<P> The magister militum in the Diocese of Africa declared for the East and stopped the supply of grain to Rome . Italy had not fed itself for centuries and could not do so now . In 398, Stilicho sent his last reserves, a few thousand men, to re-take the Diocese of Africa, and he strengthened his position further when he married his daughter Maria to Honorius . Throughout this period Stilicho, and all other generals, were desperately short of recruits and supplies for them . In 400, Stilicho was charged to press into service any "laetus, Alamannus, Sarmatian, vagrant, son of a veteran" or any other person liable to serve . He had reached the bottom of his recruitment pool . Though personally not corrupt, he was very active in confiscating assets; the financial and administrative machine was not producing enough support for the army . </P> <P> In 399, Tribigild's rebellion in Asia Minor allowed Gainas to accumulate a significant army (mostly Goths), become supreme in the Eastern court, and execute Eutropius . He now felt that he could dispense with Alaric's services and he nominally transferred Alaric's province to the West . This administrative change removed Alaric's Roman rank and his entitlement to legal provisioning for his men, leaving his army--the only significant force in the ravaged Balkans--as a problem for Stilicho . In 400, the citizens of Constantinople revolted against Gainas and massacred as many of his people, soldiers and their families, as they could catch . Some Goths at least built rafts and tried to cross the strip of sea that separates Asia from Europe; the Roman navy slaughtered them . By the beginning of 401, Gainas' head rode a pike through Constantinople while another Gothic general became consul . Meanwhile, groups of Huns started a series of attacks across the Danube, and the Isaurians marauded far and wide in Anatolia . </P> <P> In 401 Stilicho travelled over the Alps to Raetia, to scrape up further troops . He left the Rhine defended only by the "dread" of Roman retaliation, rather than by adequate forces able to take the field . Early in spring, Alaric, probably desperate, invaded Italy, and he drove Honorius westward from Mediolanum, besieging him in Hasta Pompeia in Liguria . Stilicho returned as soon as the passes had cleared, meeting Alaric in two battles (near Pollentia and Verona) without decisive results . The Goths, weakened, were allowed to retreat back to Illyricum where the Western court again gave Alaric office, though only as comes and only over Dalmatia and Pannonia Secunda rather than the whole of Illyricum . Stilicho probably supposed that this pact would allow him to put Italian government into order and recruit fresh troops . He may also have planned with Alaric's help to relaunch his attempts to gain control over the Eastern court . </P> <P> However, in 405, Stilicho was distracted by a fresh invasion of Northern Italy . Another group of Goths fleeing the Huns, led by one Radagaisus, devastated the north of Italy for six months before Stilicho could muster enough forces to take the field against them . Stilicho recalled troops from Britannia and the depth of the crisis was shown when he urged all Roman soldiers to allow their personal slaves to fight beside them . His forces, including Hun and Alan auxiliaries, may in the end have totalled rather less than 15,000 men . Radagaisus was defeated and executed . 12,000 prisoners from the defeated horde were drafted into Stilicho's service . Stilicho continued negotiations with Alaric; Flavius Aetius, son of one of Stilicho's major supporters, was sent as a hostage to Alaric in 405 . In 406 Stilicho, hearing of new invaders and rebels who had appeared in the northern provinces, insisted on making peace with Alaric, probably on the basis that Alaric would prepare to move either against the Eastern court or against the rebels in Gaul . The Senate deeply resented peace with Alaric; in 407, when Alaric marched into Noricum and demanded a large payment for his expensive efforts in Stilicho's interests, the senate, "inspired by the courage, rather than the wisdom, of their predecessors," preferred war . One senator famously declaimed Non est ista pax, sed pactio servitutis ("This is not peace, but a pact of servitude"). Stilicho paid Alaric four thousand pounds of gold nevertheless . Stilicho sent Sarus, a Gothic general, over the Alps to face the usurper Constantine III, but he lost and barely escaped, having to leave his baggage to the bandits who now infested the Alpine passes . </P>

What economic and political system formed after the fall of the roman empire