34. 1. Around the same time, when the Emperor Honorius was consul and was putting on a show of wild animals from Libya in the city of Milan and the people were gathering there, leave was given to some soldiers, who had been sent by Stilicho, who was then a count, with the encouragement of the prefect Eusebius, to seize a certain Cresconius from the church. As he sought refuge at the altar of the Lord, the holy bishop, along with the clerics who were there at the time, surrounded him to protect him. But the many soldiers, whose commanders came from the perfidy of the Arians, prevailed over the few. They carried off Cresconius and returned to the amphitheater in an exultant mood, leaving the Church in a state of no little lamentation, for the bishop lay prostrate before the Lord's altar and wept over the deed for a long time. But when the soldiers returned and reported to those who had sent them, some leopards that had been released up to the place where those who had triumphed over the Church were sitting, and they left them savagely mangled. When Count Stilicho saw this he was moved to penance, such that for many days he made reparation to the bishop and even released unharmed the man who had been seized. But because [Cresconius] was guilty of very grave crimes and could not otherwise atone for them, [Stilicho] sent him into exile, although he was pardoned not long after.

 

(trans. Ramsey 1997: 210)