him. Meanwhile a cunning Greek, the chancellor Olympius, profited by
the change in the Empjeror’s feelings towards his great minister. Under
the mask of Christian piety he secretly intrigued against Stilicho in
order to undermine his position. Thus Olympius accompanied the
Emperor to Pavia and on this occasion spread the calumnious report,
that Stilicho intended to kill the child Theodosius and put his own son
Eucherius on the throne. The storm now gathered over Stilicho’s head.
The prelude to the catastrophe, however, took place at Pavia.
When the Emperor had arrived with Olympius at this town, the latter made an exhibition of his philanthropy by visiting the sick soldiers; probably his real object was to gather the threads of the conspiracy which he had already spun and to weave them further. On the fourth day Honorius himself appeared among the troops and tried to inspire them with enthusiasm for the fight against Constantine, At this moment Olympius gave a sign to the soldiers, and, in accordance with a previous arrangement, they threw themselves upon all the high military and civil officers present, who were supposed to be Stilicho’s adherents. Some of them escaped to the town, but the soldiers rushed through the streets and killed all the unpopular dignitaries. The slaughter continued under the very eyes of the Emperor, who had withdrawn at first but reappeared without his royal robes and tried to check the mad fury of the soldiers. When the Emperor, fearing for his own life, had a second time retired, Longinianus, the Praefectus Praetorio for Italy, was also slain. News of this horrible mutiny reached Stilicho at Bologna. He at once summoned all the generals of Teutonic race in whose loyalty alone he could still trust. It was decided to attack the Roman army, should the Emperor himself have been killed. When, however, Stilicho learned that the mutiny had not been directed against Honorius, he resolved to abstain from punishing the culprits, for his enemies were numerous and he was no longer sure of the Emperor’s support. But to this the Teuton generals would not agree, and Sarus even went so far as to have Stilicho’s Hunnic body-guard killed during the night. Stilicho now betook himself to Ravenna, and to this town Olympius despatched a letter from the Emperor, addressed to the army, with the order to arrest Stilicho and keep him in honourable custody. During the night Stilicho took refuge in a church to secure the right of sanctuary; but in the morning the soldiers fetched him away, solemnly assuring him that his life was safe. Then a second letter from the Emperor was read, which condemned Stilicho to death for high-treason. The fallen man might still have saved his life by appealing to the Teuton soldiers, who were devoted to him, and would readily have fought for him. But he made no attempt to do so, probably to preserve the Empire from a civil war, which would have been fatal at this time. Without resistance he offered his neck to the sword. In him the Roman Empire (23 August 408) lost one of its most prominent statesmen, and
