ich he showed scant respect. The commander of
the garrison at Thermopylae, and the proconsul of Achaia, offered no
resistance, and the West Goths entered Boeotia, where Thebes alone
escaped their devastation. They occupied the Piraeus, but Athens itself
was spared, and Alaric was entertained as a guest in the city of Athene.
But the great temple of the mystic goddesses Demeter and Persephone, at
Eleusis, was burned down by the irreverent barbarians; Megara, the next
place on their southward route, fell; then Corinth, Argos, and Sparta.

But when they reached Elis they were confronted by an unexpected
opponent. Stilicho had returned from Italy, by way of Salona, which he
reached by sea, to stay the hand of the invader. He blockaded him in the
plain of Pholoe, but for some reason, not easily comprehensible, he
did not press his advantage, and set free the hordes of the Visigothic
land pirates to resume their career of devastation. He went back to
Italy, and Alaric returned, plundering as he went, to Illyricum and
Thrace, where he made terms with the government of New Rome, and
received the desired title of _magister militum per Illyricum_. No one
will suppose that Stilicho went all the way from Italy to the
Peloponnesus, and then, although he had Alaric practically at his mercy,
retreated, leaving matters just as they were, without some excellent
reason.

If he had genuinely wished to deliver the distressed countries and
assist the emperor Arcadius, he would not have acted in this ineffectual
manner. And it is difficult to see that his conduct is explained by
assuming that he was not willing, by a complete extermination of the
Goths, to enable Arcadius to dispense with his help in future. In that
case, what did he gain by going to the Peloponnesus at all? Or we might
ask, if he wished Arcadius to summon his assistance from year to year,
is it likely that he would have adopted the method of rendering no
assistance whatever? But, above all, the question occurs, what pleasure
would it have been to the general to look forward to being called upon
again and again to take the field against the Visigoths?

It seems evident that Stilicho and Alaric made at Pholoe some secret
and definite arrangement, which conditioned Stilicho's departure, and
that this arrangement was conducive to the interests of Stilicho, who
was in the position of advantage, and at the same time not contrary to
the interests of Alaric, for otherwise Stilich