento. In this article, we aim to examine this hypothesis through a full pathographic reassessment of the most likely cause of Alaric's demise. METHODS To achieve this, we resorted to a dual