This appears to be a uniquely authentic expression of the feelings of perhaps a majority of the Roman senate against Stilicho.

# REDIRECT Stilicho

# Final Division of the Roman Empire between the Sons of Theodosius – Reign of Arcadius and Honorius – Administration of Rufinus and Stilicho – Revolt and Defeat of Gildo in Africa – Condemnation by the Senate

# Revolt of the Goths – They Plunder Greece – Two Great Invasions of Italy by Alaric and Radagaisus – They are Repulsed by Stilicho – The Germans Overrun Gaul – Usurpation of Constantine in the West – Disgrace and Death of Stilicho – His Memory Persecuted – Claudian

Stilicho, scraping together thirty legions ( roughly 30, 000 troops-legions during the Late Roman Empire had around 1, 000 soldiers ) through a variety of desperate methods, including efforts to enroll slaves in the army in exchange for their freedom, led a coalition of Romans, Alans, and Huns to defeat Radagasius at Ticinum in 406.

Stilicho defeated Alaric at Pollentia, on the river Tanarus on Easter Day ( 6 April 402 ) Alaric retreated to Verona, where Stilicho attacked him again.

His 3-year-old half-sister, Galla Placidia, is send to Rome where she spent her childhood in the household of Stilicho and his wife Serena.

" Stilicho retired to Ravenna, where he was taken into captivity.

* Stilicho is the main protagonist in the 1901 novel Stilicho by Felix Dahn ( a part of the Kleine Romane aus der Völkerwanderung series ), where he is portrayed as a loyal and honest general.

Perhaps the most interesting lines in the whole poem are those where Rutilius assails the memory of " dire Stilicho ", as he names him.

Stilicho had news of the coup at Bononia ( where he was probably waiting for Alaric ).

In a surprise attack on Easter Sunday in 402, Stilicho defeated Alaric at the Battle of Pollentia, capturing his camp and his wife.

* 402 – Stilicho stymies the Visigoths under Alaric in the Battle of Pollentia.

* Stilicho drives the Visigoths out of Greece and Macedonia.

* Stilicho, Roman general ( magister militum ), defeat the Visigoths and Huns in Thrace.

Without a strong general like Stilicho to control the by-now mostly barbarian army, Honorius could do little to break the siege, and adopted a passive strategy trying to wait out Alaric, hoping to regather his forces to defeat the Visigoths in the meantime.

Stilicho defeated Alaric and his Visigoths here in 403.

Greece faced invasions from the Heruli, Goths, and Vandals during the reign of Theodosius I. Stilicho, who acted as regent for Arcadius, evacuated Thessaly when the Visigoths invaded in the late 4th century.

At the close of the 4th century AD, Claudian, court poet to the emperor Honorius and the patrician Stilicho, habitually uses the ethnonym Getae to refer to the Visigoths.

** 403, Battle of Verona, Visigoths pushed into former Illyricum by Stilicho.

* 408, Failed invasion of Moesia by Huns and Germanic mercenaries led by Uldin the Hun, Capture of thousands of Germanic mercenaries, Execution of Roman General Stilicho, Slaughter of wives and children of barbarian foederati, Siege of Rome by Visigoths, Attacks on Roman Britain by Saxons, Death of Eastern Emperor Arcadius.

Stilicho had trapped Alaric and the Visigoths in Greece ( 395 ), but his Eastern troops were commanded by Arcadius, who, under suggestion by Rufinus, recalled them, so that Stilicho was forced to return his forces west across the border.

Stilicho, who acted as regent for Arcadius, evacuated Thessaly when the Visigoths invaded in the late 4th century.

In 401 Alaric invaded Italy, but he was defeated by the Roman half-Vandal general Flavius Stilicho at Pollentia ( modern Pollenza ) on April 6, 402.

In 397 Stilicho crossed the sea to Greece and succeeded in trapping the Goths in the mountains of Pholoe, on the borders of Elis and Arcadia in the peninsula.

But three months later, Stilicho and the chief ministers of his party were treacherously slain on Honorius ' orders.

During the first part of his reign Honorius depended on the military leadership of the general Stilicho, who had been appointed by Theodosius and was of mixed Vandal and Roman ancestry.

Stilicho was arrested and executed on August 22, 408.

Edward Gibbon, drawing on Zosimus, criticizes Stilicho for being overconfident in victory and indulging in luxury and women, allowing Alaric to escape.

However, upon his return to Italy, Mascezel was drowned under questionable circumstances, perhaps on the orders of a jealous Stilicho.

Meanwhile, Constantine ’ s rebellion having broken off the negotiations between Alaric and Stilicho for the joint attack on Illyria, Alaric demanded the payment he was owed, threatening to attack Italy again if he was not given a large amount of gold.

He wrote a number of panegyrics on the consulship of his patrons, praise poems for the deeds of Stilicho, and invectives directed at Stilicho's rivals in the Eastern court of Arcadius.

Meanwhile the loyalist Roman army mutinied at Ticinum ( Pavia ) on 13 August, which was followed by the execution of the patrician Stilicho on 22 August.

In Rutilius ' view, Stilicho, fearing to suffer all that had caused himself to be feared, removed the defences of the Alps and Apennines that the provident gods had interposed between the barbarians and the Eternal City, and planted the cruel Goths, his skinclad minions, in the very sanctuary of the empire: " he plunged an armed foe in the naked vitals of the land, his craft being freer from risk than that of openly inflicted disaster ... May Nero rest from all the torments of the damned, that they may seize on Stilicho ; for Nero smote his own mother, but Stilicho the mother of the world!

The relations between Alaric and Stilicho had been closer and more mysterious than those between Alaric and Theodosius, however, and men who had seen Stilicho surrounded by his Goth bodyguards, naturally looked on the Goths who assailed Rome as Stilicho's avengers.

In 406 Stilicho, hearing of new invaders and rebels who had appeared in the northern provinces, insisted on making peace with Alaric, probably on the basis that Alaric would prepare to move either against the Eastern court or against the rebels in Gaul.

In the East, Arcadius died on 1st May 408 and was replaced by his son Theodosius II ; Stilicho seems to have planned to march to Constantinople, and to install there a regime loyal to himself.

Alaric's first appearance was as the leader of a mixed band of Goths and allied peoples who invaded Thrace in 391, who were stopped by the half-Vandal Roman General Stilicho.

In 408, Western Emperor Flavius Honorius ordered the execution of Stilicho and his family, and incited the Roman population to massacre tens of thousands of wives and children of Goths serving in the Roman military.

Honorius was still a minor ; as his guardian, Theodosius had appointed the magister militum Stilicho.

Stilicho also claimed to be the guardian of Arcadius, causing much rivalry between the western and eastern courts.

Stilicho now marched east against Alaric.

According to Claudian, Stilicho was in a position to destroy the Goths when he was ordered by Arcadius to leave Illyricum.

From there Alaric escaped with difficulty, and not without some suspicion of connivance by Stilicho, who supposedly had again received orders to depart.

After spreading desolation through North Italy and striking terror into the citizens of Rome, Alaric was met by Stilicho at Pollentia, today in Piedmont.

Alaric became the friend and ally of his late opponent, Stilicho.

Stilicho actually proposed using Alaric's troops to enforce Honorius ' claim to the prefecture of Illyricum.

Under strong pressure from Stilicho, the Roman Senate consented to promise its payment.

He accordingly led them across the Julian Alps and, in September 408, stood before the walls of Rome ( now with no capable general like Stilicho as a defender ) and began a strict blockade.

* 406 – Radagaisus is executed after he is defeated by the Roman army under Stilicho.

As emperors, Honorius was under the control of the Romanized Vandal magister militum Flavius Stilicho while Arcadius was dominated by one of his ministers, Rufinus.

Stilicho is alleged by some to have wanted control of both Emperors, and is supposed to have had Rufinus assassinated by Gothic mercenaries in 395 ; though definite proof of Stilicho's involvement in the assassination is lacking, the intense competition and political jealousies engendered by the two figures compose the main thread of the first part of Arcadius ' reign.

Arcadius was dominated for the rest of his rule by Anthemius, the Praetorian Prefect, who made peace with Stilicho in the West.

To strengthen his bonds with the young emperor, Stilicho married his daughter Maria to him.

It was eventually subdued by Stilicho, under the local command of Mascezel, the brother of Gildo.

Stilicho was absent in Raetia in the latter months of 401, when Alaric, who was also the eastern empire's magister militum in Illyricum, suddenly marched with a large army to the Julian Alps and entered Italy.

Stilicho hurried back to protect Honorius and the legions of Gaul and Britain were summoned to defend Italy.