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CITY OF GOD
Chapter I: The Career of Constantius III
In the year 410AD, fifteenth of the reign of the Western Emperor Honorius, affairs for the Roman West had sunk to a low ebb. Several years of confused manoeuvring and imperial weakness had seen the Empire’s foremost general, the Magister Militum Stilicho[1] been murdered in a palace coup, a force of Gothic invaders led by another would-be Roman general named Alaric encamped outside Rome and eventually entering the city to strip it of valuables, a British usurper called Constantine detaching the entire Diocese of Gaul from the Empire, and the invasion of Gaul and Spain by a band of invaders, led by the Iranian speaking Alans. Fortunately for the Romans, a saviour was at hand.
Flavius Constantius was, like all saviours of the Roman world, an Illyrian soldier. He had probably originally come west with Stilicho, and certainly was loyal to the great man, having Stilicho’s chief opponent Olympius clubbed to death the moment he was appointed Magister Militum of Gaul in 411. Constantius then set out to re-establish Roman authority. By 413, Gaul had been cleared of usurpers[2], thanks in part to the alliance Constantius had established with Alaric’s “Visi” Goths[3], then under the leadership of his brother-in-law Athaulf. Athaulf, doing rather well for himself, had then pushed things too far. During their time in Italy, the Visigoths had taken two prominent Romans into their confederation, as semi-willing hostages; a prominent senator named Priscus Attalus and Galla Placidia, sister of the Emperor Honorius. Athaulf seems to have sought a position in the imperial court, and to this end named Attalus Emperor and married Placidia, fathering a son named Theodosius after his grandfather[4]. This, for Constantius, was a seriously threatening provocation, and he duly blockaded the Goths in Narbonne until they cracked and fled into Spain. The baby Theodosius died en-route, and Athaulf was overthrown in a messy few weeks of civil conflict in the summer of 415, which eventually ended with a Goth named Wallia[5] ending up on top to lead the confederacy. The widowed Placidia was handed over to Constantius, who duly ended the blockade and provided Wallia and his men with food and other supplies. They would be important in the next stage of his master plan.
For five years now, the Alan-led coalition of barbarian tribes that also included Sueves, Hasdings, and Silings (the latter two collectively making up the “Vandals”) had been merrily enjoying the delights of the Roman diocese of Spain, whose provinces they had split up between them. With the Visigoths now secured as imperial allies, they were pressed into action alongside a Roman army, and duly invaded Spain, winning a series of major victories and decimating both the Alans and the Silings[6]. By 418, Constantius’ achievement was clear. Gaul had been restored to the Western Empire in its entirety, and the Spanish situation was, if not entirely mopped up, then better than it had been for years[7].
It is hardly surprising, in the circumstances, that rewards followed these spectacular successes. In 417, Constantius ascended the consulship for the second time, and took as his wife Galla Placidia, entering into the Theodosian Dynasty by doing so. By 419, Placidia had provided her husband with a daughter, Honoria, and a son, Valentinian. It cannot have come as a surprise to many when, in February 421, the Emperor Honorius took the next logical step and made his brother-in-law his fellow Augustus of the West. A bright new era seemed to be dawning[8].
There were some, however, who had other ideas. In Constantinople, Honorius’ nephew Theodosius had serious doubts about the wisdom of allowing a senior general to ascend the throne, perhaps motivated by wariness of his own senior general Ardaburius[9], who had probably authorised assistance to Constantius over the past decade, when Theodosius was still a child. Determined to shake off this influence, the now twenty year old Emperor of the East refused to countenance accepting his uncle’s nominee as a new member of the extended imperial family[10].
Constanius moved quickly. With Constantinople’s attention still very much on her eastern frontier, he enlisted the support of the Hunnic king Rua[11], who was already making threatening moves towards the Danube frontier. Rua was provided with money, and men under a competent young general of Constantius’, one Flavius Aetius[12]. In the spring of 422, this joint West Roman and Hunnic army played havoc around the province of Moesia, ostensibly to protest against the “wicked advisors of Our august brother Theodosius”, while at the same time a huge force under the generals Castinus[13] and Boniface[14], with Visigothic and Suevic reinforcements[15] cornered and destroyed the remaining Vandals in a hard-fought battle somewhere in the region of Corduba[16]. By the end of 422, Constanius III had about him an aura of invincibility, and with reluctance, the Emperor Theodosius backed down, perhaps encouraged by the return of Ardaburius from the East. Early in 423, Constantius was duly recognised as legitimate Emperor of the West. Constantinople’s official backing was followed, perhaps somewhat suspiciously, with the death of Honorius at the age of just thirty eight[17]. His replacement as Constantius’ junior Emperor was, perhaps inevitably, the young Valentinian III, who was associated on the throne with his father at the age of just four.
Despite his success, our sources are unanimous in telling us that Constantius himself derived little joy from being Emperor: this natural soldier preferred the company of military men to the suffocating ceremonial demanded of God’s deputy on Earth[18]. It can only have been an enjoyment to him, therefore, when in 426 the Huns suddenly turned and attacked Pannonia, supporting the claim of Flavius Aetius to the throne. The reasoning for the revolt is fairly sketchy; although it may well be the case that Aetius felt his part in the triumphs of 422 had gone unrewarded[19]. In any case, the revolt came to very little. Constantius himself advanced as far as Aquileia, but by time he had done so, the revolt had been defeated by his general John[20], who was rewarded with a consulship the following year[21].
All of this warfare certainly left the Western Empire’s tax base battered and bruised, and it is no surprise that it was only from 428 that the Emperor felt able to return the tax demands of his Spanish provinces to what they had been in 411 before the barbarian arrival- ironically, a brief revolt in the province was put down by surviving Vandals who had been settled on the Atlantic coast as Roman soldiers. A piece of legislation of the year 428 also tied up another loose end for Iberia- the occupation of Galicia was formally recognised, and the Suevic king Hermeric named a “friend and allied king”[22] in exchange for providing tribute and soldiers for the Roman army. Galicia was poor, distant from the Mediterranean, and all but devoid of large Roman landowners, and so it is unsurprising we hear of limited resistance to the move, which may well have been forced on Constantius by the general lack of money in the Imperial coffers.
By now Constantius was in his mid-sixties[23], but showed little sign of slowing down. In the spring of 430, he marched out from Ravenna, intending perhaps to deal with Burgundian and Alamannic incursions on the Rhine, although later propaganda would call his behaviour a march on Britain[24]. In any case, age now finally caught up with him. At Milan, the Emperor collapsed with exhaustion, just days after leaving Ravenna. He died on June 2nd 430, leaving behind him a successor who was not yet eleven years old, and a host of ambitious Roman generals, eager to follow in Constantius’ lead. In his twenty year ascendancy, he had done much good and set the Western Empire on a steadier long term footing than any Emperor, arguably, since Valentinian I had died over fifty years previously. Whether peace would survive his death, though, would be for a new generation to decide.
[1] Usually a “Master of Soldiers” would be allocated to a single region, but this does not seem to have been the case for Stilicho.
[2] Usurpers in plural because Constantine of Britain had himself been forced to deal with two usurpers, his own general Gerontius and the north Gallic aristocrat Jovian.
[3] The term “Visigoth” is not accurate before the fifth century.
[6] The Alans were forced into a merger with the Hasdings, henceforth the only group left to claim “Vandal” identity, and the Silings were all but utterly destroyed, with their king ending up dead at Ravenna.
[7] All but Baetica (modern Andalusia) and a few remote parts of Galicia had been restored to the Empire with the defeat of the Alans and Silings.
[8] The feeling of optimism in the late 410s and early 420s can be seen in the poetry of the Gallo-Roman Rutilius, who talks about order being restored to the world of Rome- playing the Latin terms for world “orbs” and city “urbs”, against each other.
[9] Ironically himself an Alan, Ardaburius spent much of the year 421 making a name for himself by roundly defeating Iranian generals in a short war.
[10] All of the above is OTL. The POD is that historically at this point Constantius died- here, he remains very much alive.
[11] Also known as Ruga or Rugila, I’m following Peter Heather in calling him simply “Rua”.
[12] In his mid twenties at this point, Aetius had already spent a period as a hostage of the Huns and was well acquainted with them.
[15] The Suevi had split off from the broader coalition following the disasters of 416-18.
[16] This almost happened IOTL, but the Vandals were able to escape owing to confusion in the commands that followed Constantius’ death. The operation was almost certainly planned by him.
[17] Honorius has died more or less on schedule here, but ITTL his death would certainly look somewhat suspicious in the circumstances.
[19] Aetius’ OTL behaviour certainly suggests he was willing and able to use his Hunnic connections to advance his position in the Roman Empire.
[20] Raised IOTL to a high court position under Constantius, John was briefly Western Emperor between 423 and 425, before Constantinople deposed him and restored the young Valentinian III.
[22]Rex socius et amicus, the title given IOTL to the Vandal Gaiseric in 442.
[23] Well, probably. I can’t find any reference to his birth date, but the fact he was a senior and important general as early as 410 suggests to me he was probably born before 370.
[24] You’ll see why panegyrists in the decades after 430 like to link Constantius to Britain.