Flavius Stilicho

Stlicho, Flavius (C. AD 365–408), general of the Roman armies and, when the young emperor Honorius (b. 384) succeeded Theodosius I in 395, the effective ruler of the western Roman empire. He successfully repelled the first invasions into Italy of Alaric and the Visigoths in 401 and 403, but was put to death by order of Honorius in 408 (before the sack of Rome by Alaric in 410). See CLAUDIAN.

The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Ed. M.C. Howatson and Ian Chilvers. Oxford University Press, 1996.