160 - East vs. West

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Hello, and welcome to the History of Rome. In the summer of 395, Astilico led practically the only Roman army of consequence left in the empire into Thrace to face down Alaric and his rampaging Goths. But right at the moment when it appeared that victory was within his grasp, Astilico suddenly decided to detach the eastern contingent of his army and return it to Constantinople before leading the rest of his army back towards the west. Preparing to make his last stand, Alaric wound up simply watching the Roman army dissipate without so much as a sword being drawn. Scholars long blame the machinations of the eastern Praetorian prefect Rufinus for the order to break up Astilico's army, but it is just as likely that Astilico himself never had any intention of bringing Alaric to battle, and was just happy for any excuse to withdraw.

As later events would show, as much as imperial propaganda liked to paint the Goths as out of control monsters, the courts of both east and west knew that they were actually an incredibly valuable military resource to be utilized, not some terrible foreign enemy to be defeated at all costs. Put simply, crushing the Goths would have meant crippling the long-term war-making power of the empire. And beyond that, the courts of east and west also understood that crushing the Goths would have meant losing a potential ace in the hole to be laid down in the high-stakes game of political poker they were playing with each other.

Aside from long-term geopolitical strategy, Astilico had another incentive for breaking up his army. Whether he was the instigator of the coming assassination of Rufinus, or just an interested third party is unknown, but it is hard to believe Astilico didn't know what was going to happen when the eastern troops returned to Constantinople. Heading back east under the command of an ethnically Goth general named Guinus, the troops arrived at the great capital city in the late summer of 395. The emperor Arcadius came out to the army's camp to greet them, and the prefect Rufinus was by his side. But when they arrived, a hand-picked company of soldiers surrounded the shocked prefect, and unceremoniously hacked him to death.

Rufinus had apparently been so focused on his enemy Astilico that he failed to see just how many enemies he was generating right there at home, not the least of whom was the new empress Eudoxia. It's not that Rufinus didn't know Eudoxia was a deadly rival for power. After all, her marriage to Arcadius earlier that April had been publicly opposed by the prefect as he had been pushing his own daughter on the emperor, and you can't really stand in the way of a woman's path to power and then expect roses and thank you cards when she slips past you into the emperor's bedroom. Eudoxia quickly got together with one of Rufinus' court enemies, a eunuch named Eutropius, and together they conspired to topple the prefect, all likely with Astilico's nod and wink, if not outright support.

But if Astilico was thinking that the fall of Rufinus would lead the eastern court to recognize his claim to regency over Constantinople, well then he was let down. Eutropius and Eudoxia simply stepped into the power vacuum left by the prefect and controlled Arcadius for their own purposes, rebuffing all of Astilico's political advances.

Shut out once again from the east, in 396 Astilico turned his attention to his own backyard to ensure its stability when he inevitably went back across the Alps to confront Alaric. The rise of Eutropius and Eudoxia as enemies of the Vandal general meant that the Goths needed to be brought into Astilico's sphere, and fast. Alaric must not be allowed to sign a peace deal with Constantinople, he must be brought to heel by the west, and if not converted into an active ally, then at least sidelined for any intra-imperial struggle.

Astilico's biggest fear, of course, was a vaguely noble one. He feared that Constantinople would give the Gothic king the Roman generalship that he had been craving as the price for an alliance, a price that Astilico thought way too high and way too dangerous to the long-term health of the empire. Having ethnically barbarian generals was fine, after all he was one, but having one who doubled as the king of a barbarian nation, well, the implications of that conflict of interest were just too terrifying to contemplate. So Astilico spent 396 marching up and down the Rhine, making deals with the Germans to get them to sit tight, raising new recruits and extra cash along the way.

While Astilico was thus occupied, Alaric continued to plunder the central empire more or less at will. Not that he was on some hell-bent-for-leather trip, he too was looking for a political arrangement rather than a military victory, so as plundering campaigns went it was actually pretty mild, and cities were of course more than welcome to pay their way out of any potential sacking. Eutropius, for his part, just sort of let Alaric run because he too was looking to strike a deal and didn't want to make enemies with the man he was trying to make his ally. It's also written a few places that the Huns were starting to make trouble near Syria, so it's entirely possible that even had he wanted to, Eutropius would have been unable to muster the resources to do anything about Alaric.

In 397, though, Astilico felt like he was ready to do something about Alaric, so he gathered up an army, partially composed of veterans and partially composed of new recruits, and sailed them over to Corinth. This was a gutsy move for the Vandal general, as Greece clearly belonged to Constantinople. To up and land an army there without permission could easily be seen as an act of war. And in case you're wondering, no, Astilico did not have permission to up and land an army there. But he did have a moral argument that someone had to do something about the Goths, and are we not one united empire? So he landed his army and began to wage war on Alaric.

But as with his campaign in 395, it was a war of positional maneuvering rather than open field battling. Alaric marched here, Astilico marched there. Alaric marched there, Astilico marched here. The Vandal general's objective was to checkmate Alaric, not destroy him. But again, as with the campaign of 395, Astilico would be forced to break off his offensive before even checkmate could be achieved.

There is no explicit reason given for Astilico's decision to withdraw from Greece, and speculation ranges from the general believing that his new troops might not be a match for the Goths should it come down to a battle, to the fact that Eutropius had Astilico declared a public enemy for waging this unsanctioned war, which undercut the political rationale for the campaign. But I have always suspected that the situation in North Africa might have been a major catalyst. Ah, what situation in North Africa, you ask? I'll get to that in a second, but before we move on, I should note that this was the second time that Astilico will have Alaric on the run and fail to finish the job. It will also not be the last time. And eventually, the gossipy backstabbers in Milan will start to wonder if the barbarian general running their army maybe doesn't have Rome's best interests at heart, and was instead looking to form some pan-barbarian alliance that would someday conquer Rome, either from within or from without. Far-fetched and paranoid? Perhaps. But why else would Astilico keep letting Alaric get away?

The situation in North Africa was that in mid-397, a revolt against Milan had broken out, led by the local governor, and likely instigated by Eutropius. The governor, a man named Gildo, is an interesting character, and it's kind of a shame I haven't gotten to him until just now, because I'm about to kill him off. Gildo was of Berber descent, and had been a close associate of the Theodosian family, serving the elder Theodosius loyally during the campaign against Firmus. As a reward for this loyalty, the younger Theodosius promoted Gildo up the ranks, until by 386 the Berber general was more or less in charge of the entire North African coast – not counting Egypt, of course.

With the consent of Theodosius, for the next decade Gildo served as a nearly autonomous dictator of Africa, whose principal assignment was maintaining the all-important grain shipments bound for Italy. He ruthlessly and effectively carried out his assignment, and so he was left alone. But when his patron Theodosius died, Gildo's loyalties and motives became far less clear. Technically, he was a part of the Western Empire, and subject to the court of Milan. But he had been on his own for so long that Stilicho viewed him with suspicion, and Eutropius viewed him with hope.

In mid-397, Gildo allowed himself to be swayed by Eutropius, and he pledged his loyalty to Arcadius and the court of Constantinople. This shift in the political gravity of the empire came so hot on the heels of Stilicho's withdrawal from Greece, that I wonder – but I have no evidence to support this bit of speculation – whether Gildo's imminent side-switching wasn't known privately before it was announced publicly. In any case, it sure was lucky that Stilicho and his army were back in Italy right at the moment when they needed to head south to defend Milan's claim to the grain shipments, which Gildo had begun to withhold.

Stilicho sprang into action when the grain stopped coming, because he knew that any disruption to the food supplies would have been devastating to his political legitimacy, especially since earlier that year he had lost his most important political ally. In April of 397, at the age of 58, Ambrose of Milan had died. Ambrose had been the bishop of the Italian capital for 23 years, and is justly recognized not just as one of the most influential men in the history of the Catholic Church, which he obviously was, but also as one of the most influential men in the history of the world, period. He provided a continuity of leadership through an age during which no fewer than six different men laid claim to the imperial throne of Milan, and so it was he, way more than they, who really came to define that age and the future trajectory of both the Church and the State. To say nothing of the fact that back in 386, he had personally converted a 30-something-year-old religious seeker named Augustine to Christianity, which is why I hold Ambrose personally responsible for all those times I had to read select portions of The City of God for the test on Friday.

Stilicho spent the rest of 397 and the early part of 398 scrambling to deal with the loss of the African grain, and, showing off his administrative acumen, he was largely successful in the effort, bringing down supplies from Gaul to make up for the shortfall. This was only a temporary solution, but it was enough of a solution that far from toppling the Vandal general, his prestige was actually elevated and he became stronger than ever. So strong, in fact, that he was able to push through the marriage of his daughter to the now 14-year-old Honorius, meaning that Stilicho was now not just the guardian of the emperor, but also his father-in-law, which also meant that down the road he was going to be the grandfather of any and all imperial heirs. But as strong as his standing was right at that moment, Stilicho knew it would all be pulled right out from under him if he failed to turn back on the North African grain shipments.

In the spring of 398 then, Stilicho ordered an invasion force to head south, topple Gildo, and retake the farms and ports of the region. The Vandal general did not lead this force personally, but instead left it in the hands of a commander Stilicho knew would pursue the destruction of Gildo with a relentless zeal, Gildo's brother and now mortal enemy, Mezcazel. The two brothers had once been as close as you'd expect brothers to be, but they had had a falling out, and Mezcazel, fearing for his life, had fled North Africa for the safety of Italy. As punishment for the flight, Gildo took the rather extreme step of executing Mezcazel's two sons. So Stilicho recognized that if there was one man in the empire who was not going to rest until Gildo's head was on a stick, it was Mezcazel. So he gave the Berber general command of the invasion force and left it to him to interpret the vague orders to retake North Africa however he saw fit.

Mezcazel's forces landed in Africa, and though they were outnumbered by the army that greeted them, Gildo's forces crumpled almost immediately. The ease of Mezcazel's victory has been explained variously as the result of his own troops being far superior in discipline and skill. After all, the North African brigades never faced the kind of threats faced daily by their northern comrades. Or possibly as the result of bribes from Mezcazel, who knew that his brother's ruthless tendencies had not endeared him to many over the years. Probably it was a little from column A and a little from column B.

Gildo immediately recognized that the jig was up, and that making a run for Constantinople was his only chance at survival. Mezcazel was obviously not going to be lenient in his victory. But as Gildo's ship set sail for the east, a storm kicked up and blew the boat back ashore. Washed up and recognized, Gildo was thrown into chains by some local magistrates looking to make a good impression on Mezcazel. But before his brother could get to him, Gildo was able to commit suicide.

Though he had succeeded in his mission far faster than anyone could have predicted, I'd be willing to bet that Mezcazel himself was mostly just bitter about the outcome of the invasion, since he had not been able to kill Gildo with his own bare hands. But he did not have long to stew in his bitterness. Recalled to Milan, Mezcazel was greeted by the population as a hero. But a few weeks later he and Stilicho went out for a stroll, and while crossing a bridge, poor Mezcazel lost his footing and plunged off the bridge to his death. Stilicho swore up and down that it was an accident, but it's really, really hard not to conclude that having successfully used the Berber to retake Africa, that Stilicho did away with Mezcazel before his power and popularity grew to rival Stilicho's. These were dangerous times, and the stakes were high. But Stilicho swore it was an accident, and what are you going to do, argue with the father-in-law of the emperor?

With his North African gambit having come to nothing, back in Constantinople, Eutropius returned to the other major political and military power that could be possibly used as leverage against Stilicho, Alaric, and his Goths. Eutropius decided that the time had finally come to give the Gothic king what he wanted, an official command in the Eastern Roman army, which had the further effect of essentially deputizing the Gothic warriors into said Eastern Roman army, which was partly the point of Alaric wanting the command in the first place.

He had been angling for the command for two main reasons. First, it meant that his people were now hooked into the official imperial supply lines, so rather than having to go through the rigor morale of plundering, the Goths could now kick back and wait for regular shipments of food and supplies. Second, it meant that Alaric would now have access to the inner circle of Roman military planning and execution, and as long as he was in the room, nothing like the exploitation of the Goths that had happened at the Frigidus River would ever happen again. Alaric standing with his own people was at an all-time high, and though he was now technically subject to Arcadius, and by extension Eutropius, in practice he was subject to no one at all.

As great as this all was for Alaric, however, the deal wound up sowing the seeds of Eutropius's demise. There were more than a few people in the empire who were not at all happy about the deal, especially the people who had just been terrorized by the Goths and who were now obligated to supply them in perpetuity. Maybe Eutropius could have weathered that political storm, but later in 398 he proceeded to make another key mistake that wound up pushing his career completely off the rails.

A branch of the Huns had apparently gotten a little too friendly with the Roman front lines and it became clear that they would have to be pushed back. But rather than assign one of his generals to see to that pushing back, Eutropius decided to take command for himself. Which, remember please, that Eutropius is a eunuch, with all the prejudicial baggage that status entails. Secretly running the empire as a high-ranking court official was one thing, that's the sort of thing you'd expect a eunuch to be up to, but leading troops in battle, well that was hugely offensive to conservative Roman sensibilities.

The worst part of it though came later, when Eutropius' command proved to be entirely successful. Rather than take to the shadows like a eunuch should, Eutropius boldly stepped forward, took credit for the victory, and paraded himself around Constantinople in triumph. And then came the final affront. In January 399, Eutropius had himself named one of the consuls for the year. This was simply too much for most people to handle. Eunuchs were not consuls, period, end of story. But Eutropius' hubris had gotten the better of him, and he simply assumed that he was untouchable. He was not.

The exact sequence of events that wound up toppling Eutropius began in the spring of 399. Some Gothic auxiliaries who had been settled in Asia Minor began to complain that Eutropius had not delivered on promises made during the previous year's campaign against the Huns, and when they decided their complaints were falling on deaf ears, they picked up their swords to see if maybe Constantinople would listen to that. Eutropius did indeed listen, but instead of delivering on his promises, he sent some troops under the command of the Gothic general Guinus, who we met earlier at the assassination of Rufinus, to put down the burgeoning revolt. But Guinus, being ethnically Goth, sympathized with the leaders of the revolt, and did not try very hard to put them down. Instead he opened up talks with them, not revolving on how to resettle them, but revolving around what was to be done with the eunuch.

Meanwhile, in Constantinople, a backroom campaign to oust the arrogant Eutropius began to unfold, matching the talks that were going on out in the field. Spearheaded by a minister named Aurelian, the campaign eventually received the blessing and then the backing of the Empress Eudoxia, who had begun to feud with Eutropius now that he was getting too big for his britches. In mid-399, Eutropius opened up a dispatch from Guinus, and instead of reading about how the rabble had been defeated, he instead read about how the two sides had united in demanding Eutropius step down from office.

Eutropius' ultimatum was the cue for Aurelian's conspiracy to spring into action and destroy Eutropius' political credibility with the Emperor, and with Eudoxia on board, they were able to quickly isolate the eunuch. Eutropius' four years in power were over, and he was either exiled or executed, depending on which source you believe. But the coalition to eliminate Eutropius turned on itself the minute it succeeded. Orient had been a convenient ally for Guinus as long as they shared the same enemy, but the minister was long suspected of having anti-army biases, and as soon as Eutropius was out of the picture, the Gothic general turned the leverage he held as the most powerful general in the East against his one-time ally. Which is to say that Aurelian disappears from the historical record almost as suddenly as he had appeared in the first place.

As the 5th century dawned then, the Eastern Empire was essentially run by Eudoxia in the palace and Guinus out in the field. Arcadius, now 23 years old, was nowhere to be seen, as indifferent as he likely was incompetent. In the West, Stilicho continued to run the show for Honorius, who was no better than his older brother, and in the middle was Alaric and his Goths, now an officially sanctioned arm of the Eastern Roman army.

Next week, Stilicho will continue to outlast his enemies in the East, as Guinus will fall almost as fast as he had risen. Stilicho will also continue his on-again-off-again wars with the Goths, who will pretty soon get it into their heads to invade Italy, but as had happened twice before, Alaric will once again escape Stilicho's clutches. And it was the rumors of barbarian collusion, as much as anything else, that will eventually see the Vandal general finally toppled from power.