Page "Arcadius" Paragraph 7

In this reign of a weak Emperor dominated by court politics, a major theme was the ambivalence felt by prominent individuals and the court parties that formed and regrouped round them towards barbarians, which in Constantinople at this period meant Goths.

In the well-documented episode that revolved around Gainas, a number of Gothic foederati stationed in the capital were massacred, the survivors fleeing under the command of Gainas to Thrace, where they were tracked down by imperial troops and slaughtered and Gainas dispatched.

The episode has been traditionally interpreted as a paroxysm of anti-barbarian reaction that served to stabilize the East.

The main source for the affair is a mythology à clef by Synesius of Cyrene, Aegyptus sive de providentia, ( 400 ) an Egyptianising allegory that embodies a covert account of the events, the exact interpretation of which continues to baffle scholars.

Synesius ' De regno, which claims to be addressed to Arcadius himself, contains a tirade against Goths.