Editing Alaric I (section)

===Renewed hostilities after Western Roman coup===
In the East, Arcadius died on 1 May 408 and was replaced by his son [[Theodosius II]]; Stilicho seems to have planned to march to Constantinople, and to install there a regime loyal to himself.{{sfn|Burns|1994|p=216}} He may also have intended to give Alaric a senior official position and send him against the rebels in Gaul. Before Stilicho could do so, while he was away at [[Ticinum]] at the head of a small detachment, a bloody coup against his supporters took place at Honorius's court. It was led by Honorius's minister, [[Olympius]].{{sfn|Burns|1994|p=218}} Stilicho's small escort of Goths and Huns was commanded by a Goth, [[Sarus the Goth|Sarus]], whose Gothic troops massacred the Hun contingent in their sleep, and then withdrew towards the cities in which their own families were billeted. Stilicho ordered that Sarus's Goths should not be admitted, but, now without an army, he was forced to flee for sanctuary. Agents of Olympius promised Stilicho his life, but instead betrayed and killed him.{{sfn|Burns|1994|p=219}}{{efn|Despite skillful maneuvering against the Goths, historian [[J. M. Wallace-Hadrill]] explains that Stilicho could not endear himself to the Romans, even though he had rescued Rome on two occasions before it fell to Alaric. The reasons he remained "the scapegoat of Roman writers" were many; including that they saw Stilicho as "the man who "sold the pass." Wallace-Hadrill adds, "Partly, it seems, because he (Stilicho) was ready to compromise with the Goths in an attempt to wrest the much-coveted eastern parts of Illyricum from the control of Constantinople. Partly, too, because his concentration on Italian and Balkan affairs left Gaul open to invasion. Partly because his defense policy proved costly to the senatorial class. But most of all, perhaps, because to the Romans, he signified the arrival of Arianism," a belief system that Western Catholics found sacrilegious.{{sfn|Wallace-Hadrill|2004|pp=22–23}}}}

Alaric was again declared an enemy of the emperor. Olympius's men then massacred the families of the federate troops (as presumed supporters of Stilicho, although they had probably rebelled against him), and the troops defected ''en masse'' to Alaric.{{sfn|Burns|1994|pp=224–225}} Many thousands of barbarian auxiliaries, along with their wives and children, joined Alaric in Noricum.{{sfn|Kulikowski|2006|pp=172–173}} The conspirators seem to have let their main army disintegrate and had no policy except hunting down supporters of Stilicho.{{sfn|Burns|1994|pp=228, 236}} Italy was left without effective indigenous defence forces thereafter.{{sfn|Macgeorge|2002|p=171}}

As a declared 'enemy of the emperor', Alaric was denied the legitimacy that he needed to collect taxes and hold cities without large garrisons, which he could not afford to detach. He again offered to move his men, this time to [[Pannonia]], in exchange for a modest sum of money and the modest title of [[Comes]], but he was refused because Olympius's regime regarded him as a supporter of Stilicho.{{sfn|Burns|1994|pp=226–227}}