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This chapter describes the rise of military generals to political power during the 4th century. These include Merobaudes, a German, possibly a Frank (in a position of power c.AD 375-88), who was magister peditum under Valentinian I; Stilicho (in power AD 394-408), who came into power not as a result of a military career but because of his relationship with Emperor Honorius' father Theodosius I, whose daughter he married; and Flavius Aetius, who fought his way to power in the AD 420s.

Epic panegyric was a literary and political innovation of the late fourth and fifth centuries in Rome and the Roman west. This chapter examines extant and attested epic panegyrics, from Claudian in the 390s to Sidonius Apollinaris in the 450s and 460s, viewing the genre as a form of political communication between, on the one hand, the imperial court and the newly dominant generalissimos, such as Stilicho, and, on the other, the newly resurgent Roman senate. Under Stilicho and Claudian, panegyrics became propaganda issued to a senatorial audience by the court (rather than supplication received by it), and were no longer specific to one occasion but part of a regular stream of commentary, presenting the court’s interpretation of current events in an articulated series of works. This way of structuring the relationship between the court and the aristocracy of Rome through the medium of epic panegyric was maintained (or revived) over three generations, through Merobaudes and his contemporaries, down to Sidonius. Apart from the remnants of panegyrics themselves, commemorative inscriptions (here translated) and other literary testimonia (including Sidonius Carm. 9) attest the importance of the poets and their style in the volatile politics of the fifth century.

This chapter focuses upon the circumstances surrounding the accession of the child-emperor Honorius. It highlights the early years of his ‘phantom’ accession in the east, and the particular tensions surrounding his full accession in the west in 395 after the death of his father Theodosius I, following so soon after a bloody civil war. The guardianship claims of the general Stilicho over the young emperor are considered, as is the emotive appeal for loyalty made by Ambrose of Milan in his funeral oration for Theodosius I, providing a unique insight into contemporary western anxieties and a plea for loyalty to the young son of a divinely blessed father-emperor. The efforts of the new western government to court the favour of the senatorial elite are considered, and the importance of the pardons issued by the new government of Honorius after the usurpation of Eugenius and Arbogast emphasized in this regime-building process.

Chapter 6 provides a detailed interrogation of the regime of the general Stilicho operating under the rule of the young emperor Honorius. It examines the difficulties Stilicho’s additional claims of guardianship over Honorius’ brother, the eastern emperor Arcadius, created in relations between the two halves of the Roman empire, and the way in which the general reinvented his own role of guardian as Honorius grew older, through marrying the emperor to his daughter. The extensive writings of the court poet Claudian provide a remarkable picture of the presentation of both Honorius and Stilicho up until 404, offering also an insight into the respectful relations between the general’s regime and the Roman senate. The increasingly grave military crises facing the west, particularly in the form Alaric’s Visigoths, the rebellion of Gildo, and the barbarian invasions of the early fifth century, are explored, as is the eventual downfall of Stilicho in 408.

The courts of Theodosios’s two young sons, Honorius in the West and Arkadios in the East, were dominated by various powerful advisors—Stilicho, Rufinus, and others. Legislation against dissident Christians and those who clung to traditional worships accelerated. Jewish religion remained licit for those born Jews. Laws pertaining to Jews mostly affirmed Jewish rights to be free from violence, while hinting at threats to those rights. Various laws pertaining to the Jewish patriarch in Palestine, his subordinates, and his authority may reflect alliances between the patriarchs and persons at court. One or more patriarchs may have tried to extend their influence further into the diaspora, with mixed results. Laws reiterated that eligible Jewish men, like non-Jews, must fulfill the onerous obligations of decurions. A law targeting “Hheaven-fearers” is probably wrongly understood as evidence for non-Jews who adopted only some aspects of Jewish practice (sometimes called “God-fearers”). Evidence for Jewish converts remains modest.

The Roman decline that Symmachus prophesized arrived in the West as the fifth century began. The first half of the fifth century saw Rome sacked in 410 and the empire then lose extensive territories in Gaul, Spain, and North Africa between the 410s and 440s. Christian thinkers like Orosius, Salvian, and Augustine struggled to respond effectively to pagan criticisms that Rome’s break with its pagan traditions had precipitated this loss of territory. Augustine’s City of God in particular asked Christians to privilege the community of God over the troubled empire of this world, an empire that nevertheless could still serve a beneficial purpose to Christians. Writing after the capture of Gaul by barbarians, both Sidonius Apollinaris and Paulinus of Pella embraced a post-Roman future in which Christian devotion remained meaningful even after their ties to the Roman state had ended. The Christian and Roman futures had now diverged in the West.

The chapter reprints an early article arguing that Claudian was the propagandist for the general Stilicho. Claudian was an Egyptian Greek, who left his native province to win fame and fortune with the aid of his sharp wits and ready pen. He appears to have used his skills to propagate patent falsehoods about Stilicho’s claim to rule as a regent after Theodosius’s death. Claudian pointedly used Greek mythology to elaborate his praise of Stilicho and Honorius. The chapter provides an account of Claudian’s representation of the war against Gildo, a treacherous African chieftain who had been appointed count of Africa by Theodosius.

The chapter begins reflectively, with a consideration of why Claudian represented an ideal subject for early study, bearing as it did on matters of history as well as of literature. The author’s subsequent research on Claudian’s contemporaries and on other court poets refined and revised the early image of Claudian as propagandist. Modern assumptions about what propaganda is and how it works do not easily apply to the early period. The elite attachment to poetry was itself part of the way that governments tried to influence opinion. Claudian was able to perform at court and circulate written copies of his works, conveying his political opinions by enfolding them in his poetry. He was not a mouthpiece for Stilicho so much as a skilled poet who put his poetry at the service of his patron.