THE CAMBRIDGE MEDIEVAL HISTORY I 138
The Impotence of the Eastern Empire
9-8. The Impotence of the Eastern Empire
At this time, while Stilicho was sailing back in haste from Greece to Italy to prepare for war against Gildo, the Goths made a raid into Epirus, which they devastated in a terrible manner. At last the government at Constantinople was roused sufficiently to make proposals of peace to Alaric. In return for a sum of money and the position of magister militum in Illyria, Alaric withdrew from the alliance with Stilicho, made peace with the Eastern Empire, and occupied Epirus, which had been assigned to him, with his Gothic troops.
Another trouble for the Eastern Empire at this time arose from the large number of Goths who served in the army, and more especially through their leader Gainas. At his command they had killed Rufinus in 395. When Eutropius did not reward him for his services with the high military office he coveted, he joined a rebellion of his compatriot Tribigild in Phrygia, against whom he had been sent out with an army. For after the fall and execution of the powerful favourite Eutropius in the summer of 399, a national movement was set on foot at Constantinople, having for its object the abolition of foreign influence in the high government offices; Aurelianus, Eutropius' successor, was at the head of this movement. But the Roman supremacy was not destined to be revived.
The Gothic rebellion in Asia Minor grew more and more alarming, and Arcadius was soon obliged to negotiate with Gainas. During an interview with the Emperor, the Goth succeeded in obtaining his nomination to the post of magister militum praesentalis and the extradition of the three leaders of the national party, one of whom was Aurelianus. On his subsequent return to the capital, Gainas could consider himself master of the Empire, and as such demanded of the Emperor a place of worship for the Arian Goths. But the famous theologian and bishop, John Chrysostom, contrived to avert this danger to the orthodox Church.
But the power of Gainas was not to be of long duration. When in July 400 he left the town with the majority of the Goths, owing to a feeling of insecurity, the inhabitants rose against those who had been left behind. At last no refuge remained to them except the church they had lately been given. In its ruins they were burned, as Gainas failed to come to their rescue in time to storm the city. Gainas was declared a public enemy, and the pursuit was entrusted to his tribesman Fravitta, who so far carried out his order that he followed Gainas to Thrace and the Hellespont, and prevented him from crossing to Asia.
Eventually, at the end of the year 400, Gainas was killed on the further side of the Danube by a chief of the Huns, called Uldin, who sent his head to Constantinople. Nothing is more characteristic of the impotence of the Eastern Empire, than the revolt of this Gothic general, whose downfall was only secured by a combination of favourable circumstances. The clever and valiant Goth succumbed only to strangers; the Empire itself had no means to overthrow him.
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