Galla Placidia

Placidia was the daughter of Theodosius I and his second wife, Galla, who was herself daughter of Valentinian I and his second wife, Justina. Galla Placidia's date of birth is not recorded, but she must have been born either in the period 388–89 or 392–93. Between these dates, her father was in Italy following his campaign against the usurper Magnus Maximus, while her mother remained in Constantinople. A surviving letter from Bishop Ambrose of Milan, dated 390, refers to a younger son of Theodosius named Gratianus, who died in infancy; as Gratianus must have been born in the period 388–89, it is most probable that Galla Placidia was born during the second period, 392–93. Placidia's mother Galla died some time in 394, perhaps giving birth to a stillborn son. Placidia was a younger, paternal half-sister of emperors Arcadius and Honorius. Her older half-sister Pulcheria predeceased her parents according to Gregory of Nyssa, placing the death of Pulcheria prior to the death of Aelia Flaccilla, the first wife of Theodosius I, in 385. Coins issued in Placidia's honour in Constantinople after 425 give her name as AELIA PLACIDIA; this may have been intended to integrate Placidia with the eastern dynasty of Theodosius II. There is no evidence that the name Aelia was ever used in the west, or that it formed part of Placidia's official nomenclature. ==Early life==

Placidia was granted her own household by her father in the early 390s and was thus financially independent while underage. She was summoned to the court of her father in Mediolanum (Milan) during 394, and was present at Theodosius's death on 17 January 395. She was granted the title of "nobilissima puella" ("most noble girl") during her childhood. Placidia spent most of her early years in the household of Stilicho, foremost military officer in the West, and his wife, Serena. She is presumed to have learned weaving and embroidery. She might have also been given a classical education. According to "De Consulatu Stilichonis" by Claudian, Placidia was betrothed to Eucherius, only known son of Stilicho and Serena. Her scheduled marriage is mentioned in the text as the third union between Stilicho's family and the Theodosian dynasty. Arcadius died in 408 and was succeeded by his son Theodosius II. In August of the same year, Honorius's courtiers convinced him to depose and execute Stilicho, leading to a weakening of the state. Eucherius, who had sought refuge in Rome, was also killed. ==Residence with the Visigoths==

In the disturbances that followed the fall of Stilicho, wives and children of foederati living in the cities of Italy were killed. Most of the foederati, regarded as loyal to Stilicho, joined the forces of Alaric I, King of the Visigoths. After this victory, Ataulf cemented his improved relations with Honorius by marrying Galla Placidia at Narbonne on 1 January 414. The nuptials were celebrated with high Roman festivities and magnificent gifts. Priscus Attalus gave the wedding speech, a classical epithalamium. The marriage was recorded by Hydatius and Jordanes, although the latter states that it was earlier, in 411 at Forum Livii (Forlì) (possibly a more informal event). Placidia and Ataulf had one son, Theodosius, born in Barcelona by the end of 414, but the child died early in the following year, eliminating an opportunity for a Romano-Visigothic line; ==Marriage to Constantius III and the papal succession crisis==

in Ravenna According to the Chronicon Albeldense, included in the Códice de Roda, Wallia was desperate for food supplies. He surrendered to Constantius III, at the time magister militum of Honorius, negotiating terms giving foederati status for the Visigoths. As part of the peace treaty, Placidia was returned to Honorius, who forced her to marry Constantius III on 1 January 417. Their daughter Justa Grata Honoria was probably born in 417 or 418. The history of Paul the Deacon mentions her first among the children of the marriage, suggesting that she was the eldest. Their son Valentinian III was born 2 July 419. Placidia intervened in the succession crisis following the death of Pope Zosimus on 26 December 418. Two factions of the Roman clergy had plunged the city into tumult by electing rival successors, Eulalius (elected 27 December) and Boniface I (elected 28 December). Symmachus, Prefect of Rome, wrote to the court at Ravenna, requesting an imperial decision on the matter. Placidia and, presumably, Constantius petitioned the emperor in favor of Eulalius. ==Widowhood and civil war==

According to Olympiodorus of Thebes, a historian used as a source by Zosimus, Sozomen and probably Philostorgius, the public grew suspicious of the increasingly scandalous public caresses she was said to have received from her own brother Honorius after her husband's death. However, the siblings' relationship suddenly turned hostile, and around this time, she may have plotted against him. After her soldiers clashed with those of Honorius, Galla Placidia herself was now forced to flee to Constantinople with her children. Despite this setback, Bonifacius, governor of the Diocese of Africa continued to be loyal to her. Placidia, Valentinian, and Honoria arrived in Constantinople around 422/423. On 15 August 423, Honorius died of edema, perhaps pulmonary edema. With no member of the Theodosian dynasty present at Ravenna to claim the throne, an official named Joannes was made Western Roman Emperor without the approval of Theodosius II. Joannes's rule was accepted in the provinces of Italia, Gaul and Hispania, but not in the province of Africa. At the same time, forces of the Eastern Roman army, under the general command of Ardaburius, invaded Italy by land and sea. Placidia and Valentinian traveled with Ardaburius's son Aspar, commander of the land forces. Along the way, Valentinian was proclaimed Caesar by Helion, a magister officiorum under Theodosius, on 23 October 424. ==Regent==

Galla Placidia became a regent of Western Roman Empire for her son, Valentinian, in 425 until Aetius's rise. Among her early supporters were Bonifacius and Felix. Conflict between Bonifacius and Aetius Conflict between Placidia and Bonifacius started in 429. Procopius records that Aetius played the two against each other, advising Placidia that Bonifacius should be recalled to Rome as a dubious character, then writing to Bonifacius, warning him that Placidia was about to summon him for no good reason in order to put him away. Bonifacius trusted the warning from Aetius and refused the summons; thinking his position untenable, he sought an alliance with the Vandals, who crossed from Spain into Libya to join him. Friends of Bonifacius in Rome, finding his apparent act of hostility toward the Empire entirely out of character, traveled to Carthage at Placidia's behest to intercede with him. He showed them the letter from Aetius, whose contents they communicated to Placidia. She did not move against Aetius, as he wielded great influence, and as the Empire was already in danger; but she urged Bonifacius to return to Rome "and not to permit the empire of the Romans to lie under the hand of barbarians." Placidia joined the rest of the imperial family in forcing her daughter, Justa Grata Honoria, into an unwanted political marriage. In the spring of 450 Honoria wrote for help to Attila, who chose to interpret the message as a marriage proposal and asked for half of the western Empire as dowry. Valentinian denied the legitimacy of the proposal, and only the influence of Placidia dissuaded him from executing his sister. Instead Honoria was quickly married to Flavius Bassus Herculanus, though this did not prevent Attila from pressing his claim. Placidia died shortly afterwards at Rome, in November 450, and was buried in the Theodosian family mausoleum adjacent to Old St. Peter's Basilica, later the chapel of Saint Petronilla. ==Public works==

Being a devout Christian, she was involved in the building and restoration of various churches throughout her period of influence. She restored and expanded the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. She built San Giovanni Evangelista, Ravenna, in thanks for the sparing of her life and those of her children in a storm while crossing the Adriatic Sea. The dedicatory inscription reads "Galla Placidia, along with her son Placidus Valentinian Augustus and her daughter Justa Grata Honoria Augusta, paid off their vow for their liberation from the danger of the sea." Another monument in Ravenna, one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites inscribed in 1996, is known as the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia. However, the building never served as her tomb, but was initially erected as a chapel dedicated to Lawrence of Rome. It is unknown whether the sarcophagi therein contained the bodies of other members of the Theodosian dynasty, or when they were placed in the building. ==In literature==

• Two stanzas in Alexander Blok's poem "Ravenna" (May–June 1909) focus on her tomb; Olga Matich writes: "For Blok, Galla Placidia represented a synthetic historical figure that linked different cultural histories." • Ezra Pound uses her tomb as an exemplar of the "gold" remaining from the past, for example in Canto XXI: "Gold fades in the gloom,/ Under the blue-black roof, Placidia's..." • Louis Zukofsky refers to it in his poem "4 Other Countries", reproduced in "A" 17: "The gold that shines/ in the dark/ of Galla Placidia,/ the gold in the// Round vault rug of stone/ that shows its pattern as well as the stars/ my love might want on her floor..." • Carl Jung refers to Galla Placidia in his autobiography Memories, Dreams, Reflections, (Chapter IX, Section 'Ravenna and Rome'). He reports a vision of "four great mosaic frescoes of incredible beauty" he experienced in the Neonian Baptistery right after visiting Galla's tomb at Ravenna. He had been, he says, "personally affected by the figure of Galla Placidia" and goes on to say: "Her tomb seemed to me a final legacy through which I might reach her personality. Her fate and her whole being were vivid presences to me". Jung was later surprised to discover that the mosaics he and an acquaintance remembered had actually never existed. • Galla Placidia is a major supporting character in R. A. Lafferty's semi-historical work The Fall of Rome, which introduces her as "the goblin child and sister of the two young emperors who, at the age of seventeen, and when all the rest of them were cowed, seized control of the Roman Senate and the City and represented the defiance in the last one hundred days of the world." ==In popular culture==

in Attila • Galla Placidia is represented in the BBC's Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire by Natasha Barrero. • Spanish musician Jaume Pahissa wrote the opera Galla Placídia in 1913. • Galla Placidia is played by Colette Régis in the 1954 film Attila. • Galla Placidia is played by Alice Krige in the 2001 American TV miniseries Attila. ==Notes==