Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities

by Bettany Hughes

Arguably the departure of Rome’s troops from Britain was a by-product of the vicissitudes of Constantinople. Eunuch Eutropios had served under Theodosios I and immediately after the Emperor’s death in AD 395 had persuaded his young son Arkadios to marry, not the daughter of another influential courtier Rufinus, but instead that unknown beauty Aelia Eudoxia. Rufinus was soon afterwards assassinated (some argue with Eutropios’ help), while Eutropios in his turn would be executed four years later possibly at the behest of his own creature, Empress Eudoxia. This was a time when the administration of Constantinople, and of Old Rome, needed strong leadership rather than internal discord. In Britain the army had rebelled, Magnus Maximus striking out for independence. Goths and Vandals were sometimes allies, sometimes enemies, of both New and Old Rome. It was Gothic troops, remember, who effected the slaughter of 7,000 ordered by Theodosios in Thessalonika. A half-Roman, half-Vandal named Stilicho (a protégé of Theodosios and married to his niece) held a protectorate and thus power in the West; while in the East Theodosios’ young son Arkadios ruled with the help of Rufinus. The first King of the Visigoths, Alaric, who had learnt his warring craft from Rome under a Goth called Gainas and had originally led auxiliaries of Goths for Theodosios under Stilicho’s command, swiftly became Stilicho’s primary opponent. In AD 395 Alaric, who clearly felt undervalued by the imperial powers, b...