Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/519

 APPENDIX 497 A.D. 395. Claudian represents Alaric as shutting himself up in a fortified camp on the news of Stilieho's approach (in Ruf. 2, 124-9). Stilicho amves in Thessaly (implet Thessaliam ferri nitor, 1. 179) and prepax-es to attack the enemy. If he had been permitted to do so, the invasion of Greece would have been averted (186 sqq.), but alas ! regia mandata arrive from Arcadius, and he has to sacrifice the "publica commoda" to the duty of obedience. This must have been about the beginning of November, if Rufinus was slain on 27th November (as Socrates states, vi. 1 ; cp. Chron. Pasch. ad ann.). Thus the advance of Stilicho from Italj' to Thessaly would have occupied more than six months. "What was the cause of this delay ? It is significant that the charge brought against Rufinus by Claudian of having incited the Visigoths to the invasion of Greece is uttered only as a suspicion by Socrates (loo. cit., So^av e'x^v w? k.t.A.. "was supposed to have," &c.); in the following century the suspicion has developed into a positive statement in the chronicle of Count Marcellinus ad ann. (Alaricum . . . infestum reipublicae fecit et in Graeciam misit). A.D. 396. (Gibbon wrongly places the events of this year in a.d. 397. It is not clear why he deserts the guidance of Tillemont.) Stilicho landed at the Isthmus (Zosimus, 5, 7), and is said to have had Alaric at his mercy at Pholoe. Three views have been held as to the escape of Alaric : (1) he outwitted Stilicho, who was culpably negligent (cp. Zosimus) ; (2) the suggestion of C'laudiau (B. G. 516) that Arcadius and his ministers, jealous of Stilieho's intervention, treated with Alaric and secured his retreat, might be supported by the circum- stance that Arcadius created him Master of Soldiers in Illyricum soon afterwards ; (3) Stilicho is supposed to have made a secret treaty with Alaric, and permitted his retreat, for purposes of his own. It is certain that Stilieho's assertion of the unity of the Empire by appearing with armed forces in the Praefecture of Illyricum was viewed with suspicion and distrust at Constantinople. The feeling at the court of Arcadius is aptly expressed in words which Claudian has put into the mouth of Rufinus (in Ruf. 2, 161) : Deserat (sc. Stilicho) Illyrici fines, Eoa remittat agmina, fraternas e.x aequo dividat hastas. Jt is certain too that Stilicho afterwards, if not in a.d. 396, made it the aim of 'lis policy to detach Hljrricum from Arcadius and add it to the realm of Honorius. This is stated in so many words by Zosimus (v. 26), and it was doubtless Stilieho's object from the beginning. This is the view of Jung (Romer and Romanen, p. 188 : ich sehe darin vieknehr die consequente Verfolgung der durch Stilicho von Anfang an beabsichtigten Politik), who has some good remarks on the geographical importance of Illyricum ; the imsatisfactoriness of the line of division of 395 which cut off Dalmatia from the rest of the Balkan peninsula (p. 186) ; and the circum- stance that all northern Illyricum belonged to the Latin-speaking part of the Empire. After the first invasion of Italy, Stilicho intended to use the help of Alaric for this purpose, and established him on the borders of the territory on which he had designs ; but the execution of the plan was continually deferred, on account of other events which claimed the care of Stilicho. Alaric during this time was playing his own game, between the courts of Ravenna and Constantinople. His object was to obtain permanently Dalmatia, Noricum, Istria and Venetia, with a regular gi-ant of money from the Empire. This was what he asked in 410 (Zos. V. 48), and his aim throughout was doubtless a settlement of this kind. The certainty that from a.d. 402 forward Stilicho made use of Alaric for his Illyric designs rouses the suspicion that he was playing with Alaric, with the same intent, in a.d. 395 and 396. The famous words of Orosius (vii. 37) : Alarico rege cum Gothis suis saepe victo saepe concluso semperque dimisso, are strikingly tme of PoUentia, of Verona, and of Pholoe ; I suspect that they are also true of the campaign of a.d. 395, and that the vmaccountable delay between Stilieho's start in the spring and his return to Italy in Oct.-Nov. was due to diplomatic dallyings with Alaric. Of course nothing would be said of that by Claudian. VOL. III. 32