Siege of Florence (405)

Background

In 402, the Geougen, a nomadic Tartar people of northern Asia who had gradually replaced the Sienpi as the dominant people of the vast plains of Mongolia and Siberia during the fourth century, extended their conquests by defeating the Huns on the upper Volga, who themselves had once been masters of the lands from which their victors had come. Pushed westwards by this advance of the East Asian hordes, the Huns retreated further into Europe, driving from their homeland the Suevi, Vandals and Burgundians who had occupied central Europe from the Vistula to the Elbe.

Radagaisus, a warrior from the area of present-day Mecklenburg, took command of a formidable section of these tribes, who were determined to unite for the invasion of the Roman Empire, in whose territory they hoped to find ample space for settlement, undisturbed by the constant attacks of the Asian barbarians who were overrunning the areas of present-day Poland and Germany.

In late 405 or early 406, Radagaisus and his vast army, recruited from some of the wandering tribes of the Alani and some of Alaric's Goths, angered by their recent defeat, broke across the undefended Danube frontier and entered Rhaetia. Stilicho, Master General of the West, had recently stripped the other provinces, including those on the Rhine and Danube, of their regular garrisons in order to repel Alaric's first invasion of Italy. This allowed Radagaisus to cross the Alps into Italy before meeting Stilicho's resistance.