Stilicho

Stilicho

Flavius Stilicho (occasionally written as Stilico) (ca. 359–408) was a high-ranking general (magister militum) who was, for a time, the most powerful man in the Western Roman Empire. Half Vandal and married to the niece of the Emperor Theodosius, Stilicho’s regency for the underage Honorius marked the high point of German advancement in the service of Rome. After many years of victories against a number of enemies, both barbarian and Roman, a series of political and military disasters finally allowed his enemies in the court of Honorius to remove him from power, culminating in his arrest and subsequent execution in 408. Known for his military successes and sense of duty, Stilicho was, in the words of the great historian Edward Gibbon, “the last of the Roman generals.”