Joyce E. Salisbury. Rome’s Christian Empress

The author is disingenuous in entitling the introduction of her book “A Forgotten Empress.” This fifth-century empress is by no means forgotten, having been the subject of numerous studies, notably Stewart Irvin Oost’s Galla Placidia Augusta: A Biographical Essay (1968) and, most recently, Hagith Sivan’s Galla Placidia: The Last Roman Empress (2011). Yet Galla Placidia might be considered interesting enough to warrant another book. Daughter of Theodosius I (d. 395), the empire’s last great soldier-emperor, Placidia grew up after his death in the imperial court of her brother Honorius (r. 395–423) in Milan and Ravenna, and connived with the Roman senate in the execution of her “foster mother” (35), Serena, favorite niece of the late emperor, who was accused of admitting the Goths into Rome. In 410, Placidia was taken hostage when Alaric’s Goths plundered Rome, and she followed her captors into southern Gaul and northeastern Spain. Having reconciled with his people, she married the next Gothic king, Athaulf, and bore him a son, a short-lived baby Theodosius. Ransomed after Athaulf’s death, she returned to Ravenna, married under duress the ephemeral Constantius III (421), and brought forth two more children, the girl Justa Grata Honoria and the boy who would become Valentinian III (d. 455). When Honorius died, Placidia fled with her children to Constantinople, where she had property, but the eastern army restored her and her family to Ravenna in 425. There she dominated her weak-willed son the emperor until her death in 450, carefully weighing off competing Roman generals against one another in the waning days of the Western Empire. In Rome’s Christian Empress: Galla Placidia Rules at the Twilight of the Empire, Joyce E. Salisbury traces Placidia’s remarkable career, which she characterizes, alliteratively, as “pious, practical, patient, and politically astute” (200).

Ancient history · Brother · Emperor · Empire · Ravenna · Roman Empire · Classics · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Medieval Literature and History