Two Roman Generals: Flavius Stilicho and Flavius Aetius
By James T. Culbertson
Master’s Thesis, University of Arizona, 1966
Abstract: This thesis examines and compares the careers and policies of two fifth century Roman generals of barbarian ancestry. After tracing in detail the lives and actions of the two leaders in the proper setting of the confused, climactic, final period (A.D. 378-476) of the Western Roman Empire, the writer attempts to show that Stilicho and Aetius acted in response to the demands of contemporary military, political, and social problems in the West, as well as within the framework of established Roman policies. Their efforts to settle and pacify barbarian invaders in the West, to practice religious toleration, and to establish a satisfactory balance of power between the Senate and the Emperor, represent the inclination of the practical Roman military mind to seek a stable basis for the preservation of the Empire. Faced with probably inevitable barbarian invasions and civil discord, the two generals tried for a military and political settlement which might have preserved the Western Empire as a limited monarchy. Their barbarian ancestry led them to accept the Teutonic invaders of the West as part of the Imperial system, but did not cause them to betray the Empire; their deaths and the collapse of their system were key steps in the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
Excerpt: On August 9, A.D. 378, a hot summer day, Visigothic horsemen smashed Roman legions into the dust near the city of Adrianople, in Thrace northwest of Constantinople. Valens, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, died with many of his officers and men; and with them the greatness of the Roman infantryman passed away forever. Wryly surveying the Battle of Adrianople after an interval of many centuries, modern historians have decided that the defeat resulted on a great increase of the importance of the Roman cavalry.
In earlier centuries Adrianople might indeed have had no greater consequences than a shift in Roman military tactics. After all, Roman troops had been decisively defeated before, even by the barbarians, and indeed these very Visigoths had crossed the Imperial frontier only to escape from the scourge of the Huns, and with Valens’ explicit permission. Rome had survived the Gauls, the Cimbri, and Hannibal; surely Rome would survive this recent disaster.
Click here to read this thesis from the University of Arizona
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Two Roman Generals: Flavius Stilicho and Flavius Aetius
By James T. Culbertson
Master’s Thesis, University of Arizona, 1966
Abstract: This thesis examines and compares the careers and policies of two fifth century Roman generals of barbarian ancestry. After tracing in detail the lives and actions of the two leaders in the proper setting of the confused, climactic, final period (A.D. 378-476) of the Western Roman Empire, the writer attempts to show that Stilicho and Aetius acted in response to the demands of contemporary military, political, and social problems in the West, as well as within the framework of established Roman policies. Their efforts to settle and pacify barbarian invaders in the West, to practice religious toleration, and to establish a satisfactory balance of power between the Senate and the Emperor, represent the inclination of the practical Roman military mind to seek a stable basis for the preservation of the Empire. Faced with probably inevitable barbarian invasions and civil discord, the two generals tried for a military and political settlement which might have preserved the Western Empire as a limited monarchy. Their barbarian ancestry led them to accept the Teutonic invaders of the West as part of the Imperial system, but did not cause them to betray the Empire; their deaths and the collapse of their system were key steps in the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
In earlier centuries Adrianople might indeed have had no greater consequences than a shift in Roman military tactics. After all, Roman troops had been decisively defeated before, even by the barbarians, and indeed these very Visigoths had crossed the Imperial frontier only to escape from the scourge of the Huns, and with Valens’ explicit permission. Rome had survived the Gauls, the Cimbri, and Hannibal; surely Rome would survive this recent disaster.
Click here to read this thesis from the University of Arizona
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