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Radagaisus (died 23 August 406) was a Goths king who led an invasion of Roman Italy in late 405 and the first half of 406.Peter Heather, The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, 2nd ed. 2006:194;Herwig Wolfram, History of the Goths (1979) 1988, "Radagaisus and his contribution to the Visigothic ethnogenesis" p168f. A committed pagan,Orosius called Radagaisus a "Scythian and a pagan" ( paganus et Scytha) (VII.37.4). Radagaisus was executed after being defeated by the general Stilicho. 12,000 of his higher-status fighters were drafted into the Roman army and some of the remaining followers were dispersed, while so many of the others were sold into slavery that the slave market briefly collapsed. These Goths later joined Alaric I in his sack of Rome in 410.Wolfram 1988:171
Radagaisus, whose early career and ultimate origins are unknown, fleeing Hunnic pressures, invaded Italy without passing through the Balkans, which indicates that his invasion began somewhere on the Great Hungarian Plain, west of the Carpathian Mountains. archaeology finds of coin hoards, buried by residents who were apparently aware of Radagaisus's approach, suggest that his route passed through southeastern Noricum and western Pannonia. About this time Flavia Solva was burned out and largely abandoned and AguntumWilhelm Alzinger, "Das Municipium Claudium Aguntum", Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt: Principat II:6 (Berlin, 1977:403), noted in Wolfram 1988:169 note 328. was devastated by fire. An indeterminate number of refugees fled ahead of his army as it marched over the Alps. It was said by contemporaries that Arianism swelled his forces.Wolfram :169.
The Western Roman Empire under Stilicho mobilized thirty numeri (about 15,000 men) from the Italian field army in response to Radagaisus's invasion.Heather, p. 205 A second contingent of Roman troops, possibly recalled from the Rhine frontier, complemented the Italian forces. In addition, they received help from Goths foederati under Sarus and Huns forces under Uldin. Alaric I remained inactive through the whole episode, committed by treaty to Illyricum.Wolfram 1988:169, notes that Orosius placed them face to face and Isidore of Seville followed him.
Radagaisus's army had the run of northern Italy for at least six months while the Empire mobilized its forces. They eventually made their way to the bridgehead community of Florence. They the city, where no less than a third of the Goth's troops and allies were killed.
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