eated augustus on this occasion, and appeared
at the Emperor's side prouder and more sumptuously arrayed than ever; we
only know that he accompanied Arcadius to meet the army.

It is said that, when the Emperor had saluted the troops, Rufinus
advanced and displayed a studied affability and solicitude to please
toward even individual soldiers. They closed in round him as he smiled
and talked, anxious to secure their good-will for his elevation to the
throne, but just as he felt himself very nigh to supreme success, the
swords of the nearest were drawn, and his body, pierced with wounds,
fell to the ground. His head, carried through the streets, was mocked by
the people, and his right hand, severed from the trunk, was presented at
the doors of houses with the request: "Give to the insatiable!"

We can hardly suppose that the lynching of Rufinus was the fatal
inspiration of a moment, but whether it was proposed or approved of by
Stilicho, or was a plan hatched among the soldiers on their way to
Constantinople, is uncertain. One might even conjecture that the whole
affair was the result of a prearrangement between Stilicho and the party
in Byzantium, which was adverse to Rufinus and led by the eunuch
Eutropius; but there is no evidence. Our knowledge of this scene
unfortunately depends on a partial and untrustworthy writer, who,
moreover, wrote in verse--the poet Claudian.

He enjoyed the patronage of Stilicho, and his poems _Against Rufinus_,
_Against Eutropius_, and _On the Gothic War_ are a glorification of his
patron's splendid virtues. Stilicho and Rufinus he paints as two
opposite forces, the force of good and the force of evil, like the
principles of the Manichaeans.

Rufinus is the terrible Pytho, the scourge of the world; Stilicho is the
radiant Apollo, the deliverer of mankind. Rufinus is a power of
darkness, whose tartarean wickedness surpasses even the wickedness of
the Furies of hell; Stilicho is an angel of light. In the works of a
poet whose leading idea was so extravagant, we can hardly expect to find
much fair historical truth; it is, as a rule, only accidental references
and allusions that we can accept, unless other authorities confirm his
statements. Yet even modern writers, who know well how cautiously
Claudian must be used, have been unconsciously prejudiced in favor of
Stilicho and against Rufinus.

We must return to the movements of Alaric, who had entered the regions
of classical Greece, for wh