After Alexander had conquered the Persian Empire, the cities of Greece lost their importance, wealth and population to the new cities of the East. After the Roman conquest, many Greeks migrated to Rome. Only Athens retained some of its old glory as the city of philosophers. When Alaric attacked Greece, the Greek city-states had ceased to have armies since 5 centuries, so it is very peculiar that Athens surrendered at once and the other cities resisted. Why did Alaric destroy Eleusis and Peiraieus both belonging to Athens, but not Athens itsself?
Although Athens had no army by itsself there must have been some troops as guard. Many citizens might have been legionnaires, so they managed to hold Alaric off.
That Alaric destroyed the Eleusinian Temples, shows that he was ordered by Arcadius, the Eastern Roman Emperor, to destroy as much as he could, in order to supress Hellenic Heathendom. However Plato's Academy was also a problem to the Christians since it was a heathen institution. Roman Emperors had to wait for more than a century to feel free to close it and also turn Parthenon into a Christian Church.
The whole affair with Stilicho shows that the plan was to destroy Hellenism, however it couldn't be made openly.
Wikipedia
Although Athens had no army by itsself there must have been some troops as guard. Many citizens might have been legionnaires, so they managed to hold Alaric off.
That Alaric destroyed the Eleusinian Temples, shows that he was ordered by Arcadius, the Eastern Roman Emperor, to destroy as much as he could, in order to supress Hellenic Heathendom. However Plato's Academy was also a problem to the Christians since it was a heathen institution. Roman Emperors had to wait for more than a century to feel free to close it and also turn Parthenon into a Christian Church.
The whole affair with Stilicho shows that the plan was to destroy Hellenism, however it couldn't be made openly.
Wikipedia
Alaric struck first at the eastern empire. He marched to the neighborhood of Constantinople but, finding himself unable to undertake a siege, retraced his steps westward and then marched southward through Thessaly and the unguarded pass of Thermopylae into Greece.
The armies of the eastern empire were occupied with Hunnic incursions in Asia Minor and Syria. Instead, Rufinus attempted to negotiate with Alaric in person, which only aroused suspicions in Constantinople that Rufinius was in league with the Goths. Stilicho now marched east against Alaric. According to Claudian, Stilicho was in a position to destroy the Goths when he was ordered by Arcadius to leave Illyricum. Soon after, Rufinus' own soldiers hacked him to death. Power in Constantinople now passed to the eunuch Chamberlain Eutropius.
Rufinus' death and Stilicho's departure gave free rein to Alaric's movements; he ravaged Attica but spared Athens, which capitulated at once to the conqueror. In 396, he wiped out the last remnants of the Mysteries at Eleusis in Attica, ending a tradition of esoteric religious ceremonies that had lasted since the Bronze Age. Then he penetrated into the Peloponnesus and captured its most famous cities—Corinth, Argos, and Sparta—selling many of their inhabitants into slavery.
Here, however, his victorious career suffered a serious setback. In 397 Stilicho crossed the sea to Greece and succeeded in trapping the Goths in the mountains of Pholoe, on the borders of Elis and Arcadia in the peninsula. From there Alaric escaped with difficulty, and not without some suspicion of connivance by Stilicho, who supposedly had again received orders to depart. Alaric then crossed the Gulf of Corinth and marched with the plunder of Greece northward to Epirus. Here his rampage continued until the eastern government appointed him magister militum per Illyricum, giving him the Roman command he had desired, as well as the authority to resupply his men from the imperial arsenals.
