33. Pawns in the Power Game

Sad pawn in a power struggle, Priscus Attalus was elevated to Augustus in 409 by the Roman senate to appease Alaric, stripped of his position, reinstated, and finally deposed by Honorius.

Maximus, declared co-Augustus by the rebellious Magister Militum Gerontius.

Proclaimed emperor in Britain, Constantine III  took the remaining troops from the island. He contested Honorius in Western provinces fallen into chaos in the wake of barbarian invasion from across the frozen Rhine.

The Gallic noble Jovinus (left) seized power in Mainz in 411, and made his brother Sebastianus (right) co-Augustus. Two years later their severed heads lay at Honorius’s feet.

Galla Placidia, half-sister of Honorius, wife of Constantius III, and through him mother of Valentinian III, who became co-Augustus to Theodosius II in 425 at the age of six.

Aelia Eudocia, pagan Athenaïs before her baptism into the Church, was chosen for Theodosius as his wife by his sister Aelia Pulcheria.

Theodosius II was studious and weak. Secluded in a court dominated by the pursuit of religion, he was content to leave the running of affairs of state to his strong-willed sister Aelia Pulcheria (coin above right).

Intellectually challenged, weak-willed Valentinian III was utterly dominated by his redoubtable mother, Galla Placidia.

Bonifacius, Comes Africae, was an able warrior who fell foul of power politics and intrigue at court in Italy, and was ultimately forced to relinquish the Roman holdings in Africa to the Vandals.