Birthday Greetings #12

Happy birthday to Honorius, Roman Emperor of the West (395-423). Honorius was the son of Theodosius who was the last emperor to reign over a unified Roman empire. Theodosius gave the Eastern empire to his other son Arcadius who was a non entity and the western to Honorius who would struggle to reach non entity status. Admittedly since he took the throne at the age of nine he couldn't really set his stamp on the empire immediately and later in his life there were far too many other people stamping on the empire for him to be noticed.

Honorius had the misfortune to reign at a time when various disasters, idiotic decisions and geopolitical events of past years came to a head in a perfect storm of barbarian invasions. One problem was the army. The western empire needed a bigger army than it could afford. The eastern empire had managed to get most of its army destroyed some twenty years earlier at the Battle of Adrianople and since then had been scraping by through the simple expedient of hiring the Goths who destroyed it. Over in the west a combination of revolts, civil wars, high costs and general disillusion with the army as a career had led to a significant recruitment of barbarians as well. The barbarians could fight but they had little intrinsic loyalty to the empire itself although by this time neither did anyone else.

Honorius muddled through the first years of his reign under the guidance (or more accurately, thumb) of Stilicho his half barbarian commander in chief. Stilicho was a capable soldier and under his leadership the western army (now a collection of grumbling conscripts, underpaid auxiliaries, unreliable barbarians and sharp characters looking for an opportunity to proclaim themselves emperor) could and did win battles. Which was handy because due to a series of events elsewhere virtually the entire barbarian population of Europe upped stakes and headed for greener pastures within the empire. Stilicho drove off the first attacks but then fell victim to court intrigue and was executed. Honorius had lost the only capable man in his administration just when he needed him.

Various tribes of barbarians poured across the Rhine and Danube frontiers overrunning Roman Gaul and pushing down towards Spain. The British legions helpfully revolted and invaded Gaul themselves under a man named Constantine who proclaimed himself emperor. Taking swift action Honorius moved his capital to Ravenna, then the most easily defended city in Italy and thereafter did nothing. While Gaul descended into bloodshed as various Roman garrisons, barbarian tribes and the British legions disputed control Italy was visited by Alaric the Visigoth. He was very nice and agreed not to sack Rome if he was paid a huge ransom. Next year he came back and sacked Rome anyway. It is not entirely clear if Honorius even noticed. Fortunately Alaric soon died and his followers (most of them anyway) left.

Over in Gaul Constantine, now in control of about a third of the region decided to invade Italy. At this point Honorius got another capable general who managed to defeat Constantine and even retake a little Gaul from the barbarians. The barbarians responded by moving into Spain and capturing most of that instead. Honorius spent his time hitting on his sister and eventually, probably to the astonishment of everyone, died of natural causes at the age of thirty eight. He was succeeded by his nephew Valentinian who would turn out to be even more of a worthless tool.