edition, and the terrible massacre of Thessalonica; Argobastes and
Eugenius headed a rebellion in A.D. 393; Gildo the Moor detached Africa
from the empire in A.D. 386, and maintained a separate dominion on the
southern shores of the Mediterranean for twelve years, from A.D. 386
to 398; in A.D. 395 the Gothic warriors within and without the Roman
frontier took arms, and under the redoubtable Alaric threatened at once
the East and the West, ravaged Greece, captured Corinth, Argos, and
Sparta, and from the coasts of the Adriatic already marked for their
prey the smiling fields of Italy. The rulers of the East and West,
Arcadius and Honorius, were alike weak and unenterprising; and further,
they were not even on good terms, nor was either likely to trouble
himself very greatly about attacks upon the territories of the other.
Isdigerd might have crossed the Euphrates, and overrun or conquered the
Asiatic provinces of the Eastern Empire, without causing Honorious a
pang, or inducing him to stir from Milan. It is true that Western Rome
possessed at this time the rare treasure of a capable general; but
Stilicho was looked upon with fear and aversion by the emperor of
the East, and was moreover fully occupied with the defence of his own
master's territories. Had Isdigerd, on ascending the throne in A.D. 399,
unsheathed the sword and resumed the bold designs of his grandfather,
Sapor II., he could scarcely have met with any serious or prolonged
resistance. He would have found the East governed practically by the
eunuch Eutropius, a plunderer and oppressor, universally hated and
feared; he would have had opposed to him nothing but distracted counsels
and disorganized forces; Asia Minor was in possession of the Ostrogoths,
who, under the leadership of Tribigild, were ravaging and destroying far
and wide; the armies of the State were commanded by Gainas, the Goth,
and Leo, the wool-comber, of whom the one was incompetent, and the other
unfaithful; there was nothing, apparently, that could have prevented
him from overrunning Roman Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Syria, or even from
extending his ravages, or his dominion, to the shores of the AEgean. But
the opportunity was either not seen, or was not regarded as having any
attractions. Isdigerd remained tranquil and at rest within the walls of
his capital. Assuming as his special title the characteristic epithet
of "Ramashtras," "the most quiet," or "the most firm," he justified his
assumpti