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Placidia

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Not to be confused withGalla Placidia.

Roman empress

Placidia
Roman empress (in theWest)
Tenure	11 July – 2 November 472

Born	439–443 Rome
Died	c. 484 (aged 41–45) Constantinople
Spouse	Olybrius
Issue	Anicia Juliana
Dynasty	Theodosian Valentinianic
Father	Valentinian III
Mother	Licinia Eudoxia

Placidia (Latin:[plaˈkɪdɪ.a]) was a daughter ofValentinian III,Roman emperor of theWest from 425 to 455, and from 454/455 the wife ofOlybrius, who became western Roman emperor in 472. She was one of the last imperial spouses in the Roman west, during theFall of the Western Roman Empire duringLate Antiquity.

Biography

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In 455 she was taken prisoner in theSack of Rome byGaiseric,King of the Vandals, together with her motherLicinia Eudoxia and her elder sisterEudocia, spending several years in theVandal Kingdom while Gaiseric promoted Olybrius's claim to the empire. Placidia and her mother were ransomed from Africa byLeo I, the eastern emperor, inc. 461. Placidia spent much of her life at Constantinople, where her daughterAnicia Juliana was born inc. 461/462 and where she remained during her husband's brief reign as augustus in Rome. She was anobilissima femina, known to have been living in Constantinople in 478 and 484.

Family

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Placidia was the second daughter of Valentinian III and Licinia Eudoxia, younger sister of Eudocia, who became the wife ofHuneric, son ofGaiseric, king of theVandals. Both were named for their grandmothers: Eudocia for the maternal,Aelia Eudocia, and Placidia for the paternal,Galla Placidia.^[1] Placidia is estimated to have been born between 439 and 443.^[2]

Marriage

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In 454 or 455, Placidia marriedAnicius Olybrius, a member of theAnicii family,^[2] a prominent family with known members active in bothItalia andGaul. The exact relation of Olybrius to other members of the family is not known as his parents are not named in primary sources. Several theories exist as to their identity.^[3]

Originally Emperor Valentinian intended to marry Placidia to a young man namedMajorian (the future emperor), whom Oost describes as having "distinguished himself in a subaltern capacity fighting in Gaul against the Franks under Aëtius' own command."^[4] Doing so, according to Roman customs, would instantly link Majorian to the Imperial family and put him in line to succeed Valentinian. OnceFlavius Aetius learned of this plan, he rusticated Majorian to his estates at some date before 451, and he was recalled to Rome only after Aetius' death. Aetius also attempted to consolidate his position "by compelling the Emperor to swear to friendship with him and to agree to betroth Placidia to his own younger sonGaudentius."^[5]

Mommaerts and Kelley have proposed a theory thatPetronius Maximus, the successor of Valentinian III on the Western Roman throne in 455, was behind the marriage of Placidia to Olybrius. They argue that Olybrius was likely a son of Petronius Maximus himself, reasoning that Petronius, once on the throne, would be unlikely to promote distant relatives as potential successors. According toHydatius, Petronius arranged the marriage of his eldest stepdaughter Eudocia toPalladius, his eldest son andCaesar. They suggest that he followed suit in arranging the marriage of Placidia to one of his own younger sons, thus making the marriage of Placidia and Olybrius the third marriage between a member of theTheodosian dynasty and a member of the extended Anicii family within the same year.^[3]

Vandal captivity

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According to the chroniclerMalchus, "Around this time, the empressEudoxia, the widow of the emperor Valentinian and the daughter of the emperorTheodosius andEudocia, remained unhappily atRome and, enraged at the tyrantMaximus because of the murder of her spouse, she summoned the VandalGaiseric, king ofAfrica, against Maximus, who was ruling Rome. He came suddenly to Rome with his forces andcaptured the city, and having destroyed Maximus and all his forces, he took everything from the palace, even the bronze statues. He even led away as captives survivingsenators, accompanied by their wives; along with them he also carried off toCarthage in Africa the empress Eudoxia, who had summoned him; her daughter Placidia, the wife of the patricianOlybrius, who then was staying at Constantinople; and even the maiden Eudocia. After he had returned, Gaiseric gave the younger Eudocia, a maiden, the daughter of the empress Eudoxia, to his sonHuneric in marriage, and he held them both, the mother and the daughter, in great honor" (Chron. 366).^[6] Olybrius was in Constantinople at the time of the siege of Rome, as noted byJohn Malalas. He was separated from his wife for the duration of her captivity. He reportedly visitedDaniel the Stylite who predicted that Eudoxia and Placidia would return.^[7]

Empress

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Priscus andJohn of Antioch report that Gaiseric entertained the idea of placing Olybrius on the throne of the Western Roman Empire, at least as early as the death of Majorian in 461. Due to his marriage to Placidia, Olybrius could be considered both an heir to the Theodosian dynasty and a member of the Vandal royal family through marriage. In 465,Libius Severus died and Gaiseric again promoted Olybrius as his candidate for the Western throne. Procopius reported that Olybrius maintained a decent relationship with his Vandal supporter.^[7]

According to the accounts of Priscus,Procopius,John Malalas,Theodorus Lector,Evagrius Scholasticus,Theophanes the Confessor,Joannes Zonaras andCedrenus, Placidia can be estimated to have stayed a prisoner in Carthage for six to seven years. In 461 or 462,Leo I,Eastern Roman Emperor, paid a large ransom for Eudoxia and Placidia. Placidia seems to have spent the rest of her life inConstantinople.^[2]

In 472, the Western Roman EmperorAnthemius was involved in a civil war with hismagister militum and son-in-lawRicimer. According to John Malalas, Leo decided to intervene and send Olybrius to quell the hostilities. Warned that Leo was planning to betray him, Olybrius instead entered an alliance with Ricimer, opening a civil war which ended in the death of Anthemius and Olybrius' accession as Western Emperor.^[8] Placidia became Western Empress without actually visiting the west, remaining in Constantinople with their daughter. On 22 October or 2 November of the same year, Olybrius himself died. John of Antioch attributes his death todropsy, whileCassiodorus andMagnus Felix Ennodius report the death without noting a cause. All report on how brief the reign was.^[7]

Malchus reports that, in 478, "ambassadors came to Byzantium from Carthage, under the leadership of Alexander, the guardian of Olybrius' wife [sc. Placidia]. He formerly had been sent there byZeno with the agreement of Placidia herself. The ambassadors said that Huneric had honestly set himself up as a friend of the emperor, and so loved all things Roman that he renounced everything that he had formerly claimed from the public revenues and also the other moneys that Leo had earlier seized from his wife [sc. Eudocia]... He gave thanks that the emperor had honored the wife of Olybrius..."^[9] Placidia is last mentioned c. 484.^[2]

Placidia was probably the last Western Roman Empress whose name is still known.Glycerius andRomulus Augustus are not known to have been married.Julius Nepos had married aniece ofVerina andLeo I, whose name is not mentioned in surviving records.^[10]

Children

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Her only known child and daughter wasAnicia Juliana, born c. 462, who spent her life at the pre-Justinian court ofConstantinople. Juliana was considered "both the most aristocratic and the wealthiest inhabitant".^[11] Oost comments that "through her the descendants of Galla Placidia [Placidia's grandmother] were among the nobility of the Eastern Empire."^[12]

Ancestry

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Ancestors of Placidia

4.Constantius III

2.Valentinian III

20.Theodosius the Elder

10.Theodosius I

21. Thermantia

5.Galla Placidia

22.Valentinian I

11.Galla

23.Justina

1.Placidia

24.Theodosius I (= 10)

12.Arcadius

26.Bauto

14. Leontius

15. Unnamed sister ofAsclepiodotus

References

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^Stewart I. Oost,Galla Placidia Augusta: A biographical essay (Chicago: University Press, 1968), p. 247
^^a ^b ^c ^dProsopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol. 2
^^a ^bT.S. Mommaerts and D.H. Kelley, "The Anicii of Gaul and Rome," in John Drinkwater and Hugh Elton,Fifth-century Gaul: A Crisis of Identity? (Cambridge: University Press, 1992), p. 119
^Oost,Galla Placidia Augusta, pp. 286f
^Oost,Galla Placidia Augusta, p. 287
^Ralph W. Mathisen, Petronius Maximus (17 March 455 - 22 May 455)
^^a ^b ^cRalph W. Mathisen, Anicius Olybrius (April/May 472 -- [11 July 472] -- 22 October or 2 November 472)
^Ralph W. Mathisen, "Anthemius (12 April 467 - 11 July 472 A.D.)"
^Malchus, fr. 13; translated by C.D. Gordon,Age of Attila: Fifth Century Byzantium and the Barbarians (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1966), p. 125)
^Ralph W. Mathisen, Julius Nepos (19/24 June 474 - [28 August 475] - 25 April/9 May/22 June 480)
^Maas, Michael.The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian. Cambridge University Press, 2005. Page 439.
^Oost,Galla Placidia Augusta, p. 307

External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related toPlacidia.

Royal titles
Preceded by Marcia Euphemia	Western Roman Empress consort 472	Succeeded by Julius Nepos's wife

Roman and Byzantine empresses

Principate
27 BC – AD 235

Crisis
235–285

Dominate
284–610

Western Empire 395–480	Maria Thermantia Galla Placidia Licinia Eudoxia Marcia Euphemia Placidia Julius Nepos's wife
Eastern Empire 395–610	Aelia Eudoxia Aelia Eudocia Pulcheria Verina Ariadne Zenonis Euphemia Theodora Sophia Ino Anastasia Constantina Leontia

Eastern/
Byzantine Empire
610–1453