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H. B. Cotterill
Medieval Italy

p74 CHAPTER V

STILICHO, ALARIC, AND PLACIDIA

395‑450

We have seen (p9) that Theodosius the Great divided the Empire between his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, aged respectively eighteen and ten years, and appointed Rufinus and Stilicho as their guardians. The former presided, at Constantinople, over the imperial finances, and acted as guardian of the youth Arcadius, while Stilicho had the child Honorius under his charge and was magister utriusque militiae (commandant of both cavalry and the infantry), having his headquarters at Rome.1 The odium incurred by the extortion of taxes on the one hand and, on the other, the advantages possessed by a popular commander of the imperial army soon brought it about that the rivalry of the two regents should end in the extinction of Rufinus, whose murder by Stilicho's Gothic troops has been related.

In this chapter, after giving a few details about Stilicho and his remarkable career (395‑408), I shall relate some of the many picturesque incidents connected with the invasion of Alaric and the fortunes of Galla Placidia, trusting that the framework of facts given in the Historical Outline will help to keep all in a fairly lucid order.

It will be remembered that great multitudes of Visigoths had been allowed to settle south of the Danube, and we have heard several times of their supplying very large contingents to the imperial armies. The Gothic soldier who murdered p75Rufinus in the presence of the Emperor Arcadius, at a review near Constantinople, had exclaimed as he stabbed his victim: 'With this sword Stilicho smites thee' — words fraught with significance, for it was Gothic swords which were now to decide the fate of the Empire. Ere long these Gothic troops, whose captain, Gainas, was devoted to Stilicho, became dominant at Constantinople; but finally a serious tumult having been caused, incited partly by St. Chrysostom, the patriarch, who was naturally hostile to these insolent Arian barbarians, they were driven from the city. Gainas was killed by the Huns while trying to cross the Danube, but his men rejoined their fellows, the Visigoths of Thrace and Moesia.

These Visigoths were now beginning to prove very troublesome. For the last five years (since about 395) they had been under the rule of Alaric, of whom we have already heard at the battle on the Frigidus, where, as a young man, he fought for Theodosius against Arbogast. Alaric's restless and dangerous hordes the crafty Rufinus had tried, it is said, to incite against Stilicho and the Western Empire, in order to avert the peril from the Eastern capital. Stilicho too (himself a Vandal) had used them against Rufinus; but he had then opposed and defeated Alaric in the Peloponnese when he invaded Greece.2

Excited and incensed by such unwise treatment, the Visigoths determined to move once more southwards and now decided on the invasion of Italy as being likely to prove the most easy and profitable undertaking. What the real object of Alaric was, one cannot say. He, as afterwards Odovacar and Theoderic, had a superstitious reverence for the Empire, and probably the idea of seizing the imperial power never entered his imagination. The chief task imposed upon him was evidently that of providing a new home for the excited multitudes who looked to him for guidance, and who doubtless fiercely demanded plunder. Also, if we are to trust a tradition handed down by the poet Claudian, Alaric was urged Rome-wards by a voice which constantly promised him that he should some day p76reach the Eternal City: Penetrabis ad Urbem! At first, however, he met once more his master in Stilicho.

After defeating Alaric in Greece (396) Stilicho had further distinguished himself by crushing a rebellion in Africa which had been incited by a Moorish chieftain, Gildo. He himself, though a Vandal, was married to the niece and adopted daughter3 of the great Theodosius, the Spanish lady Serena, whose beauty and virtues are extolled in a poem by Claudian. About 399 their daughter Maria was wedded to her half-idiotic and cold-blooded cousin, the Emperor Honorius, and Stilicho thus became still more powerful.4

His splendid defence of Italy against the Visigoths under Alaric and against the vast horde of Rhaetian barbarians under the savage Woden-worshiper Radegast, whom he captured and slew at Fiesole, has been already described (pp10, 32). Here I shall note one or two occurrences which are of importance from a higher point of view than that of the chronicler of wars and politics.

When Stilicho and Honorius entered Rome in triumph in 404, after the defeats of the Goths near Turin and Verona, a great gladiatorial show was given in the Colosseum — for even yet, a century after the Peace of the Church, in spite of the protests of nobler natures (such as the poet Prudentius), and in spite of several partial prohibitions by some of the Emperors, such atrocities were still frenetically applauded in the city that claimed to be the centre of the Christian world, although in Constantinople they had been abolished, or had never been known,5 and although Theodosius the Catholic had already p77(in 394) suppressed even such innocent pagan amusements as the Olympian games.

If we may trust the writer Theodoret, this gladiatorial show was the last which ever took place in the Empire. A monk from the East had travelled all the way to Rome for the purpose of protesting by some act of daring against these brutal exhibitions, and beneath the tiger-gaze of the many thousands of excited spectators who, tier upon tier, fill the vast spaces of the Colosseum he rushes across the arena and parts the combatants. With a roar of indignation the whole amphitheatre demands his death — and he sinks overwhelmed by a tempest of missiles. But his prayer is granted. His splendid act of courage has so deeply impressed the spectators that their fury gives place to admiration and to veneration; and Honorius, it is said, issued a proclamation abolishing for ever these human combats.6 The monk, Telemachus, has been sainted, but certainly he has not received due recognition in art or otherwise. Perhaps this is because the story is a little doubtful — although by no means so doubtful as that of many a popular saint — or else because he only died for humanity, not for a theological dogma.

The campaigns of Stilicho are the theme of Claudian's 'servile muse,' as it is perhaps rather unjustly called by Gibbon. Claudian wrote both in Greek (being a native of Alexandria) and in Latin, but except for a few Greek epigrams his fame7 rests on his Latin poems, especially on the fine poem in Latin hexameters describing the Gothic War, called p78by him the Getic War; for, as we shall see was also the case with the later writers Cassiodorus and Jordanes, the Goths were falsely believed to be identical with the 'Getae,' who were Thracians or Dacians of classical times. Claudian's poetry reminds one of the splendid colouring of the later Venetian painters, or of Rubens. It is to a great extent free from the turgidity and extravagance of Lucan, with whose Pharsalia we are naturally inclined to compare the Getic War, and if we consider that Latin was not Claudian's mother-tongue — for he tells us himself that he first 'drank of Roman fountains,' and first wrote Roman verse, in 395 — we cannot but be astonished at the wonderful ease and vigour of his style and at the occasional soarings of the imagination which lift him for the moment almost to the side of Virgil and Lucretius.

A most interesting episode in the campaigns of Stilicho is his relief of Florence when it was besieged by Radegast and his motley host of barbarians in 405, for it is perhaps the earliest important event of which we have any full account connected with medieval Florence — if we can regard Florence of the year 405 as already medieval.

Florence was probably first founded by the Etruscans of Faesulae (Fiesole), relics of whose huge walls still exist.a In later classical times it was a Roman military colony of some importance, and was perhaps refounded, or expanded and re‑fortified, by Julius Caesar. When this scene took place at the beginning of the fifth century it seems to have been four-square, like most Roman castra, and to have possessed a citadel, forum, amphitheatre, and temples — one of which was dedicated to the three divinities, Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, and another to Mars,8 the tutelary deity of the city — this last building being perhaps the original edifice of what later was Dante's bel San Giovanni and now is the Baptistery. As this siege is mentioned neither by Machiavelli nor in ordinary p79accounts of Florence, it may be well to give here what Gibbon says: 'The siege of Florence by Radagaisus [Radegast] is one of the earliest events in the history of the celebrated republic. . . . Florence was reduced to the last extremity, and the fainting courage of the citizens was supported only by the authority of St. Ambrose [who had died some eight years before and] who communicated in a dream the promise of a speedy deliverance. On a sudden they beheld from their walls the banners of Stilicho, who advanced to the relief of the faithful city' — and ere long enclosed and besieged the besieging barbarian host, encamped on the 'dry and stony ridge' of Faesulae, as it is called by Orosius.9 'The method of surrounding the enemy with strong lines of circumvallation, which Stilicho had twice employed against the Gothic king, was repeated on a larger scale . . . and the famished host of Radagaisus was in its turn besieged. The proud monarch of so many warlike nations was reduced to confide either in the faith of a capitulation or in the clemency of Stilicho. But the death of the chieftain, who was ignominiously beheaded, disgrace the triumph of Rome and of Christianity. The famished Germans were sold as slaves. . . . Stilicho informed the Senate and the Emperor of his success and deserved a second time the glorious title of Deliverer of Italy.'

The reasons that led to the fall and death of Stilicho were manifold. For several years his enemies had spread the accusation that after defeating Alaric he had favoured his escape, both in Greece and also in Italy, and had even agreed to acknowledge him as the governor of the prefecture of Illyricum; and the charge, which was possibly true, was p80rendered all the more difficult to repel since he himself was a barbarian by birth, and as such was suspected and disliked by the Roman part of the army, as also by both the nobles and the commons of Rome. Honorius, too, ere long began to suspect him, and, being childless himself, was the more ready to listen to the rumour that the all-powerful general hoped to place his son Eucherius — who claimed blood-relationship with the great Theodosius — on the throne of the western or the Eastern Empire.10 Another charge was founded on the undeniable, though perhaps necessary, withdrawal of imperial troops from Britain and Gaul, in consequence of which the Rhine had been crossed by great hordes of savages, and amidst the panic and disorder a dangerous 'tyrant,' Constantine, had arisen in Britain and made himself master of Gaul and Spain.

All these accusations were fomented by a rival of Stilicho's, an officer of the imperial guard named Olympius, who stirred up serious revolt among the troops stationed at Pavia. The city was sacked, the friends of Stilicho were massacred, and Honorius, who was present, made no effort to save them. When Stilicho, who was at Bologna, learnt this he hastily withdrew to Ravenna and sought sanctuary in a church — evidently, I think, the cathedral, the Basilica Ursiana,11 the ancient campanile of which is still standing. A troop of soldiers — sent by Olympius, or perhaps by Honorius himself — soon appeared at the door of the church. The bishop was induced by false promises to urge Stilicho to surrender himself. But no sooner had Stilicho crossed the threshold than he was arrested, and, after restraining those of his friends were eager to attempt a hopeless rescue, he offered his neck to the swords of his assassins. In the basilica of p82Placidia; but there are many reasons for believing that rumour lied.

When Honorius rejected the proposals of Alaric12 and the siege of Rome was renewed (409) the sufferings of the people were terrible. The accounts make one recall the sieges of Jerusalem and Numantia as related in the pages of Josephus and Livy, or the not less harrowing scenes from the Ostrogothic war which we shall find later depicted by Procopius. Men and women were murdered secretly and devoured; even mothers killed and ate their children. Driven at last to despair, the Romans threatened to sally forth en masse and overwhelm their besiegers; but Alaric, hearing of this, laughed aloud, it is said, and exclaimed: 'The thicker the crop, the easier it is to mow.' And when, feeling the truth of the sarcasm, they wished to learn the terms of the victor, he demanded all the gold and silver and movables of value and all the foreign slaves in the city. 'What when then will you leave us, O king?' exclaimed the envoys. 'Your lives,' was the answer. But Alaric's bark was worse than his bite. He accepted a more reasonable Brandschatz, and for a time there was a truce.

In the intervals between his three sieges of Rome Alaric exercised no little influence on the political state of the city. His demands for enormous sums of money had caused great spoliation of temples and other ancient treasures, so that the animosity of the still very numerous pagans13 against the Christians was greatly embittered. Taking advantage of their religious feud and that of the Arians against the Catholics, p83and finding himself, as master of the port of Ostia, able to dictate terms to the terrified Romans, Alaric even succeeded in procuring the election of the Prefect of Rome, Attalus by name, as a rival Emperor. Amidst tumultuous excitement of the Roman populace Gothic troops were allowed to enter the city and conduct the new Emperor to the imperial residence on the Palatine. All Italy except Ravenna and Bologna seemed to acclaim its new master. Alaric accompanied him almost to the gates of Ravenna, and Honorius offered to divide the Western Empire with his rival — an offer that Attalus disdainfully rejected, offering in return to allow Honorius to spend the rest of his days in exile on some remote island. But the goddess of fortune interfered. Auxiliaries from Africa arrived at the port of Ravenna, and Alaric suddenly withdrew his favour from Attalus and stripped him on the plain of Rimini, before the whole army, of the imperial insignia,14 which he sent to Honorius, offering again terms of peace. Honorius and his ministers, however, once more refused to entertain Alaric's overtures, and the Gothic king returned to Rome, determined to revenge the insult by allowing his army to sack the city.

But when at last, in 410, Alaric and his Visigoths entered Rome — the Porta Salaria having been opened, it is said, by traitors or slaves — he is said to have remained in the city only a few days, and he showed far more clemency and magnanimity that one might have expected. The Christian churches, such as the old Vatican basilica of S. Pietro and the splendid, newly built basilica of S. Paolo, were respected by him, as also was the right of sanctuary. Doubtless the bloodshed and pillage were considerable, and many citizens were enslaved; but the damage done by these barbarians to buildings and works of art was incomparably less than that accomplished in Constantinople by the French and Venetian 'Crusaders' in 1204, or in Rome itself by the Spanish Catholics and German Lutherans of Constable Bourbon in 1527.

The story of the death and burial of Alaric is well known, p84but why he so suddenly withdrew from Rome — what was his object in hastening to the southernmost shores of Italy — what plans of further conquest induced him to collect vessels — whether it was Sicily or Africa that he had in view, and where he hoped to find that home for his Visigoths which he was for ever seeking, and which they ultimately found in Gaul — are questions impossible to answer with any certainty. According to Gibbon, his attempt to transport a part of the army across the Strait of Messina was foiled by a tempest, and his designs, whatever they might have been, were frustrated by his sudden death. 'The ferocious character of the barbarians,' Gibbon adds, 'was displayed in the funeral of the hero. By the labour of a captive multitude they forcibly diverted the course of the Busentinus [Busento], a small river that washes the walls of Consentia [Cosenza, in Calabria]. The royal sepulchre, adorned with the spoils and trophies of Rome, was constructed in the vacant bed; the waters were then restored to their natural channel, and the secret spot15 where the remains of Alaric had been deposited was for ever concealed by the inhuman massacre of the prisoners who had been employed to execute the work.'

Athaulf, or Adolf, the brother of Alaric's wife, took command of the Visigoth army. Of the motives that caused him to desist from hostility against Honorius and Italy a very interesting picture is given us by St. Augustine's friend, the historian Orosius, who when on a visit to St. Jerome in Palestine met a pilgrim from Narbonne who had been a companion in arms of the barbarian chief. At first, we are told, Athaulf had intended to make himself Augustus and to set up a 'Gothis' — a Gothic Empire — in the place of the 'Romania.' But he had become convinced that so wild and intractable were the Goths that they could hope for no permanent state except one founded on the laws and subordinate to the constitution of the Roman Empire. He seems to have had no hope, such as Theoderic afterwards vainly attempted to realize, that a new nation and p85new constitution might be built up out of barbarian and Roman elements. Possibly also personal motives induced him to adopt a Roman policy, for he had fallen in love with one of his Roman captives — the half-sister of Honorius, the youthful Galla Placidia, who — matre pulchra filia pulchrior — had inherited her beauty from her mother Galla and from her grandmother Justina.16 Honorius would not consent to the union of an imperial princess with a barbarian, but being at the time hard pressed by the 'tyrant' Constantine, of whom we have heard, and a usurper named (once more) Maximus, who had mastered Spain, he was glad to rid Italy of the Visigoths. Athaulf and his army were therefore able to pass unimpeded through the whole length of the peninsula and to enter Gaul, under the condition that they should help to reconquer the western provinces for Honorius. Meantime, although Maximus had been crushed and Constantine had been captured at Arles and sent to Ravenna by a valiant general of Honorius named Constantius, a third usurper had sprung up. He was attacked and slain by Athaulf and his head was sent to Honorius, who forwarded it to Carthage in order to demonstrate to that somewhat disloyal city what fate was to be expected by rebels. But in spite of such gruesome presents Honorius still refused to sanction the marriage, and offered to send a very large quantity of grain to the Visigoths, who were in great need of food, if Athaulf would renounce the fair Placidia. This offer, however, fell through, so Athaulf determined to take a bold step. He made himself a master of the cities of Narbonne, Toulouse, and Bordeaux, and even tried to capture Marseille from the imperial troops, commanded by Boniface — of whom we shall hear much a little later. Then he celebrated his wedding with his by no means reluctant lady-love at Narbonne.17 'The marriage,' says Villari, 'was solemnized with p86genuine Roman pomp and ceremony. . . . The barbarian Athaulf wore a Roman tunic. Before the bride, who was decked out in splendid Roman attire, knelt fifty youths, each of whom held two golden basins, one filled with pieces of gold, the other with jewels and other precious things — spoils from the sack of Rome. And to add solemnity to the ceremonial Latin verses were recited — the impressive18 effect being heightened by the fact that this hymeneal song was declaimed by Attalus, the mock-Emperor, whom Alaric had elected and soon afterwards deposed.'

Not long after the wedding, which took place in January 414, Athaulf led strong bodies of his Visigoths across the Pyrenees, thus invading the territory of the Vandals, Suevi, and Alani, who (as we saw in ch. ii.) had occupied the greater part of Spain and had by their devastations caused most terrible famines, accompanied by outbreaks of pestilence. At Barcelona Athaulf was assassinated. His successor — possibly his murderer — Singeric, who detested the Roman name, treated Galla Placidia with contumely, making her march on foot in a gang of captives; and he is said to have slaughtered the children born to Athaulf by a former wife. But after a reign of seven days he too was assassinated, and his successor, the bold and energetic Wallia, made terms with Honorius, undertaking to conquer the whole of Spain for the Empire — a promise that he fulfilled before repassing the Pyrenees and founding (c. 420) the great Visigothic kingdom of which the capital and royal residence was Tolosa (Toulouse).

But we must return to Placidia, whose fortunes will take us back to Italy. The compact of Wallia with Honorius (c. 416) included the ransom of the imperial princess, whom Athaulf's death had left as a widow of about twenty-nine p87years of age. Once more Honorius offered a large quantity of wheat for his sister; or perhaps the famine in Spain caused Wallia to suggest this welcome form of payment. Six hundred thousand measures were considered a fair equivalent, and Galla Placidia returned to Ravenna. Here she found that Honorius and his ministers had formed the plan of marrying her to the general Constantius, whose exploits in Gaul were lately mentioned. He was a rough soldier, evidently without the natural refinement of the barbarian Athaulf, and the princess seems to have accepted him with great reluctance. But the marriage proved not unhappy. Constantius was raised to the Augustan dignity as the colleague of Honorius. Two children were born — Honoria and Valentinian — the one afterwards famous for her romantic connexions with Attila, the other the future Emperor Valentinian III. But in 421 Constantine dies, and not long afterward Galla Placidia found the Ravenna court intolerable on account of the follies of the weak-minded Honorius, and perhaps also because of his hostility to the Eastern Empire. So she went to Constantinople, taking her children with her.

At Constantinople was now reigning Theodosius II, who in 408 (two years before the sack of Rome by Alaric) had succeeded his father Arcadius, the brother of Honorius. Theodosius had come to the throne when he was a child of seven. He was now of age, but the regency had been entrusted to his sister Pulcheria, and she, as has been related in the Historical Outline, being a clever and strong character, remained the real ruler of the Eastern Empire during all his reign and still longer.

The Augusta of the West with her two infants was well received by her niece and nephew, Pulcheria and the young Theodosius, although it seems that they did not feel willing to acknowledge her title, as neither the barbarian Athaulf nor the rather rough-mannered soldier Constantius had been approved by the Byzantine court as a fit consort for a member of the great Theodosian family. When therefore some months later the news arrived that Honorius had died p88at Ravenna, and that an usurper (John) was being supported by the powerful influence and the Hunnish mercenaries of Aëtius, one of the chief generals of the army of the West, while the other, Boniface — who was in Africa — favoured the succession of the child of Placidia, it was but natural that Pulcheria and Theodosius, though they sent troops to suppress the usurper and thus openly declared for Placidia and Valentinian, should for the time regard themselves as the sole rulers of the reunited Roman Empire. But soon came the news that John, the usurper, had been captured and beheaded at Aquileia. Theodosius when he heard of it was attending an exhibition in the Hippodrome of Constantinople. He at once stopped the horse-races and, 'singing, as he marched through the streets, a suitable psalm, conducted the people from the Hippodrome to the Church, where he spent the rest of the day in grateful devotion.' Whether he was guided, as Gibbon insinuates, by mere indolence, or by the wisdom and generous motives of Pulcheria, it is pleasant to be able to record that Theodosius did not take advantage of his position, but proclaimed the little Valentinian, now a child of six years, as the Emperor of the West under the regency of his mother.

Valentinian III reigned for thirty years (425‑55). The chief events of his inglorious reign have been already briefly narrated in chronological order, as far as order is possible with so many diverse threads. During these thirty years scarcely one incident occurred that redounds to his credit, and perhaps only one act of his — the murder of Aëtius — was of any historical consequence. But great and momentous occurrences took place. Of these I select for further description in the next two chapters the meteoric career of Attila (445‑52), and the conquest of North Africa, Sicily, and Rome (455) by Gaiseric. In the rest of this chapter I shall follow rapidly the fortunes of Galla Placidia until her death in 450.

During just half of her son's reign Galla Placidia held the regency. When he came of age in 440 she seems to have continued to exercise influence, though she withdrew from the actual administration of the State. She lived mostly at p89Ravenna, probably paying not infrequent visits to Rome; and during one of these visits she died.

Aëtius and Boniface, the two chief generals of the army of the West, were equally distinguished for their skill in war and their manly virtues — qualities that have won them the title of 'the last of the Romans.' We have seen (p.12) how Aëtius favoured the usurper John of Ravenna, and even brought an army of 60,000 Huns to support him, and how, strangely enough, when he changed sides and dismissed his Huns he was received by Galla Placidia with open arms and became her chief adviser and the commander of her home army, while his rival, Boniface, who had from the first declared for Placidia and Valentinian, was so unjustly treated by her that he invited Gaiseric and his Vandals to cross over from Spain and make themselves masters of the African diocese. It will be remembered also that, when the Vandals came and Boniface, repenting too late, found it impossible to stem the terrific flood of barbarian invasion, he returned to Ravenna and fought a duel there with Aëtius, who had hastened back from Gaul to meet him. He seems to have vanquished Aëtius in this duel; but he was wounded, and died shortly afterwards (432) of the wound.19

Placidia, it is said, proclaimed Aëtius a rebel, and he withdrew for a time to the camp of Rugilas, the king of the Huns in Pannonia. According to the accounts followed by Gibbon, he again appeared before Ravenna with a great army of Hunnish warriors, and Placidia was forced to 'deliver herself, her son Valentinian, and the Western Empire into the hands of an insolent subject'; but according to other writers, Aëtius, being the only capable commander, was again voluntarily accepted by the somewhat mutable Placidia as her magister equitum peditumque. However that may be, he seems to have p90received the titles of Duke and Patrician and to have been for over twenty years (432‑54) the real ruler of the Western Empire — or rather of what remained of the Western Empire, for Britain had been abandoned, Southern Gaul formed the independent kingdom of the Visigoths, who also were practically masters of most of Spain, while North Africa and Sicily were in the power of Gaiseric, the Vandal.

It was during these years that Aëtius accepted the help of the Huns, commanded by Attila, against the Burgundians. It may seem somewhat surprising that the supreme commander of the Western Empire should have deigned to ask for aid from a savage pagan folk so abhorred both by the Romans and by all the German races, but Aëtius, as we have seen, was a personal friend of several Hunnish kings, and his son Carpilio, was partly brought up in the camp of the Huns. The Burgundians, moreover, had been giving Aëtius much trouble. They came (c. 350) from the region of the Elbe, and, after joining in Radegast's unsuccessful invasion of Italy (405), had made Worms, on the Rhine, their chief town in 437. Aëtius is said to have routed and cut them to pieces, with the help of Attila's Huns, killing 20,000 among whom was their king Gundikar, and forcing the survivors to settle in the region to the west of Switzerland — the later dukedom of Bourgogne. This massacre is doubtless the historical fact that inspired the finely dramatic but gruesome story of the 'End of the Nibelungen,' told in the Nibelungenlied — of which we shall hear more later. In passing we may here observe that the poet has transferred the scene of the massacre from Burgundy and the Rhine to the banquet-hall of Attila's palace, Etzelnburg, on the Danube, and has wrongly introduced the great Ostrogoth king Theoderic of Verona ('Dietrich von Bern'), who was not born till after Attila's death, in the place of another Theoderic, as Visigoth king, who probably on this occasion helped Aëtius to vanquish the Burgundians. The splendid and momentous victory gained by Aëtius over his old friend Attila some fourteen years later will be described in the next chapter.

A year before this battle on the Catalaunian plains, where

Fig. 7 MAUSOLEUM OF GALLA PLACIDIA, Ravenna p91Attila's course of conquest was checked, Galla Placidia died. She had built for herself at Ravenna a mausoleum, and her body was carried thither from Rome. The mausoleum still exists and is one of the most perfect architectural and artistic survivals of this age to be found in Italy. It is a small cruciform building. The domed interior is richly decorated with resplendent mosaics and golden stars on a dark blue ground — reminding one, as Ricci says, in its diminutive size and form and flashing colours of a humming-bird with outspread wings. There are three great marble sarcophagi, nameless and empty, except for a few crumbling bones (Fig. 7 and explanation). These are believed to be the tombs of Placidia, of Constantius III, her husband, and of Valentinian III, her son. That of Placidia was evidently adorned with precious stone and covered in front with silver (or golden?) plates, like the splendid pala of the high altar in St. Mark's at Venice; but Benedictine monks, robbing graves to build monasteries, competed with barbarians in plundering the mausoleum. Tradition asserted20 that the body of the Empress was placed in the sarcophagus clothed in her imperial robes and seated on a throne; and tradition seems to have been right, for in the fourteenth century a hole was made, perhaps by wrenching away some of the remaining metal-work, and through this hole could be seen a mummy richly dressed and sitting on a chair of cypress-wood — either Galla Placidia herself or a figure placed there by the ecclesiastical authorities, who were ever eager to obtain or fabricate relics. In 1577 some children, trying to light up the interior of the sarcophagus by inserting a taper through the hole, set fire to the dress of the seated figure, and the whole was burnt to ashes, except a few bones, which, according to a contemporary writer, 'proved the body to have been of gigantic stature' — a rather puzzling statement!

Ravenna is so intimately connected with Galla Placidia p92that a few words about the city will here be interesting. Of ancient Etruscan and Roman Ravenna, which was furnished by Augustus with a greatly enlarged harbours, the Portus Classis, capable of holding 250 war-galleys, scarce a vestige remains. The old port has disappeared, for the sea has retreated a long way. The solitary basilica of S. Apollinare in Classe fuori (built nearly a century after Placidia's death) probably marks the spot where St. Peter's disciple was murdered outside a gate of the naval town 'Classe'; but is now two miles inland. Not far distant is the great pine forest (Pineta) which is so closely associated with Dante and with Byron, and which is known to have existed in the days of Odovacar, and doubtless existed also in the days of Placidia.

Galla Placidia built numerous churches in Ravenna — alas, now mostly restored out of all recognition. The great cathedral of Bishop Ursus, of which only the campanile still exists,21 was founded shortly before her birth and must have been in its splendour when she was a child. Also there was doubtless some church already dedicated to St. Apollinaris, the friend of St. Peter, for he was the martyr and patron of Ravenna. The old Baptistery was still a Roman bath, for it was not dedicated by Archbishop Neon till 450, the year of her death. She possibly built S. Giovanni Battista, S. Teodoro (afterwards Spirito Santo), S. Agata, and S. Croce (contiguous to her mausoleum), and certainly did build S. Giovanni Evangelista — that is, the original basilica on the foundations of which stand now the fine Romanesque campanile of the eleventh and a church of the eighteenth century. This basilica she founded in fulfilment of a vow made to St. John when she was overtaken by a tempest on her voyage from Constantinople to Ravenna. 'I will raise thee,' she exclaimed, 'a temple gleaming with marbles on the shore where the ship shall safely arrive.' Thereupon St. John appeared in dazzling form and seated himself on the prow of the vessel and, extending his arms, allayed the fury of the waves.

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The Author's Notes:

1 The two halves of the Empire were not yet distinctly separate. See Coin Plate I, 10, where the two Emperors sit side by side.

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2 In this invasion Alaric took, but did not pillage, Athens, though he probably burnt the celebrated temple at Eleusis.

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3 See geneal. table p20 'An old inscription gives Stilicho the singular title of pro‑gener D. Theodosii' (Gibbon.) Singular enough; for progener means one's granddaughter's husband. Gibbon writes (xxix) as if Serena were wedded to Stilicho when she was a 'princess' at Constantinople, viz.  after 395. If so, Maria married Honorius when she was about four years of age — rather too young perhaps, though he was only fourteen.

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4 Note that also Rufinus in Constantinople had tried to marry his daughter to his ward, Arcadius, but had been outwitted by the eunuch official, who substituted the daughter of a Frank general, Eudoxia, afterwards the 'Jezebel' denounced by St. Chrysostom

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5 Constantine the Great in the same year as that of the Council of Nice issued an edict disapproving of these spectacles in 'time of peace.' Even this is a proof of a vast change in his sentiments, for before his adoption of Christianity he had in the arena at Trèves (Trier) exhibited so many of his barbarian captives that they 'tired out by their multitude the ravening wild beasts.' Cicero tell us that even in his days such shows seemed 'cruel and inhuman to some people'; but he defends them (Tusc. ii, 12), as many nowadays defend war, as a fine discipline and school of manly virtue.

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6 Fights between wild beasts still continued, but seem to have been suppressed by the 'barbarian' Theoderic and other Gothic, Lombard, and Frank conquerors, who substituted tournaments. In the East, they were forbidden by a Council about 700. Bull-fights are one of the most revolting and contemptible relics of such savagery.

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7 He also wrote the Praise of Serena, The War Against Gildo, various

political poems and many epigrams, and the hymeneal hymn for Honorius and Maria.

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8 See Dante, Inf. XIII.143, and Par. XVI.47. And for the old statue of Mars, famous for its connexion with the great Florentine feud, and known by all who know the Ponte Vecchio see Par. xvi, 145

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9 The Spaniard Orosius (author of seven books of history in defence of Christianity) and his friend St. Augustine wrote, when they were together in Africa, an account of this siege. See De Civitate Dei, V.23. Dante alludes to Orosius probably when he speaks of 'him from whose Latin Augustine drew supplies' (Par. X.120).

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10 Arcadius, the Eastern Emperor, died May l, 408, and Stilicho on August 23. Rumour said that Stilicho had planned to proclaim Eucherius in the place of Arcadius' son, Theodosius II. Note that Maria had died and that Stilicho had managed to marry his second daughter, Thermantia, to Honorius.

11. Built by Bishop Ursus before 396; demolished c. 1734 to make room for the present Duomo. The old campanile is probably Ursian. Close to the campanile stands the famous Baptistery of the Orthodox, which in Stilicho's days was probably still a Roman bath. See Fig. 10 and explanation.

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12 Some of these incidents are referred sometimes to the first siege. For Tome and its people at this epoch see Gibbon's picturesque descriptions (ch. xxxi) or Gregorovius' great work on Rome in the Middle Ages. The population may have been about two millions, and the exodus at this time was enormous. St. Jerome tells us that all the East was filled with fugitives from Rome.

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13 Rome seems to have appealed largely to the old gods to help her against the Christian (Arian) barbarian Alaric. See p25. Zosimus, the 'malignant pagan historian' of whom we have already heard, asserts that even the Pope was in favour of permitting Etruscan magicians to try their arts by which they undertook to draw down lightning from heaven (like Numa) and direct it against the barbarians — an anticipation perhaps of artillery.

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14 For the later rather melodramatic fortunes of Attalus see p86 and n.

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15 Tradition locates it at the junction of the Busento with the main stream of the Crati (famous as the river of ancient Sybaris).

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16 Jordanes extols her beauty; but Gibbon remarks on the 'expressive silence of her flatterers.' Her coins give little information that can be relied upon (see Plate I, coin 11)

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17 Jordanes, who gives a graphic description of the marriage in his History of the Goths, makes it take place at Forli (or at Imola) in Italy. But that may have been the betrothal, for the chief ceremony seems to have been at Narbonne, in South-west Gaul, where later the Franks captured a vast Gothic treasure, evidently partly 'spoils from the sack of Rome.'

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18 One feels inclined here to substitute the word 'ludicrous.' It may be better to get poor Attalus off the stage in a footnote. Either he was sent back by Athaulf or else, while attempting to escape, he was caught at sea by the fleet of Honorius, who exposed him in triumph lying bound in a cart, then cut off two of his right-hand fingers and sent him to one of the Lipari islands.

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19 A curious and somewhat legendary detail is recounted: that the dying Boniface urged his wife to marry Aëtius. Possibly some love-affair may have lain in the background of their quarrels. But Professor Bury, following Freeman, asserts that this duel is a legend and that the real fact was civil war and a battle at Rimini, where Aëtius 'was defeated . . . but proved superior in strategy' and appropriated the wife of Boniface, who had died of chagrin! This seems to be making confusion worse confounded.

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20 See Muratori, Annales ad ann. 450, Gibbon, ch. xxxv, and Ricci's Ravenna (Italia Artistica). A similar tradition existed about the tomb of Charles the Great at Aachen (Aix-la‑Chapelle.)

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21 The campanile was, of course, built later (see p282), but survived when the old basilica was demolished to make room for the present unsightly cathedral.

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Thayer's Note:

a For the Etruscan remains of Faesulae, see chapter 38 of George Dennis's Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria.