Theodosius left two sons, Arcadius, who was eighteen, and Honorius who was eleven years of age. Honorius, he committed to the guardianship of Stilicho; and he intrusted Rufinus with the government of the East, which had fallen to the lot of Arcadius.[71] Stilicho, it is certain, was not of Roman extraction, and this is all that we know of his descent: he must have greatly distinguished himself in the wars of Theodosius, as he had risen to the rank of _magister utriusque militiæ_. Theodosius had married him to Serena, the daughter of his brother and his own adopted child, who is therefore called _Regina_ by the writers of that age. Stilicho was completely master in the West; whereas in the East, Arcadius, supported by Eutropius, tried to rid himself of the rule of Rufinus. The latter, who had set his heart upon marrying his daughter to Arcadius, had been baffled by a clever court intrigue; but, as his eyes were soon opened, he continued to hold unshaken sway. When, however, Stilicho availed himself of the pretext of leading back the troops of the East which were still in Italy, Rufinus was panic-struck, and got an order from the emperor that Stilicho should not move: the latter therefore respectfully drew back, and sent the troops alone to the East. They then advanced: Rufinus was taken by surprise, and surrounded and murdered in the Field of Mars near Constantinople. His power forthwith chiefly fell into the hands of the eunuch Eutropius. Alaric now came with the Visigoths from the East to the West. Soon after the death of Theodosius, he rose against the Roman empire, and carried the war again into Greece, crushing the little life which still lingered in that country, which was then, as in the days of Decius and Gallienus, completely trampled under foot. But here we take leave of the East. Stilicho brought assistance and defeated Alaric, who, however, escaped him, crossing with his booty the bay of Crissa near Rhium: this proves him to have been a great man. Soon afterwards, Alaric made his peace with the eastern empire, and was appointed _magister militum_ in Illyria, under which title he became in fact an imperial præfect. How he got that dignity, and how he lost it; and at what time Illyricum ceased to be in the hands of the Goths, and came again to be embodied in the eastern empire, is quite an enigma. On the whole, the migration of the nations, when one searches closely into it, gives ground for queries and riddles which are never to be solved. The history of those times is so imperfectly known, that it is not possible to decide even things which are some of the most important points. The eastern Goths, perhaps also the Gepidæ, are in the days of Valens likewise in the diocese of Illyricum; in the period after Attila, in the reign of the emperor Marcian, they are in two kingdoms on the banks of the Danube:[72] where have they been in the meanwhile? Under Attila, they are said to have