Alaric\'s intentions, army, sizes, recruitment,...

[Robert Vermaat]

It seems to me that Alaric was aiming at a high roman command in the first place rather than styling himself king of the goths and that he did so till the end and because of the fact that Honorius (or better his entourage)kept denying this from him was an important factor for the problems the roman government faced in this period. The author also stresses the fact that Alaric army was'nt that big at that it wasn't exclusively gothic. Also the actual sizes of the field army and border troops must have been rather small in comparison with earlier and was heavily recruited from among the border peoples across the border. So we would find lots of gothic speaking soldiers at the danube frontier.

Totally agree. This is the theory of Liebeschütz, and it still seems a partisan view, at least among popular viws of the Goths.

For what I've read so far, Alaraic led a waxing and waning army, consisting of groups of Goths (who also operated alone if it suited them), Romans and other Germanics (such as the federates who espaped from the slaughter after Stilicho was murdered. This was no Gothic nation moving around in one group, nor was Alaric their one and only king.

I think I support the above views, that Alaric did not want to conquer Rome, just assert enough pressure to force the Romans to recognise 'his' Goths (not necessarily all the Goths) as regular troops, not federates.
This would have allowed him a secure military support, although I bet Alaric would have used that to take Stilicho's place and become the Patrician behind the throne.

Nor was Alaric anti-Roman, when Stilicho was murdered he was about to go to war, with the aid of Alaric!