Flavius Stilicho - Roman general

Last defender of the Western Empire

A diptych in Monza cathedral is thought to show 
Stilicho (right), with Serena and Eucherius

The military commander Flavius Stilicho, who for part of his career could be considered the most powerful man in the Western Roman Empire, was executed on this day in 408 in Ravenna.

Stilicho had successfully defended the empire against several Barbarian invasions and gained his power through acting as regent when the death of Theodosius I in 395 left the Western Empire in the hands of Honorius, his 10-year-old son.

But as a soldier of partly Vandal descent, Stilicho had always aroused suspicion within the Roman court and his failure to deal with the advance across northern Europe of the rebellious Constantine III, leader of the Romans in Britain, combined with rumours that he planned to install his own son, Eucherius, as emperor of the Eastern Empire following the death of Arcadius, sparked a mutiny of the Roman army at Ticinum - modern Pavia - on August 13, 408.

Stilicho retreated to Ravenna, then capital of the Western Empire, where he was imprisoned on the orders of Honorius and executed, along with Eucherius, on August 22.

Born around 359, at a time of political turbulence and rivalries within a Roman Empire in decline, Stilicho is thought to have been the son of a soldier of Vandal origin in the Roman army and a Roman mother. 

A bust of Theodosius I,
in the Louvre in Paris

As a soldier himself, he proved to be a skilled strategist and diplomat and quickly rose through the ranks under Theodosius I, the last emperor of a unified Roman Empire.

His success in 383 in negotiating a territorial settlement with Shapur III, the King of Persia, on behalf of Theodosius saw him quickly promoted to be head of the emperor's corps of bodyguards.

Theodosius increasingly saw Stilicho as a valued ally and strengthened their bond by allowing Stilicho to marry his favourite niece, Serena.

In around 393, Theodosius made him commander-in-chief of the Roman army and entrusted him with the guardianship of Honorius ahead of his death in 395.

Stilicho’s successes on the battlefield strengthened his position still further.

The Battle of the Frigidus in 394 in what is now western Slovenia saw him fighting alongside Alaric, the King of the Visigoths, to defeat the usurper Eugenius, unifying the Empire under Theodosius, while between 395 and 398 he successfully contained the Gothic threat in the Balkans.

In 398 Stilicho defeated Gildo, the rebel governor of Africa, securing a vital grain supply for Rome.

In the early fifth century, he defeated the Ostrogoth king Radagaisus, preventing an invasion of the Italian peninsula, and twice defeated Alaric, his ally in Frigidus, in the Battles of Pollentia and Verona.

A bust depicting Emperor
Honorius as an adolescent

Stilicho’s power inevitably made him enemies, notably a Praetorian prefect by the name of Rufinus, who is said to have been appointed to be the guardian for Theodosius’s other son, Arcadius, in the Eastern Empire.

They clashed over a number of issues but matters came to a head during one of Stilicho’s battles against Alaric, sparked by the latter reneging on a peace treaty with Rome.  

After purportedly trying to negotiate a diplomatic solution to the conflict, Rufinus is said to have instructed Arcadius to order the Roman troops to withdraw just as they were about to attack Alaric's army.  A group of the returning soldiers then murdered Rufinus, leading some historians to speculate that Stilicho ordered Rufinus to be killed because he suspected him of being in league with Alaric.

Stilicho’s power began to wane after the twin threat of Alaric and Radagaisus depleted the Roman forces defending the empire in the north. 

In 407, Constantine, a Roman general who had been proclaimed by his soldiers as the Emperor in Britain, moved his troops across the English Channel, taking control of Gaul and Hispania. 

Stilicho failed to stop his advance, which further drained his resources and highlighted the empire’s inability to defend its borders, leading to growing dissent among the Roman army.

The Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan has a monument called 
 the Sarcophagus of Stilicho, although it is unlikely he is buried there 

This and the false news that Stilicho was planning a coup d’état to install his son as Eastern Roman Emperor led to their mutiny. They killed Stilicho’s most trusted generals, leaving him powerless to the extent that when he was arrested in Ravenna, he is said to have accepted his fate.

For the future of the Western Empire, Stilicho’s execution proved to be a telling moment. In the disturbances that followed, murderous attacks by Romans on fellow  citizens of Vandal and other Germanic descent caused an exodus of 30,000 men to the side of Alaric, demanding that he lead them against the Romans.

The Visigoth leader subsequently led his forces on a campaign that saw them reach the walls of Rome and lay siege to the city in September, 408.

Without a general in the mould of Stilicho, Honorius could do little to break the siege. Alaric tried and failed four times to negotiate a peace treaty until August 27, 410, when - with the people of Rome dying of hunger - his army smashed through the gates and sacked the city.

It was the first time in 800 years that an invading army had successfully breached the walls of the Eternal City and many historians regard the event as the beginning of the end for the Western Roman Empire.

The Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna is
famous for its Byzantine mosaics

Travel tip:

Ravenna, where Stilicho was executed, was the capital of the Western Roman Empire from 402, when Honorius moved his court from Mediolanum (modern Milan), until the collapse of the empire in 476, after which it became the capital of the Italy ruled by the barbarian Odoacer until he was defeated by the Ostrogoth king Theodoric. In 540 Belisarius conquered Ravenna for the Byzantine Empire, and the city became the capital of Byzantine Italy.  The city, which is in the region of Emilia-Romagna, about 78km (48 miles) east of Bologna, is now renowned for its wealth of well-preserved late Roman and Byzantine architecture and has eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites. One of the most important examples of early Christian Byzantine art and architecture is the Basilica of San Vitale, which is famous for its fine Byzantine mosaics.  Ravenna was also the city where the 13th century poet Dante Alighieri lived in exile until his death in 1321. Dante's tomb is next to the Basilica of San Francesco.

The beautiful Ponte Coperto, which links the city
of Pavia with the suburb of Borgo Ticino

Travel tip:

Ticinum, which occupied the site of the modern Pavia, was an ancient city of Gallia Transpadana, a division of Cisalpine Gaul. It was founded on the banks of the river of the same name - now the Ticino - near where it joins the Po, then called the Padus. Its importance in Roman times was due to the extension of the Via Aemilia from Ariminum (Rimini) to the Padus, which it crossed at Placentia (Piacenza) and there forked, one branch going to Mediolanum (Milan) and the other to Ticinum.  Modern Pavia has little in the way of Roman remains.  It is thought that the city’s Duomo might have been built over the remains of an ancient temple, but there is no evidence of this. Pavia’s picturesque covered bridge, the Ponte Coperto or Ponte Vecchio, which originated in the 16th century and was rebuilt after being bombed in the Second World War, linking Pavia with the Borgo Ticino suburb, was preceded by a Roman bridge, of which only one pillar exists under the remains of the central arch of the mediaeval bridge.  Pavia is also known for its ancient university, which was founded in 1361, and its famous Certosa, a magnificent monastery complex north of the city that dates back to 1396. 

Also on this day:

1599: The death of composer Luca Marenzio

1849: Venice hit by history’s first air raid

1913: The birth of nuclear physicist Bruno Pontecorvo

1914: The death of bishop Giacomo Radini-Tedeschi

1970: The birth of TV chef Giada De Laurentiis

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The 410 Sack of Rome

Invasion that signalled terminal decline of Western Roman Empire

Alaric and the Visigoths entering Rome, as depicted by the
19th century German artist Wilhelm Lindenschmit the Younger

The ancient city of Rome was left in a state of shock and devastation after three days of looting and pillaging by Visigoths under the command of King Alaric came to an end on this day in 410.

An unknown number of citizens had been killed and scores of others had fled into the countryside. Countless women had been raped. Many buildings were damaged and set on fire and Alaric and his hordes made off with vast amounts of Roman treasure.

It was the first time in 800 years that an invading army had successfully breached the walls of the Eternal City and many historians regard the event as the beginning of the end for the Western Roman Empire.

It could have been more devastating still had Alaric, a Christian, been a more cruel leader.  Although he struggled to control his men - historians believe they were an ill-disciplined rabble rather than an organised fighting force - he stopped short of ordering large-scale slaughter of the Roman population, while silver and gold objects they were told had belonged to St Peter were left behind.

A book illustration showing Alaric in Athens
after conquering the city in 395

It was brought to a swift conclusion because Alaric had other targets he wished to attack in the far south of Italy and in northern Africa. In the event, he died not long afterwards of a fever, somewhere near what is now the city of Cosenza in Calabria.

Alaric had risen to become King of the Visigoths in 395, the same year that saw the death of the Emperor Theodosius I, who had signed a peace treaty with the Goths in 382. Leadership of the Eastern and Western Empires was inherited by Theodosius’s two sons, Arcadius in the east and 10-year-old Honorius in the west. The western capital was moved from Rome to Ravenna, which was more easily defended.

Wanting to create a new settlement for his tribes, Alaric staged regular attacks in northern Italy in the early part of the fifth century but these were always repelled by Honorius’s regent, the brilliant military strategist and general Flavius Stilicho.

Stilicho, who was half-German, had many soldiers of German origin under his command and wanted to enlist the help of the Visigoths to fight against the Eastern Empire. Alaric himself had even served in battle under the command of Stilicho, whom he greatly admired and even considered a friend.

But his position changed when Honorius dismissed his demand to be given land and political power and he set his sights on Rome, which was still the symbolic heart of the Empire, even if the seat of government was now in Ravenna.

Alaric is buried in the bed of a river near where he died, along
with personal treasures, as imagined by Heinrich Leutemann

He was unconcerned about Honorius but knew he faced a formidable adversary in Stilicho and it was out of fear and respect for Stilicho that he stopped short of invading Rome after advancing to its gates in 408.

But after Stilicho, suspected of planning an insurrection, was executed on the orders of Honorius later the same year, the obstacle he presented was removed.

As a consequence, after long months laying siege to the city, during which time Roman citizens became hungrier and more desperate, Alaric first set a series of demands in front of Honorius, promising to call off the siege if they were met.  When they were refused, he ordered his tribes to enter the city on August 24, 410.  They did so without much of a fight, ushered in either by corrupt officials or rebellious slaves who opened the Salarian Gate.

The collapse of the Western Roman Empire did not happen as a direct result of Alaric’s invasion. In fact a more severe sacking of the city was still to come, carried out by the Vandals in 455, but the 410 invasion was a symbolic moment in an end game that was to reach its conclusion in 476, when another Germanic leader, Flavius Odoacer, removed the Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, and declared himself King of Italy, which is the moment at which many historians consider the Western Empire to have been no more.

The facade of the cathedral in Cosenza

Travel tip:

Cosenza, a city with an urban area in which more than 260,000 people live, combines a no-nonsense modern city with a small and atmospheric old city, a medieval town with a network of steep, narrow streets, at the heart of which is a cathedral originally built in the 11th century.  The old town also boasts the 13th century Castello Svevo, built on the site of a Saracen fortification, which hosted the wedding of Louis III of Naples and Margaret of Savoy but which the Bourbons used as a prison.  The pedestrianized centre of the new city has sculptures by the likes of Dalí, De Chirico and Pietro Consagra.

Dante's tomb in Ravenna

Travel tip:

As well as being the former capital of the Western Roman Empire, Ravenna was also the city where the 13th century poet Dante Alighieri lived in exile until his death in 1321. Dante's tomb is in the church of San Pier Maggiore. The city is renowned for its wealth of well-preserved late Roman and Byzantine architecture and eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites. One of the most important examples of early Christian Byzantine art and architecture is the Basilica of San Vitale, which is famous for its fine Byzantine mosaics.

More reading:

How Rome was sacked by the Ostrogoths in 546

Mutinous troops sack Rome in 1527

The death of Dante Alighieri

Also on this day

1576: The death of the great Renaissance artist Titian

1707: The birth of actress Zanetta Farussi, mother of Casanova

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