o could not have been sure
that the agreement would be carried out. What this secret compact was
can only be a matter of conjecture; but I would suggest that Stilicho
had already formed the plan of creating his son Eucherius emperor, and
that he designed the Balkan peninsula to be the dominion over which
Eucherius should hold sway. His conduct becomes perfectly explicable if
we assume that by a secret agreement he secured Alaric's assistance for
the execution of this scheme, which the preponderance of Gothic power in
Illyricum and Thrace would facilitate.

It was not only the European parts of Arcadius' dominions that were
ravaged in 395, by the fire and sword of barbarians. In the same year
hordes of trans-Caucasian Huns poured through the Caspian gates, and,
rushing southward through the provinces of Mesopotamia, carried
desolation into Syria. St. Jerome was in Palestine at this time, and in
two of his letters we have the account of an eye-witness: "As I was
searching for an abode worthy of such a lady (Fabiola, his friend),
behold, suddenly messengers rush hither and thither, and the whole East
trembles with the news that from the far Maeotis, from the land of the
ice-bound Don and the savage Massagetae, where the strong works of
Alexander on the Caucasian cliffs keep back the wild nations, swarms of
Huns had burst forth, and, flying hither and thither, were scattering
slaughter and terror everywhere. The Roman army was at that time, absent
in consequence of the civil wars in Italy.... May Jesus protect the
Roman world in future from such beasts! They were everywhere, when they
were least expected, and their speed outstripped the rumor of their
approach; they spared neither religion nor dignity nor age; they showed
no pity to the cry of infancy.

"Babes, who had not yet begun to live, were forced to die; and, ignorant
of the evil that was upon them, as they were held in the hands and
threatened by the swords of the enemy, there was a smile upon their
lips. There was a consistent and universal report that Jerusalem was the
goal of the foes, and that on account of their insatiable lust for gold
they were hastening to this city. The walls, neglected by the
carelessness of peace, were repaired. Antioch was enduring a blockade.
Tyre, fain to break off from the dry land, sought its ancient island.
Then we too were constrained to provide ships, to stay on the sea-shore,
to take precautions against the arrival of the enemy,