Flavins Stilicho, a Roman general, beheaded Aug. 23, A. D. 408. He was the son of a Vandal officer of the cavalry under the emperor Valens. For his services as an envoy to Persia in 384 Theodosius gave him the hand of Serena, his niece and adopted daughter. Sti-licho shortly became master general of the army in the western parts of the empire, and gained several victories over the barbarians. Jealousy between him and Rufinus, whom Theodosius made governor of the East, soon ripened into intense hatred. In 394 Stilicho became governor of the "West, as guardian of Honorius, whom Theodosius had proclaimed Augustus. Theodosius died in 395, leaving to Honorius the empire of the West, and to Arcadius that of the East. After crossing the Alps and establishing a firm peace on the border, Stilicho turned toward the East, ostensibly against Alaric, but really to break the power of Rufinus. He was stopped near Thessalonica by a message from the Byzantine court, but engaged Gainas, the leader of the Gothic allies of Arcadius, to put Rufinus to death, which he accomplished, Nov. 27, 395. In 396 Stilicho, without being asked for aid by Arcadius, sailed from Italy against the barbarians, who were ravaging northern Greece and the Peloponnesus; but Alaric escaped into Epirus, of which he took possession.

Arcadius ordered Stilicho to leave his territory, and made Alaric master general of the province of Illyricum. In 398 a marriage was celebrated between Stilicho's daughter Maria and Honori-us. In 402 Alaric invaded Italy, and Stilicho, collecting his scattered troops from Rhaetia, Gaul, and Germany, defeated him at Pollentia (403), and again soon after under the walls of Verona. Alaric then departed, and Stilicho in 404 received the honor of a triumph in Rome. He now formed an alliance with his late enemy against the emperor of the East, promising to pay him a large annual subsidy. In 405 Italy was invaded by Radagaisus, at the head of a multitude of Vandals, Suevi, Burgundians, Alans, and Goths. While they besieged Florence, Stilicho cut off their communications and forced them to capitulate (40C). Radagaisus was put to death, and his men were sold as slaves; but the other portion of this horde, which had not entered Italy, ravaged Gaul, from which Stilicho had been obliged to withdraw the garrisons.

A large party were indignant at Stilicho's supposed partiality for the barbarians, and especially at the decline of the authority of Rome over Britain, Gaul, and Spain. His power at court was also secretly undermined by the eunuch Olympius, whom he himself had introduced into the imperial palace. The latter represented to Honorius that he was without authority in his own kingdom, and that his death was meditated by Stilicho, who designed placing the imperial crown upon the head of his son Eucherius. While Honorius was at Pavia in 408, through the agency of Olympius, the friends of Stilicho, some of the most illustrious officers of the empire, were murdered. Stilicho was in the camp of the barbarian allies at Bologna, and his friends demanded to be led against the murderers. He hesitated, and his friends left him to his fate. An attempt to assassinate him was made by Sarus, a Goth, but Stilicho escaped and took refuge in a church in Ravenna. From this sanctuary he was led out by Count Heraclian and instantly slain.