Licinia Eudoxia

The disintegration of the Roman empire now begins to appear to be irreversible.

The remarkable Galla Placidia, the thrice-widowed daughter of the Emperor Theodosius I and granddaughter of Emperor Valentinian I, had after the death of her third husband, the Emperor Constantius III, in 421 broken with her brother, Western Emperor Honorius, and gone to the court of her nephew Theodosius II, Roman emperor of the East.

She had taken with her her daughter Justa Grata Honoria and her son Valentinian, born to Galla and Constantius in the Western Roman capital of Ravenna.

Honorius, one of the weakest of the Roman emperors, had died at the age of thirty-eight on August 27, 423.

Theodosius, the remaining Theodosian ruler, had hesitated for some time in announcing his uncle's death.

In the interregnum, Honorius' patrician at the time of his death, Castinus, had elevated Joannes, or John, a senior civil servant, as emperor.

(The historian Procopius will later praise his mildness, intelligence, and general ability.)

Unlike the Theodosian emperors, Joannes tolerates all Christian sects.

His control over Gaul is insecure: his pretorian prefect of that region is slain at Arles in an uprising of the soldiery there.

Meanwhile, Comes Bonifacius, in control of the African provinces, is holding back the grain fleet from Rome.

Joannes hopes that he can come to an agreement with Theodosius, but on October 23, 424, the Eastern Emperor, undoubtedly influenced by Galla, nominates his five-year-old nephew Valentinian as Caesar of the west and betroths him to his own daughter Licinia Eudoxia, who is two years old.

Mobilizing an expeditionary force under command of the Alan patrician and magister militum Ardabur and his son Aspar, Theodosius II prepares for war.

Aetius is again consul in 437.

Valentinian III, Emperor in the West, marries Licinia Eudoxia, the daughter of Eastern Emperor Theodosius II and Eudocia, on October 29, of this year.

This marks the reunion of two branches of the House of Theodosius.

Valentinian’s mother Galla Placidia ends her regency, but will continue to exercise political influence until her death in 450.

Chrysaphius had become chamberlain (praepositus sacri cubiculi) in 443, which in practice makes him the chief minister of the weak Theodosius II.

Chroniclers record that he was all-powerful in the Palace (Theoph. 150; Priscus 227); the later Patria (II 182; Codinus 47) names him anachronistically as a parakoimomenos, after the all-powerful eunuch officials of the ninth and tenth centuries.

He schemes against the emperor's sister Pulcheria by exalting the influence of the empress Eudocia, and succeeds in arranging her withdrawal from the court for her policy to exile the Jews and destroy their synagogues.

She leaves for the seaport Hebdomon (Turkey) and becomes a nun to support Nestorianism in the Holy Land (Palestine).

Having accomplished this, Chrysaphius next intrigues against the empress, accusing her of adultery with Paulinus, a boyhood friend of the emperor.

She is then banished in 444.

Having removed both the emperor's wife and sister from the court, Chrysaphius is effectively ruler of the empire, and it is said that the emperor signed papers without reading them (Theophanes, A.M. 5942).

Maximus, according to John of Antioch, was so irritated by Valentinian’s refusal to appoint him as his magister militum that he decided to have Valentinian assassinated as well.

He chooses as accomplices Optilia and Thraustila, two Scythians who had fought under the command of Aetius and who, after the death of their general, had been appointed as Valentinian’s escort.

Maximus easily persuades them that Valentinian was the only one responsible for the death of Aetius, and that the two soldiers must avenge their old commander, while at the same time also promising them a reward for the betrayal of the Emperor.

Valentinian, who is in Rome, goes on March 16, 455, to Campus Martius with some guards, accompanied by Optilia, Thraustila and their men.

As soon as the Emperor dismounts to practice with the bow, Optilia comes up with his men and hits him in the temple.

As Valentinian turns to look at his attackers, Optilia kills him.

Thraustila at the same moment kills Heraclius.

Most of the soldiers standing close by had been faithful followers of Aetius and none lift a hand to save the emperor.

The two Scythians take the imperial diadem and robe and bring them to Maximus.

The sudden and violent death of Valentinian III leaves the Western Roman Empire without an obvious successor to the throne, with several candidates supported by various groups of the imperial bureaucracy and the military.

In particular, the army’s support is split between three main candidates: Maximianus, the former domesticus ("bodyguard") of Aëtius, who is the son of an Egyptian merchant named Domninus who had become rich in Italy; the future emperor Majorian, who commands the army after the death of Aetius and who has the backing of the Empress Licinia Eudoxia; and Maximus himself, who has the support of the Roman Senate and who in the end, on March 17, defeats his rivals and secures the throne by distributing money to officials of the imperial palace.

After gaining control of the palace, Maximus consolidates his hold on power by immediately marrying Licinia Eudoxia, the widow of Valentinian III.

She only marries him reluctantly, suspecting that in fact he had been involved in the murder of her late husband; and indeed Maximus treats Valentinian III's assassins with considerable favor.

The eastern court at Constantinople has refused to recognize Maximus’s accession, so to further secure his position, Maximus quickly recalls Avitus, appoints him as Master of Soldiers, and sends him on a mission to Toulouse to the court of Theodoric II, who had succeeded to his father, at Toulouse.

This embassy probably confirmed to the new king and his people the condition of foederati of the Empire and asked for their support for the new Emperor.

Maximus also proceeds to cancel the betrothal of Licinia’s daughter, Eudocia, to Huneric, the son of the Vandal king Genseric.

This infuriates the Vandal king, who only needs the excuse of Licinia’s despairing appeal to the Vandal court for help to begin preparations for the invasion of Italy.

The city of Vindobona (Vienna) is struck by an epidemic that spreads through the Roman provinces.

The disease is probably streptococcus or a form of scarlet fever with streptococcus pneumoniae (approximate date).

Genseric, responding to an appeal by Eudoxia for help against the usurping Maximus, sails with the Vandal fleet to the mouth of the Tiber River in May 455 and advances on Rome.

Panic grips the city of Rome as  the news of the Vandal landing spreads, and many of its inhabitants take to flight.

The Emperor, aware that Avitus has not yet returned with the expected Visigothic aid, decides that it is fruitless to mount a defense against the Vandals, so he attempts to organize his escape, urging the Senate to accompany him.

However, in the panic, Petronius Maximus is completely abandoned by his bodyguard and entourage and left to fend for himself.

As Maximus rides out of the city on his own on May 31, 455, he is set upon by an angry mob, which stones him to death. (Another account has it that he was killed by "a certain Roman soldier named Ursus".)

He had reigned for only seventy-eight days.

His body is mutilated and flung into the Tiber.

His son from his first marriage, Palladius, who has held the title of Caesar between March 17 and May 31, and who has married his stepsister Eudocia, is probably executed.

King Genseric leads the Vandals into Rome after he has promised Pope Leo I not to burn and plunder the city.

The Vandals occupy the city for a fortnight, systematically plundering the temple on Capitoline Hill and other symbols of Roman power, including whatever the Visigoths might have left of such troves as the Second Temple treasure.

Eudoxia and her daughters, Eudocia and Placidia, are taken hostage.

The loot is send to the harbor of Ostia and loaded into ships, whence the Vandals depart and return to Carthage.