Disorder in the Empire, and the Plans of Stilicho

About this time, as often happens, the dissensions that shook the church were followed by disturbances and upheavals in the state. The Huns crossed the Danube and laid Thrace waste. The robbers of Isauria gathered in great numbers and ravaged cities and villages as far as Caria and Phoenicia. Stilicho, the general of Honorius, was a man who had risen to great power, if anyone ever had, and he commanded the flower of the Roman and the barbarian troops. He came to feel hostile toward the officials who governed under Arcadius, and he resolved to set the two empires against each other. He had Alaric, the leader of the Goths, appointed by Honorius to the rank of general of the Roman troops, and sent him into Illyria. He sent Jovius, the praetorian prefect, there as well, and promised to join them with the Roman soldiers, so as to add that province to the dominions of Honorius. Alaric marched at the head of his troops from the barbarian country bordering on Dalmatia and Pannonia, and came to Epirus. After waiting there for some time, he went back to Italy. Stilicho was kept from carrying out his agreement to join Alaric by letters sent to him from Honorius. These events happened as I have told them. [a]