I wasn't a big fan of Hughes' book on Belissarius but really liked this so it confirmed my suspicion it was the subject matter rather than anything Hughes did. His scholarship remains excellent, his writing easy to read but the tale of Stilicho is simply more interesting - the half Vandal Roman who was the last really outstanding Roman leader, fighting several successful campaigns (including several against nemesis Alaric) before being killed by... yep, you guessed it, Romans.
Rome fell for many reasons, but one of the major ones was they kept killing people who were actually good for Rome. Another one frequently mentioned here is the fact that the big time aristocrats and land owners assumed heaps of power, wouldn't pay tax or give up their workers to serve in the army, but were sniffy when Stilicho hired Germans (I kept thinking of the Koch brothers when reading about this). Of course there were also the civil wars and usurpers, of which Stilicho had to deal with a couple. (In fairness to his enemies, he should have paid more attention to North Gaul and Britain).
An exciting and moving story about one of the most interesting figures of the late Roman Empire.
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