western administrations would remain disunited till 476 when the western empire finally collapsed. Meanwhile, about the time of Rufinus' fall, the Visigoths, excited by Alaric (who would later be crowned king of the Visigoths), broke into rebellion, renouncing their titles as Romans and foederati. Their pretext was the failure of the Imperial court to supply them with the promised tribute, though it is speculated that Rufinus, who had failed to provide for resistance, was in fact originally guilty of inciting the Gothic insurrection, to distract Stilicho. They began wreaking havoc in land very close to Constantinople and ironically, the city had to buy off the Visigoths to end the threat. This short-sighted policy of bribery only backfired as Alaric, when he had exhausted the resources of Thrace by his plundering, turned south-west to invade Greece in the following year. Although Stilicho marched in force to succor Greece from the barbarians, and succeeded in penning Alaric up in the mountains of Arcadia, coming close to destroying the barbarians for good, Alaric managed to escape, crossing the Gulf of Corinth to Epirus; here, he negotiated a treaty with Arcadius (or Eutropius) by which Alaric would receive the control of eastern Illyricum, with the rank of Magister Militum, in the service of the eastern empire. In the meantime, Stilicho was ordered by the court of Constantinople to leave Greece immediately; wishing to avoid a civil war, Stilicho reluctantly complied, returning to Italy. Alaric, established in his new Illyrian command, now set his sights on the western empire. Crowned king of the Goths by his troops for his successes hitherto, Alaric only waited long enough to exploit the resources of the Imperial armories in the province to finally supply his troops with adequate weapons and armor, and then invaded Italy, in late 401 or early 402. The Imperial court at Milan was immediately threatened by the invasion, but Stilicho, thinking that the emperor's flight would demoralize his subjects, persuaded Honorius to stay put while he himself crossed the Alps north to recruit reinforcements from Gaul and the barbarians of Germany. Italy itself contained no forces with which to resist the Goths. The Alemanni, who were then invading Rhaetia, were won over by Stilicho, and joined the Gallic legions, whom they had been fighting, in Stilicho's effort to save the emperor. Stilicho had relied on the rivers of northern Italy to delay the barbarians long