Editing Stilicho (section)

=== Balkans Campaign===
{{Main|Revolt of Alaric I}}
His first brush with such court politics came in 395. After the Battle of Frigidus the Goths, under their new king Alaric, were returning to their allotted lands in [[Lower Moesia]] when they decided to raid the countryside. By doing so Alaric effectively broke his treaty with Rome. Unfortunately for the Romans, the armies of the Eastern Empire were occupied with [[Huns|Hunnic]] incursions in [[Asia Minor]] and [[Roman Syria|Syria]]. Rufinus, Praetorian Prefect of the East, attempted to negotiate with Alaric in person. Officials in Constantinople suspected Rufinus was in league with the Goths. Stilicho led the army, which had been victorious at the Frigidus and was still assembled in Italy, into the Balkans to confront the Goths, eventually surrounding them somewhere in Thessaly.<ref>Hughes, ''Stilicho'', p. 81.</ref> According to [[Claudian]], Stilicho was in a position to destroy them, but was ordered by Arcadius to return the Eastern Empire's forces and leave [[Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum|Illyricum]].<ref>Hughes, ''Stilicho'', pp. 81–85.</ref> Stilicho resented the orders, for he was in a position to defeat Alaric's Goths, but he obeyed them anyway.<ref>Hughes, ''Stilicho'', pp. 82–85.</ref> When the Eastern Empire's forces arrived at Constantinople, Arcadius and Rufinus rode out to meet them. At this meeting Rufinus was murdered by the troops. Many historians suspect the involvement of Stilicho in the assassination/murder of Rufinus.<ref>Hughes, ''Stilicho'', pp. 85–87.</ref>

In 396 Stilicho campaigned against the Franks and other Germanic tribes in Gaul. He used the campaign to boost the morale of the western army – which had suffered three consecutive defeats in the civil wars against Theodosius – and to recruit Germanic auxiliaries to bolster its depleted ranks.<ref>Hughes, ''Stilicho'', pp. 93–95.</ref> The next year, in 397, Stilicho defeated Alaric's forces in [[Macedonia (Roman province)|Macedonia]], but Alaric himself escaped into the surrounding mountains. [[Edward Gibbon]], drawing on [[Zosimus (historian)|Zosimus]], criticizes Stilicho for being overconfident in victory and indulging in luxury and women, allowing Alaric to escape.<ref>Gibbon, 245</ref> Contemporary scholarship disagrees, and finds a variety of possible explanations, including an order from Arcadius directing him to evacuate the Eastern Empire, the unreliability of his mostly barbarian troops, the revolt of Gildo in Africa or the possibility that he simply was never as close to Alaric as Claudian suggests.<ref>Blockley, 113f. Emma Burrell. "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/4436726#:~:text=It%20is%20the%20contention%20of,revolt%20later%20in%20the%20year. A Re-Examination of Why Stilicho Abandoned His Pursuit of Alaric in 397]." ''Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte''. Vol. 53, No. 2 (2004): 251–256.</ref>