The death and burial of Alaric 1, feared leader of the Visigoths, in 410 A.D., is surrounded by mystery and legend. He was buried according to Visigoth tradition, and because of that, his grave has never been found. And that’s the first part of this mystery. The great king was buried according to the Visigoth customs of the day, in what is now Cosenza (formerly Cosentia), Italy.
The burial itself was a complex affair that required the king to be buried under the confluence of the Busento and Crati rivers. And to do that, slaves were required to temporarily divert the course of the river, so that Alaric’s enormous tomb, which included his horse, and tons of precious silver and gold could be interred. Also included was a priceless Menorah that the Romans looted from a sacred temple in 70 A.D. Once the king’s grave was in place, the river was again rerouted to its original course in the hopes of hiding away the location forever. Then, according to legend, the slaves were killed to keep them from revealing its location.
Much of the information about the burial of Alaric 1 comes from the writings of Jordanes, a sixth-century Roman historian who wrote about the Goths.
“Turning from its course the river Busentus, near the city of Cosentia, they led a band of captives into the midst of its bed to dig out a place for his grave,” he wrote in his A.D. 551 account De Origine Actibusque Getarum (The Origin and Deeds of The Goths.) “In the depths of this pit they buried Alaric, together with many treasures and then turned the waters back into their channel. And that none might ever know the place, they put to death all the diggers.”
In his six-volume series, The History of The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) appears to confirm this, having written:
“By the labor of a captive multitude, they forcibly diverted the course of the Busentinus, a small river that washes the walls of Consentius. The royal sepulcher, adorned with the splendid spoils and trophies of Rome, was constructed in the vacant bed.
“The waters were then restored to their natural channel and the secret spot where the remains of Alaric had been deposited was forever concealed by the inhuman massacre of the prisoners who had been deployed to execute the work.”
So while we have at least some information regarding the location of Alaric 1’s grave, it’s location still remains a mystery. One that even drew in German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, who never missed a chance to plunder gold when he was able to.