Stilicho

The invective against Stilicho in Book Two and his comparison with Nero made me begin to think about recent events in Roman history at this time.  We know that Rutilius was certainly not a fan of Stilicho, not simply for the fact that he was a Vandal who had risen to be de facto ruler for the emperor Honorius alone.  Stilicho's execution and that of his family came about in 408 AD as a result of rumors, true or otherwise, that he has made a deal with Aleric I and had betrayed Rome, which lead to the eventual sacking of Rome in 410 AD.  Naturally Rutilius would have despised Stilicho for any hand he may have had in the fall of his beloved Rome and the poignant invective against him would have seemed utterly justifiable.  I find it interesting that before he ends his rant, he brings Nero into the fold.  First, I find it amusing that he chose Nero but it does make perfect sense with what comes next.  Just in case we didn't quite get how much Rutilius hates Stilicho, he ends with "Oh and by the way, remember how bad Nero was, yeah well Stilicho was even worse than that!"  And he does not fail to justify that conclusion with, "Nero killed his own mother, who was only human, but Stilicho helped to destroy the mother of the world!" (just in case we had all forgotten that Rome is the center of the world since the last time he mentioned it however many lines ago.)