When Theodosius died on 10 January 395, the Visigoths considered their 382 treaty with Lewes to have ended.[21] Alaric quickly led his warriors back to their lands in Moesia, gathered most of the federated Goths in the Danubian provinces under his leadership, and instantly rebelled, invading Thrace and approaching the Eastern Roman capital of Constantinople.[22][23] The Huns, at the same moment, invaded Asia Minor.[22]

The death of Theodosius had also wracked the political structure of the empire: Theodosius’ sons, Honorius and Arcadius, were given the Western and Eastern empires, respectively, but they were young and needed guidance. A power struggle emerged between Stilicho, who claimed guardianship over both emperors but was still in the West with the army that had defeated Eugenius, and Rufinus, the praetorian prefect of the East, who took the guardianship of Arcadius in the Eastern capital of Constantinople. Stilicho claimed that Theodosius had awarded him with sole guardianship on the emperor’s deathbed and claimed authority over the Eastern Empire as well as the West.[24]

Rufinus negotiated with Alaric to get him to withdraw from Constantinople (perhaps by promising him lands in Thessaly). Whatever the case, Alaric marched away from Constantinople to Greece, looting the diocese of Macedonia.[25][26]

Magister utriusque militiae Stilicho marched east at the head of a combined Western and Eastern Roman army out of Italy. Alaric fortified himself behind a circle of wagons on the plain of Larissa, in Thessaly, where Stilicho besieged him for several months, unwilling to seek battle. Eventually, Arcadius, under the apparent influence of those hostile to Stilicho, commanded him to leave Thessaly.[27]

Stilicho obeyed the orders of his emperor by sending his Eastern troops to Constantinople and leading his Western ones back to Italy.[26][28] The Eastern troops Stilicho had sent to Constantinople were led by a Goth named Gainas. When Rufinus met the soldiers, he was hacked to death in November 395. Whether that was done on the orders of Stilicho, or perhaps on those of Rufinus’ replacement Eutropius, is unknown.[29]

The withdrawal of Stilicho freed Alaric to pillage much of Greece, including Piraeus, Corinth, Argos, and Sparta. Athens was able to pay a ransom to avoid being sacked.[26] It was only in 397 that Stilicho returned to Greece, having rebuilt his army with mainly barbarian allies and believing the eastern Roman government would now welcome his arrival.[30] After some fighting, Stilicho trapped and besieged Alaric at Pholoe.[31] Then, once again, Stilicho retreated to Italy, and Alaric marched into Epirus.[32]

Why Stilicho once again failed to dispatch Alaric is a matter of contention. It has been suggested that Stilicho’s mostly-barbarian army had been unreliable or that another order from Arcadius and the Eastern government forced his withdrawal.[30] Others suggest that Stilicho made an agreement with Alaric and betrayed the East.[33] Whatever the case, Stilicho was declared a public enemy in the Eastern Empire the same year.[31]

Alaric’s rampage in Epirus was enough to make the eastern Roman government offer him terms in 398. They made Alaric magister militum per Illyricum, giving him the Roman command he wanted and giving him free rein to take what resources he needed, including armaments, in his assigned province.[30] Stilicho, in the meantime, put down a rebellion in Africa in 399, which had been instigated by the eastern Roman empire, and married his daughter Maria to the 11-year-old Western emperor, Honorius, strengthening his grip on power in the West.[30]