Stilicho

Stilicho
Ivory diptych, possibly of Stilicho (right) with his wife Serena and son Eucherius, c. 395 (Monza Cathedral). It may instead depict Aetius.[1]
Bornc. 359
Died22 August 408 (aged c. 49)
Resting placeUnknown, possibly the Sarcophagus of Stilicho
OfficeConsul (400, 405)
Children3
Military career
AllegianceWestern Roman Empire
Years of service382–408
RankComes et magister utriusque militiae
BattlesBattle of the Frigidus (394)
Gothic War (395–398)
Gildonic War (398)
Pictish War (398)
Siege of Asti (402)
Battle of Pollentia (402)
Battle of Verona (402)
War of Radagaisus (405–406)

Stilicho[2] (/ˈstɪlɪk/; c. 359 – 22 August 408) was a military commander in the Roman army who, for a time, became the most powerful man in the Western Roman Empire.[3][4] He was partly of Vandal origins and married to Serena, the niece of emperor Theodosius I. He became guardian for the underage Honorius.[5] After nine years of struggle against barbarian and Roman enemies, political and military disasters finally allowed his enemies in the court of Honorius to remove him from power. His fall culminated in his arrest and execution in 408.[6]

  1. ^ Atanasov, Georgi (2014). "The portrait of Flavius Aetius (390–454) from Durostorum (Silistra) inscribed on a consular diptych form Monza". Studia Academia Sumenensia. 1: 7–21. Retrieved 2016-08-24.
  2. ^ Sometimes called Flavius Stilicho. The name became a courtesy title by the late 4th century, see Cameron, Alan (1988). "Flavius: a Nicety of Protocol". Latomus. 47 (1): 26–33. JSTOR 41540754.
  3. ^ Carlton Joseph Huntley Hayes (1911). "Stilicho, Flavius". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 25. (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 920.
  4. ^ Stephen Mitchell. A History of the Later Roman Empire AD 284–641. Singapore: Blackwell Publishing, 2007, p. 89. ISBN 978-1-118-31242-1
  5. ^ Joseph Vogt. The Decline of Rome: The Metamorphosis of Ancient Civilization. Trans. Janet Sondheimer. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1967, p. 179.
  6. ^ Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spawforth eds. The Oxford Classical Dictionary, third edition. Oxford University Press, 1996 1444.