Editing Alaric I (section)

==Service under Theodosius I==
By 392, Alaric had entered Roman military service, which coincided with a reduction of hostilities between Goths and Romans.{{sfn|Boin|2020|p=53}} In 394, he led a Gothic force that helped Emperor Theodosius defeat the [[Franks|Frankish]] usurper [[Arbogast (magister militum)|Arbogast]]—fighting at the behest of Eugenius—at the [[Battle of Frigidus]].{{sfn|Bauer|2010|pp=72–74}} Despite sacrificing around 10,000 of his men, who had been victims of Theodosius' callous tactical decision to overwhelm the enemies' front lines using Gothic ''[[foederati]]'',{{sfn|Boin|2020|pp=93–94}} Alaric received little recognition from the emperor. Alaric was among the few who survived the protracted and bloody affair.{{sfn|Boin|2020|p=94}} Many Romans considered it their "gain" and a victory that so many Goths had died during the Battle of Frigidus River.{{sfn|Boin|2020|p=97}} Alaric biographer Douglas Boin (2020) posited that seeing ten thousand of his (Alaric's) dead kinsmen likely elicited questions about what kind of ruler Theodosius actually had been and whether remaining in direct Roman service was best for men like him.{{sfn|Boin|2020|p=103}} Refused the reward he expected, which included a promotion to the position of [[magister militum]] and command of regular Roman units, Alaric mutinied and began to march against Constantinople.{{sfn|Kulikowski|2019|p=125}}

On 17 January 395, Theodosius died of an illness, leaving his two young and incapable sons [[Arcadius]] and [[Honorius (emperor)|Honorius]] in Stilicho's guardianship.{{sfn|Burns|2003|p=335}} Modern writers regard Alaric as king of the [[Visigoths]] from 395.{{sfn|James|2014|p=54}}{{sfn|Burns|2003|p=367}} According to historian [[Peter Heather]], it is not entirely clear in the sources if Alaric rose to prominence at the time the Goths revolted following Theodosius's death, or if he had already risen within his tribe as early as the war against Eugenius.{{sfn|Heather|1991|p=197}}{{efn|Heather surmises that Alaric's participation in the earlier revolt that followed Maximus' defeat and his "command of Gothic troops on the Eugenius campaign suggest...a noble steadily advancing his prestige among the Goths settled in the Balkans by Theodosius."{{sfn|Heather|1991|p=198}} The sources do not make it clear whether Alaric's "desire for a generalship" was a means to legitimize himself "further within a Gothic following," or whether he was simply an ambitious man, who was at heart, "essentially a Roman soldier." Kulikowski adds that trying to determine either "depends upon our own previous assumptions, not upon the evidence."{{sfn|Kulikowski|2002|p=79}}}} Whatever the circumstances, Jordanes recorded that the new king persuaded his people to "seek a kingdom by their own exertions rather than serve others in idleness."{{sfn|Jordanes|1915|p=92 [XXIX.147]}}