20 



WESTERN EMPIRE. 



nephew, Theodosius II., the young emperor of the 

 East, the son of Placidia and Constantius, a child 

 of but six years, was proclaimed emperor of the 

 Wot, with the title of Valentinian III. Placidia 

 was declared regent, and maintained her power as 

 Mich during twent y-tivc years, in whirh tin- Western 

 empire was continually brought nearer to its fall. 

 Under Valentininn, the Vandal kingdom was founded 

 in Uomiin Africa, !>y (ienseric, king of the Vandals, 

 in 428. Thi' Western empire experienced a further 

 loss in the cession of the western part of lllyria to 

 the emperor of the East, by which Placidia obtained 

 in marriage for her son, Eudoxia, the daughter of 

 Theodosius and Athenais, in 437, and likewise in- 

 demnified the court of Byzantium for the expenses 

 of a war against John, who had been private secre- 

 tary of Honorius, and, after his death, had sought 

 to obtain possession of the throne. Attila, king of 

 the Huns, an ally of Genseric, now demanded the 

 hand of lionoria, sister of Valentinian, with her in- 

 heritance. From Constantinople, whither she had 

 been banished on account of her too great intimacy 

 with her chamberlain Eugenius, she had offered to 

 the king of the Huns her person and her claims 

 upon Italy. A refusal immediately caused a war, 

 which Attila began with an attack upon Gaul, and 

 which ended with a great battle in the Catalaunian 

 plains (near Chalons), in 450, when the Roman 

 general Aetius, together with Theodoric, king of 

 the Goths, defeated the army of Attila, and might 

 perhaps, have entirely destroyed his power, if the 

 political consideration of preserving in the Huns a 

 counterpoise against the powerful Goths, had not 

 induced Ae'tius to retreat, and to separate from his 

 ally. Thereupon Attila, to make good his claims 

 upon the princess Honoria and her inheritance, 

 broke into Italy, in 431, where he destroyed Aqui- 

 leia, Padua, Vicenza, Verona and Bergamo. He 

 had plundered Milan and Pavia, when Valentinian 

 made proposals of peace by an embassy sent from 

 Rome. The eloquence of the bishop of Rome, 

 Leo L, who was at the head of the deputation, and 

 the impression which his representations produced 

 on Attila, induced him to refrain from the pillage 

 of Rome, for a sum equal in value to the inheri- 

 tance of Honoria. The beautiful Ildico made At- 

 tila forget Honoria, who, by imprisonment for life, 

 atoned for her desire to become queen of the Huns. 

 After the death of Attila, in 453, Valentinian might 

 have ruled happily, had he been able to restrain his 

 passions. The insinuations of the eunuch Herac- 

 lius made him suspect treachery in the pride of his 

 general Ae'tius. He therefore slew him with his 

 own hand, in an altercation in the palace at Rome. 

 He afterwards dishonoured the wife of the senator 

 Maximus. The injured husband avenged himself, 

 and, on the 15th March, 455, Valentinian fell on 

 the field of Mars, with his favourite Heraclitis. 

 under the swords of two followers of the murdered 

 Aetius, who belonged to the emperor's body-guard. 

 The senator and patrician Petronius Maximus was 

 hereupon proclaimed emperor by the senate and 

 people. He married his son to the eldest daughter 

 of the late emperor, and obliged Valentinian's 

 widow, Eudoxia, to espouse him. After three 

 months, he fell a victim to her hatred. Eudoxia, 

 unable to obtain assistance from Constantinople, 

 called upon king Genseric, in Carthage, to deliver 

 her from an abhorred husband. Genseric landed in 

 the port of Ostia. The flying Maximus was stoned 

 in the streets of Rome, and thrown into the Tiber ; 

 but the capital, again saved, by the eloquence of 



Leo the Great, from fire and sword, was pillaged 

 during fourteen days. All the monuments of former 

 times and all the wealth collected in forty-live 

 years, since the sack of Alaric, became the prey of 

 the conquerors, who likewise drugged to Africa, in 

 their ships, many thousand Romans of both I 

 While these events were taking place in Rome, 

 Avitus, a Gaul, prefect of Gaul under Valentinian. 

 and appointed by the emperor .Maximus general of 

 the army in that country, a man of great talents 

 and knowledge, supported by Theodoric, king of 

 the Visigoths, received the crown of the Western 

 empire at Aries, August 15, 455, was acknowledged 

 by the court of Constantinople, and also, though 

 with secret dissatisfaction, by the senate and people 

 of Rome. Theodoric, who went, as an ally of the 

 Romans, to drive the Suevi from Spain, treated this 

 country with the severity of a conqueror. Avitus 

 rendered himself contemptible by his sensuality. 

 Ricimer, one of the chief commanders of the mer- 

 cenary troops, sent for the defence of Italy, after a 

 victory over the fleet of the Vandals, returned, and 

 was hailed by the people as their deliverer, and an- 

 nounced to Avitus, Oct. 16, 4J7, that his reign was 

 ended. Avitus, condemned to death by the senate, 

 fled, and perished in his flight. Majorian, formerly 

 a soldier under Aetius, was now raised by Ricimer 

 to the imperial dignity, which he adorned by his 

 virtue and his wisdom. Many useful regulations, 

 especially with regard to taxes and public morals, 

 distinguished his domestic administration, while, at 

 the same time, he had the good fortune to defeat 

 Theodoric, and also to obtain some advantages over 

 Genseric, who had again attacked Italy. Nothing 

 but the accidental loss of his fleet, in the year 460, 

 prevented him from utterly destroying the power 

 of the Vandals. But Rome was no longer worthy 

 of such a ruler ; and Majorian fell a victim to the 

 general corruption, and the hatred of his enemies. 

 Ricimer suddenly took from him the purple, and, 

 five days after, his life, August 7, 461, having 

 spread the report that he had died of the dysentery. 

 A certain Livius Severus was proclaimed emperor, 

 but was put out of the way in 465. The supreme 

 power, in the course of these five years and the two 

 following, during which the throne remained vacant, 

 was solely in the bands of Ricimer, who did not, 

 however, dare to take the imperial title. But, be- 

 ing pressed by the Vandals, he soon saw himself 

 obliged to ask the assistance of the emperor of the 

 East ; and the court of Constantinople made a 

 league with Rome, on condition that it should be 

 left to the emperor Leo to name the ruler of the 

 West. The Grecian patrician Anthemius was ap- 

 pointed, and entered the capital with great pomp, 

 April 12, 467. He gave his daughter in marriage 

 to Ricimer, and many interests formerly divided 

 seemed now reunited for the welfare of Rome. But 

 the war with the Vandals was continued with vary- 

 ing fortune. It cost immense sums; and soon after 

 a misunderstanding took place between Anthemius 

 and Ricimer, the latter of whom had marched to 

 Milan. By the mediation of Epiphanias, bishop of 

 Pavia, a reconciliation was, indeed, effected between 

 them ; but, shortly after, Ricimer, at the head of a 

 large army, reinforced by the Burgundians and 

 Suevi, appeared before Rome, proclaimed the 

 senator Olybrius, son-in-law to Valentinian, emperor 

 of the West, March 23, 472, and took Rome, 

 which Anthemius had defended for three months 

 with a people devoted to his cause. Anthemius 

 was put to death by order of his son-in-law. July 



