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Sergeant Rutledge is a 1960 Western and military courtroom drama starring Woody Strode and Jeffrey Hunter.
 It was directed by John Ford and shot on location in Monument Valley, Utah.

Ford's use of the 9th was in error. At the time of the story, with Gen. Nelson A. Miles in command, the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th U.S. Cavalry served in Arizona. The 9th Cavalry was stationed in West Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, and Nebraska, but never Arizona .The film starred Strode as a black first sergeant in the United States Cavalry accused of the rape and murder of a white girl at a U.S. Army fort in the late 1880s.The film revolves around the court-martial of 1st Sgt. Braxton Rutledge (Strode), a "Buffalo Soldier" of the 9th U.S. Cavalry. His defense is handled by Lt. Tom Cantrell (Hunter), Rutledge's troop officer. The story is told through a series of flashbacks, expanding the testimony of witnesses as they describe the events following the murder of Rutledge's Commanding Officer, Major Dabney, and the rape and murder of Dabney's daughter, for which Rutledge is the accused. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the first sergeant raped and murdered the girl and then killed his commanding officer. Worse still, Rutledge deserts after the killings. Ultimately, he is tracked down and arrested by Lt. Cantrell. At one point, Rutledge escapes from captivity during an Indian raid, but later, he voluntarily returns to warn his fellow cavalrymen that they are about to face an ambush, thus saving the troop. He is then brought back in to face the charges and the prejudices of an all-white military court.  Eventually he is found not guilty of the rape and murder of the girl when a local white man breaks down under questioning and admits that he raped the girl. Jeffrey Hunter as 1st Lt. Tom Cantrell, 9th Cavalry (counsel for the defense)Jeffrey "Jeff" Hunter (November 25, 1926 – May 27, 1969) was an American film and television actor and producer. Hunter is known for his roles as the sidekick to John Wayne's character in The Searchers, as Jesus Christ in the biblical film King of Kings, and as Capt. Christopher Pike in the original pilot episode of Star Trek and the series' only two-part episode, The Menagerie. Hunter was born Henry Herman “Hank” McKinnies, Jr., in New Orleans, Louisiana, and after 1930 reared in Milwaukee,Wisconsin, where he graduated from Whitefish Bay High School. He began acting in local theater and radio in his early teens. He served stateside in the United States Navy, in World War II, then from 1946 to 1949 studied theatre at Northwestern University inEvanston, Illinois. In 1950, while he was a graduate student in radio at UCLA and appearing in a college play, Hunter was spotted by talent scouts and offered a two-year motion picture contract by 20th Century Fox that was eventually extended to 1959. He made his film debut in a bit part in 1950'sJulius Caesar. He later graduated to starring roles in Red Skies of Montana (1952), and Sailor of the King (1953).A loan-out to co-star with John Wayne in the title roles of the now-classic western The Searchers(1956), began the first of three pictures he made with director John Ford; the other two beingThe Last Hurrah (1958) starring Spencer Tracy and as lawyer Tom Cantrell in Sergeant Rutledge (1960). The same year as The Searchers, Hunter also co-starred with top-billed Fess Parker in Walt Disney's The Great Locomotive Chase, based on an actual 1862 historical event during the American Civil War. Ironically, according to Parker's Archive of American Television interview, Ford had originally wanted to cast Parker in Hunter's role inThe Searchers but Disney refused to loan him out, something Parker didn't hear about until years later; Parker referred to his loss of that part to Jeffrey Hunter as his single biggest career setback Ford also recommended Hunter to director Nicholas Ray for the role of Jesus Christ in King of Kings (1961), a difficult part met by critical reaction that ranged from praise to ridicule. (Hunter's youthful matinee-idol looks resulted in the film's being derided as I Was a Teenage Jesus though he was thirty-four when cast in the part.)Joining an all-star cast in the World War II battle epic The Longest Day, Hunter provided a climactic heroic moment playing a sergeant who is killed while leading a successful attempt to breach the defense wall atop Omaha Beach in Normandy Having guest-starred on television dramas since the mid-1950s, Hunter was then offered a two-year contract by Warner Bros. studio boss Jack Webb that included starring as circuit-riding Texas lawyer Temple Lea Houston, the youngest son of Sam Houston, in the NBC series Temple Houston (1963–1964), which Hunter's production company co-produced. Jack Elam was his co-star, as gunslinger-turned-marshal George Taggart. Hunter described the Temple Houston that he sought to emulate as having "many sides to his character. He was a flamboyant orator; he was a bit of a dandy; he was tough; he was gentle; he was an excellent marksman," all features which gave the series greater latitude with a western format. Houston was also described as follows: He would ride, shoot, fight, drink, and love with the best of them and maybe better than most. The modesty that he displays in day-to-day life would disappear as soon as he enters a courtroom, becoming the flamboyant attorney famous throughout the American Southwest."Temple Houston proved illusory for his long-term career prospects. Hunter thought that the series had found its voice beginning with the twelfth episode, "Enough Rope", by having adopted the light-hearted approach of ABC's former Maverick western series, with James Garner. As Hunter explained the change in format, the series was "conceived in humor and delivered in dead seriousness. Then, about halfway through the season, NBC decided to return to the tongue-in-cheek approach. By that time it was too late. The big joke around town was that the series was about a synagogue in Texas." Ruta Lee, who guest starred as Lucy Tolliver in "Enough Rope", said of Hunter: "He was one of the prettiest people that ever was put on the screen. God, he was gorgeous."Another Hunter friend, actor Van Williams, a native of Fort Worth, who also guest starred in the series, said: "Things didn't go right for him, and they should have, because if anybody deserved to be a big star, it was Jeffrey Hunter." In taking the Temple Houston role, Hunter was compelled by a scheduling conflict to bow out of John Ford's final western film, Cheyenne Autumn. Although Temple Houston did not survive beyond twenty-six weeks, Hunter accepted the lead role of Captain Christopher Pike in "The Cage," the first pilot episode of Star Trek. Clegg Hoyt, Hunter's co-star in The True Story of Jesse James, appeared in this pilot as Pitcairn, the transporter chief of the fictitious USS Enterprise.Hunter declined to film a second Star Trek pilot requested by NBC in 1965, and decided to concentrate on motion pictures such as Brainstorm Footage from the original pilot was subsequently adapted into a two-part episode titled "The Menagerie." Later that year, Hunter filmed the pilot for another NBC series, the espionage thriller Journey Into Fear, which the network did not pick up.With the demise of the studio contract system in the early 1960s and the outsourcing of much feature production, Hunter, like many other leading men of the 1950s, found work in B movies produced in Italy, Hong Kong, and Mexico, with the occasional television guest part in Hollywood.

• Hunter's first marriage from 1950 to 1955 to actress Barbara Rush

  Death

  While in Spain in 1969 to film ¡Viva América!, a story of the Chicago Mafia, Hunter was injured in an on-set explosion when a car window near him, which had been rigged to explode outward, accidentally exploded inward.
  On the night of May 26, 1969, Hunter suffered an intracranial hemorrhage while on a three-stair set of steps at his home in Van Nuys, California.^[
  Hunter's funeral was held at St Mark's Episcopal Church in Van Nuys on May 31 after which he was interred at Glen Haven Memorial Park, in Sylmar, California.
•  He fell, knocked over a planter, and struck his head on a banister, fracturing his skull.
• He was found unconscious by his wife and taken to Valley Presbyterian Hospital where he underwent brain surgery to repair his injuries. He died at about 9:30 a.m. the following morning at the age of 42.
• Hunter sustained a serious concussion. According to Hunter's wife Emily, he "...went into shock" on the plane ride back to the United States after filming and "..couldn't speak. He could hardly move." After landing, Hunter was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles but doctors could not find any serious injuries save for a displaced vertebra and a concussion.On the night of May 26, 1969, Hunter suffered an intracranial hemorrhage while on a three-stair set of steps at his home in Van Nuys,
• 
  
•  to whom he remained married until his death only three months later.
• Constance Towers as Mary Beecher
• Billie Burke as Mrs. Cordelia Fosgate
• Woody Strode as First Sergeant Braxton Rutledge, 9th Cavalry
• Juano Hernández as Sgt. Matthew Luke Skidmore, 9th Cavalry
• Willis Bouchey as Lt. Col. Otis Fosgate, 9th Cavalry (president of the court-martial)
• Carleton Young as Capt. Shattuck, 14th Infantry (prosecutor)
• Judson Pratt as 2nd Lt. Mulqueen, 9th Cavalry (court-martial board member)
• 
  

Pirates by Charbens

Alpini

KICK ASS AUSSIES

When Italy declared war on June 10, 1940 against Britain and France, The British position in North Africa seemed hopelessly outmatched. UK Army General Percival Wavell commanded 40,000 Dominion soldiers caught between 200,000 Italian troops in Libya and 250,000 to the south in Ethiopia and Somaliland.






Wavell made a bold gamble on June 10, sending a small force into Libya to show the flag. This was the opening battle in a long campaign that would frustrate both the Allied and the Axis.above from plastic warriors blog



The Italians under Marshal d’Armata Rodolfo Graziani invaded and occupied British Somaliland on August 17, 1940, possibly cutting off American merchant transit through the Red Sea and cutting of the British from India. On September 13, Graziani reluctantly invaded Egypt under pressure from Mussolini.



Wavell sent 30,000 troops on December 9 under UK Army General Richard O’Connor to reclaim Sidi Barrani, Egypt, 65 miles inside Egypt’s border with Libya. The Italians had heavily fortified the town, but the British caught them by surprise and took 20,000 prisoners. The enterprising O’Connor then turned the large-scale raid into a full-scale invasion of Libya, taking more prisoners and occupying Tobruk , Benghazi, and the whole of the Libyan province of Cyrenaica. 130,000 Italian prisoners march towards Egypt.



Then, a major shift in the balance of power occurred. Wavell was ordered to cut back his forces and send them to Greece. Hitler sent the Afrika Korps to help the Italians, led by the effective Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel. Rommel arrived on February 12, 1941. Technically under Italian command, Rommel led an armored attack that smashed through the smaller British force, capturing O’Connor and almost all of the British conquests except for the embattled port of Tobruk. The British settled in for a long siege.



Churchill overruled his advisors and sent precious military supplies and weapons to Wavell, who tried twice to beat his way through Rommel to Tobruk. Rommel developed new doctrines of desert warfare, using antiaircraft guns against tanks and employing Blitzkrieg tactics to outflank the British. Wavell had to resign in the face of these defeats.



General Sir Claude Auchinleck arrived in November 1941. The UK Desert Force became the UK Eighth Army. In Operation Crusader, he lifted the 242-day siege of Tobruk, drove Rommel back against El Agheila, and destroyed a quarter of the Afrika Korps and almost half of the Italian Army in LibyaThe Italians declared war on Britain and France on 10 June 1940 and in September began an advance into Egypt. Initial successes enabled them to reach Sidi Barrani, an advance of about 50 kilometres but on 10 December British and Indian troops counter attacked and forced them back to Bardia.


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On 3 January 1941 the 6th Division launched an attack on Bardia, which was quickly taken for the loss of 130 killed and 326 wounded. Two days later, the 6th was outside Tobruk, well into Cyrenaica. Tobruk, a major Italian fortress, was attacked on 21 January and captured the next day, with 49 Australians killed and 306 wounded.The retreating enemy was pursued relentlessly and by 6 February, the 6th Division had reached Benghazi. On 9 March the 9th Division began to relieve the 6th. In two months an Italian Army of ten divisions, some 1300 guns and 400 tanks had been destroyed.



Change was soon to occur, with advance elements of the German Afrika Korps landing in North Africa during late February. Their advance forced the withdrawal of British and Dominion troops from most of their recently captured territory in Cyrenaica. By 11 April, the 9th Division, 18th Infantry Brigade and British armoured and artillery units were besieged in Tobruk, with German forces as far forward as the Egyptian frontier.



Tobruk was heavily attacked on 30 April but, although a salient was forced on the defences, the garrison held firm. Another attack on 16 May was similarly defeated while the salient was steadily reduced by intense patrolling. During September and October the Australians were relieved for a well-earned rest. Some 3000 casualties had been sustained and 941 taken prisoner.



Further east, following a coup d’etat by Rashid Ali in early May, Iraq abrogated its treaty with Britain. The Iraqi Army was quickly defeated by British and Kurdish troops and the internal situation stabilised. However, the risk of German intervention, not just in Iraq but in areas under Vichy French control; made it strategically necessary to take control of Syria as well.



Syria was invaded on 8 June by the 7th Division (less 18th Brigade in Tobruk), together with one Indian and two Free French brigades. The attack followed three routes: the direct road to Damascus, through the mountains to the Damascus/ Beirut road at Zahle, and the coast road to Beirut. The Vichy French fought courageously, but by 15 June the allied force had reached the line Kiswe-Merdjayoun-Jezzine-Sidon.



Despite a strong Vichy counter-attack in the vicinity of Merdjayoun, Damascus was captured on 21 June. Fighting continued until 12 July when the Vichy French were granted an armistice. This campaign resulted in 1600 Australian casualties, including 416 killed in action.



In addition to their military reversals in North Africa in February and March 1941, the Italians were in danger of being driven out of Greece. On 1 March 1941 German forces had entered Bulgaria and, on 6 April, Yugoslavia. Allied assistance had been ordered to Greece, and by 3 April a British armoured brigade and the ANZAC Corps (most of the 6th Australian Division and the New Zealand Division ) had arrived. On 10 April elements of this force made contact with the Germans some fifteen kilometres south of the Yugoslav.



Outnumbered and with the enemy in total control of the air, the force was forced back through the Aliakmon and Thermopylae Lines to Athens area. Resistance finally collapsed but the skill and resolution of the Navy ensured that almost every fighting unit was evacuated, by 28 April, to Egypt or Crete.



On 20 May Germany launched a parachute and airborne attack on Crete. Awaiting them was an 'ad hoc' mixed force of British, New Zealand, Australian and Greek troops, most recent evacuees from Greece, with little heavy equipment and almost no air support. By 26 May the position of the outnumbered allies was hopeless and evacuation ordered. Despite crippling losses the Navy saved 15,000 troops. A further 12,000 including 3000 Australians could not be evacuated and were taken prisoner.



Following the entry of Japan into the war on 7 December 1941, the 6th and 7th Divisions returned to Australia. The 9th Division remained in the Middle East. Late in May 1942 reinforced Axis forces began to advance in the Western Desert, and by 20-21 June had recaptured Tobruk. They were finally halted by three days of intense fighting at the El Alamein defensive positions, only some 90 kilometres of Alexandria., The 9th Division, then in Syria awaiting transport to Australia, was hurried forward to El Alamein. On 30 August the Axis forces again attacked but were defeated at Alam el Halfa. The German General von Mellenthin was later to describe this action as 'the turning point of the desert war’.



On 23 October the 8th Army attacked at El Alamein, the battle reaching a climax a week later. An attack by the 9th Division north toward the sea gained ground which successfully held against heavy German counter-attacks. After intense effort British armoured forces then broke out through the corridor originally secured by the 9th Division and by 9 November the Axis forces were in full retreat. This success released the 9th Division to return to Australia, where it arrived in February 1943. Australian losses for the whole period of the El Alamein operations from 7 July were 5809, including 1225 dead, 3638 wounded and 946 taken prisoner.





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death march of the goths

The summer and fall of 376, tens of thousands of displaced Goths and other tribes arrived on the Danube River, on the border of the Roman Empire, requesting asylum from the Huns. Fritigern, a leader of the Thervingi, appealed to the Roman emperor Valens to be allowed to settle with his people on the south bank of the Danube, where they hoped to find refuge from the Huns, who lacked the ability to cross the wide river in force. Valens permitted this, and even helped the Goths cross the river, probably at the fortress of Durostorum (modern Silistra), Bulgaria.

Valens promised the Goths farming land, grain rations, and protection under the Roman armies as foederati. His major reasons for quickly accepting the Goths into Roman territory were to increase the size of his army, and to gain a new tax base to increase his treasury.

The selection of Goths that were allowed to cross the Danube was unforgiving: the weak, old, and sickly were left on the far bank to fend for themselves against the Huns.The ones that crossed were supposed to have their weapons confiscated;however, the Romans in charge accepted bribes to allow the Goths to retain their weapons.The Huns were a nomadic group of people who are known to have lived in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia between the 1st century AD and the 7th century. They were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part of Scythia at the time; the Huns' arrival is associated with the migration westward of a Scythian people, the Alans.(The Alans, or the Alani, occasionally termed Alauni or Halani or Yancai were an Iraniannomadic pastoral people of antiquity.

The Alans are first mentioned by Chinese authors in the 1st century BC as living near the Aral Sea as vassals of the Kangju under the name of Yancai, and were later mentioned by Romanauthors in the 1st century AD.At the time they settled the region north of the Black Sea, and frequently raided the Parthian Empire and the Caucasian provinces of the Roman Empire.

Upon the Hunnic defeat of the Goths on the Pontic Steppe around 375 AD, many of the Alans migrated westwards along with other Germanic tribes. They crossed the Rhine in 406 AD along with the Vandals and Suebi, settling in Orléans and Valence. Around 409 AD they joined the Vandals and Suebi in the crossing of the Pyrenees into the Iberian Peninsula, settling inLusitania and Carthaginiensis.The Iberian Alans were soundly defeated by the Visigoths 418 AD, and subsequently surrendered their authority to the Hasdingi Vandals. In 428 AD, the Vandals and Alans crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into North Africa, where they founded apowerful kingdom which lasted until its conquest by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in the 6th century AD.

The Alans who remained under Hunnic rule are said to be the ancestors of the modern Ossetians.

The Alans spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian. They were first mentioned as Hunnoi by Tacitus. In 91 AD, the Huns were said to be living near the Caspian Sea and by about 150 AD had migrated southeast into the Caucasus.) By 370 AD, the Huns had established a vast, if short-lived, dominion in Europe

With so many people in such a small area, famine struck the Goths, and Rome was unable to supply them with either the food they were promised or the land; they herded the Goths into a temporary holding area surrounded by an armed Roman garrison. There was only enough grain left for the Roman garrison, and so they simply let the Goths starve. The Romans provided a grim alternative: the trade of slaves (often children and young women) for dog meat. When Fritigern appealed to Valens for help, he was told that his people would find food and trade in the markets of the distant city of Marcianople. Having no alternative, some of the Goths trekked south in a death march, losing the sickly and old along the path.When they finally reached Marcianople's gates, they were barred by the city's military garrison and denied entry; to add insult to injury, the Romans unsuccessfully tried to assassinate the Goth leaders during a banquet. Open revolt began. The main body of Goths spent the rest of 376 and early 377 near the Danube plundering food from the immediate region. Roman garrisons were able to defend isolated forts but most of the country was vulnerable to Gothic plunder.In late winter 377 war began in earnest and would last for six years before peace would be restored in 382. The remaining Goths moved south from the Danube to Marcianople, and next appeared near Adrianople. The Roman response was to send a force under Valens to meet and defeat the Goths. In 378 Valens moved north from Constantinople and was defeated (and himself killed) at the Battle of Adrianople (378) (modern Edirne). The victory gave the Goths freedom to roam at will, plundering throughout Thrace for the rest of 378. In 379 the Goths met only light Roman resistance and advanced north-west into Dacia, plundering that region.In 380 the Goths divided into Terving and Greuthung armies, in part because of the difficulty of keeping such a large number supplied. The Greuthungi moved north into Pannonia where they were defeated by western emperor Gratian. 

( Latin: Flavius Gratianus Augustus; 18 April/23 May 359 – 25 August 383) was Roman emperorfrom 375 to 383. The eldest son of Valentinian I, during his youth Gratian accompanied his father on several campaigns along the Rhine and Danube frontiers. Upon the death of Valentinian in 375, Gratian's brother Valentinian II was declared emperor by his father's soldiers. In 378, Gratian's generals won a decisive victory over the Lentienses, a branch of the Alamanni, at the Battle of Argentovaria. Gratian subsequently led a campaign across the Rhine, the last emperor to do so, and attacked the Lentienses, forcing the tribe to surrender. That same year, his uncle Valens was killed in the Battle of Adrianople against the Goths – making Gratian essentially ruler of the entire Roman Empire. He favoured Christianity over traditional Roman religion, refusing the divine attributes of the Emperors and removing theAltar of Victory from the Roman Senate.)Gratian was the son of Emperor Valentinian  by Marina Severa, and was born at Sirmium (now Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia) in Pannonia. He was named after his grandfather Gratian the Elder. Gratian was first married to Flavia Maxima Constantia, daughter of Constantius II. His second wife was Laeta. Both marriages remained childless. His stepmother was Empress Justina and his paternal half siblings were Emperor Valentinian II, Galla and Justa.

On 4 August 367 he received from his father the title of Augustus. On the death of Valentinian (17 November 375), the troops in Pannonia proclaimed his infant son (by a second wife Justina) emperor under the title of Valentinian II.

Gratian acquiesced in their choice; reserving for himself the administration of theGallic provinces, he handed over Italy, Illyricum and Africa to Valentinian and his mother, who fixed their residence at Mediolanum. The division, however, was merely nominal, and the real authority remained in the hands of Gratian.

Gratian's general Mallobaudes, a king of the Franks, and Naniemus, completely defeated the Lentienses, the southernmost branch of the Alamanni, in May 378 at the Battle of Argentovaria. Upon receiving news of the victory, Gratian personally led a campaign across the Upper Rhine into the territory of the Lentienses. After initial trouble facing the Lentienses on high ground, Gratian blockaded the enemy instead and received their surrender. The Lentienses were forced to supply young men to be levied into the Roman army, while the remainder were allowed to return home. Later that year, Valens met his death in theBattle of Adrianople on 9 August. Valens refused to wait for Gratian and his army to arrive and assist in defeating the host of Goths, Alans and Huns; as a result, two-thirds of the eastern Roman army were killed as well.

In the same year, the government of the Eastern Empire devolved upon Gratian, but feeling himself unable to resist unaided the incursions of the barbarians, he promoted Theodosius I on 19 January 379 to govern that portion of the Empire. Gratianus and Theodosius then cleared the Illyricum of barbarians in the Gothic War (376-382).

For some years Gratian governed the Empire with energy and success but gradually sank into indolence, occupying himself chiefly with the pleasures of the chase, and became a tool in the hands of the Frankish general Merobaudes and bishop St. Ambrose of Milan.

By taking into his personal service a body of Alans, and appearing in public in the dress of a Scythian warrior, after the disaster of the Battle of Adrianople, he aroused the contempt and resentment of his Roman troops. A Roman general named Magnus Maximus took advantage of this feeling to raise the standard of revolt in Britain and invaded Gaul with a large army. Gratian, who was then in Paris, being deserted by his troops, fled to Lyon. There, through the treachery of the governor, Gratian was delivered over to one of the rebel generals, Andragathius, and assassinated on 25 August 383.

The reign of Gratian forms an important epoch in ecclesiastical history, since during that period Nicene Christianity for the first time became dominant throughout the empire.

Gratian also published an edict that all their subjects should profess the faith of the bishops of Rome and Alexandria (i.e., the Nicene faith). The move was mainly thrust at the various beliefs that had arisen out of Arianism, but smaller dissident sects, such as the Macedonians, were also prohibited.

Gratian, under the influence of his chief advisor the Bishop of Milan Ambrose, took active steps to repress Pagan worship.
 This brought to an end a period of widespread, if unofficial, religious tolerance that had existed since the time of Julian. "In the long truce between the hostile camps", writes historian Samuel Dill "the pagan, the sceptic, even the formal, the lukewarm Christian, may have come to dream of a mutual toleration which would leave the ancient forms undisturbed but such men, living in a world of literary and antiquarian illusions, know little of the inner forces of the new Christian movement."

In 382, Gratian appropriated the income of the Pagan priests and Vestal Virgins, forbade legacies of real property to them and abolished other privileges belonging to the Vestals and to the pontiffs. He confiscated the personal possessions of the colleges of Pagan priests, which also lost all their privileges and immunities. Gratian declared that all of the Pagan temples and shrines were to be confiscated by the government and that their revenues were to be joined to the property of the royal treasury.

He ordered another removal of the Altar of Victory from the Senate House at Rome, despite protests of the pagan members of the Senate, and confiscated its revenues. Pagan Senators responded by sending an appeal to Gratian, reminding him that he was still the Pontifex Maximus and that it was his duty to see that the Pagan rites were properly performed. They appealed to Gratian to restore the Altar of Victory and the rights and privileges of the Vestal Virgins and priestly colleges. Gratian, at the urging of Ambrose, did not grant an audience to the Pagan Senators. In response to being reminded by the Pagans that he was still the head of the ancestral religion, Gratian refused to wear the insignia of the Pontifex Maximus as unbefitting a Christian, renouncing the title and office of Pontifex Maximus under the influence of Ambrose, declaring that it was unsuitable for a Christian to hold this office. Gratian was quickly faced with a revolt from Magnus Maximus to the throne because he was more sympathetic to the Pagan cause.

Notwithstanding his actions, Gratian was still deified after his death.

The Tervingi under Fritigern moved south and east to Macedonia, where they took "protection money" from towns and cities rather than sacking them outright. In 381, forces of the western Empire drove the Goths back to Thrace, where finally in 382, peace was made on October 3.By the end of the war, the Goths had killed a Roman emperor, destroyed a Roman army and laid waste large tracts of the Roman Balkans, much of which never recovered. The Roman Empire had for the first time negotiated a peace settlement with an autonomous barbarian tribe inside the borders of the Empire, a situation that a generation before would have been unthinkable.The lesson was not lost on other tribes, as well as the Goths themselves, who would not remain peaceful for long. Within a hundred years the Western Empire would collapse under the pressure of continued invasions as the Empire was carved up into barbarian kingdoms.