CHAPTER XXV

TROUBLES IN THE CHURCH FOLLOWED BY DISTURBANCES IN THE STATE. STILICHO THE GENERAL OF HONORIUS

ABOUT this period the dissensions by which the church was agitated were followed, as is frequently the case, by commotions in the state. The Huns crossed the Danube and devastated Thrace. A band of robbers from Isauria ravaged cities and villages as far as Caria and Phœnicia. Stilicho, the most powerful general of his time, commanded the troops of Honorius, and had under his sway the flower of the Roman and of the barbarian soldiery; conceiving feelings of enmity against the rulers who held office under Arcadius, he determined to sow the seeds of dissension between the two empires. He caused Alaric, the leader of the Goths, to be appointed by Honorius to the command of the Roman troops, and sent him into Illyria, whither also he despatched Jovian, the prætorian prefect, and promised to join them there with military forces, in order to add that province to the dominions of Honorius. Alaric marched at the head of his troops from the barbarous regions bordering on Dalmatia and Pannonia to Epirus; and after passing some time in waiting the arrival of Stilicho, returned to Italy. Stilicho was prevented from fulfilling his agreement of joining Alaric, by some letters which were transmitted to him from Honorius.