h they deserved or claimed, from the liberality of
the state. The valor and conduct which he afterwards displayed, in the
defence of Italy, against the arms of Alaric and Radagaisus, may justify
the fame of his early achievements and in an age less attentive to
the laws of honor, or of pride, the Roman generals might yield the
preeminence of rank, to the ascendant of superior genius. He lamented,
and revenged, the murder of Promotus, his rival and his friend; and the
massacre of many thousands of the flying Bastarnae is represented by
the poet as a bloody sacrifice, which the Roman Achilles offered to
the manes of another Patroclus. The virtues and victories of Stilicho
deserved the hatred of Rufinus: and the arts of calumny might have
been successful if the tender and vigilant Serena had not protected her
husband against his domestic foes, whilst he vanquished in the field
the enemies of the empire. Theodosius continued to support an unworthy
minister, to whose diligence he delegated the government of the palace,
and of the East; but when he marched against the tyrant Eugenius, he
associated his faithful general to the labors and glories of the civil
war; and in the last moments of his life, the dying monarch recommended
to Stilicho the care of his sons, and of the republic. The ambition and
the abilities of Stilicho were not unequal to the important trust; and
he claimed the guardianship of the two empires, during the minority
of Arcadius and Honorius. The first measure of his administration, or
rather of his reign, displayed to the nations the vigor and activity of
a spirit worthy to command. He passed the Alps in the depth of winter;
descended the stream of the Rhine, from the fortress of Basil to the
marshes of Batavia; reviewed the state of the garrisons; repressed the
enterprises of the Germans; and, after establishing along the banks a
firm and honorable peace, returned, with incredible speed, to the
palace of Milan. The person and court of Honorius were subject to the
master-general of the West; and the armies and provinces of Europe
obeyed, without hesitation, a regular authority, which was exercised in
the name of their young sovereign. Two rivals only remained to dispute
the claims, and to provoke the vengeance, of Stilicho. Within the
limits of Africa, Gildo, the Moor, maintained a proud and dangerous
independence; and the minister of Constantinople asserted his equal
reign over the emperor, and the empire, o