209-751: The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (or Fields ), also called the Battle of the Campus Mauriacus , Battle of Châlons , Battle of Troyes or the Battle of Maurica , took place on June 20, 451 AD, between a coalition, led by the Roman general Flavius Aetius and the Visigothic king Theodoric I , against the Huns and their vassals, commanded by their king, Attila . It proved to be one of
418-521: A Roman invasion. King Gaiseric tried to negotiate a peace with Majorian, who rejected the proposal. In the wake of this, Gaiseric devastated Mauretania , part of his own kingdom, fearing that the Roman army would land there. Having regained control of Hispania, Majorian intended to use his fleet at Carthaginiensis to attack the Vandals. Before he could, the fleet was destroyed, allegedly by traitors paid by
627-555: A West continued, as happened after the deaths of Constantine and Theodosius I . The Roman Empire was under the rule of a single emperor, but, with the death of Constantine in 337, the empire was partitioned between his surviving male heirs. Constantius , his third son and the second by his wife Fausta (Maximian's daughter) received the eastern provinces, including Constantinople, Thrace , Asia Minor , Syria , Egypt , and Cyrenaica; Constantine II received Britannia, Gaul , Hispania, and Mauretania ; and Constans , initially under
836-513: A better understanding of what actually happened. After four days of heavy rain, Attila began his final assault on June 14, which was broken off due to the approach of the Roman coalition. Modern scholars tend to agree that the Siege of Aurelianum was the high point of Attila's attack on the West, and the staunch Alan defence of the city was the real decisive factor in the war of 451. Contrary to Jordanes,
1045-633: A candidate of their own, Julius Nepos , magister militum in Dalmatia . With the support of Eastern emperors Leo II and Zeno , Julius Nepos crossed the Adriatic Sea in the spring of 474 to depose Glycerius. At the arrival of Nepos in Italy, Glycerius abdicated without a fight and was allowed to live out his life as the Bishop of Salona . The brief rule of Nepos in Italy ended in 475 when Orestes ,
1254-453: A coalition under Aetius's leadership at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains and calling off a subsequent invasion after negotiations led by Pope Leo I . The emperor later fell out with Aetius and killed him. Valentinian was assassinated in turn by Aetius's bodyguards, ending a reign marked by the ongoing collapse of the western empire . Valentinian was born in Ravenna , the capital of
1463-461: A fabrication. He states that the choice to begin the battle at the ninth hour was due to the fact that both sides spent the entire day carefully deploying their coalition armies. According to Jordanes, the Catalaunian plain rose on one side by a sharp slope to a ridge; this geographical feature dominated the battlefield and became the center of the battle. The Huns first seized the right side of
1672-525: A faction of Alemanni may have participated in the battle, possibly on both sides like the Franks and Burgundians. The Olibrones remain unknown, although it has been suggested these were Germanic limitanei garrisons. Schultheis argues that on paper, the Germanic federates could theoretically number more than 70,000, but likely numbered under 50,000. A sense of the size of the actual Roman army may be found in
1881-455: A few kilometers west of the proposed battlefield, and places Attila's camp on the Seine at Saint-Lyé . This draws on the earlier work of M. Girard, who was able to identify Maurica as the "les Maures" ridge of Montgueux, based on the second Additamenta Altera to Prosper's Epitoma Chronicon , which states it took place five Roman miles from Tecis or Tricasses , the modern Troyes. The road in
2090-443: A financial account, Valentinian suddenly leaped from his seat and declared that he would no longer be the victim of Aetius' drunken depravities. Aetius attempted to defend himself from the charges, but Valentinian drew his sword and struck the weaponless Aetius on the head, killing him on the spot. On 16 March the following year, Valentinian himself was killed by supporters of the dead general, possibly acting for Petronius Maximus. With
2299-537: A former secretary of Attila and the magister militum of Julius Nepos, took control of Ravenna and forced Nepos to flee by ship to Dalmatia . Later in the same year, Orestes crowned his own young son as Western emperor under the name Romulus Augustus . Romulus Augustus was not recognised as Western emperor by the Eastern Court, who maintained that Nepos was the only legal Western emperor, reigning in exile from Dalmatia . On 4 September 476, Odoacer , leader of
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#17327661561852508-553: A gradual Romanization . While the predominantly Greek culture of the East and the predominantly Latin culture of the West functioned effectively as an integrated whole, political and military developments would ultimately realign the Empire along those cultural and linguistic lines. More often than not, Greek and Latin practices (and to some extent the languages themselves) would be combined in fields such as history (e.g., those by Cato
2717-507: A joint response with the eastern court, with large numbers of Roman troops sent to defend the island from Gaiseric. Hunnic invasions forced the government to abandon this defense and transfer the troops to the Danube. In 442, Aetius and Valentinian were compelled to acknowledge the Vandal conquests of Proconsular Africa, western Numidia, and Byzacena , in exchange for which Rome was returned
2926-646: A lasting peace with the Parthians. The Parthian Empire would be succeeded by the Sasanian Empire, which continued hostilities with the Roman Empire. Controlling the western border of Rome was reasonably easy because it was relatively close to Rome itself and also because of the disunity among the Germans. However, controlling both frontiers simultaneously during wartime was difficult. If the emperor
3135-500: A law on 14 July 444, ending bureaucrats' exemption from the recruitment tax. In that year, two additional taxes were issued in Valentinian's name, one a sales tax of around four percent and another on the senatorial class, specifically to recruit and supply new troops. Senators of illustrious rank were required to contribute the money for maintaining three soldiers, senators of the second class money for one soldier, and senators of
3344-424: A location of La Cheppe , slightly north of the modern town of Châlons. In 1842, at Pouan-les-Vallées , a village on the south bank of the river Aube , a labourer uncovered a burial containing a skeleton, a number of jewels and gold ornaments, and two swords. By the nature of its grave goods , it was initially thought to be the burial of Theodoric, but Hodgkin expressed skepticism, suggesting that this elite burial
3553-509: A long-term territorial and official base, but was never able to do so. Stilicho tried to defend Italy and bring the invading Goths under control, but to do so he stripped the Rhine frontier of troops and the Vandals , Alans , and Suevi invaded Gaul in large numbers in 406. Stilicho became a victim of court intrigues and was killed in 408. While the East began a slow recovery and consolidation,
3762-521: A major point of Gothic pride. This is also noted by Barnish, who claims that Cassiodorus and Jordanes works intended to portray Clovis , who had been at war with the Ostrogoths , as a new Attila and Theodoric the Great as a new Aetius. However, in the Roman sources, like those of Procopius and Victor Tunnensis , Aetius remains the central figure of pride and importance. The most important effect of
3971-461: A matter of years, the East–West administrative division would endure in one form or another over the coming centuries. As such, the unofficial Western Roman Empire would exist intermittently in several periods between the 3rd and 5th centuries. Some emperors, such as Constantine I and Theodosius I , governed, if briefly, as the sole Augustus across the Roman Empire. On the death of Theodosius in 395,
4180-609: A multitude of many tens of thousands. He notified Valentinian, the emperor of Rome, through a Gothic ambassador, "Attila, my master and yours, orders you through me to make ready the palace for him." He gave the same notice to Theodosius, the emperor in Constantinople, through a Gothic ambassador. Aetius, the first man of senatorial rank in Rome, heard the excessive daring of Attila's desperate response and went off to Alaric in Gaul, who
4389-489: A parallel between the Catalaunian Fields and Salamis , and thought that the battle narrative was completely fabricated. John Wallace-Hadrill drew a parallel between Aetius and Themistocles regarding the alleged subterfuge after the battle in some primary source accounts. Other historians have noted its possible political statements on Jordanes' contemporary time, particularly regarding the Battle of Vouille and
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#17327661561854598-617: A partial list of its consuls still survives. It maintained Roman religion, language, and culture, and was far more concerned with fighting the Germanic tribes , fending off Germanic incursions and restoring the security the Gallic provinces had enjoyed in the past, than in challenging the Roman central government. In the reign of Claudius Gothicus (268–270), large expanses of the Gallic Empire were restored to Roman rule. At roughly
4807-587: A peace with Gaiseric, whereby the Vandals kept all their possessions in North Africa in return for a payment of tribute to the empire, while the Huns were granted new territory in Pannonia Savia to occupy. Galla Placidia's regency came to an end in 437 when Valentinian travelled to Constantinople to marry his fiancée, Licinia Eudoxia . On his return to Rome, he was nominally the emperor, but in truth
5016-558: A prior battle on the Loire, 200,000 Goths and 150,000 Huns were slain. The figures offered are implausibly high, but the battle was noted as being exceptionally bloody by all of the primary sources. It is ultimately Jordanes' writing that leads to the difference in opinions in modern interpretations of the battle's outcome. In the traditional account, modern scholars take a very direct interpretation of Jordanes, although usually with various points of contention. Modern scholars tend to agree that
5225-616: A region including Aurelianum (present-day Orléans ) along the Seine and the Loire as far north as Soissons and Arras ; the middle and upper Rhine to Cologne ; and downstream along the Rhône . The historian Jordanes states that Attila was enticed by the Vandal king Genseric to wage war on the Visigoths. At the same time, Genseric would attempt to sow strife between the Visigoths and
5434-474: A series of puppet emperors who could do little to halt the collapse of Roman authority and the loss of the territories re-conquered by Majorian. The first of these puppet emperors, Libius Severus , had no recognition outside of Italy, with the Eastern emperor Leo I and provincial governors in Gaul and Illyria all refusing to recognize him. Severus died in 465 and Leo I, with the consent of Ricimer, appointed
5643-602: A single emperor to govern the entire Empire was institutionalized by emperor Diocletian following the disastrous civil wars and disintegrations of the Crisis of the Third Century . He introduced the system of the Tetrarchy in 286, with two senior emperors titled Augustus , one in the East and one in the West, each with an appointed subordinate and heir titled Caesar . Though the tetrarchic system would collapse in
5852-814: A son, Theodosius, in Barcelona in 414; but the child had died early in the following year, thus eliminating an opportunity for a Romano-Visigothic line. In either 421 or 423, Valentinian was given the title of nobilissimus by Honorius, although this title was not initially recognized in the eastern court of Theodosius II. After the death of Constantius in 421, court intrigue forced Galla Placidia to flee from Honorius and move to Constantinople , where she, Valentinian and Honoria were taken in by Theodosius. In 423, Emperor Honorius died, and his primicerius notariorum Joannes took power in Rome. To counter this threat to his power, Theodosius posthumously recognised Valentinian's father as augustus (emperor) and nominated
6061-520: A swarm of bees descended on the corpse of Valentinian and sucked up his blood. The day after the assassination Petronius Maximus had himself proclaimed emperor by the remnants of the Western Roman army after paying a large donative. He was not as prepared as he thought to take over and stabilize the depleted empire, however; after a reign of only 11 weeks, Maximus was stoned to death by a Roman mob. King Gaiseric and his Vandals captured Rome
6270-462: A triumph of Christian Europe over the pagan savages of Asia, saving classical heritage and European culture. Attila's attacks on the Western empire were soon renewed, but never with such peril to the civilized world as had menaced it before his defeat at Châlons; and on his death, two years after that battle, the vast empire which his genius had founded was soon dissevered by the successful revolts of
6479-422: A victory for Aetius, who sought to retain his position by allowing Attila and a significant number of his troops to escape. Attila regrouped, and, in 452, invaded Italy. He sacked and destroyed Aquileia and took Verona and Vincentia ( Vicenza ) as well. Aetius was shadowing the Huns but did not have the troops to attack, so the road to Rome was open. Although Ravenna was Valentinian's usual residence, he and
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6688-553: Is confirmed by the account of the Vita S. Aniani and in the later account of Gregory of Tours , although Sangiban's name does not appear in their accounts. However, the inhabitants of Aurelianum shut their gates against the advancing invaders, and Attila began to besiege the city, while he waited for Sangiban to deliver on his promise. There are two different accounts of the Siege of Aurelianum, and Hughes suggests that combining them provides
6897-533: Is more complicated than assumed due to the rearranging of a narrative first penned by a Goth named Ablabius in 471 and expanded by Cassiodorus, which he then himself abridged again and which in turn was used by Jordanes. Schultheis argues that provided that the entire conflict was not a literary topos based on the Battle of Marathon, the Alans were placed in the center of the battle line due to their effectiveness against
7106-536: Is sometimes used to mark the transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages . Odoacer's Italy and other barbarian kingdoms , many of them representing former Western Roman allies that had been granted lands in return for military assistance, would maintain a pretense of Roman continuity through the continued use of the old Roman administrative systems and nominal subservience to the Eastern Roman court. In
7315-518: The Battle of Mursa Major and committed suicide, a complete reunification of the whole Empire occurred under Constantius in 353. Constantius II focused most of his power in the East. Under his rule, the city of Byzantium – only recently re-founded as Constantinople – was fully developed as a capital. At Constantinople, the political, economic and military control of the Eastern Empire's resources would remain safe for centuries to come. The city
7524-479: The Battle of Samarra against the Sasanian Empire and was succeeded by Jovian , who ruled for only nine months. Following the death of Jovian, Valentinian I emerged as emperor in 364. He immediately divided the Empire once again, giving the eastern half to his brother Valens . Stability was not achieved for long in either half, as the conflicts with outside forces (barbarian tribes) intensified. In 376,
7733-460: The Domain of Soissons ) also recognized Nepos as his sovereign and the legitimate Western emperor. The authority of Julius Nepos as emperor was accepted not only by Odoacer in Italy, but by the Eastern Empire and Syagrius in Gaul (who had not recognized Romulus Augustulus). Nepos was murdered by his own soldiers in 480, a plot some attribute to Odoacer or the previous, deposed emperor Glycerius, and
7942-529: The First Jewish–Roman War . To ensure a commander's loyalty, a pragmatic emperor might hold some members of the general's family hostage . To this end, Nero effectively held Domitian and Quintus Petillius Cerialis , Governor of Ostia , who were respectively the younger son and brother-in-law of Vespasian. Nero's rule was ended by a revolt of the Praetorian Guard , who had been bribed in
8151-566: The Franks allied with the Romans encountered a band of the Gepids loyal to Attila and engaged them in a skirmish. Jordanes' recorded number of 15,000 dead on either side for this skirmish is not verifiable. Attila had set up a tactical delay along his route of retreat in order to keep Aetius from catching him before he arrived at a suitable battlefield location. The two forces at last met somewhere on
8360-694: The Garonne were growing restive, but still holding to their treaty. The Burgundians in Sapaudia were more submissive, but likewise awaiting an opening for revolt. The Alans on the Loire and in Valentinois were more loyal, having served the Romans since the defeat of Jovinus in 411 and the Siege of Bazas in 414. The parts of Gaul still securely in Roman control were the Mediterranean coastline;
8569-495: The Gepids under their king Ardaric , as well as an army of various Gothic groups led by the brothers Valamir , Theodemir (the father of the later Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great ) and Videmir , scions of the Amali Goths . Sidonius Apollinaris offers a more extensive list of allies: Rugians , Gepids, Geloni , Burgundians, Sciri , Bellonoti, Neuri , Bastarnae , Thuringians , Bructeri , and Franks living along
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8778-580: The Gildonic War . Stilicho managed to subdue Gildo but was campaigning in Raetia when the Visigoths entered Italy in 402. Stilicho, hurrying back to aid in defending Italy, summoned legions in Gaul and Britain with which he managed to defeat Alaric twice before agreeing to allow him to retreat back to Illyria . The weakening of the frontiers in Britain and Gaul had dire consequences for the Empire. As
8987-511: The Gothic Wars towards the end of Justinian's reign. Ultimately this has led mainstream scholarship to agree that Jordanes' description of the Battle of the Catalaunian fields is distorted, even if they do not agree with a pro-Hunnish interpretation of the outcome. However, Kim's views have received a mixed reception among scholars of the period, with one reviewer noting that much of the text amounts to "a confused and confusing story, involving
9196-822: The Great Hungarian Plain could only support 15,000 mounted nomads. Schultheis notes that Attila had control of other Hunnic groups east of the Carpathians, and proposes the eastern half of Attila's empire could field an additional 7,000 to 12,000 men based on later 6th century sources. Kim notes that the Huns continued use of the Xiongnu decimal system, meaning their army was probably organized into divisions of 10, 100, 1000, and 10,000, but no real estimates of Hunnic military capacity can be determined. Their barbarian allies, however, do receive mentions at other times in other sources: in 430 CE. The Hunnish king Octar
9405-471: The Parthian Empire in the East presented the greatest threat to the Empire. The Parthians were too remote and powerful to be conquered and there was a constant Parthian threat of invasion. The Parthians repelled several Roman invasions, and even after successful wars of conquest, such as those implemented by Trajan or Septimius Severus , the conquered territories were forsaken in attempts to ensure
9614-508: The Rhine and entered the Belgic provinces, capturing Divodurum Mediomatricum ( Metz ) on 7 April. Aetius gathered together a coalition of forces, including Visigoths and Burgundians, and raced to prevent Attila from taking the city of Aurelianum ( Orléans ), successfully forcing the Huns to retreat. The Roman-Germanic forces met Hunnic forces at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains , resulting in
9823-523: The Roman Senate . Though supported by the Gallic provinces and the Visigoths, Avitus was resented in Italy due to ongoing food shortages caused by Vandal control of trade routes, and for using a Visigothic imperial guard. He disbanded his guard due to popular pressure, and the Suebian general Ricimer used the opportunity to depose Avitus, counting on popular discontent. After the deposition of Avitus,
10032-577: The Sciri . This would ultimately lead to his service during the final years of the Western Roman Empire and his establishment of a Kingdom of Italy. Tackholm makes a distinct note of the increasing prominence of the battle in Gothic history. He shows that contemporary sources state the battle was inconclusive and give credit to Aetius, while later sources cast the battle as a Gothic victory and
10241-662: The Second Tetrarchy . The Tetrarchy collapsed after the unexpected death of Constantius in 306. His son, Constantine , was declared Western emperor by the British legions, but several other claimants arose and attempted to seize the Western Empire. In 308, Galerius revived the Tetrarchy by dividing the Western Empire between Constantine and Licinius . However, Constantine was more interested in conquering
10450-535: The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus . The severity of the Vandal sack of 455 is disputed, though with the Vandals plundering the city for a full fourteen days as opposed to the Visigothic sack of 410, where the Visigoths only spent three days in the city, it was likely more thorough. Avitus , a prominent general under Petronius, was proclaimed emperor by the Visigothic king Theodoric II and accepted as such by
10659-524: The Visigoths , fleeing before the Ostrogoths , who in turn were fleeing before the Huns , were allowed to cross the river Danube and settle in the Balkans by the Eastern government. Mistreatment caused a full-scale rebellion, and in 378 they inflicted a crippling defeat on the Eastern Roman field army in the Battle of Adrianople , in which Emperor Valens also died. The defeat at Adrianople was shocking to
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#173276615618510868-513: The Western Roman Empire , as the only son of Galla Placidia and Constantius III , who briefly ruled as emperor in 421. His mother was the younger half-sister of the western emperor Honorius ( r. 393–423 ), while his father was at the time a patrician and the power behind the throne . Through his mother, Valentinian was a descendant both of Theodosius I , who was his maternal grandfather, and of Valentinian I , who
11077-407: The civil war of 218 between Emperor Macrinus and Elagabalus . As the Empire expanded, two key frontiers revealed themselves. In the West, behind the rivers Rhine and Danube , Germanic tribes were an important enemy. Augustus, the first emperor, had tried to conquer them but had pulled back after the disastrous Battle of the Teutoburg Forest . Whilst the Germanic tribes were formidable foes,
11286-502: The limitanei , or just under 46,000 all told. However, this figure is an estimate for the years 395–425 and one that constantly changes with new research. The loss of the Western Roman provinces in North Africa resulted in the loss of funding for 40,000 infantry and 20,000 cavalry in the Roman army, in addition to previous losses, which was enough to permanently cripple Roman military capacity after 439 AD. According to Herwig Wolfram , with an annual revenue of 40,000 pounds of gold in 450 AD,
11495-488: The 3rd century. This system effectively divided the Empire into four major regions, the First Tetrarchy : in the West, Maximian made Mediolanum (now Milan ) his capital, and Constantius made Trier his. In the East, Galerius made his capital Sirmium and Diocletian made Nicomedia his. On 1 May 305, Diocletian and Maximian abdicated, replaced by Galerius and Constantius, who, in turn, appointed Maximinus II and Valerius Severus , respectively, as their caesars, thus creating
11704-435: The 5-year-old Valentinian caesar (heir-apparent) for the West in 23 October 424. Theodosius also betrothed his daughter Licinia Eudoxia to Valentinian, who would eventually marry her in 437 when he was 18. On 23 October 425, after Joannes had been defeated in a combined naval and land campaign, Helion , the eastern patricius et magister officiorum , installed Valentinian as augustus in Rome . Given his minority ,
11913-462: The 6th century, Emperor Justinian I re-imposed direct Imperial rule on large parts of the former Western Roman Empire, including the prosperous regions of North Africa , the ancient Roman heartland of Italy and parts of Hispania . Political instability in the Eastern heartlands, combined with foreign invasions, plague, and religious differences, made efforts to retain control of these territories difficult and they were gradually lost for good. Though
12122-453: The African provinces between themselves. Concerned by this turn of events and determined to hold onto the African provinces at all costs, the court at Ravenna sought reconciliation with Bonifatius, who agreed in 430 to affirm his allegiance to Valentinian III and stop the Vandal king Gaiseric . In 431, Bonifatius was crushed and fled to Italy, abandoning western North Africa. The imperial court, and especially Galla Placidia, worried about
12331-399: The Alans and Visigothic main body, rather than on the Visigothic flank. MacDowall, for example, places Thorismund on the far right of the battlefield. The final phase of the battle is characterized by the Gothic attempt to take the right side of the ridge, in which Theodoric is slain, with the rest of his army unaware of his death. It is at this point that Thorismund located Attila's position in
12540-417: The Alans were never planning to defect as they were the loyal backbone of the Roman defence in Gaul. Both armies consisted of combatants from many peoples. Besides the Roman troops, the Alans, and the Visigoths, Jordanes lists Aetius' allies as including the Francii , Sarmatae , Armoriciani , Liticiani, Burgundiones , Saxones , Riparii , and Olibrones (whom he describes as "once Roman soldiers and now
12749-405: The Catalaunian Fields circa June 20, a date first proposed by J. B. Bury and since accepted by many, although some authors have proposed the first week of July or September 27. The date of the battle can be secured to June by the entries of Hydatius' chronicle, which places it in-between the appearance and disappearance of Halley's Comet . According to tradition, Attila had his diviners examine
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#173276615618512958-416: The Catalaunian Fields has long been considered unclear. As a whole, the current scholarly consensus is that there is no conclusive site, merely being that it is in the vicinity of Châlons-en-Champagne (formerly called Châlons-sur-Marne) or Troyes . Historian Thomas Hodgkin located the site near Méry-sur-Seine . A more recent evaluation of the location has been performed by Phillippe Richardot, who proposed
13167-406: The Eastern Empire retained territories in the south of Italy until the eleventh century, the influence that the Empire had over Western Europe had diminished significantly. The papal coronation of the Frankish king Charlemagne as Roman Emperor in 800 marked a new imperial line that would evolve into the Holy Roman Empire , which presented a revival of the Imperial title in Western Europe but
13376-402: The Eastern emperor Leo I did not select a new western Augustus . The prominent general Majorian defeated an invading force of Alemanni and was subsequently proclaimed Western emperor by the army and eventually accepted as such by Leo. Majorian was the last Western emperor to attempt to recover the Western Empire with his own military forces. To prepare, Majorian significantly strengthened
13585-434: The Eastern emperor Theodosius I restored him to power. In 392, the Frankish and pagan magister militum Arbogast assassinated Valentinian II and proclaimed an obscure senator named Eugenius as emperor. In 394 the forces of the two halves of the Empire again clashed with great loss of life. Again Theodosius I won, and he briefly ruled a united Empire until his death in 395. He was the last emperor to rule both parts of
13794-416: The Eastern emperor Zeno chose not to appoint a new Western emperor. Zeno, recognizing that no true Roman control remained over the territories legally governed by the Western court, instead chose to abolish the juridical division of the position of emperor and declared himself the sole emperor of the Roman Empire. Zeno became the first sole Roman emperor since the division after Theodosius I, 85 years prior, and
14003-469: The Elder ), philosophy and rhetoric . Minor rebellions and uprisings were fairly common events throughout the Empire. Conquered tribes or oppressed cities would revolt, and the legions would be detached to crush the rebellion. While this process was simple in peacetime, it could be considerably more complicated in wartime. In a full-blown military campaign , the legions were far more numerous – as, for example, those led by Vespasian in
14212-405: The Empire to have been split into two empires but viewed it as a single polity governed by two imperial courts for administrative expediency. The Western Empire collapsed in 476, and the Western imperial court in Ravenna disappeared by AD 554, at the end of Justinian 's Gothic War . Though there were periods with more than one emperor ruling jointly before, the view that it was impossible for
14421-415: The Empire. Aetius transferred his forces to the Danube, though Attila concentrated on raiding the Eastern Roman provinces in the Balkans, providing temporary relief to the Western Empire. In 449, Attila received a message from Honoria , Valentinian III's sister, offering him half the western empire if he would rescue her from an unwanted marriage that her brother was forcing her into. With a pretext to invade
14630-423: The Gallic provinces, having allegedly been bribed by the Vandal king Gaiseric to attack Gaul's population of Visigoths. Valentinian was furious over the invasion. The man who had carried Honoria's message to Attila was tortured to reveal all the details of the arrangement and then beheaded, and the emperor spared Honoria herself only after a great deal of persuasion from Galla Placidia. In early 451, Attila crossed
14839-477: The Gallo-Roman senator Jovinus revolted after proclaiming himself emperor, with the support of the Gallic nobility and the barbarian Burgundians and Alans. Honorius turned to the Visigoths under King Athaulf for support. Athaulf defeated and executed Jovinus and his proclaimed co-emperor Sebastianus in 413, around the same time as another usurper arose in Africa , Heraclianus . Heraclianus attempted to invade Italy but failed and retreated to Carthage, where he
15048-562: The German provinces – rebelled, and his assault on Colonia Agrippina resulted in the deaths of Saloninus and the prefect. In the confusion that followed, an independent state known in modern historiography as the Gallic Empire emerged. Its capital was Augusta Treverorum (modern Trier ), and it quickly expanded its control over the German and Gaulish provinces, all of Hispania and Britannia . It had its own senate , and
15257-536: The Germanic foederati in Italy, captured Ravenna, killed Orestes and deposed Romulus. Though Romulus was deposed, Nepos did not return to Italy and continued to reign as Western emperor from Dalmatia , with support from Constantinople. Odoacer proclaimed himself ruler of Italy and began to negotiate with the Eastern emperor Zeno . Zeno eventually granted Odoacer patrician status as recognition of his authority and accepted him as his viceroy of Italy. Zeno, however, insisted that Odoacer had to pay homage to Julius Nepos as
15466-453: The Goths to destroy the Alans and besiege Orléans, believing that they had not been adequately rewarded for their service. In turn, this led to further concessions to the Goths from Aetius after Thorismund's assassination by his brother, who was amicable to the Romans. He thinks this may have been the point at which the Goths gained the same status of an independent kingdom that Gaiseric had. On
15675-499: The Goths, and the Franks as well, to leave the battle and return home. Hughes argues that since the Franks were fighting a civil war in the battle, and Thorismund had five brothers who could usurp his new-found position as king, that it is likely Aetius did advise them to do so. O'Flynn argues that Aetius persuaded the Visigoths to return home in order to eliminate a group of volatile allies, and argues that he let Attila escape because he would have been just as happy to make an alliance with
15884-614: The Great ; thus, much of the aristocracy was of Greek origin. The whole region, especially the major cities, had been largely assimilated into Greek culture, Greek often serving as the lingua franca . Octavian obtained the Roman provinces of the West: Italia (modern Italy), Gaul (modern France), Gallia Belgica (parts of modern Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg ), and Hispania (modern Spain and Portugal). These lands also included Greek and Carthaginian colonies in
16093-565: The Hun homelands along the Danube, forced Attila to turn back and leave Italy. When Attila died unexpectedly in 453, the power struggle that erupted between his sons ended the threat posed by the Huns. Valentinian III was intimidated by Aetius and was encouraged by the Roman senator Petronius Maximus and the chamberlain Heraclius to assassinate him. When Aetius was at court in Ravenna delivering
16302-504: The Hunnic battle line, and attacked the Hunnic center, nearly slaying Attila himself and forcing the Hunnic center to retreat. Both armies fell into confusion as darkness descended, and neither side knew the outcome of the battle until the following morning. After the battle, the allies decided what to do next, and resolved to place Attila under siege for a few days while they discussed the matter. Aetius allegedly persuaded both Thorismund and
16511-399: The Hunnic forces, though Attila escaped. Attila regrouped and invaded Italy in 452. With Aetius not having enough forces to attack him, the road to Rome was open. Valentinian sent Pope Leo I and two leading senators to negotiate with Attila. This embassy, combined with a plague among Attila's troops, the threat of famine, and news that the Eastern emperor Marcian had launched an attack on
16720-521: The Huns as proscribed by the Strategikon of Pseudo-Maurice , and that Jordanes' text indicates the Hunnic center retreated before Thorismund charged. The Romans and Alans attacked down the ridge and across the plain to Attila's camp, while the Amali and other Gothic groups chased the collapsing Gothic right back to their camp, resulting in the mass confusion that followed. He concludes that losses during
16929-460: The Huns as with the Visigoths. The majority of historians also share the view that at this point Attila's "aura of invincibility" was broken, and that Aetius allowed the Huns to retreat in the hopes he could return to a status of partnership with them and draw on the Huns for future military support. It has been suggested by Hyun Jin Kim that the entire battle is a play on the Battle of Marathon , with
17138-409: The Huns successfully looted and pillaged much of Gaul and crippled the military capacity of the Romans and Visigoths. Attila died only two years later, in 453. After the Battle of Nedao in 454 AD, the coalition of the Huns and the incorporated Germanic vassals gradually disintegrated. By 450 AD, the Romans had restored their authority in much of the province of Gaul , although control over all of
17347-443: The Huns were completely destroyed, the Visigoths would break off their allegiance to the Roman Empire and become an even graver threat. So Aetius persuaded Thorismund to return home quickly and secure the throne for himself, before his brothers could. Otherwise, civil war would ensue among the Visigoths. Thorismund quickly returned to Tolosa (present-day Toulouse) and became king without any resistance. Gregory of Tours claims Aetius used
17556-594: The Mauriac plain, where Theodoric was slain, by whom it is uncertain, and Laudaricus the relative of Attila: and the bodies were countless. — Chronica Gallica Anno 511, s.a. 451. The Paschale Chronicle , preserving a garbled and abbreviated passage of Priscus, states: While Theodosius and Valentinian, the Augusti, were emperors, Attila, from the race of the Gepid Huns, marched against Rome and Constantinople with
17765-441: The Rhine early in 451 with his followers and a large number of allies, sacking Divodurum (now Metz ) on April 7. Schultheis notes, however, that sacking of Metz on April 7 may have been a literary trope used by Hydatius and Gregory of Tours to emphasize Attila's pagan nature to a Christian audience and may not be reliable. Other cities attacked can be determined by the hagiographies written to commemorate their bishops: Nicasius
17974-605: The Rhine frontier in the 4th century, when Trier frequently served as a military capital of sorts for the Empire. Many leading Western generals were barbarians . The reign of Honorius was, even by Western Roman standards, chaotic and plagued by both internal and external struggles. The Visigothic foederati under Alaric, magister militum in Illyricum , rebelled in 395. Gildo , the Comes Africae and Magister utriusque militiae per Africam , rebelled in 397 and initiated
18183-615: The River Neckar . E.A. Thompson expresses his suspicions that some of these names are drawn from literary traditions rather than from the event itself: The Bastarnae, Bructeri, Geloni and Neuri had disappeared hundreds of years before the time of the Huns, while the Bellonoti had never existed at all: presumably the learned poet was thinking of the Balloniti, a people invented by Valerius Flaccus nearly four centuries earlier. On
18392-411: The Roman Empire before the West fragmented and collapsed. Theodosius I's older son Arcadius inherited the eastern half while the younger Honorius got the western half. Both were still minors and neither was capable of ruling effectively. Honorius was placed under the tutelage of the half-Roman/half-barbarian magister militum Flavius Stilicho , while Rufinus became the power behind the throne in
18601-484: The Roman Empire sank into a 50-year period of civil war now known as the Crisis of the Third Century. During this period, the Empire saw the combined pressures of barbarian invasions and migrations into Roman territory, civil wars, peasant rebellions and political instability, with multiple usurpers competing for power. The idea of dividing the empire was first developed in this time; Valerian and his son Gallienus divided
18810-516: The Roman perspective. Attila's forces arrived on the ridge first, on the far right side, before the Visigoths could take that position. Then Aetius' Romans arrived on the left side of the ridge, and repulsed the Gepids as they came up. Finally the Alans and the Visigoths under Thorismund fought their way up and secured the center of the ridge, holding it against Attila. However, Hughes differs from mainstream explanations in that he places Thorismund between
19019-753: The Romanized population subject to invasions, first by the Picts and then by the Saxons , Angli , and the Jutes who began to settle permanently from about 440 onwards. After Honorius accepted Constantine as co-emperor, Constantine's general in Hispania, Gerontius , proclaimed Maximus as emperor. With the aid of general Constantius , Honorius defeated Gerontius and Maximus in 411 and shortly thereafter captured and executed Constantine III. With Constantius back in Italy,
19228-625: The Romans being the Plateans on the left, the Alans the weak Athenian center, and the Goths the Athenian regulars on the right, with Theodoric as Miltiades and Thorismund as Callimachus . He sees the return home by the Goths to secure Thorismund's throne as the same as the return to Athens to protect it from sedition and the Persian Navy. Kim's suggestion of Jordanes borrowing Herodotus has been noted by prior scholarship: Franz Altheim drew
19437-405: The Romans were expecting this, which is why he placed the Alans in the center of the formation, who were skilled cavalrymen and had advanced knowledge of how to fight alongside the Roman style of warfare. Bachrach also notes that Jordanes' point of placing the Alans in the center due to disloyalty is biased on Jordanes' part. Jordanes' description of the battle, according to Hughes, takes place from
19646-505: The Romans, and forced them to negotiate with and settle the Visigoths within the borders of the Empire, where they would become semi-independent foederati under their own leaders. More than in the East, there was also opposition to the Christianizing policy of the emperors in the western part of the Empire. In 379, Valentinian I's son and successor Gratian declined to wear the mantle of Pontifex Maximus , and in 382 he rescinded
19855-582: The Suebi extended their control. By 444 the Spanish provinces of Lusitania and Hispania Baetica had been lost, and Roman authority in Hispania Tarraconensis was challenged by continued Bagaudic uprisings. This loss of territory caused severe financial problems, with the Roman state openly acknowledging that there was insufficient revenue to meet its military needs. The emperor issued
20064-474: The Tetrici were pardoned, although they were first paraded in a triumph. Diocletian divided the Roman Empire when, in 286, he elevated Maximian to the rank of Augustus (emperor) and gave him control of the Western Empire, while he continued to rule the East. In 293, Galerius and Constantius Chlorus were appointed as their subordinate ( caesars ), as a way to avoid the civil unrest that had marked
20273-426: The Vandals and Africa. Not only did the Vandals pose a constant danger to coastal Italy and trade in the Mediterranean, but the province they ruled was economically vital to the survival of the West. Majorian began a campaign to fully reconquer Hispania to use it as a base for the reconquest of Africa. Throughout 459, Majorian campaigned against the Suebi in northwestern Hispania. The Vandals began to increasingly fear
20482-429: The Vandals, Alans and Suebi , to cross the river and enter Roman territory in 406. Honorius was convinced by the minister Olympius that Stilicho was conspiring to overthrow him, and so arrested and executed Stilicho in 408. Olympius headed a conspiracy that orchestrated the deaths of key individuals related to the faction of Stilicho, including his son and the families of many of his federated troops. This led many of
20691-409: The Vandals. Deprived of his fleet, Majorian had to cancel his attack on the Vandals and conclude a peace with Gaiseric. Disbanding his barbarian forces, Majorian intended to return to Rome and issue reforms, stopping at Arelate on his way. Here, Ricimer deposed and arrested him in 461, having gathered significant aristocratic opposition against Majorian. After five days of beatings and torture, Majorian
20900-482: The Visigoths in 437 and 438 but suffering a defeat himself in 439, ending the conflict in a status quo ante with a treaty. Meanwhile, pressure from the Visigoths and a rebellion by Bonifacius , the governor of Africa, induced the Vandals under King Gaiseric to cross from Spain to Tingitana in what is now Morocco in 429. They temporarily halted in Numidia in 435 before moving eastward. With Aetius occupied in Gaul,
21109-401: The Visigoths outstripped the speed of the Alans beside them and fell upon Attila's own Hunnic household unit. Attila was forced to seek refuge in his own camp, which he had fortified with wagons. The Romano-Gothic charge apparently swept past the Hunnic camp in pursuit; when night fell, Thorismund, son of king Theodoric, returning to friendly lines, mistakenly entered Attila's encampment. There he
21318-647: The Visigoths, hoping to halt their expansion. The trial and subsequent execution of Romanus , an Italian senator and friend of Ricimer, on the grounds of treachery in 470 made Ricimer hostile to Anthemius. Following two years of ill feeling, Ricimer deposed and killed Anthemius in 472, elevating Olybrius to the Western throne. During the brief reign of Olybrius, Ricimer died and his nephew Gundobad succeeded him as magister militum . After only seven months of rule, Olybrius died of dropsy . Gundobad elevated Glycerius to Western emperor. The Eastern Empire had rejected Olybrius and also rejected Glycerius, instead supporting
21527-460: The West began to collapse entirely. Alaric's men sacked Rome in 410. Honorius, the younger son of Theodosius I, was declared Augustus (and as such co-emperor with his father) on 23 January in 393, at the age of 9. Upon the death of Theodosius, Honorius inherited the throne of the West at the age of ten whilst his older brother Arcadius inherited the East. The western capital was initially Mediolanum, as it had been during previous divisions, but it
21736-463: The West, Attila secured peace with the Eastern court and crossed the Rhine in early 451. With Attila wreaking havoc in Gaul, Aetius gathered a coalition of Roman and Germanic forces, including Visigoths and Burgundians, and prevented the Huns from taking the city of Aurelianum , forcing them into retreat. At the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains , the Roman-Germanic coalition met and defeated
21945-574: The West, while Verus spent most of his reign campaigning in the East, against Parthia . Verus accompanied Marcus at the start of the Marcomannic Wars , but died shortly after. Decades later, Septimius Severus (r. 193–211) appointed his sons Geta and Caracalla as joint heirs. However, Caracalla murdered his brother shortly after succeeding to the throne. With the assassination of the emperor Alexander Severus in March 235 by his own troops,
22154-443: The Western Empire would have had to spend almost two thirds of its income to maintain an army of 30,000 men. Hugh Elton gives the same figure in 450, but estimates the cost of maintaining an army of 300,000 at 31,625 lbs. of gold or 7.6 solidi a year per soldier. He states that there were also other unquantifiable military costs such as defensive installations, equipment, logistical supplies, paper, animals, and other costs. The size of
22363-426: The Western Roman Empire. However, Jordanes' account of Gothic history is notoriously unreliable. Modern scholars now believe that this explanation was Jordanes projecting contemporary events and political opinions onto Attila's time, and it was likely not original to Priscus. Christiensen points out that Amalafrida , wife of Thrasamund , was imprisoned and murdered by Hilderic after Thrasamund's death in 523, and that
22572-479: The Western Roman army by recruiting large numbers of barbarian mercenaries, among them the Gepids , Ostrogoths, Rugii , Burgundians, Huns, Bastarnae , Suebi, Scythians and Alans, and built two fleets, one at Ravenna, to combat the strong Vandalic fleet. Majorian personally led the army to wage war in Gaul, leaving Ricimer in Italy. The Gallic provinces and the Visigothic Kingdom had rebelled following
22781-488: The Western Roman government could do nothing to prevent the Vandals conquering the wealthy African provinces, culminating in the fall of Carthage on 19 October 439 and the establishment of the Vandal Kingdom . By the 400s, Italy and Rome itself were dependent on the taxes and foodstuffs from these provinces, leading to an economic crisis. With Vandal fleets becoming an increasing danger to Roman sea trade and
22990-432: The Western court had lacked true power and had been subject to Germanic aristocrats for decades, with most of its legal territory being under control of various barbarian kingdoms. With Odoacer recognising Julius Nepos, and later the Eastern emperor Zeno, as his sovereign, nominal Roman control continued in Italy. Syagrius , who had managed to preserve Roman sovereignty in an exclave in northern Gaul (a realm today known as
23199-505: The army in 450 AD therefore must have been significantly reduced from its status in the late 420's. Schultheis argues that the Roman field army as calculated from his own estimates of the Notitia Dignitatum, chronology of military losses, and income losses numbered approximately 20,500 comitatenses and 18,000 limitanei by the time of the battle, not including supernumerary officers. Jordanes' list for Attila's allies includes
23408-401: The army was supplied by Tonantius Ferreolus , who had been preparing for a Hunnic attack for a few years. The combined army then marched to Aurelianum (present-day Orléans ), reaching that city on June 14. From Aurelianum, Aetius and his coalition pursued Attila, who was leaving Gaul with the majority of his objectives completed. According to Jordanes, the night before the main battle, some of
23617-481: The battle is usually considered to be its impact on long-term Hunnic hegemony in Europe, of which there are differing opinions. The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains is given its first modern historical perspective by Edward Gibbon , who called it the last victory achieved in the name of the Western Roman Empire. The first individual historical survey of the battle was given by Edward Shepherd Creasy , who heralded it as
23826-436: The battle took place on a long ridge, not a plain with a hill to one side. Hughes argues that the Huns deployed in the center, with their vassals on the wings, because they were expecting a Roman infantry center, with cavalry wings. This way Attila could pin down the center with the disorganized Hunnic style of warfare, while the majority of his troops focused on breaking one or both of the enemy flanks. However, Hughes argues that
24035-432: The battle took place wholly on the "les Maures" ridge itself until its final phase, when retreating and pursuing forces stretched across several kilometers. The ridge at Montgueux is currently the most thoroughly researched proposal for the battlefield location. Upon learning of the invasion, the magister utriusque militiae Flavius Aetius moved his army rapidly from Italy to Gaul. According to Sidonius Apollinaris , he
24244-426: The battle, states: After killing his brother, Attila was strengthened by the resources of the deceased and forced many thousands of neighboring peoples into a war. This war, he announced as a guardian of Roman friendship, he would wage only against the Goths. But when he had crossed the Rhine and many Gallic cities had experienced his savage attacks, both our people and the Goths soon agreed to oppose with allied forces
24453-405: The campaign, states that Attila's forces numbered in the tens of thousands. Assuming that the Hunnic and Germanic forces were roughly the same size as the Roman and federate army, those involved in the battle could have been well in excess of 100,000 combatants in total. This excludes the inevitable servants and camp followers who usually escape mention in the primary sources. The actual location of
24662-423: The capable Eastern general Anthemius as Western emperor following an eighteen-month interregnum . The relationship between Anthemius and the East was good, Anthemius is the last Western emperor recorded in an Eastern law, and the two courts conducted a joint operation to retake Africa from the Vandals, culminating in the disastrous Battle of Cape Bon in 468. In addition Anthemius conducted failed campaigns against
24871-490: The city at the sight of the approaching Vandals, only to be stoned to death by a Roman mob. Petronius had reigned only 11 weeks. With the Vandals at the gates, Pope Leo I requested that the King not destroy the ancient city or murder its inhabitants, to which Gaiseric agreed and the city gates were opened to him. Though keeping his promise, Gaiseric looted great amounts of treasure and damaged objects of cultural significance such as
25080-431: The coastal areas, though Celtic tribes such as Gauls and Celtiberians were culturally dominant. Lepidus received the minor province of Africa (roughly modern Tunisia ). Octavian soon took Africa from Lepidus, while adding Sicilia (modern Sicily ) to his holdings. Upon the defeat of Mark Antony , a victorious Octavian controlled a united Roman Empire . The Empire featured many distinct cultures, all experienced
25289-466: The coasts and islands of the western and central Mediterranean, Aetius coordinated a counterattack against the Vandals in 440, organizing a large army in Sicily. However, the plans for retaking Africa had to be abandoned due to the immediate need to combat the invading Huns, who in 444 were united under their ambitious king Attila . Turning against their former ally, the Huns became a formidable threat to
25498-454: The countryside. This explanation would support the literary evidence claiming North Gaul was attacked, and the archaeological evidence showing major population centers were not sacked. Attila's army had reached Aurelianum (modern Orléans, France) before June. According to Jordanes, the Alan king Sangiban , whose Foederati realm included Aurelianum, had promised to open the city gates. This siege
25707-656: The court back to Rome. Most western emperors from 450 until 475 reigned from Rome. The last de facto western emperor Romulus Augustulus resided in Ravenna from 475 until his deposition in 476 and Ravenna would later be the capital of both the Ostrogothic Kingdom and the Exarchate of Ravenna . Despite the moved capital, economic power remained focused on Rome and its rich senatorial aristocracy which dominated much of Italy and Africa in particular. After Emperor Gallienus had banned senators from army commands in
25916-541: The court moved back to Rome as Attila approached. Valentinian sent Pope Leo I and two leading senators to negotiate with Attila. This embassy, combined with a plague among Attila's troops, the threat of famine, and news that the Eastern Emperor Marcian had launched an attack on Hun homelands along the Danube, forced Attila to turn around and leave Italy. The death of Attila in Pannonia in 453 and
26125-531: The death of Nepos and abolition of the Western Empire by Zeno as the end of the Western Roman Empire. Valentinian III Valentinian III ( Latin : Placidus Valentinianus ; 2 July 419 – 16 March 455) was Roman emperor in the West from 425 to 455. Starting in childhood, his reign over the Roman Empire was one of the longest, but was dominated by civil wars among powerful generals and
26334-571: The deposition of Avitus, refusing to acknowledge Majorian as lawful emperor. At the Battle of Arelate , Majorian decisively defeated the Visigoths under Theoderic II and forced them to relinquish their great conquests in Hispania and return to foederati status. Majorian then entered the Rhone Valley , where he defeated the Burgundians and reconquered the rebel city of Lugdunum . With Gaul back under Roman control, Majorian turned his eyes to
26543-404: The downfall of Valentinian III as a result of Aetius' assassination. This has been disputed recently by Meghan McEvoy, who argues that Valentinian III wanted to be an active emperor and simply needed to remove his manager, and that there was no real direct cause for Aetius' murder. In Gaul, the effects were somewhat more significant. Hughes argues that their assistance at the Catalaunian Plains led
26752-448: The east. Rufinus and Stilicho were rivals, and their disagreements would be exploited by the Gothic leader Alaric I who again rebelled in 408 following the massacre by Roman legions of thousands of barbarian families who were trying to assimilate into the Roman empire. Neither half of the Empire could raise forces sufficient even to subdue Alaric's men, and both tried to use Alaric against the other half. Alaric himself tried to establish
26961-496: The eastern provinces by a separate, independent imperial court. Particularly during the period from AD 395 to 476, there were separate, coequal courts dividing the governance of the empire into the Western provinces and the Eastern provinces with a distinct imperial succession in the separate courts. The terms Western Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire were coined in modern times to describe political entities that were de facto independent; contemporary Romans did not consider
27170-426: The emperor Romulus Augustulus and became the first King of Italy . In 480, following the assassination of the previous Western emperor Julius Nepos , the Eastern emperor Zeno dissolved the Western court and proclaimed himself the sole emperor of the Roman Empire. The date of 476 was popularized by the 18th-century British historian Edward Gibbon as a demarcating event for the fall of the Western Roman Empire and
27379-484: The emperor of the Western Empire. Odoacer accepted this condition and issued coins in the name of Julius Nepos throughout Italy. This, however, was mainly an empty political gesture, as Odoacer never returned any real power or territories to Nepos. The murder of Nepos in 480 prompted Odoacer to invade Dalmatia , annexing it to his Kingdom of Italy . By convention, the Western Roman Empire is deemed to have ended on 4 September 476, when Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustus, but
27588-558: The empire between them, the former ruling from the East and the latter from the West. However, Valerian was captured by the Sassanids at the Battle of Edessa , leaving Gallienus as sole emperor. Saloninus , Gallienus' infant son, and the praetorian prefect Silvanus resided in Colonia Agrippina (modern Cologne ) to solidify the loyalty of the local legions. Nevertheless, Postumus – the local governor of
27797-407: The empire was divided between his two infant sons, with Honorius as his successor in the West governing briefly from Mediolanum then from Ravenna , and Arcadius as his successor in the East governing from Constantinople . In 476, after the Battle of Ravenna , the Roman army in the West suffered defeat at the hands of Odoacer and his Germanic foederati . Odoacer forced the abdication of
28006-527: The end of the Theodosian dynasty , Petronius Maximus proclaimed himself emperor during the ensuing period of unrest. Petronius was not able to take effective control of the significantly weakened and unstable Empire. He broke the betrothal between Huneric, son of the Vandal king Gaiseric , and Eudocia, daughter of Valentinian III. This was seen as a just cause of war by King Gaiseric, who set sail to attack Rome. Petronius and his supporters attempted to flee
28215-464: The enemy Amali Goths , was killed in the assault without his men noticing. He then states that Theodoric was either thrown from his horse and trampled to death by his advancing men, or slain by the spear of the Amali Andag. Since Jordanes served as the notary of Andag's son Gunthigis , even if this latter story is not true, this version was certainly a proud family tradition. Then Jordanes claims
28424-440: The entrails of a sacrifice the morning of the day of the battle. They foretold that disaster would befall the Huns, but one of the enemy leaders would be killed. Attila delayed until the ninth hour (about 2:30 pm) so the impending sunset would help his troops to flee the battlefield in case of defeat. Hughes takes his own interpretation of this, noting that the divination may be an indicator of Attila's barbarity and therefore possibly
28633-656: The event shocked people across both halves of the Empire as this was the first time Rome (viewed at least as the symbolic heart of the Empire) had fallen to a foreign enemy since the Gallic invasions of the 4th century BC. The Eastern Roman emperor Theodosius II , the successor of Arcadius, declared three days of mourning in Constantinople. Without Stilicho and following the sack of Rome, Honorius' reign grew more chaotic. The usurper Constantine III had stripped Roman Britain of its defenses when he crossed over to Gaul in 407, leaving
28842-545: The field called Maurica in Campania. — Additamenta ad Chronicon Prosperi Hauniensis , s.a. 451. At this time Attila, king of the Huns, invaded the Gauls. Here trusting in lord Peter the apostle himself patrician Aetius proceeded against him, he would fight with the help of God. — Continuatio Codex Ovetensis . Battle was made in the Gauls between Aetius and Attila king of the Huns with both peoples and massacre. Attila fled into
29051-499: The first of the " barbarian kingdoms ", the Visigothic Kingdom , was formed. Honorius' death in 423 was followed by turmoil until the Eastern Roman government installed Valentinian III as Western emperor in Ravenna by force of arms, with Galla Placidia acting as regent during her son's minority. Theodosius II, the Eastern emperor, had hesitated to announce the death of Honorius and in the ensuing interregnum, Joannes
29260-474: The flower of the allied forces"), as well as "other Celtic or German tribes." The Liticiani could be either Laeti or Romano-Britons , the latter of which are recorded by Gregory. Halsall argues that the Rhine limitanei and the old British field army composed the forces of the Riparii and Armoricans, and Heather suggests that the Visigoths may have been able to field about 25,000 men total. Drinkwater adds that
29469-516: The fury of their proud enemies. And Aetius had such great foresight that, when fighting men were hurriedly collected from everywhere, a not unequal force met the opposing multitude. Although the slaughter of all those who died there was incalculable – for neither side gave way – it appears that the Huns were defeated in this battle because those among them that survived lost their taste for fighting and turned back home. —Prosper, Epitoma Chronicon , s.a. 451. The battle raged five miles down from Troyes on
29678-407: The greater Gauls. — Continuatio Codex Reichenaviensis . The Gallic Chronicles of 452 and 511 state: Attila entered Gaul as if he had the right to ask for a wife that was owed to him. There, he inflicted and suffered defeat and then withdrew to his homeland. — Chronica Gallica Anno 452, s.a. 451. Patrician Aetius with King Theodoric of the Goths fight against Attila king of the Huns at Tricasses on
29887-490: The historical record calls this determination into question. Indeed, the deposition of Romulus Augustus received very little attention in contemporary times. Romulus was a usurper in the eyes of the Eastern Roman Empire and the remaining territories of Western Roman control outside of Italy, with the previous emperor Julius Nepos still being alive and claiming to rule the Western Empire in Dalmatia . Furthermore,
30096-632: The hopes it would use up his whole campaigning season, Attila razed the city and ravaged the Po Valley . Aetius, without aid from the federates in Gaul and without the military capacity to stop Attila on his own, sent an embassy consisting of Pope Leo I , Trygetius, and Gennadius Avienus to broker a treaty with Attila. Attila ultimately retreated from Italy, most likely due to a local famine and disease within his army. Some authors have argued that this sequence of military fiascos for Aetius ultimately led to his downfall. Merrils and Miles also argue it led to
30305-454: The imperial dynasty would be the next best thing. Consequently, sometime before 446, he convinced Valentinian to agree to a marriage between his eldest daughter, Eudocia, and Gaiseric's son, Huneric. The idea came to nothing, since Huneric was already married to the daughter of the king of the Visigoths. The imperial presence in Hispania continued to diminish during the early-to-mid 440s as
30514-458: The imperial government was not providing the military protection the northern provinces expected and needed, numerous usurpers arose in Britain, including Marcus (406–407), Gratian (407), and Constantine III who invaded Gaul in 407. Britain was effectively abandoned by the empire by 410 due to the lack of resources and the need to look after more important frontiers. The weakening of the Rhine frontier allowed multiple barbarian tribes, including
30723-495: The invasions of late antiquity 's Migration Period . He was the son of Galla Placidia and Constantius III , and as the great-grandson of Valentinian I ( r. 364–375 ) he was the last emperor of the Valentinianic dynasty . As a grandson of Theodosius I ( r. 379–395 ), Valentinian was also a member of the Theodosian dynasty , to which his wife, Licinia Eudoxia , also belonged. A year before assuming
30932-467: The last major military operations of the Western Roman Empire , although Germanic foederati composed the majority of the coalition army. The exact strategic significance is disputed. Historians generally agree that the siege of Aurelianum was the decisive moment in the campaign and stopped the Huns' attempt to advance any further into Roman territory or establish vassals in Roman Gaul . However,
31141-510: The letter's legitimacy. Allegedly, Attila interpreted it as offering her hand in marriage, and he had claimed half of the empire as a dowry. He demanded Honoria to be delivered along with the dowry. Valentinian rejected these demands, and Attila used it as an excuse to launch a destructive campaign through Gaul. Hughes suggests that the reality of this interpretation should be that Honoria was using Attila's status as honorary magister militum for political leverage. Another conflict leading into
31350-472: The lord of so many races might not fall into the hands of his foes". While Attila was besieged in his camp, the Visigoths searched for their missing king and his son Thorismund. After a long search, they found Theodoric's corpse "where the dead lay thickest" and bore him away with heroic songs in sight of the enemy. Upon learning of his father's death, Thorismund wanted to assault Attila's camp, but Aetius dissuaded him. According to Jordanes, Aetius feared that if
31559-537: The loyalty of its remaining provinces was impaired in consequence. The initial period of Valentinian's reign was further troubled by a power struggle among the three principal military leaders of the west – Felix , the senior magister militum praesentalis , Bonifatius , the magister militum per Africam and Aetius , the magister militum per Gallias . In 427, Felix accused Bonifatius of treason and demanded that he return to Italy. Bonifatius refused and defeated an army sent by Felix to capture him. Weakened, Felix
31768-531: The management of imperial policy in the west was in the hands of Aetius. From 436 to 439, Aetius was focused on the situation in Gaul. Serious Gothic defeats in 437 and 438 were undone by a Roman defeat in 439, which saw the status quo restored through a new truce. He also enjoyed initial success against the Franks and the Burgundians , as well as putting down a revolt by the Bagaudae by 437. In 438, peace
31977-494: The mid-3rd century, the senatorial elite lost all experience of – and interest in – military life. In the early 5th century the wealthy landowning elite of the Roman Senate largely barred its tenants from military service, but it also refused to approve sufficient funding for maintaining a sufficiently powerful mercenary army to defend the entire Western Empire. The West's most important military area had been northern Gaul and
32186-500: The name of Galba . The Praetorian Guard, a figurative "sword of Damocles ", was often perceived as being of dubious loyalty, primarily due its role in court intrigues and in overthrowing several emperors, including Pertinax and Aurelian . Following their example, the legions at the borders increasingly participated in civil wars . For instance, legions stationed in Egypt and the eastern provinces would see significant participation in
32395-506: The new augustus ruled under the influence of his mother Galla Placidia, one of whose first acts was to install Felix as the magister utriusque militiae in the west. This period was marked by a vigorous imperial policy and an attempt to stabilize the western provinces as far as the stretched resources of the empire could manage. In 425, the court at Ravenna negotiated with the Huns who had accompanied Aetius to Italy in support of Joannes. The Huns agreed to leave Italy, and to evacuate
32604-407: The now devastated provinces of Tripolitana , Mauretania Sitifensis , Mauretania Caesariensis , and the remainder of Numidia. Gaiseric soon disregarded this arrangement and retook Mauretania Sitifensis and Mauretania Caesariensis, as well as taking Sardinia and Corsica and conducting devastating raids on Sicily . Unable to pacify Gaiseric by military means, Aetius decided that linking him to
32813-508: The other hand, Kim argues that the battle led to the decline of Roman influence in northern Gaul, and strengthened the position of the Salian Franks and the Burgundians. He argues that it ultimately led to the victory of Childeric and the Franks over the Goths, the Roman comes Paul who had replaced Aegidius , and Odoacer , who returned to the Danube. This set the Franks up for dominance in Gaul and put Odoacer back in power as king of
33022-479: The other hand, Thompson believes that the presence of Burgundians on the Hunnic side is credible, noting that a group is documented remaining east of the Rhine; likewise, he believes that the other peoples Sidonius mentions (the Rugians , Sciri, and Thuringians ) were participants in this battle. Although there is no direct evidence that Heruli were present, as indirect evidence, centuries later Pauls Diaconus listed
33231-515: The peace and plundered the Gallic provinces. A great many cities were taken. On the Catalaunian Plains, not far from the city of Metz, which they had taken, the Huns were cut down in battle with the aid of God and defeated by general Aetius and King Theoderic, who had made a peace treaty with each other. The darkness of night interrupted the fighting. King Theoderic was laid low there and died. Almost 300,000 men are said to have fallen in that battle. — Hydatius, Chronicon , 150. Prosper , contemporary to
33440-460: The position would never again be divided. As such, the (eastern) Roman emperors after 480 are the successors of the western ones, albeit only in a juridical sense. These emperors would continue to rule the Roman Empire until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, nearly a thousand years later. As 480 marks the end of the juridical division of the empire into two imperial courts, some historians refer to
33649-419: The power being wielded by Aetius, stripped him of his command and gave it to Bonifatius. In the civil war that followed, Bonifatius defeated Aetius at the Battle of Ravenna , but died of his wounds. Aetius fled to the Huns and, with their help, was able to persuade the court to reinstate him to his old position of magister militum praesentalis in 434. As a consequence, in 435, Valentinian was forced to conclude
33858-404: The power struggle that erupted between his sons ended the Hunnic threat to the empire. With the Hun invasion thwarted, Valentinian felt secure enough to begin plotting to have Aetius killed, egged on by Petronius Maximus , a high ranking senator who bore Aetius a personal grudge, and his chamberlain, the eunuch Heraclius. Aetius, whose son had married Valentinian's youngest daughter, Placidia ,
34067-457: The province of Pannonia Valeria , which was returned to the empire. This allowed Felix and the imperial government to restructure the defences along the Danubian provinces in 427 and 428. In addition, there were significant victories over the Visigoths in Gaul in 426/7 and 430 and the Franks along the Rhine in 428 and 432. Nevertheless, there were significant problems that threatened
34276-511: The provinces beyond Italy was continuing to diminish. Armorica was only nominally part of the empire, and Germanic tribes occupying Roman territory had been forcibly settled and bound by treaty as Foederati under their own leaders. Northern Gaul between the Rhine north of Xanten and the Lys ( Germania Inferior ) had unofficially been abandoned to the Salian Franks . The Visigoths on
34485-428: The rank of augustus , Valentinian was given the imperial rank of caesar by his half-cousin and co-emperor Theodosius II ( r. 402–450 ). The augusta Galla Placidia had great influence during her son's rule, as did the military commander Flavius Aetius , who defended the western empire against Germanic and Hunnic invasions. Attila the Hun repeatedly menaced Valentinian's domains, being repulsed by
34694-468: The rape of his wife Lucina by Valentinian. The assassination occurred as Valentinian rode his horse on the Campus Martius. As the emperor dismounted to practise archery, the conspirators attacked. Optelas struck Valentinian on the side of the head, and when he turned to see who had hit him, Optelas delivered the death-blow. Meanwhile, Thraustelas slew Heraclius. Priscus reports a curious occurrence:
34903-459: The region is known as the "Voie des Maures", and the base of the ridge is known as "l'enfer" to the locals. A small stream near the battlefield that runs to Troyes is known as "la Riviere de Corps" to this day. According to MacDowall, modern maps continue to identify the plains in the region as the "les Maurattes." Iaroslav Lebedensky argued the battle likely stretched across the plain from Montgueux south to Tourvellieres , while Schultheis argues that
35112-447: The retreats were heavy and led to an indecisive outcome, which an analysis of the chronology of primary source accounts shows over time was embellished into a Gothic victory. The immediate and long-term effects of the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields are somewhat disputed. Attila returned to invade the Western Roman Empire in 452, which was more successful than his invasion of Gaul. After a 3-month siege of Aquileia , arranged by Aetius in
35321-498: The rewriting of histories, genealogies and chronologies... exacerbated by strange and clumsy conflations." His view that Attila won the battle therefore should be taken with skepticism. Other authors have previously considered the battle to have been indecisive. This latter view is rather widely accepted, although the outcome remains in disagreement as a whole. The most recent and comprehensive argument for an indecisive outcome belongs to that of Schultheis, who argues that Jordanes' work
35530-450: The ridge, while the Romans seized the left, with the crest unoccupied between them. Jordanes explains that the Visigoths held the right side, the Romans the left, with Sangiban of uncertain loyalty and his Alans surrounded in the middle. The Hunnic forces attempted to take the ridge, but were outstripped by the Romans under Aetius and the Goths under Thorismund . Jordanes goes on to state that Theodoric, whilst leading his own men against
35739-521: The rights of pagan priests and removed the Altar of Victory from the Roman Curia , a decision which caused dissatisfaction among the traditionally pagan aristocracy of Rome. The political situation was unstable. In 383, a powerful and popular general named Magnus Maximus seized power in the West and forced Gratian's half-brother Valentinian II to flee to the East for aid; in a destructive civil war
35948-405: The same reasoning to dismiss his Frankish allies, and collected the booty of the battlefield for himself. The primary sources give little information as to the outcome of the battle, barring Jordanes. All emphasize the casualty count of the battle, and the battle became increasingly seen as a Gothic victory, beginning with Cassiodorus in the early sixth century. Hydatius states: The Huns broke
36157-525: The same time, however, several eastern provinces seceded to form the Palmyrene Empire , under the rule of Queen Zenobia . In 272, Emperor Aurelian finally managed to reclaim Palmyra and its territory for the empire. With the East secure, his attention turned to the West, invading the Gallic Empire a year later. Aurelian decisively defeated Tetricus I in the Battle of Châlons , and soon captured Tetricus and his son Tetricus II . Both Zenobia and
36366-410: The soldiers to instead join with Alaric, who returned to Italy in 409 and met little opposition. Despite attempts by Honorius to reach a settlement and six legions of Eastern Roman soldiers sent to support him, the negotiations between Alaric and Honorius broke down in 410 and Alaric sacked the city of Rome. Though the sack was relatively mild and Rome was no longer the capital of even the Western Empire,
36575-488: The study of the Notitia Dignitatum by A.H.M. Jones . This document is a list of officials and military units that was last updated in the first decades of the fifth century. The Notitia Dignitatum lists 58 various regular units, and 33 limitanei serving either in the Gallic provinces or on the frontiers nearby; the total of these units, based on Jones' analysis, is 34,000 for the regular units and 11,500 for
36784-493: The subject nations. The name of the Huns ceased for some centuries to inspire terror in Western Europe, and their ascendancy passed away with the life of the great king by whom it had been so fearfully augmented. Western Roman Empire In modern historiography , the Western Roman Empire was the western provinces of the Roman Empire , collectively, during any period in which they were administered separately from
36993-549: The subject peoples who Attila could call upon in addition to the better known Goths and Gepids: "Marcomanni, Suebi, Quadi, and alongside them the Herules, Thuringi and Rugii". Thompson remarks in a footnote, "I doubt that Attila could have fed an army of even 30,000 men." Lindner argues that by crossing the Carpathians to the area of modern Hungary the Huns had forfeited their best logistic base and grazing grounds, and that
37202-442: The supervision of Constantine II, received Italy , Africa, Illyricum , Pannonia, Macedonia , and Achaea . The provinces of Thrace, Achaea and Macedonia were shortly controlled by Dalmatius , nephew of Constantine I and a caesar , not an Augustus , until his murder by his own soldiers in 337. The West was unified in 340 under Constans, who was assassinated in 350 under the order of the usurper Magnentius . After Magnentius lost
37411-421: The tale of the blinding of Theodoric's daughter by Huneric was a fabrication. Other contemporary writers offer different motivations: Justa Grata Honoria , the sister of the emperor Valentinian III , had been betrothed to the former consul Bassus Herculanus the year before. In 450, she sent the eunuch Hyacinthus to the Hunnic king asking for Attila's help in escaping her confinement, with her ring as proof of
37620-768: The taxes of the province and serving as the province's chief judges. Prior to the establishment of the Empire, the territories of the Roman Republic had been divided in 43 BC among the members of the Second Triumvirate : Mark Antony , Octavian and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus . Antony received the provinces in the East: Achaea , Macedonia and Epirus (roughly modern Greece, Albania and the coast of Croatia ), Bithynia , Pontus and Asia (roughly modern Turkey ), Syria , Cyprus , and Cyrenaica . These lands had previously been conquered by Alexander
37829-503: The third class one-third the cost of maintaining a soldier. Valentinian himself was not exempt, sacrificing part of his reduced personal income to help the State in its financial straits. In the 440s Valentinian made the Hunnic chieftain Attila honorary magister militum of the western empire, hoping thereby to reduce the threat the Huns posed to the Danubian provinces. To the relief of
38038-454: The timeframe of the invasion. The most likely explanation for Attila's widespread devastation of Gaul is that Attila's main column followed the Roman roads and crossed the Rhine at Argentoratum ( Strasbourg ) before marching to Borbetomagus ( Worms ), Mogontiacum ( Mainz ), Augusta Treverorum ( Trier ), Divodurum (Metz), Durocotorum (Reims), and finally Aurelianum ( Orléans ), while sending a small detachment north into Frankish territory to plunder
38247-405: The vast extent of the Empire. News of invasion, revolt, natural disasters, or epidemic outbreak was carried by ship or mounted postal service , often requiring much time to reach Rome and for Rome's orders to be returned and acted upon. Therefore, provincial governors had de facto autonomy in the name of the Roman Republic. Governors had several duties, including the command of armies, handling
38456-422: The viability of the Roman state in the west. The Visigoths were a constant presence in south-eastern Gaul and could not be dislodged. The Vandals in Hispania continued their incursions, and, in 429, commenced an invasion of Mauretania Tingitana . The loss of these territories seriously impacted the state's ability to function. The burden of taxation became more and more intolerable as Rome's power decreased, and
38665-400: The war was that in 449, the King of the Franks (possibly Chlodio ) had died and that his two sons argued over the succession: while the older son sought Attila's help, the younger sided with Aetius, who adopted him. The identity of the younger prince, who was seen at Rome by the historian Priscus , remains unclear, though both Merowech and Childeric I have been suggested. Attila crossed
38874-623: The weaponless Aetius and struck him on the head, killing him on the spot. When Valentinian later boasted that he had done well to dispose of Aetius in such a way, a counsellor famously replied "Whether well or not, I do not know. But know that you have cut off your right hand with your left." On March 16 of the following year, the emperor himself was assassinated in Rome by two Scythian followers of Aetius: Optelas and Thraustelas . According to Priscus, these men were put up to it by Petronius Maximus, whose aims of political advancement were thwarted by Heraclius. He may also have been taking revenge for
39083-410: The western court, Attila concentrated on raiding the eastern empire's provinces in the Balkans from 441 through to 449. In 449, Honoria wrote to Attila, offering him half the western empire if he would rescue her from an unwanted political marriage arranged by her brother Valentinian. Attila had been looking for a pretext to invade the West. In 450 he secured peace with the eastern court and entered
39292-427: The whole empire so, by 314, began to compete against Licinius, finally defeating him in 324 at the Battle of Chrysopolis . After Constantine unified the empire, he refounded the city of Byzantium in modern-day Turkey as Nova Roma ("New Rome"), later called Constantinople , and made it the capital of the Roman Empire. Although the Tetrarchy was ended, the concept of physically dividing the Roman Empire into East and
39501-590: Was also achieved with the Suebi in Spain, the same year Valentinian's daughter, Eudocia , was born. With Aetius occupied in Gaul, Valentinian was unable to do anything to prevent the Vandals completely overrunning the remaining western African provinces, culminating in the fall of Carthage on 19 October 439. This was a major blow because taxes and foodstuffs from these wealthy provinces supported Rome. By 440, Vandal fleets were ravaging Sicily and Aetius coordinated
39710-485: Was an enemy of Rome because of Honorius. He urged him to join him in standing against Attila, since he had destroyed many Roman cities. They unexpectedly launched himself against him as he was bivouacked near the Danubios river, and cut down his many thousands. Alaric, wounded by a saggita in the engagement, died. Attila died similarly, carried off by a nasal hemorrhage while he slept at night with his Hunnic concubine. It
39919-412: Was beheaded near the river Iria . The final collapse of the Empire in the West was marked by increasingly ineffectual puppet emperors dominated by their Germanic magistri militum . The most pointed example of this is Ricimer , who effectively became a "shadow emperor" following the depositions of Avitus and Majorian. Unable to take the throne for himself due to his barbarian heritage, Ricimer appointed
40128-521: Was defeated by a force of 3,000 Neckar Burgundians who would later come under Hun subjugation, and Heather estimates that both the Gepids and the Amali Goths could have each fielded a maximum of 15,000 men at the Battle of Nedao in 454. Schultheis argues that when combining primary and secondary source estimates Attila's forces would number more than 100,000 on paper, but was likely closer to 70,000. The Chronicon Paschale, which preserves an extremely abbreviated and garbled fragment of Priscus' account of
40337-789: Was first tested by Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180), who decided to rule alongside his adoptive brother Lucius Verus . There was, however, much precedent. The consulate of the Republic was a twin magistracy, and earlier emperors had often had a subordinate lieutenant with many imperial offices. Many emperors had planned a joint succession in the past— Augustus planned to leave Gaius and Lucius Caesar as joint emperors on his death; Tiberius wished to have Caligula and Tiberius Gemellus do so as well; as Claudius with Nero and Britannicus . All of these arrangements had ended in failure, either through premature death (Gaius and Lucius) or murder (Gemellus and Britannicus). Marcus Aurelius ruled mostly from
40546-524: Was in no meaningful sense an extension of Roman traditions or institutions. The Great Schism of 1054 between the churches of Rome and Constantinople further diminished any authority the emperor in Constantinople could hope to exert in the West. As the Roman Republic expanded, it reached a point where the central government in Rome could not effectively rule the distant provinces. Communications and transportation were especially problematic given
40755-423: Was killed. With the Roman legions withdrawn, northern Gaul became increasingly subject to Frankish influence, the Franks naturally adopting a leading role in the region. In 418, Honorius granted southwestern Gaul ( Gallia Aquitania ) to the Visigoths as a vassal federation. Honorius removed the local imperial governors, leaving the Visigoths and the provincial Roman inhabitants to conduct their own affairs. As such,
40964-472: Was leading a force consisting of "few and sparse auxiliaries without one regular soldier." The insignificant number of Roman troops reported is probably due to the fact the majority of Aetius' army was stationed in Gaul, combined with Sidonius' need to embellish the account in favor of Avitus . Aetius immediately attempted to persuade Theodoric I , king of the Visigoths , to join him. Allegedly, Theodoric learned how few troops Aetius had with him and decided it
41173-405: Was low on provisions and "was hindered from approaching by a shower of arrows placed within the confines of the Roman camp", they started to besiege his camp. In this desperate situation, Attila remained unbowed and "heaped up a funeral pyre of horse saddles, so that if the enemy should attack him, he was determined to cast himself into the flames, that none might have the joy of wounding him and that
41382-446: Was moved to Ravenna in 401 upon the entry of the Visigothic king Alaric I into Italy. Ravenna, protected by abundant marshes and strong fortifications, was far easier to defend and had easy access to the imperial fleet of the Eastern Empire but made it more difficult for the Roman military to defend the central parts of Italy from regular barbarian incursions. Ravenna would remain the western capital until 450 when Valentinian III moved
41591-486: Was murdered by Valentinian on 21 September 454. The ancient historian Priscus reported that Aetius was presenting a financial statement before the Emperor when Valentinian suddenly leapt from his throne and accused him of drunken depravity. He held him responsible for the empire's tribulations and accused him of plotting to take the empire away from him. Valentinian then drew his sword and together with Heraclius, rushed at
41800-586: Was near the border in the East, the chances were high that an ambitious general would rebel in the West and vice versa. This wartime opportunism plagued many ruling emperors and indeed paved the road to power for several future emperors. By the time of the Crisis of the Third Century , usurpation became a common method of succession: Philip the Arab , Trebonianus Gallus and Aemilianus were all usurping generals-turned-emperors whose rule would end with usurpation by another powerful general. The idea of co-emperorship
42009-435: Was nominated as Western emperor. Joannes' rule was short and the forces of the East defeated and executed him in 425. After a violent struggle with several rivals, and against Placidia's wish, Aetius rose to the rank of magister militum . Aetius was able to stabilize the Western Empire's military situation somewhat, relying heavily on his Hunnic allies. With their help Aetius undertook extensive campaigns in Gaul, defeating
42218-456: Was slaughtered before the altar of his church in Reims ; Servatius is alleged to have saved Tongeren with his prayers, as Genevieve is to have saved Lutetia . Lupus , bishop of Troyes , is also credited with saving his city by meeting Attila in person. Many other cities also claim to have been attacked in these accounts, although archaeological evidence shows no destruction layer dating to
42427-434: Was suspected that this girl killed him. The very wise Priscus the Thracian wrote about this war. — Chronicon Paschale , p. 587. Jordanes reports the number of dead from this battle as 165,000, excluding the casualties of the Franco-Gepid skirmish previous to the main battle. Hydatius , a historian who lived at the time of Attila's invasion, reports the number of 300,000 dead. The garbled Chronicle of Fredegar states that in
42636-443: Was that of a princely Germanic warrior who had lived in the fifth century. The Treasure of Pouan is conserved in the Musée des beaux-arts de Troyes , Troyes . It is still not known whether or not the find is related to the battle. Simon Macdowall in his 2015 Osprey title proposed the battle took place at Montgueux just west of Troyes. Macdowall goes as far as to identify the Roman alliance's camp site being placed at Fontvannes ,
42845-406: Was the father of his maternal grandmother . It was also through his mother's side of the family that he was the nephew of Honorius and first cousin to Theodosius II (the son of Honorius' brother Arcadius ), who was eastern emperor for most of Valentinian's life. Valentinian had a full sister, Justa Grata Honoria . His mother had previously been married to Ataulf of the Visigoths , and had borne
43054-403: Was unable to resist Aetius who, with the support of Galla Placidia, replaced him as magister militum praesentalis in 429, before having him killed in 430. Bonifatius, in the meantime, had been unable to defeat Sigisvultus , whom Galla Placidia had sent to deal with the rebel. Bonifatius, therefore, entered into an agreement with the Vandals to come to his aid and, in return, they would divide
43263-411: Was well fortified and located at the crossroads of several major trade and military routes. The site had been acknowledged for its strategic importance already by emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla , more than a century prior. In 361, Constantius II became ill and died, and Constantius Chlorus' grandson Julian , who had served as Constantius II's Caesar, assumed power. Julian was killed in 363 in
43472-400: Was wiser to wait and oppose the Huns in his own lands, so Aetius then turned to the former Praetorian Prefect of Gaul , Avitus, for help. According to tradition, Avitus was not only able to persuade Theodoric to join the Romans, but also a number of other wavering barbarian residents in Gaul. The coalition assembled at Arelate ( Arles ) before moving to meet the Goths at Tolosa ( Toulouse ), and
43681-406: Was wounded in the ensuing melee before his followers could rescue him. Darkness also separated Aetius from his own men. As he feared that disaster had befallen them, he spent the rest of the night with his Gothic allies. On the following day, finding the battlefield was "piled high with bodies and the Huns did not venture forth", the Goths and Romans met to decide their next move. Knowing that Attila
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