- younger son of Theodosius the Great, was only 12 when his father died - the real power in the West for years was Stilicho, a Vandal(German)-Roman - Stilicho was suspected of not trying very hard to eliminate one big German menace, Alaric, king of the Visigoths - in 408, an anti-German movement came to power, Stilicho was killed and many of the Germans who had been serving in the Roman army were either killed or forced to flee
- with Stilicho gone, no one could do anything about Alaric, who demanded more money from the emperor, and, when he didn't get it, captured Rome in 410 and plundered it - Augustine had to write the City of God as a defense against the pagan accusation that Christianity and the abandoning of the old Roman gods were the cause of the sack of Rome
- looking back, people noticed that the West Roman army lost half or more of its strength in the
various disasters under Honorius
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