450-469 Attila the Hun & Gaiseric the Vandal Sacks Rome

In this 20 year period Theodosius, Emperor of the east, died and Attila (pictured) murdered his brother Rugila and became King of the Huns.

Valentinian III was emperor in the west, and because Theodosius had no heir he was replaced by general Marcian who married Pulcheria, Theodosius's sister.

Marcian died in 457, no male hier, and the new emperor was selected by Aspar, a senior Germanic general who was barred from the position because of his ethnicity and Arian faith. He chose Leo who set about weakening German power in the east by founding an army of Isaurian warriors and marrying his daughter to their chieftain, Zeno.

Both emperors staged a massive campaign against the Vandals in 468, but Gaiseric, King of the Vandals, prevailed.

The Huns had been helpful to the empire but things changed when Attila murdered his brother Rugila and became King of the Huns.

Attila not only demanded a marriage with Valentinian III's older sister, Honoria, but also half the territory of the western empire as her dowry!

Valentinian III refused and Attila, the new King of the Huns, responded by invading Gaul in co-operation with Gaiseric, King of the Vandals. Faced with a massive army that Aetius had put together -- including the Franks, Burgundians, Celtics and Theoderic of the Visigoths -- Attila withdrew but Aetius pursued and was victorious at the Battle of Chalons-sur-Marne in 452. Theoderic died.

Attila was allowed to leave in peace, only to return in 452 to invade Italy but was stopped by plague. In 453 Attila died, and the Huns were finally defeated in 454.

Valentinian III resented Aetius' prestige, and in conspiracy with the senator Petronius Maximus murdered Aetius, but then they fell out and Valentinian III was assassinated in 455.

Petronius Maximus then declared himself emperor, married Valentinian's widow and betrothed her daughter to his son.

King Gaiseric seized the opportunity of imperial chaos to sieze more land in Africa, take Sardinia and land a fleet at Rome. Petronius Maximus got killed while fleeing.

The Bishop of Rome persuaded Gaiseric to refrain from murder -- which he did -- but for 10 days the Romans had to suffer the Teutonic Vandals ransacking their city.

390-409 Goth King Alaric Sacks Rome!

In this 20 year period the Roman Emperor Theodosius (pictured) died in 395 and was  succeeded in the east by his son Arcadius and in the west by by his son Honorius.

In 390, Theodosius was subordinated even further by Bishop Ambrose when he was excommunicated following a military command giving the Goth troops in Thessalonica the right to take revenge on the local population for murdering their officers.

Theodosius atoned for his "sin" for months as a miserable penitent before Bishop Ambrose allowed him the sacraments again, but the sight of an emperor debasing himself in such a manner gave a bad impression to both Christians and Pagans.

During 391-2 there was a ban on pagan worship and sacrifice

In 391 Theodosius returned to Constantinople, leaving the young Valentinian II under the care of the Germanic general Arbogast, and by 392 the young emperor of the west was found hanged and Arbogast appointed Eugenius, an easily manipulated middle-ranking civilian, to replace him.

Fearing reprisal from Theodosius, Eugenius and Arbogast gained support from the Roman Pagans, furious at Theodosius's anti-Pagan laws.

Ambrose excommunicated Eugenius - and Theodosius now had the pretext for a holy war which he waged in 394 and won with a large contingent of Goth soldiers. He then cracked down harder on the Pagans, but died in 395, succeeded by his two young and inexperienced sons, permanently dividing the Roman empire between east and west in 395.

Both sons (Arcadias aged 13 in the East and Honorius aged 18 in the West) were controlled by generals.

Stilicho, who was married to the niece of Theodosius, maintained he was the guardian of both boys, but in effect had no control over Arcadias who was out of reach in the east. He strengthened his control over Honorius by marrying the boy to his daughter.

A major problem facing Stilicho was a revolt in 395 among the Goth soldiers with whom Theodosius had won the battle against Eugenius in 394 and remained stationed in Italy. They had suffered enormous losses to defend the Roman Empire at the expense of the federate Visigoth nation under King Alaric. Those Goth troops that had returned to the Balkans also started a revolt in Greece in 396, and finally as a peace offering King Alaric was given a position as a Roman general in 397.

In 398, the Roman east was invaded by the Huns from the Caucasus and Arcadius gave the eunuch Eutropius a consulship in 399 following his successful campaign against the Huns.

In 397, King Alaric, now a Roman General, used his position to equip his Goths with weaponry and seek territory in the west. In 401 he invaded Northern Italy at a time when Stilicho was busy repelling the Vandals. Alaric put Honorius under siege in Milan, and Stilicho was able to negotiate with the Vandals to provide him with troops in order to fight Alaric.

In 402 Stilicho with the Vandals forced Alaric to lift the siege, forced the Goths back and captured Alaric's family. The Goths regrouped and came back in 403 and Stilicho negotiated with them to stay where they were.

In 405, hordes of Ostrogoths from the mid Danube region fell upon Italy and Stilicho was able to push them back by summoning Roman troops from the Rhineland and hiring Hun troops from across the Danube, but they were pushed into Gaul and he decided to abandon Gaul to the Ostrogoths in favor of taking advantage of what was happening in the eastern empire in order to gain control of the entire empire.

In 404 John Chrysotom, the Bishop of Constantinople, had been deposed and exiled following his tactless treatment of Arcadius's wife. When Stilicho's demands for the bishop's reinstatement were ignored, he cut off trade with the east and was preparing to fight Arcadius when events overtook him.

King Alaric of the Goths decided to invade Italy again in 408, demanding gold in compensation for the losses his nation suffered and Stilicho induced the Senate to agree.

In the meantime, Arcadius died and was succeeded by his 7 year old son Theodius II and fired with such an easy opportunity to gain control of the east, Stilicho gave King Alaric authority to restore order in Gaul and left for Constantinople - only to return when news reached him that his supporters had been murdered.

Honorius had Stilicho executed and when Alaric resumed his invasion of Italy, demanding more gold, land and an Imperial office Honorius refused, resulting in King Alaric of the Goths capturing Rome in 409, proclaiming the prefect of the city, Attalus, as emperor and himself the prefect.

Honorius held out with reinforcement from his nephew in the east, but Alaric sacked the city of Rome in rage. He died that year, his brother Athaulf became king and led the Visigoths to Gaul where a Roman general stationed in Britain - Constantine - having been declared Emperor by his men - crossed the channel, gained the support of the Roman troops he found there and engaged in attacks against the barbarians, taking over Spain.

In leaving Britain, Honorius ceded British civilians the right to defend themselves

370-389 Ostrogoths, Visigoths and Huns

In this 20 year period the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian died in 375 and was succeeded by his son Gratian (pictured) in the West and his younger brother Valens in the East.

Valentinian II ruled over Italy, Africa and Illyricum.

In 376 the Goths of the Danube were divided into two groups known as the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths. The Huns, a powerful tribe from central Asia, were pushing into southern Russia and destroyed the kingdom of the Ostrogoths. Terrified by the Huns, the Visigoths petitioned Valens to be allowed to cross the Danube and settle in Roman territory.

In return for troops, Valens agreed and had them ferried across the Danube to settle in Thrace, where a revolt took place in 377. In 378 Valens asked for assistance from 19 year old Gratian, who sent troops, but Valens became impatient and attacked the German Goths (cavalry men) and was defeated and killed.

Gration appointed Theodosius (a Spaniard) as commander in Thrace, headquarters in Thessalonica, and in 379 appointed him emperor of Egypt, the East and the Balkans where the Goth troubles persisted.

In 382, Theodosius entered into a treaty with the Goths, allowing them to settle in the Balkans, as a self-governing federate, but providing troops for the Roman army ( under Goth command).

At first, Gratian was tolerant of religious differences, but under the influence of the aristocratic Bishop of Milan, Ambrose, (Milan having long been the imperial seat of Rome) outlawed "heretical" assemblies, and abolished the privileges of the pagan priesthoods in Rome.

Theodosius - an aggressive catholic - issued a decree in 380 advising everyone to become catholic (ie to accept the Nicene Creed) calling those who did not "demented and crazed" warranting not only God's punishment but his as well and deposed the Arian bishop of Constantinople.

In 381 he ordered that all churches should be turned over to catholic bishops, and like Gratian he banned all non-catholic assemblies issuing 18 edicts against various dissenting christian sects.

Theodosius was easier than Gratian on the Pagans. In 381 blood sacrifice was banned, but other forms of Pagan worship were allowed. However, no action was taken against "spontaneous" local acts destroying Pagan temples and in this way Paganism was virtually wiped out.

In 383, Magnus Maximus, a Spanish aristocratic miliary commander like Theodosius, proclaimed himself emperor in Britain and invaded Gaul. Gratian went to meet the usurper, but was abandoned by his troops, turned over to Maximus and executed by him.

Maximus sent envoys to Valentian II and Theodosius for recognition, but they stalled - Theodosius to work out a treaty in 387 with Persia (splitting up Armenia) before he could deal with Maximus in the west.

Maximus was a fervent Catholic, having Orthodox Christians executed in Spain - an action deplored by some Spanish Bishops - but such violence was the extreme logical result of the state becoming the defender of Catholic dogma.

In 387 Maximus invaded Italy, forcing Valentian II to flee to Thessalonica, and finally Theodosius came to Italy, did battle with Maximus, defeated him and had him executed.

While in Italy, Theodosius presented his 5 year old son Honorius to the Roman Senators as a future ruler of the west (having already secured the succession of his older son, Arcadius, as ruler of the east) and fell under the influence of Ambrose, as Gratian before him had.

In 388 a bishop in the Euphrates area, against Roman law, ordered the destruction of a synagogue. Theodosius ordered the bishop to pay for its rebuilding, Ambrose was outraged, and Theodosius deferred.