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Stilicho
Stilicho (; – 22 August 408) was a military commander in the Roman army who, for a time, became the most powerful man in the Western Roman Empire. He was partly of Vandal origins and married to Serena, the niece of emperor Theodosius I. He became guardian for the underage Honorius. After years of struggle against barbarian and Roman enemies, political and military disasters finally allowed his enemies in the court of Honorius to remove him from power. His fall culminated in his arrest and execution in 408. Origins and rise to power Besides the relevant legal records in the '' Codex Theodosianus'', the major primary source for the events of Stilicho's reign, or at least events prior to 404, are the panegyrics addressed to him by the poet Claudian, whom he patronized after the death of Theodosius I. These are likely quite biased and portray Stilicho in a positive light. For events after 404, Zosimus is the main source; he derived his information on Stilicho from two prior ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eucherius (son Of Stilicho)
Eucherius was the son of Stilicho, the of the Western Roman Empire, and Serena (wife of Stilicho), Serena, a Roman noblewoman who was the niece of Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius I. He was born in 388 in Rome, Italy. Despite being the son of the , Eucherius did not rise farther than the modest rank of tribune of the notaries. Stilicho was accused by his political opponents of plotting to install Eucherius as a third emperor in Illyricum (Roman province), Illyricum, and as a result of this Stilicho was arrested and executed on 22 August 408, and Eucherius soon after. Life Early life and family Eucherius was born in 388 in Rome to Stilicho, the (master of soldiers) of the Western Roman Empire, and Serena (wife of Stilicho), Serena, a Roman noblewoman who was the niece of Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius I. That Eucherius was born in Rome is known from Claudian's III.177, where he described Rome as being the place where Eucherius "first beheld the light". Eucherius was named ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Pollentia
The Battle of Pollentia was fought on 6 April 402 between the Romans under Stilicho and the Visigoths under Alaric I, during the first Gothic invasion of Italy (401–403). The Romans were victorious, and forced Alaric to retreat, though he rallied to fight again in the next year in the Battle of Verona, where he was again defeated. After this, Alaric retreated from Italy, leaving the province in peace until his second invasion in 409, after Stilicho's death. Background Theodosius I, the last emperor of both the eastern and western halves of the Roman Empire, died in 395, leaving his sons Arcadius and Honorius emperors of the East and West, respectively. However, the weakness of character of the two brothers, and their young age upon their accession to the throne, made it possible for ambitious and sometimes unscrupulous ministers to assume the effective rule of the Empire. In the west, the able ''Magister Militum'', Stilicho, assumed the administration. In spite of his s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gothic War (395–398)
The revolt of Alaric I was a military conflict between the Roman Empire and a rebel army, probably composed mainly of Goths. This war consisted a number of armed conflicts in the period between 395 and 398, interspersed with periods of negotiations and sometimes even cooperation. During this war, the western and eastern parts of the Roman Empire did not always joint together because of conflicting interests. The protagonists in this conflict were the West-Roman commander-in-chief Stilicho, the Eastern-Roman prefect Rufinus, his successor Eutropius and Alaric I. The latter was an elected Gothic military leader and monarch, and later considered one of first Visigothic kings. Sources The main contemporary sources in which this war is reported are the historian Orosius and the poet Claudianus. Other early sources are Zosimus, a historian who probably lived about half a century after Alaric's death, and Jordanes, a Romanized Goth who wrote a history of his people around 550. These ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Honorius (emperor)
Honorius (; 9 September 384 – 15 August 423) was Roman emperor from 393 to 423. He was the younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla. After the death of Theodosius in 395, Honorius, under the regency of Stilicho, ruled the western half of the empire while his brother Arcadius ruled the eastern half. His reign over the Western Roman Empire was notably precarious and chaotic. In 410, Sack of Rome (410), Rome was sacked for the first time since the Battle of the Allia almost 800 years prior. Family Honorius was born to Emperor Theodosius I and Empress Aelia Flaccilla on 9 September 384 in Constantinople. He was the brother of Arcadius and Pulcheria (daughter of Theodosius I), Pulcheria. In 386, his mother died, and in 387, Theodosius married Galla (wife of Theodosius I), Galla who had taken a temporary refuge in Thessaloniki with her family, including her brother Valentinian II and mother Justina (empress), Justina, away from usurper Magnus Maximus. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
War Of Radagaisus
The War of Radagaisus was a military conflict in northern Italy in the period 405–406. This conflict was caused by the invasion of Radagaisus in 405. He invaded the Western Roman Empire with a huge population shortly after the empire had ended a war with the Visigoths. Due to the size of Radagaisus' army, it required a tremendous effort by the Romans to avert this danger. Commander-in-chief Stilicho was closely involved in the preparations that were made and personally directed the army's operations. Background At the end of the fourth century, the Huns, a nomadic people from Central Asia, arrived in Europe. From 395, when they stayed north of the Black Sea, they attacked the Eastern Roman Empire in waves, where they caused enormous destruction. Their arrival disrupted the populations already established in the region. Out of fear, various peoples left their habitats and chased other peoples. This movement is probably the origin of the migration of the Goths, who had bad experienc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Verona (402)
The Battle of Verona was fought in June 402 by Alaric's Visigoths and a Roman force led by Stilicho. Alaric was defeated and forced to withdraw from Italy. Background After securing from Arcadius (Honorius' brother and Emperor of the East) the title of ''magister militum'' (Commander in Chief of the Army) of Illyricum in 397, Alaric, King of the Visigoths, immediately began to plan for the invasion of the Western Empire, led by the Roman general of barbarian origin Stilicho, ''Magister militum'' of the West. Alaric invaded Italy in late 401, crossing the Alps and the River Adige, and Stilicho dashed north to bring reinforcements from Gaul for the defence of the emperor's court at Mediolanum (modern Milan). By the time the ''Magister militum'' returned he found that Alaric had taken Mediolanum, while Honorius was chased into refuge at Hasta. But before the place could be besieged and the Emperor captured Stilicho finally arrived on the scene, heavily reinforced by barbaria ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stilicho's Pictish War
Stilicho's Pictish War is a name given to a war between the forces of the Western Roman Empire led by Stilicho and the Picts in Britain around 398 AD. Little is known about the conflict. The only real source is the panegyric '' In Eutropium'' by Claudian . Another source is Gildas' sixth-century De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae. The war ended in a Roman victory. Sources In the panegyric ''Eutropium'' by Claudianus on Stilicho, this war is told. It mentions the Gildonic uprising in Africa that Stilicho had to deal with and that Britannia was suffering from attacks by the Saxons, Picts, and Scots. The praise ended with the verse: "defeated the Saxons, the ocean calmed down, the Picts broke, and Great Britain safe." Another poem by Claudianus refers to a possible expedition to Britannia by Stilicho in 396-398. In the ''Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae'' of the British monk Gildas, this conflict is called one of the three Pictic wars. Later historians such as Edward Gibbon h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serena (wife Of Stilicho)
Serena (died 409) was a member of the Theodosian dynasty as the niece of the emperor Theodosius I, as well as the wife of the military commander Stilicho. Family Serena was the daughter of Honorius, the brother of Theodosius I and son of Theodosius the Elder, and her mother's name is presumed to be Maria. She had an elder sister named Thermantia. Serena's father died prior to 379, after which she was adopted by her uncle Theodosius. Around the year 384, she was married to the general Stilicho. The poet Claudian stated that the union had been arranged by Theodosius due to Stilicho's military capability, but some modern scholars have disputed this. Their arguments contend that as Stilicho was relatively undistinguished at the time, it is more likely that Serena herself had chosen to marry the general. The couple had a son, Eucherius, and two daughters, Maria and Thermantia, respectively the first and second wives of the emperor Honorius. Life A resident at the court of Ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claudian
Claudius Claudianus, known in English as Claudian (Greek: Κλαυδιανός; ), was a Latin poet associated with the court of the Roman emperor Honorius at Mediolanum (Milan), and particularly with the general Stilicho. His work, written almost entirely in hexameters or elegiac couplets, falls into three main categories: poems for Honorius, poems for Stilicho, and mythological epic. Life Claudian was born in Alexandria. He arrived in Rome in 394 and made his mark as a court poet with a eulogy of his two young patrons, Probinus and Olybrius, consuls of 395. He wrote a number of panegyrics on the consulship of his patrons, praise poems for the deeds of the general Stilicho, and invectives directed at Stilicho's rivals in the Eastern court of Arcadius. Little is known about his personal life, but it seems he was a convinced pagan: Augustine refers to him as "foreign to the name of Christ" ('' Civitas Dei'', V, 26), and Paul Orosius describes him as an "obstinate pagan" (' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Roman Empire
In modern historiography, the Western Roman Empire was the western provinces of the Roman Empire, collectively, during any period in which they were administered separately from the eastern provinces by a separate, independent imperial court. Particularly during the period from AD 395 to 476, there were separate, coequal courts dividing the governance of the empire into the Western provinces and the Eastern provinces with a distinct Line of hereditary succession, imperial succession in the separate courts. The terms Western Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire were coined in modern times to describe political entities that were ''de facto'' independent; contemporary Ancient Rome, Romans did not consider the Empire to have been split into two empires but viewed it as a single polity governed by two imperial courts for administrative expediency. The Western Empire collapsed in 476, and the Western imperial court in Ravenna disappeared by AD 554, at the end of Ju ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sarcophagus Of Stilicho
The so-called Sarcophagus of Stilicho is a marble Early Christian sarcophagus used since before the 10th-century as the base for the pulpit of the church of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan, Italy. It appears to have been made between 387 and 390, two decades before the namesake general Stilicho's death, and is thus likely not associated with him. The sarcophagus probably does not contain the body of Stilicho. Description The sarcophagus was carved from marble from quarries near Como, but appears to date stylistically from circa 390 and the reign of Theodosius the Great.Early Christian and Byzantine Art by John Beckwith, Richard Krautheimer, Slobodan Ćurčić; page 46. The sarcophagus has solid and measured rhythms and a "g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gildonic Revolt
The Gildonic War () was a rebellion in the year 398 led by ''Comes'' Gildo against Roman emperor Honorius. The revolt was subdued by Stilicho, the ''magister militum'' of the Western Roman Empire. Background Revolt of Firmus Gildo was a Berber by birth, the son of the immensely rich and prestigious Moorish lord Nubel.Edward Gibbon, ''The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', (The Modern Library, 1932), chap. XXIX., p. 1,040 Under the reign of Valentinian I, Nubel's death resulted in a succession dispute between his sons, and Gildo's brother Firmus (4th-century usurper), Firmus emerged victorious, after assassinating his brother Zamma. But when the governor of Africa (Roman province), Africa, the unpopular count Romanus (comes), Romanus, disputed Firmus' claim, the latter used his influence, and the effects of the public outrage at Romanus' maladministration, to raise the province into open revolt, and only the swift response of the Imperial court and the energetic conduct o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
