Empress Galla Placidia And The Fall Of The Roman Empire

The page-turning account of Galla Placidia, a remarkable ruler at the twilight of the Roman Empire. In Rome’s Christian Empress, Joyce E. Salisbury brings the captivating story of Rome’s Christian empress to life. The daughter of Roman emperor Theodosius I, Galla Placidia lived at the center of imperial Roman power during the first half of the fifth century. Taken hostage after the fall of Rome to the Goths, she was married to the king and, upon his death, to a Roman general. The rare woman who traveled throughout Italy, Gaul, and Spain, she eventually returned to Rome, where her young son was crowned as the emperor of the western Roman provinces. Placidia served as his regent, ruling the Roman Empire and the provinces for twenty years. Salisbury restores this influential, too-often forgotten woman to the center stage of this crucial period. Describing Galla Placidia’s life from childhood to death while detailing the political and military developments that influenced her—and that she influenced in turn—the book relies on religious and political sources to weave together a narrative that combines social, cultural, political, and theological history. The Roman world changed dramatically during Placidia’s rule: the Empire became Christian, barbarian tribes settled throughout the West, and Rome began its unmistakable decline. But during her long reign, Placidia wielded formidable power. She fended off violent invaders and usurpers who challenged her Theodosian dynasty; presided over the dawn of the Catholic Church as theological controversies split the faithful and church practices and holidays were established; and spent fortunes building churches and mosaics that incorporated prominent images of herself and her family. Compulsively readable, Rome’s Christian Empress is the first full-length work to give this fascinating and complex ruler her due.

Despite her status as one of history's most important women, the story of Galla Placidia's life has been largely forgotten. Though the Roman empress witnessed the decline and fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century and lived a life of almost constant suffering, her actions helped postpone the fall of Rome and had massive, widespread impact on the empire that can still be felt today. She watched the barbarian king Alaric and his horde of Visigoth warriors sack Rome, slaughter many of the city's inhabitants, and take her hostage. Surviving captivity, Galla Placidia became the queen of the barbarians who had imprisoned her. Eventually, she became the only woman to rule the Roman empire alone. Soldiers obeyed her commands while Popes and Christian saints alike sought her advice. Despite all obstacles and likely suffering from what we now know as PTSD, she lived to an old age by the standards of the time. This book uses the letters and writings of Galla Placidia's contemporaries to reconstruct, in more depth and detail than has previously been attempted, the remarkable story of her life and the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.

The time was the late Imperial period, an era when Rome wore her& ;vast empire like a huge ancient toga, worn thin from overuse, badly& ;tattered and frayed around the edges, and studded too sparsely with& ;precious jewels. Galla Placidia was one of those few precious jewels . . .& ;a brilliant diamond sparkling in the last rays of a setting sun.& ;This historical novel is based on the true story of a remarkable& ;woman who lived at a major crossroads of history, when the ancient& ;pagan past was overtaken by the strong young religion of Christianity.& ;Daughter, sister, wife, and mother of emperors, Galla Placidia was& ;instrumental in leading Rome through the tumultuous transition from a& ;pagan to a Christian state.& ;The product of three years of research and visits to each of the& ;original sites from Lisbon to Istanbul, the book follows the life of Galla& ;Placidia from her privileged Imperial youth and her abduction by the& ;Goths when she was twenty, through her marriage to the Gothic chieftain& ;and his assassination, to her return to Rome, her marriage to the Roman& ;emperor, and finally to the years she served as regent for her young son.& ;Even in death, Galla Placidia's story defies the ordinaryGalla Placidia is& ;buried in the catacombs beneath St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, resting& ;near the Great Fisherman himself

Wedding in Gaul (414) -- Funerals in Barcelona (414-416) -- Making of an empress (417-425) -- Restoration and rehabilitation (425-431) -- Bride, a book, and a pope (437-438) -- Between Rome and Ravenna (438-450).

The astonishing career of Galla Placidia (c. 390-450) provides valuable reflections on the state of the Roman empire in the fifth century CE. In an age when emperors, like Galla's two brothers, Arcadius (395-408) and Honorius (395-423), and nephew, Theodosius II (408-450), hardly ever ventured beyond the fortified enclosure of their palaces, Galla spent years wandering across Italy, Gaul and Spain first as hostage in the camp of Alaric the Goth, and then as wife of Alaric's successor. In exile at the court of her nephew in Constantinople Galla observed how princesses wield power while vaunting piety. Restored to Italy on the swords of the eastern Roman army, Galla watched the coronation of her son, age six, as the emperor of the western Roman provinces. For a dozen years (425-437) she acted as regent, treading uneasily between rival senatorial factions, ambitious church prelates, and charismatic military leaders. This new biography of Galla is organized according to her changing roles as bride, widow, bereaved mother, queen and empress. It examines her relations with men in power, her achievements as a politician, her skills at establishing power bases and political alliances, and her efficiency at accomplishing her desired goals. Using all the available sources, documents, epigraphy, coinage and the visual arts, and Galla's own letters, Hagith Sivan reconstructs the turning points and highlights of Galla's odd progression from a bloodthirsty princess at Rome to a bride of a barbarian in Gaul, from a manipulative sister and wife of emperors at the imperial court at Ravenna to a beggar at the court of her relatives in Constantinople, and from a devious regent of the western Roman empire to a collaborator of popes in Rome.

Add Galla Placida to the annals of the dominant, lustful women rulers of empires Cleopatra, Elizabeth the I, and Catherine the Great. These three have been historically exposed but are presented at their mature state when they have achieved notoriety. Their formative years have been all but neglected as irrelevant. In this novel, Galla Placidia is taken from birth to her fate as regent empress for her son Valentinian the third. We see her from innocence through maturity where her beauty and Roman potency drew suitors of position and means - but love and romance superceded all and threw her into the arms of a barbarian.

Documents the stories of eight wives of Roman rulers, assessing their historical contributions and cultural influence and drawing parallels between modern first ladies and the lives of such ancient-world figures as Livia, Helena, and Julia.