On August 22, 408, Flavius Stilicho, generalissimo of the Roman armies, was assassinated at the behest of Flavius Honorius, emperor of the East. Soon after, his son Eucherius met the same fate. It is no surprise to witness the crushing of powerful individuals, often suspected of wanting the throne : nonetheless, Stilicho’s murder, as well as his son’s, leads us to rethink a peculiar example of conflict and violences inside the family, as it allows us to discuss precisely some definitions and concepts of parenthood and fatherhood. The death of Theodosius I, in 395, leaves as orphans his two sons and heirs to the Empire, Flavius Honorius and Flavius Arcadius. The Tetrarchy, followed by the reigns of the Constantinian dynasty and the beginning of the Valentinian era, had already established a more or less complete division of the power, so that the vast imperial territories could be better managed. Yet, the year 395 was marked by a real partitio imperii between the West, entrusted to Honorius, and the Eastern part, entrusted to Arcadius. Yet, the youth of the two Augusti – Honorius is eleven, Arcadius is eighteen – forced their father to chose a tutelar, even paternal figure, for his sons. Consul iterum, comes, magister utriusque militiae, Stilicho was entrusted with important and prestigious military activities, and the weight conferred by the latter inside an Empire troubled by internal revolts and external threats also gave him a first-class political influence. The mode of designation, as well as the nature of Stilicho’s tutelage, notably on the Western emperor, have been largely discussed. More precisely, the term of praesens parens, which appears in Saint Ambrose’s De obitu Theodosii, as well as the topics of parenthood and protection of the two brothers are developed in the work of Claudian, panegyrist of the imperial court. Moreover, Stilicho was a fully-fledged member of the imperial family : married to Serena, Theodosius’ niece and adoptive daughter, he also wed his own two daughters, Maria and Thermantia, to Honorius, one after the other. One can thus witness a triple matrimonial bond. The agression of such a prominent figure must be an occasion to reconsider the diverse forms of parenthood in the particular context of the instabilities and political transformations of Late Antiquity : that is to say, the matrimonial link of Stilicho to the imperial family, but also his commendatio on Honorius and Arcadius, which would have been entrust to Stilicho by Theodosius I. Accordingly, one can analyse, through the triple connection of the generalissimo to the Theodosian dynasty, a special case of conflict inside a dynasty, constituting in fine a real government matter in the West, but also in the whole Empire, because of the respective status of each protagonist.