The Sancta Respublica Romana. A handbook to the history of Rome and Italy, from the Division of the Roman World to the Breaking-up of Charlemagne's Empire, A.D. 395-888

Preface

. THE materials for the composition of this little book were collected and arranged from con temporary authorities, and such ancient records as have come down to us, some years ago ; when, during a residence in Italy, I had felt the want of such information as it is intended to furnish. Since those days increased attention has been directed to mediaeval history ; and especially to that of Rome and Italy. The subject has been taken up by writers whose researches have thrown new light on the subject, and made it most attractive. Yet the study of complicated and necessarily volu minous details can only be carried out by those who have leisure hours at their disposal. Under these circumstances, I hope to be acquitted of presumption if I endeavour to supply a want which still exists — That of a continuous account of the changes and calamities which befell the ancient centre of Roman power during five eventful centuries — From the division of the Roman world between the sons of Theodosius to the breaking-up of Charlemagne's empire of the West.

I have been at pains to do this as briefly as possible. Yet not with such brevity as would render the narrative obscure and devoid of interest. Cusworth, Jan. i6, 1890. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE i. From the Division of the Empire by Theodosius the Great to the Second Visigothic Invasion of Italy, ad. 394-408 1 11. From the Second Visigothic Invasion of Italy to the Death of Honorius. a.d. 408-423 . . 25 in. From the Death of Honorius to the Extinction of the Theodosian Dynasty in the West. a.d. 423-455 42 iv. From the Death of the last Theodosian Emperor to the Extinction of the Western Empire. a.d. 455-476 62 v. Protectorate of Odoacer, 476-492. Reign of Theodoric the Great, 493-525. Regency of his daughter Amalasunta, 525-534. Suppression of the Nika tumult, and re-conquest of Africa, by Belisarius.

Death of Theodoric's only male descendant, and Murder of Amalasunta. ad. 476-534 84 vi. The first six years of the Gothic war : From the landing of belisarius in italy to his return to Constantinople bringing with him King VlTIGES. A.D. 535-541 115 vii. The recommencement and continuance of the Gothic war, until its final termination by narses. a.d. 541-567 143 Vin. Italy under the Lombard Kings. Alboin to Agilulph. a.d. 568-605 168 IX. A.D. 605-617 . 187 x. Italy under the Lombard Kings. Liutprand to the Conquest of the Kingdom by Charlemagne. a.d 717-770 ........ 212 xi. Italy under Charlemagne, a.d. 771-814 . . 236 xii. From the Accession of Louis the Debonaire to the Dismemberment of Charlemagne's Empire, a.d. 814-888 A.D. 394 A HANDBOOK OF ITALIAN HISTORY.

Chapter I

From the Division of the Empire by Theodosius the Great to the Second Visigothic Invasion of Italy. a.d. 394-408. Theodosius the Great before his death divides the Roman world between his infant sons, Arcadius and Honorius, with Rufinus and Stilicho for their guardians. Suspicious conduct of Rufinus and his destruction by Stilicho. Subsequent career of Stilicho. Alaric king of the Visigoths. First Visigothic invasion of Italy. Stilicho's subsequent transactions with Alaric, with a view to their combined action against the Eastern Empire. Neglect of Gaul and Britain. The legionaries stationed at York proclaim Constantine, who passes into Gaul and is recognised by the Legions there and in Spain as emperor. Stilicho overawes the Senate. The circumstances connected with his fall and death. THE condition of Rome and Italy at the commencement of the Middle Ages can neither be explained nor understood without reference to the progress of events during the calamitous interval of eighty-two years from the death of Theodosius the Great (a.d. 394) to the establishment of Odoacer, the first barbarian ruler. *") B A.D. 395 Theodosius, when he had put down the rebellion of Eugenius, and with it the last serious attempt to re-establish the Pagan worship, proclaimed the division of the empire.

To Arcadius, the elder of his two sons, was allotted the new capital, with the Eastern provinces, from the Ionian Sea to the Tigris; Honorius, the younger of them, had Rome, with the whole of Italy, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, Spain with the Balearic Islands, Gaul, Britain, one half of the great Illyrian prefecture, and the African provinces with Carthage. This decree for a partition, published by Theodo sius shortly before his death, appears to have been generally expected and approved. The incapacity of Arcadius and Honorius, of whom the former had only attained his eighteenth and the latter his eleventh year, had not then been discovered. These princes showed more and more clearly, as time went on, that they inherited no share of their father's abilities, their weakness being such as to render their sovereignty little more than nominal.

Experience had led to the conclusion that, with a view to facilitate the defence of so vast an empire, the establishment of a Western as well as Eastern centre of executive power had become desirable. Yet it was never intended that the two jurisdictions should be independent of each other, but rather that the Emperors should be colleagues and coadjutors, the defenders of one commonwealth. Consan guinity, community of interests, and the pressure of The joint Emperors. 3 dangers from without, might well appear to render dissensions between the brothers improbable. At the time of the decree, belief in the unity and immortality of the Sancta Respublica Romana was universal. The relative position of Arcadius and Honorius is explained by Paul Warnefrid, when he says ' Commune Imperium, diversis tantum sedibus, tenere cæperunt" — an account of the constitution of the dual empire confirmed by acts and usages which during the succeeding centuries were religiously kept up.

Enactments were invariably made in the names of both Emperors ; and, so often as a vacancy of either throne occurred, the title of the Caesar elect remained incomplete until his elevation had been approved and confirmed by the occupant of the other. It was only after such approval that his effigy was admitted into Rome or Constantinople, as the case might be, to receive the veneration of the multitude, and to be placed beside that of his brother Augustus. Rome, once more the capital of a vast empire, be came re-invested with a primacy that had never been entirely lost. Augustus Caesar conferred the right of citizenship on all the free men of the peninsula. Between them and the provincials there existed, for about two centuries, a palpable distinction ; and al though Caracalla extended citizenship to the free inhabitants of the provinces, those of Italy were still regarded as more essentially Roman.

Augustus, when possessed of absolute power, abstained from interference with the forms and 1 Historia Miscella, L. xiii. B prescriptions under which liberty had been enjoyed. The frame-work of the Republic was respected ; the Senate retained its venerable aspect; and the consular office, though divested of all power, and involving the cost of a ruinous pageant, did not cease to be coveted, for it immortalized the possessor by giving his name to the year. Augustus himself, as civil head of the state, had no higher title than ' Princeps Senatus,' for that of ' Imperator ' was still, as in its origin, purely military, awarded to a successful leader by the shouts of his victorious legions. This retention of time-honoured forms was of more importance than it may have appeared to be. During the Middle Ages, in times of disaster and confusion, when all other authority had failed, that of the Senate was, as it were, resuscitated, and exercised a beneficial influence in preventing the miseries of anarchy.

Theodosius left the Roman world in peace, and provided with a disciplined army sufficient, if rightly directed, for its defence ; but his choice of the men to whom he confided the guidance of his sons was unfortunate. Rufinus, to whom the guardianship of Arcadius was entrusted, by birth a Gascon, owed his advancement to his eloquence as an advocate, and his plausible duplicity had so far imposed on the confiding nature of Theodosius as to obtain for him the prefecture of the East. Stilicho, the guard ian of Honorius, was by descent a Vandal, and is styled by St. Jerome a semi-barbarian. Yet his father had served in the army of Valens, and he had Rufinus and Stilicho. 5 himself accompanied Theodosius in most of his wars. His military abilities, combined with a prepossessing exterior, induced Theodosius to confer upon him the chief command of the imperial forces, and the hand of his niece, Serena.

Of these two occupants of irresponsible power the most trustworthy account is that of the impartial heathen Zosimus, from whom we learn that Stilicho, no less than Rufinus, amassed enormous wealth by the acceptance of bribes, the perversion of justice, and the ruin of innocent families. When the division of the empire rendered a division of its forces requisite, Stilicho, who had the whole of them under his command, selected for Honorius, or rather for himself, the strongest and best disciplined legions, leaving the weaker and less efficient for Arcadius. On the plea that Theodosius had entrusted him with the care of both his sons, he resolved to visit Constantinople in order that he might acquire over Arcadius an ascendancy equal to that which he already possessed over Honorius. Rufinus, aware of his danger, would fain have strengthened his position by a connection with the imperial family.

Accounting the acquiescence of his submissive ward as certain, he began to speak of the marriage of Arcadius to one of his own daughters as a settled affair ; a presumption which caused disgust and added to an unpopularity already great. During his temporary absence at Antioch, where he perpe trated the judicial murder of the guiltless and meri torious governor, a court intrigue put an end to his A.D. 395 aspirations. In Eudoxia, the daughter of a general in the imperial service, a consort of superior charms and endowments was found for the young Emperor by the favourite eunuch, Eutropius. Conscious of having incurred the hatred of the Senate and people of Constantinople, and under mined by the arts of the new favourite, Rufinus resolved, as his only remaining resource, to court the favour of the Visigoths who, as confederates, had recently fought under the imperial banner, but who were then in open revolt.

Theodosius the Great had found in the Visigoths useful auxiliaries. Thinking to. make them per manently available for the defence of the empire, he had granted them settlements in Thrace combined with Roman citizenship. Under Alaric, a scion of the great Gothic family of Balti, they had done good service by checking the incursions of their old enemies the Huns, and Alaric, with his Romanized countrymen, had afterwards afforded to his bene factor material aid during the rebellion of Eugenius. Regarding himself entitled to entire confidence, he had asked to be entrusted with the command of the Eastern forces, and had been refused ; and the annual subsidy allowed by Theodosius to his followers had been discontinued. Under a sense of wrongs, real or imaginary, he commenced a predatory invasion of the Eastern provinces.

His fame as a skilful and fortunate leader, attracted numerous adherents, and when Macedonia and Thessaly were exhausted he entered Greece. In Alaric 's Invasion of Greece. 7 accordance with secret orders from Rufinus the straits of Thermopylae were left without defenders, and the people, down-trodden, and debased by their Roman masters, made no attempt at resistance. Meanwhile, the assumption by Rufinus of the dress and manners of the Goths alarmed and disgusted the citizens. And when in that array, on the plea of negotiations for peace, he visited Alaric's head-quarters, the friendly terms on which he appeared to be with the Gothic leaders confirmed the suspicion of treason. Alaric's invasion of Greece provided Stilicho with an ostensible plea for unasked intervention. With forces sufficient to overcome all opposition and to establish his predominance at Constantinople, he made good his march to Thessalonica.

On arriving there he received a peremptory order, dictated by Rufinus and signed by Arcadius, to proceed no further, but to send forward to Constantinople the troops allotted to the Eastern empire. Disobedience to the imperial mandate would have been tanta mount to a declaration of war. Stilicho at once complied, but he despatched the troops, under the command of Gainas, an officer on whose punctuality in the execution of his orders he could rely. Arcadius, with his officers of state, on the approach of his father's legions, rode forth to bid them wel come and to receive their homage. The meeting took place in a 'Campus Martius' adjacent to the Palace of Hebdomon, seven miles from the city, and while all eyes were intent on the spectacle, a signal A.D. 396 was given, and in a moment Rufinus was cut to pieces1.

In vain did the Emperor, in whose immediate pre sence the deed was perpetrated, utter a cry of terror ; the head and hands of the victim were carried on a pike through the city, where the grasping prefect had no friends, and the ghastly exhibition was greeted by the multitude with exclamations of joy. The following year, a repetition of the Visigoths' invasion of Greece afforded Stilicho a fresh pretext for intervention. With superior forces he landed in the Peloponnesus, defeated Alaric in several encoun ters, and, having surrounded his camp with fortified posts, left famine and pestilence to do the rest. In the meantime the rapacity of his soldiers inflicted on the unfortunate Greeks miseries quite as severe as those to which they had been subjected by the Visigoths ; but a deliverance from this two-fold misery was at hand.

While Stilicho allowed himself to be engrossed by ignoble pleasures, Alaric, having evaded the toils, reached in safety the isthmus of Corinth, and found sustenance for his people in the fertile province of Epirus 2. After this, the devastations inflicted by the Goths came to an end. Alaric, as the price and pledge of peace, obtained from the Eastern government the command of its forces, a proof of confidence which 1 Chronicon Paschale, often quoted under the title of Chronicon Alexandrinum. Historiae Byzantinae. Niebuhr. 2 According to Zosimus this escape could not have been effected without gross neglect on the part of Stilicho : ' Nisi deliciis et mimis ridiculorum, et parum verecundis mulierculis se dedisset.' Gildon and Masceldelus. 9 A.D. 397 he had previously solicited, and the refusal of which he had regarded as a wrong.

The news of his escape, so humiliating to a leader of Stilicho's experience, was followed by an intima tion that the Senate of Constantinople had declared him a public enemy, and that a decree had been signed for the confiscation of his palace with whatever he possessed in the Eastern empire. He then re turned to Italy, where his presence and counsels were urgently required. Count Gildon, the Governor of Africa, whose ultimate aim it was to make himself independent of both Emperors, had offered to transfer his alle giance from the Western jurisdiction to that of the more distant East, and when Eutropius who now ruled the Eastern counsels accepted his proposal, the Senate of Rome, dreading the loss of a region on which the city depended for bread, despatched an embassy to remonstrate, and also to deprecate im perial jealousies which could not fail to prove ruinous.

Stilicho, being aware that between Gildon and his brother Masceldelus there was an open feud, by a dexterous stroke of policy conferred on the latter the command of an African expedition. Mascelde lus, exasperated at the loss of his children whom Gildon had murdered, accepted the charge, and by one decisive victory terminated the contest. Gildon, being taken prisoner, ended a career of perfidy and crime by hanging himself. Masceldelus returned triumphant, but the magnitude of his services and of A.D. 398, his expectations, rendered his presence inconvenient, until Stilicho got rid of his importunities by causing him to be drowned. The particulars of this murder, of which Gibbon ingeniously attempts to palliate the atrocity, are related with sufficient clearness by the less partial Zosimus \ Stilicho, after the successful result of his policy in Africa, drew closer his connection with the imperial family by giving his infant daughter Maria to her cousin the boy-Emperor, a marriage celebrated by Claudian as one that might be expected to supply the Romans with a progeny of illustrious rulers.

After this marriage, the power of Stilicho over his son-in-law became, we are informed by Zosimus, absolute, while in the East Eutropius ' led Arcadius like a sheep ; ' and the unscrupulous hostility of these rival dictators was a matter of public scandal, inasmuch as they each of them retained a staff of false witnesses, on whose evidence they did not scruple to deprive each other's dependents of their property, enriching themselves with the spoil \ This miserable condition of affairs is declared by the same author to have been regarded by the senators and principal citizens of both capitals with bitter indig nation ; and yet Stilicho, during the last year of the century, was honoured with the consulate. At Constantinople, Gainas, though rewarded for 1 ' Satellites ab eo dato signo hominem in flumen detrudunt.

Ibi Stilicho ridere, Masceldelus sluminis abreptus impetu suffocari' (Zosimus, L. v. c. 2). 2 Zosimus, L. v. c. 12. The Death of Gainas. 11 the destruction of Rufinus with the chief command of the forces, became envious of the prime minister's ill gotten wealth. The intrigues of Gainas were not altogether successful until he obtained the support of the Empress ; but the influence of the beautiful Eudoxia, now the mother of a family, prevailed, and she obtained from her imbecile husband, first the banishment and afterwards the decapitation of Eu tropius. Gainas had then an interval of power A.D. 399. which he grossly misused. Having failed in an attempt to make himself absolute, he incurred universal hatred, and was driven by the indignant citizens from the capital. For a time, having troops of mercenaries at his command, he preyed upon the adjacent country ; but the following year he was defeated and slain, a result which relieved the Eastern jurisdiction from a semi-barbarian and anti-Roman dictator.

After an interval, the Visigoths became weary of inaction. Full of confidence in their own energies and in the fortune of their leader they declared him their king, under whose guidance they might attain a less dependent existence and acquire some territory which they might call their own. Alaric, by a recent and advantageous compact, was debarred from a renewal of hostilities with the Eastern government, but the West lay open to his ambition ; and Italy, with her fabled wealth, presented to him and to his people a tempting field. It appears, on the reliable authority of St. Prosper A.D. 400. and Jornandes, that during the consulate of Stilicho (a. d. 400) Alaric, together with the barbarian king Radagaisus, made an irruption into Venetia and wasted the territory of Aquileja ; but this would seem to have been no more than a tentative incursion and without permanent result.

It was not until the second year of the fifth century that the centre of the Western empire became subjected to its first serious attack. In the course of that year, Alaric, with his Visigoths and a multitude of adherents, effected an unopposed descent into Lombardy, and sacked several of the cities. During the panic caused by this irrup tion the wealthy fled with their moveables, some to Corsica, others to Sardinia. Stilicho, though he had left unguarded the passes to the Alps, displayed, at the eleventh hour, an energy that con trasted strangely with his previous neglect of precau tions ; but it was only by a hasty withdrawal of garrisons needful for the security of Gaul, and by forced marches in mid-winter, that he was able to assemble an army. Honorius, with his affrighted court, betook himself to Ravenna, and his ministers commenced negotiations.

At the time when the battle of Pollentia1 took place, it appears from the clear and trustworthy narrative of Jornandes that a treaty had been actually concluded ; that Alaric, having accepted for his people certain territories in France and Spain, had agreed to leave Italy ; and that, in accordance with this en gagement, he had already commenced his retrograde march when subjected to an unprovoked attack. 1 A city of Liguria, which no longer exists. The Battle of Pollentia. 13 This account derives confirmation from the state ments of Orosius, who wrote at the beginning of the fifth century. Orosius, declares that Alaric only wanted a settlement for his people, and that he desired to live in peace and harmony with the Romans ; but that Stilicho wished to enhance the value of his services and to create a belief that his dictatorship was a necessity \ Of the conflict which took place the accounts are 29 March, contradictory.

St. Prosper, a contemporary, describes day) it as sanguinary and protracted : ' Pollentia, adversus AI>- 402 Gothos, vehementer utriusque partis clade, pugnatum est.' The idea of a drawn battle may seem inconsistent with the fact that the family of Alaric was taken ; yet such a capture may have taken place during the first surprise, and before the Visigothic leaders had time to deploy their forces. Jornandes and Cassiodorus claim for the Visigoths the ultimate victory ; whilst Claudian describes their defeat as a rout ; and Prudentius attributes the victory to the Romans, but in verses, it must be borne in mind, which, as a courtier, he addressed to the Emperor. The results which followed were certainly unlike those which attend on decisive success. Alaric, what ever may have been his losses, had still a formidable army, and does not appear to have relinquished his expectation of reaching Rome. 'The capital,' to use the words of Gibbon, had still to be 'saved by the active and incessant vigilance of Stilicho ; but he respected the despair of his enemy ; and, instead of 1 Orosius, L. vii. c. 37.

A.D. 404 committing the fate of the republic to the chance of another battle, he proposed to purchase the absence of the barbarians.' Stilicho had the children of Alaric in his power, an advantage which fully compensated for any incom pleteness of his victory. By offering to restore these precious hostages, he induced his opponent to re linquish for himself and his followers a raid on Tuscany, and to re-cross the Po. But no sooner had the Visigoths reached the left bank than discontent broke out. The chieftains, disappointed of their expected booty, became amenable to corruption, and withdrew. Alaric, weakened by desertion and by pestilence, sustained soon afterwards, at Verona, such a defeat as compelled him to relinquish for a time the prosecution of his enterprise. Meanwhile the Romans used the interval in strengthening their walls, of which a portion that still exists is attributed by antiquaries to this period.

The following year Honorius, on the invitation of the Senate and accompanied by Stilicho, celebrated at Rome the deliverance of Italy; and it was on this occasion that the combats of gladiators were wit nessed for the last time. The exhibition of death struggles on the stage had been forbidden by Con stantine ; but custom, and the popular craving for excitement, prevailed over edicts, and Christian writers remonstrated in vain, until an act of self sacrifice produced a revulsion of feeling. Tele machus, an Asiatic monk, descending into the arena, rushed between the combatants, and the spectators, The advance of Radagaisus. 15 enraged at his interference, stoned him to death. But the martyr won his converts, and a decree of Honorius for the abolition of these barbarous shows was submitted to without open expressions of discontent.

About this time Claudian ceased to sing the praises of his patron, his patron's consort, Serena, having found for him an African heiress, the management of whose estates after his marriage appears to have engrossed his attention. Ere Honorius had completed a year's residence at a.d. 405. Rome a new alarm drove him back to Ravenna. The barbarian king Radagaisus, to whose standard promises of pay and expectations of plunder had attracted hosts of adventurers, was crossing the Alps. The Roman magnates, of whom a majority secretly adhered to Paganism, when they found themselves deserted, protested against the laws which prohibited sacrifices, and demanded permission to propitiate the deities under whose protection Rome had attained her greatness. Meanwhile the torrent swept over Lombardy. Stilicho, for the second time consul, unable to stem its violence, remained on the watch at Pavia.

While the neighbouring cities succumbed, Florence acquired her first renown. The citizens defended their gates and endured severe privations until the besiegers were compelled by want of food to divide their forces1. When two thirds of the barbarians had taken their departure, Stilicho was able to inflict on the remainder a sanguinary defeat ; and the survivors, when they 1 Paulinus, quoted by Muratori. A.D. 406 reached their fortified but provisionless camp, had no alternative but an unconditional surrender, and were sold for slaves, while Radagaisus, who had sworn to appease the gods of his country with a holocaust of Roman senators, was overtaken in his flight and beheaded. From this ill-starred enterprise Alaric stood aloof; for Stilicho, when he found the court of Constanti nople unwilling to submit to dictation1, had engaged him to assist in conquering from Arcadius Eastern Illyricum; an expression used to designate the all important territories of Dacia, Macedonia, Epirus, Thessaly, Achaia and Crete.

Alaric only awaited orders to join his forces with those of the Western empire, and the threat of dismemberment kept the Eastern government in a constant state of alarm. The allies of Radagaisus, warned by his fate, withdrew from Italy, but only to assist in the ruin of Gaul. Had the youth of the seventeen provinces been trained to defensive warfare, the ruin of many noble cities, enriched and embellished during centuries of peace and security, might have been averted. But by the guardian of the child-like Honorius, though he had now for twelve years wielded at will the resources of the West, no defensive means had been provided. The colonists, if they escaped a captivity worse than death, were compelled to aban don their paternal hearths and to exchange a life of ease for beggary and exile.

Rome, notwithstanding the loss of Gaul, was 1 Zosimus, L. v. c. 26. The Roman Legions in Britain. Revolt. 17 407 called upon to celebrate for a second time her deliverance from the Goths, a ' nomen generale ' applied indiscriminately to distinct races of barbarians. A statue composed of silver and brass was raised in honour of Stilicho, who, according to Zosimus, was ' propemodum coronatus.' Yet on the triumphal arch were seen effigies of the three existing Emperors, Arcadius, Honorius, and Theodosius II (the infant son of Arcadius, already declared his associate), — a proof that the Romans, notwithstanding the unnatural estrangement of the two empires, had not ceased to regard themselves, at least in theory, as members of one commonwealth \ After the collapse of Roman authority in Gaul, the A.D legions stationed in Britain, finding themselves cut off from all communication with Ravenna, became weary of a government that had ceased to exhibit in their behalf any sign of vitality, and their resolution to proclaim an emperor of their own choice, however bold, was not altogether without precedent, since Constantine the Great owed his elevation to the legions assembled at York.

After an interval of violence and confusion, the choice fell on a private soldier named Constantine, who, but for that name, might have lived and died in obscurity ; yet a successful career of about three years seems to show that the usurper Constantine was not altogether deficient in 1 The Byzantine historians designate the citizens of both juris dictions as'Paifiaioi. Where distinction is required the inhabitants of Italy and the Western provinces are entitled oi eoirepioi 'Pai/soioi, and those of the Eastern jurisdiction as oi 'Pai/iafoi rijs tai (Priscus, Hist. Byzant. Niebuhr). C A.D. 408. the tact and ability requisite for a commander. When Constantine, soon after his election, crossed the Channel, the scattered and isolated legions that remained in Gaul, glad to rally around any Roman standard, acknowledged him.

He was then able, though with comparatively small forces, to make head against the barbarians, and to restore order ; a proof that, but for the neglect of the central govern ment, the noblest provinces of the Western empire might have been saved from ruin. Stilicho, still occupied with the intended hostilities against Arcadius, deputed Sarus the Goth, a partisan leader in the imperial pay, to act against Con stantine. Sarus entered Dauphiny, and commenced the siege of Vienne, but, on finding himself over matched by the forces brought against him, was fain to negotiate for an unmolested retreat. Constantine, whose rule had by this time extended itself from the Channel to the Gulf of Lyons, established his court at Aries ; conferred on his son Constans, who had previously been a monk, the title of Augustus ; and sent him to Spain, where he was able to effect the capture of the Emperor's Spanish kinsmen, of whose murder he, in conjunction with his father, afterwards incurred the infamy.

On the death of Maria, the virgin consort of Honorius, she was promptly replaced by her sister Thermanzia, a child of tender years. This strange and suspicious family arrangement led to a belief that her mother Serena was acting an odious part in sacrificing a second daughter, to secure for her son The Demands of Alaric. 19 Eucherius the imperial succession 1 ; a belief which, whether well or ill founded, aggravated the unpopularity of her husband. Stilicho, though twice invested with the consulate, had failed to exhibit any sympathy with public feeling, and his selfish policy had reduced the Roman world to the perilous condition of a house divided against itself. The compact whereby Alaric stood engaged to assist him in the conquest of Eastern Illyricum, had now remained for more than two years in abeyance ; its execution having been deferred, first on account of the invasion of Radagaisus, and secondly, by the rebellion of Constantine.