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ABOUT this period the dissensions by which the Church was agitated
were followed, as is frequently the case, by disturbances and
commotions in the state. The Huns crossed the Ister and devastated
Thrace. The robbers in Isauria gathered in great numbers and ravaged
cities and villages as far as Caria and Phoenicia. Stilicho, the
general of Honorius, a man who had attained great power, if any one
ever did, and had under his sway the flower of the Roman and of the
barbarian soldiery, conceived feelings of enmity against the rulers who
held office under Arcadius, and determined to set the two empires at
enmity with each other. He caused Alaric, the leader of the Goths,
to be appointed by Honorius to the office of general of the Roman
troops, and sent him into Illyria; whither also he dispatched
Jovius, the praetorian prefect, and promised to join them there with
the Roman soldiers in order to add that province to the dominions of
Honorius. Alaric marched at the head of his troops from the barbarous
regions bordering on Dalmatia and Pannonia, and came to Epirus; and
after waiting for some time there, he returned to Italy. Stilicho
was prevented from fulfilling his agreement to join Alaric, by some
letters which were transmitted to him from Honorius. These events
happened in the manner narrated.
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