Amazingly, the chief minister of Honorius, Olympius, rejected the treaty and its alternatives. He ordered 6,000 troops to march from Ravenna to Rome to reinforce the city. This entire army was destroyed before it reached its destination.
"Yet Alaric, instead of resenting this act of impotent hostility, immediately renewed his proposals of peace; and the second embassy of the Roman senate, which derived weight and dignity from the presence of Innocent, bishop of the city, was guarded from the dangers of the road by a detachment of Gothic soldiers."