Stilicho

Stilicho, a famous Roman general, the mainstay of the western empire after the death of Theodosius the Great, is said to have been a Vandal, and was born about 359. Through his courage and ability he rose rapidly in rank, was sent as ambassador to Persia in 384, and soon after his return rewarded with the hand of Serena, niece of Theodosius. His rise caused a jealousy that soon grew to rankling hatred in the heart of Rufinus, the ambitious minister of Theodosius. In 394 Stilicho departed for Rome in charge of the youthful Honorius, who had been committed to his care, placed him on the throne of the western empire, and administered in his name the affairs of state. On the death of Theodosius (end of 394) Rufinus, the guardian of Arcadius, instigated Alaric to invade Greece while Stilicho was engaged in chastising the invaders of the Roman territories on the Rhine and in Gaul. Returning, he at once set out for Constantinople and destroyed Rufinus, then marched against Alaric, blocked him up in the Peloponnesus, but through over-confidence permitted him to escape across the isthmus with his captives and booty. In 398 his daughter Maria became the wife of Honorius. His old opponent, Alaric, after several inroads upon the eastern provinces of the western empire, now invaded Northern Italy, but was signally defeated at Pollentia (403) and Verona by Stilicho, who had hurriedly called in the Roman legions from Rhætia, Gaul, Germany, and even Britain. Stilicho's ambition now led him to attempt the introduction of his own family to the imperial succession—a statement disbelieved by Gibbon, who considers it merely as an invention of the crafty Olympius—by the marriage of his son with the heir-presumptive Placidia, the daughter of Theodosius, and to attain this end he made overtures of alliance to Alaric, which were gladly accepted. But the dreadful inroad of Radagaisus (406) at the head of more than 200,000 (some say 400,000) barbarians, who ravaged the whole country as far as Florence, compelled the great general of the West to shelve for a time his ambitious schemes. With a small but chosen army of veterans, aided by a body of Huns under Uldin (father of Attila), and of Visigoths under Sarus, he so harassed the invaders that they were forced to give him battle. They were soon completely routed; Radagaisus was put to death, and his followers sold as slaves. Stilicho now returned to his own ambitious schemes, established enmity between Rome and Byzantium by seizing on eastern Illyricum and inducing Alaric to transfer his allegiance to Honorius. But Honorius, who had been prejudiced against Stilicho by one of his officers, Olympius, refused to take eastern Illyricum from the Byzantine empire; and subsequently by an artful harangue he so influenced the soldiers of the army of Gaul that they rose en masse against the partisans of Stilicho. Stilicho himself was at Bologna; and on the news of the revolt, his most zealous friends urged immediate action against Olympius and the Pavian rebels; but for the first time in his life vacillation seized the soldier. He was soon forced to flee to Ravenna, where he was murdered, 23d August 408. Thus perished the last of the series of distinguished aliens, who, as emperors, warriors, or politicians, had propped up the Roman empire for 150 years, with a stern and resolute zeal equal to that of the early Romans themselves. Three months after his death Alaric and his Visigoths were at the gates of Rome.