Read Casca 7: The Damned for Free Online Page B

bickering empires.
    Alaric had ears inside the councils of the Senate. Gold could buy much. He knew they were plotting against him again. This time he would beat them to the punch and make the first strike. He would let Italy know what it was like to be treated harshly. Then perhaps Honorius would see reason.
    The armies of the Visigoths marched from Thessaloni ka through Pannonia into the Julian Alps. Alaric took his time, knowing his ranks would swell with swarms of volunteers who hated Rome. Over twenty thousand men came to him who were escaped slaves and wanted a chance to hit back at their masters.
    Stilicho was all that stood between Alaric and the heartland of Italy. Time and again Stilicho warded off thrusts by the Visigoths. He was shrewd and knew the mind of Alaric. He bought time with words and promises. Stilicho almost won a complete victory when he attacked the Christian Goths as they celebrated the festival of Easter. The victorious Romans took revenge on the camp of the Goths for the rape and pillage of Roman lands. Alaric withdrew back across the borders, but he would return.
    Another barbarian king, Radagaisus, had invaded Gaul at the head of two hundred thousand men from the tribes of Suevii, Vandals, Burgundians, and the Alani. His personal guard was that of twelve thousand warriors who had distinguished themselves in combat and wore their wounds as the Romans did their badges.
    Honorius left Gaul to its fate. Rome was too exhausted to do more than defend her own territorial borders. While Alaric rested, Radagaisus marched. He laid waste all before him, and crossed from Gaul into Italy with such speed that he had the city of Florence under siege before any effective resistance could be mounted against him. He was only a hundred and eighty miles from Rome, and all that stood in his way was a hastily gathered force under the command of Stilicho.
    Stilicho had waited until the barbarians were fully involved with their siege of Milan. He knew the effect that long sieges had, not only on the defenders, but also on an attacking force. He estimated correctly the amount of time it would take for the invaders to use up their supplies and their gleanings from the countryside, then he struck. He had managed to put together nearly thirty legions, of which a large number were from tribes still allied more to him personally than to Rome. He surrounded the weakened and hungry force of Radagaisus and took him prisoner. About a hundred thousand warriors managed to escape to the valleys between the Appomonnia and the Danube. There they licked their wounds and waited.
    Radagaisus was executed by order of Honorius, and Stilicho was, for the second time, awarded the title of Savior of Rome. Stilicho was the most respected Roman the Empire had, and even the barbarians from a dozen tribes paid him his due as a war chieftain and leader. He even made a treaty with Alaric, in which Alaric was again given command of Roman territory as a governor. This assured, for the time being anyway, a period of relative peace, in which the Roman forces could be rebuilt and new legions formed.
    Stilicho, unfortunately, became too popular. Honorius became jealous and listened to the lies told him by one Olympius, a young, ambitious toady who curried favor with Honorius by telling him what he most wanted to hear. Stilicho was driven to take refuge in a church in Ravenna where he claimed sanctuary, but even this was denied when Count Heraclian tricked Stilicho into coming outside the confines of the church. The Bishop of Ravenna had been assured by Heraclian that he only wanted to put Stilicho under arrest, but when Stilicho came forth, the Count immediately produced another document ordering his immediate execution. Stilicho went to his death nobly and bared his neck to the executioner's blade without any protest or plea for mercy.
    Rome's last great general was dead. There was no one left in the empire to hold back the gathering storm on the