didya
A MOTHER’S WORST NIGHTMARE
449 A.D.
Ravenna, Italy
Attila, the fearsome leader of the dreaded Huns, isn’t content with land and tribute.
He wants the princess for his bride.
And this prize, unlike all the Roman territory he’s conquered, won’t have to be taken by force.
Because Princess Honoria is in love with the barbarian leader.
She’s always had a thing for bad boys.
She reportedly likes the scruffy look, and his cool nickname:
“The Scourge of God.”
One palace insider heard her bragging to a senator’s daughter that Attila would give her an Italian city as a wedding gift.
Her mother, of course, won’t stand for it. Empress Galla Placidia has vowed to use every legion of the Roman army to stop the wedding.
She won’t have her daughter married to a barbarian with bad table manners.
Also, he demanded half of Gaul as a dowry, and that’s a dealbreaker.
But seriously…
December 8st, 2023
Love is messy.
The barbarians who conquered Rome- the Goths, Huns, and Vandals- were not strangers to Rome. There were longstanding relationships between Roman leaders and the kings and chieftains of the Germanic and Steppe invaders.
These relationships were complicated. They included political marriages, power games, betrayal, kidnapping, extortion, and maybe even true love.
Galla Placidia, empress of the Western Roman Empire, was in the thick of the action. From a young age she was intertwined in the complicated dealings between those who sat on Roman thrones, and those who sought to dethrone them.
Aleric
Galla was the daughter of emperor Theodosius I, who ruled the Roman Empire from 379 to 395. Theodosius’s approach to the Goths included both battling them and giving them land.
In the year 410, Galla, age 18, was taken hostage by the Visigoths. By now Honorius, her half-brother, was emperor. During a truce for negotiations, Honorius attacked the Goths. Angry, Gothic leader Alaric besieged Rome, sacking it on August 24, 410.
Gothic Marriage
Galla may have been in Rome to witness this historic occasion- the first time this great city had been attacked in eight centuries.
Four years later, Galla married Athaulf, brother and successor of Alaric.
This marriage was symptomatic of the complicated web of interactions between Rome and its besiegers. Here was a Roman princess, taken hostage by invaders, forced to watch the sacking of the imperial city, and held captive for four years. And she ends up married to the barbarian king, her captor.
Yet, at the time of the marriage, Athaulf and Honorius were allies, and the marriage was apparently celebrated by Rome as much as it was by the Visigoths.
Athaulf was murdered the following year, after which Honorius made a deal with the Visigoths to get Galla released. He then married her off to an up-and-coming Roman general, Constantius III, who would become emperor in 421.
So, Galla has gone from captive to queen of the Goths, to empress.
Was she merely a pawn in late Roman politics?
Or a manipulative schemer, always willing to marry into power?
Or just a survivor, doing whatever she had to do in a rough world?
Or, did she marry for love?
Whatever the truth, she brought something home with her from her time with the Goths:
Atfaulf’s bucellarii, his private household cavalry, remained with her.
Honoria
Galla remarried and had a son and a daughter. Her son would become Emperor Valentinian III. Her daughter would create a lot of drama.
Honoria had an affair with a servant and ended up pregnant. The royal family did what royal families do: the servant was killed and Honoria was quickly married off to a respectable senator.
This tamped down the scandal, but Honoria was still bored, still looking for love.
In 449 or 450 she sent her signet ring to none other than Attila the Hun. Who can blame her? Attila was the biggest bad boy in a time of bad boys. He was strong, energetic, and decisive- and he already had a harem that she could join.
He understandably interpreted the ring as a marriage proposal. He responded by accepting the marriage deal, stipulating a dowry appropriate to his status: half the western provinces.
He wanted Gaul (essentially modern-day France) as a wedding gift.
This kind of arrangement was well-known between the leaders of the steppes and the settled civilizations surrounding it, particularly the empires of Rome and China.
But the emperor said no.
Attila then threatened to attack “unless they sent him Honoria, with her due share of the royal wealth.”
So he invaded Italy.
It took the intervention of a pope to turn him away from Rome.
The Fall of Rome
There has been much debate about why Rome fell.
The fall of Rome is traditionally marked as 476, when Odoacer deposed the last emperor.
But it’s not that simple. It was sacked in 410 by Aleric and his Visigoths, and in 455 by Geiseric (also spelled Gaiseric or Genseric) and his Vandals.
Both attacks were triggered, as was Attila’s invasion of Italy, by personal dealings with members of the royal family.
Aleric’s attack, as we have seen, by Galla’s brother, Honorius, and resulted in Galla’s first marriage. Galla’s son, Valentinian III, promised Geiseric his daughter in marriage. When Valentinian died and the new emperor reneged on the deal, Genseric took Rome.
This ushered in a period of instability, during which the empire teetered toward breakup.
So, while historians argue about economic factors, dynastic succession, and socio-historical trends, let’s not forget the personal angle.
It could be said that Galla Placidia’s family was responsible for the fall of Rome.
After all, barbarians need love, too.
Sources
Ravenna, Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe, Judith Herrin
The End of Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall of Rome, Christopher Kelly
Attila: the Barbarian King Who Challenged Rome, John Man
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon
