Talk:Revolt of Alaric I

First campaign of Stilicho ...

These consecutive sentences close a paragraph: "Emperor Arcadius forbade Stilicho to attack Alaric and demanded that his army leave the territory of the Eastern Empire, because the emperor had not asked him to come." (source Schreiber 1979) "In addition, the Eastern troops had to be dismissed." (source Burns 1994) The second sentence doesn't seem to have any explanatory value whatsoever (yet is marked with a citation), and the first looks rather confused - at the very least, "his" should be changed to "Alaric's" (I can only assume, without access to sources). Can anyone with access to either source clear this up, possibly even justifying continued inclusion of the second sentence? TheNuszAbides (talk) 15:23, 2 April 2024 (UTC)

@TheNuszAbides: The wording was indeed very unclear - I have rewritten the two sentences. In essence, this was a jurisdiction dispute: the Eastern emperor feared Stilicho's intervention more than Alaric's rebellion, and demanded that the Western Roman commander retreat as well as dismiss all Eastern Roman troops serving under his command. (Btw, it's worth mentioning that some historians like Hughes believe that the Eastern emperor's order was not foolish at all, but rooted in the fact that Stilicho may have actually negotiated and/or colluded with Alaric to improve the situation of the Western empire). Applodion (talk) 21:32, 2 April 2024 (UTC)