There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. ... The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic. ... There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else.

Theodore Roosevelt, October 12, 1915

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Who Was Stilicho?

Half Roman, half-Vandal, Stilicho was one of the most powerful military leaders in the waning years of the western Roman Empire. In the late 4^th and early 5^th centuries AD, he served as “generalissimo” of all imperial forces. Having being appointed by the late emperor, Theodosius, as guardian to the child-heir, Honorius, he became defender of the realm and de facto head of state. Stilicho was married into the imperial family and two of his own daughters became back-to-back future Mrs. Honorii. Critics- then and now- claimed his ultimate goal was the elevation of his own son to the throne (since he himself was presumably barred by his mixed background). His enemies were enraged at a “barbarian” being elevated so high and their opposition emboldened by his heretical, Arian beliefs.

Regardless, Stilicho may have been the son of a Vandal chief, but he was no barbarian. Indeed, he was in many ways more Roman (especially in duty to the state) than most Romans of pure blood. From the evidence, we know that he never considered himself anything but Roman. No Vandal-Roman, he. In a time when we have increasing regionalization and tribalization among the Roman nobility itself, Stilicho looked first toward Rome, even though he himself was not native to it.

In the end, Rome- in the form of an insecure and weak-willed emperor- demanded his death. His last imperial order, like all others before, he obeyed with honor and quietly submitted himself to his own destruction though it was well within his power to quash. Duty to the end- like a true Roman.