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XII - The End of Ancient Rome

In this page:
Constantine's Sons
Julian
Peoples on the Move (Valentinian I and Valens)
Theodosius
Honorius
Fall of the Western Roman Empire(Rostra Vandalica)
Iconography

Constantine's Sons

Constantintine appointed fourCaesares: his three sons (Constantine II, Constantius II and Constans) and Dalmatius, son of one of his half-brothers, thus formally following the rules of theTetrarchy system set byDiocletian. Constantine died in May 337 leaving to his heirs an Empire which was almost as large asthat of Trajan. But the sky ofConstantinople did not foster family harmony. By September Dalmatius was killed by the troops at the instigation of Constantius II. The three sons proclaimed themselvesAugusti and they formally ruled the empire together without a formal partition, although Constantius II resided atAntioch and was chiefly involved in campaigns against the Sassanids and his brothers took care of the western provinces. In 340 Constantine II attacked Constans, who had set his residence in Rome, but he was defeated and killed.
In 350 Magnentius, the general in charge of the Roman legions in Gaul, was proclaimed emperor by his troops and soon after Constans was abandoned by his supporters and killed (he might have been buried in amausoleum near Tarragona).Constantius II, after having tried to come to terms with Magnentius had eventually to march against the usurper who was defeated in one of the bloodiest battles in Roman history. Thus Constantius II became the sole ruler of the empire and celebrated his victories by erecting triumphal arches, e.g. that atCarnuntum.

Inscriptions on pedestal of statues celebrating Constantius II nearCuria Julia (left) and atCortile della Pigna (right). They were both erected by Memmius Vitrasius Orfitus, "Praefectus Urbis" in 353-355 and in 357-359

TEXT OF THE INSCRIPTIONS

Constantius II spent most of his life in Constantinople or on the battlefield. In 357 he decided to celebrate his twentieth anniversary as emperor in Rome, which he had never visited; he was impressed by the monuments of the city and in particular by theForum of Trajan. He decided to contribute to its embellishment by ordering the relocation of a tall and old obelisk from Thebes to Rome. The obelisk (now atPiazza S. Giovanni in Laterano) was placed atCircus Maximus and is regarded as the last addition to the monuments of Ancient Rome. The Emperor ordered also that anotherEgyptian obelisk should be moved to Constantinople.

Musei Vaticani: cast of the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus: details showing the Sacrifice of Isaac, St. Peter's arrest and a young Jesus in Heaven between St. Peter and St. Paul

This sarcophagus was found in 1597 during the construction ofS. Pietro Nuovo. It belonged to Junius Bassus, son ofJunius Annius Bassus. He wasPraefectus Urbis in 359 the year of his death.
Rome was under the administration of aPraefectus Urbis, appointed by the emperor, usually chosen among the members of the senatorial class.
Meanwhile Orfitus was governing the eternal city with the rank of Prefect, and with an arrogance beyond the limit of the power that had been conferred upon him. He was a man of wisdom, it is true, and highly skilled in legal practice, but less equipped with the adornment of the liberal arts than became a man of noble rank. During his term of office serious riots broke out because of the scarcity of wine; for the people, eager for an unrestrained use of this commodity, are roused to frequent and violent disturbances. (..) In consequence of this state of things, the few houses that were formerly famed for devotion to serious pursuits now teem with the sports of sluggish indolence, re-echoing to the sound of singing and the tinkling of flutes and lyres. In short, in place of the philosopher the singer is called in, and in place of the orator the teacher of stagecraft, and while the libraries are shut up forever like tombs, water-organs are manufactured and lyres as large as carriages, and flutes and instruments heavy for gesticulating actors.
Ammianus Marcellinus - The Roman History - Book XIV - Loeb Edition

Julian

Constantius II run into trouble in trying to contain the pressure of a coalition of German tribes (the Alemanni) on the Roman cities along the Rhine and at the same time fighting the Sassanids at the eastern border of the empire. In 355 he entrusted Julian, a young member of his family, with the task of regaining control of the cities along the Rhine, while he took care of the Sassanid threat (see aninscription at Spoleto where the two men are mentioned).
Julian was appointedCaesar and presumptive successor as the Emperor was childless.Julian defeated the Alemanni atArgentoratum (Strasbourg) and took prisoner their king. Constantius II asked Julian to send him troops, as the Sassanids had invaded the Roman part of Mesopotamia and had takenAmida (Diyarbakir). The troops at the orders of Julian refused to relocate and acclaimed their leaderAugustus.
Civil war was avoided only by the death in 361 of Constantius II, who, in his last will, recognized Julian as his rightful successor.

Museo Nazionale Romano: (left) Sol Invictus (from a sarcophagus); (right) inscription on a Christian tomb

Although Julian from the earliest days of his childhood had been more inclined towards the worship of the pagan gods, and as he gradually grew up burned with longing to practise it, yet because of his many reasons for anxiety he observed certain of its rites with the greatest possible secrecy. But when his fears were ended, and he saw that the time had come when he could do as he wished, he revealed the secrets of his heart and by plain and formal decrees ordered the temples to be opened, victims brought to the altars, and the worship of the gods restored. Ammianus Marcellinus
Julian is known as "The Apostate" because he abandoned the Christian faith he had been raised in.
Julian tried to restore the traditional eclecticism of the Roman State in religious matters by reverting some edicts of Constantius II who had been a fervent Christian (albeit a follower of theArian heresy) and who had greatly favoured the Christian faith.
Usually Julian's religious policy is attributed to the fact that he completed his education inEphesus andAthens where he got in touch with some Neoplatonic philosophers. However another important factor behind them was the fact that the troops who had supported him against Constantius II were in general followers ofSol Invictus, a monotheist belief centred around the god Sun. In 362 Julian issued a decree of tolerance, which tried to curtail the growing influence of the Christian churches. He then moved against the Sassanids to retake the towns which Constantius II had lost. His campaign was successful, but inconclusive. He was wounded during a small fight and after a few days he died in June 363. In general references to him were deleted from inscriptions, but his name can still be seen atSirmione,Mactaris andAnkara.

Peoples on the Move (Valentinian and Valens)

Julian was succeeded by Jovian, a senior officer of the Imperial Guard who signed a humiliating peace treaty with the Sassanids (they celebrated the event in agigantic relief). On his way back to Constantinople Jovian died nearNicaea where in February 264 an assembly of military and civilian authorities acclaimed as new emperor Valentinian, another officer of the Imperial Guard. Valentinian immediately associated to the throne Valens, his younger brother. He usually resided either in Milan or inAugusta Treverorum (Trier) to better control the northern border of the empire; Valens took care of the eastern part of the empire and set his residence in Constantinople, where he built amajor aqueduct.

Inscription on the entablature ofPortico degli Dei Consenti

The portico in Rome was restored in the dying days of paganism (367) by one of the most zealous representatives of the old faith, the Prefect of the City, Vettius Agorius Praetextatus. The inscription reads: deorum cONSENTIUM SACROSANCTA SIMVLACRA CVM OMNI LOci totius adornatioNE CVLTV IN formam antiquam restituto / vETTIVS PRAETEXTATVS · V · C · PRAefectus uRBI reposuit / CVRANTE LONGEIO . . . . . . . v · c · cONSVLARI
Christian Hulsen - The Roman Forum - Its History and Its Monuments - 1906
Meanwhile Praetextatus, who with high distinction acted as prefect of the city of Rome, through repeated acts of honesty and uprightness, for which he was famous from early youth, attained what rarely falls to a man's lot; for although he was feared by his fellow-citizens, he did not lose their love, which as a rule is apt to be less strong towards officials who are dreaded. (..) The fame of this illustrious ruler increased because of his many salutary measures. For he (..) separated from the sacred buildings the walls of private houses, which had been irreverently built against them. Ammianus Marcellinus
Valentinian was a Christian and with him this faith returned to the privileged status it had under Constantine and his sons, but his religious policy in favour of the Christians was carefully crafted to avoid losing the support of that part of the population and of the troops who still believed in other faiths.

Part of the inscription celebrating the restoration ofPonte Cestio; the red dots indicate the names of the Emperors Valentinian, Valens and Gratian, son of Valentinian and junior Augustus, preceded by Fl(avius) and followed by Pius; Flavius was a reference toConstantius Chlorus and toConstantine

For centuries the Romans had managed to contain the pressure of the Germanic tribes living beyond the Rhine/Danube line. In the IIIrd century tribes moved from Sweden towards the Black Sea; their nameGoths is generally attributed to the Swedish island of Gotland. They crossed the Danube in 263, but by 271 they were driven back: a part of them,Visigoths (Western Goths) settled inDacia (Romania), while other tribes returned towards today's Ukraine and were calledOstrogoths (Eastern Goths).
For nearly a century the Visigoths lived in relative peace with their Roman neighbours and they converted to the Christian faith in its Arian version. In the 370s the Visigoths asked permission to relocate south of the Danube intoMoesia (Bulgaria) because nomadic tribes (eventually known asHuns) from Asia had moved into Europe and had dislodged the Visigoths from their usual pasture areas.
In 376 Valens who had great difficulties in recruiting and paying enough soldiers to defend Syria from the attacks of the Sassanids, agreed to the Visigoths' request in the hope that they could provide him with cheap mercenary troops.
What was planned to be a controlled migration soon became an invasion as the Ostrogoths joined the Visigoths south of the Danube and also because behind the formidable barrier constituted by the river and the fortified towns on its right bank there was no other line of defence.
Very soon relations between the Goths and the locals became tense: the main towns ofMoesia andThracia (European Turkey) were raided and Constantinople was threatened. Valens returned from Syria to Constantinople, but rather than relying on thecity walls and on the fleet to smother the attack of the Goths, and to wait for help from his nephew Gratian who had succeeded Valentinan in 375, he decided to engage them. AtAdrianopolis (Edirne) in 378 the imperial troops were defeated and the emperor himself lost his life. These events were described in detail by Ammianus Marcellinus.
In the western part of the empire Emperor Valentinian I and after his death in 375 his elder son Gratian managed to control the pressure of hostile tribes along the Rhine border and maintained the control of the right bank of the Danube in Austria andHungary.

Theodosius

At the death of Valens in 378 Gratian (who shared the control of the western part of the empire with his half-brother Valentinian II, who was then a child of seven) appointed as co-emperor Theodosius,a general fromSpain who had a good knowledge of the lower Danube region, having commanded the Roman legions there for several years. Theodosius was charged with the containment of the Goths who had by now permanently settled south of the Danube. In 380 atThessalonica, at the initiative of Theodosius, a decree was issued by the three emperors which declared the Nicene Creed as it was professed by thePontiff Damasus and by Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, the state religion of the empire. The decree was the first to establish the primacy of the Bishop of Rome.

Inscription celebrating Emperors Gratian, Valentinian II and Theodosius for the restoration or construction of an unidentified building or monument (today nearBasilica Julia): DOMINIS OMNIUM GRATIANO VALENTINIANO ET THEODOSIO IMPERATORIB. AUG. / L. VAL. SEPT. BASS(us) V(ir) C(larissimus) PRAEF(ectus) URB(is) MAIESTATI EORUM DICATU(m)

Theodosius realized that he had not enough strength to drive the Visigoths out and so in 382 he signed afoedus (agreement) with them by which they were entitled to live and rule with their own laws in a territory within the borders of the empire: they did not have full citizen rights, but they could be part of the Roman army under the command of their own leaders. This agreement paved the way for the gradual dissolution of the Roman army and its replacement by mercenary troops.
In 383 Gratian was killed while trying to crush a rebellion by Magnus Maximus, commander of the Roman legions in Britain: for a few years there were three co-emperors: Valentinian II had the control of Italy and Africa, Theodosius that of the eastern provinces and Magnus Maximus ruled over Britain, Gaul and Spain.
In 387 Maximus made an attempt to invade Italy, but in 388 he was defeated and killed by Theodosius who then stayed for some years in Italy and in particular in Milan, where Ambrose, the local bishop, had a great influence on him to the point that Theodosius issued a series of decrees to actually implement the 380 Edict of Thessalonica. Valentinian II was formally re-instated in his role of Augustus, but he was almost confined atVienne.

Römisch-Germanischen Museum - Cologne: inscription celebrating the repair of a building by a local officer at the initiative of Arbogastes during the reigns of Emperor Theodosius (and his son Arcadius) and Emperor Eugenius. Assumed full text: "[Salvis domini]s et Imperatoribus nost/[ris Fl(avio) Theodo]sio Fl(avio) Arcadio et Fl(avio) Eugenio / [vetustat]e conlabsam(!) iussu viri cl(arissimi) / [et inl(ustris) Arboga]stis comitis et instantia v(iri) c(larissimi) / [co]mitis domesticorum ei(us) / [a fundament]is ex integro opere faciun/[dam cura]vit magister pr(ivatae?) Aelius"

In May 392 Valentinian II committed suicide or was killed at the instigation of Arbogastes, the commander of the legions in Gaul, who supported the appointment of Flavius Eugenius, an administrative officer of Roman birth, as the new co-emperor. Theodosius reacted and with an army mainly constituted of Visigoths and other tribes who had resettled in the Balkan peninsula he marched against Arbogastes, whose troops were still attached to the traditional beliefs.

Victoria and Albert (left) and British Museum (right): two ivory panels which belonged to the family of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus (345-402), a Roman senator who tried to preserve the ancient beliefs; they show a traditional sacrifice on an altar and the apotheosis of an emperor (or of Symmachus); the third panel showsBellerophon killing Chimera, a pagan myth which however Christians could see as the triumph of their faith

At theBattle of the River Frigidus in north-eastern Italy in September 394 Arbogastes was defeated and with him the last attempt of restoring the old religion. As a consequence the whole of Italy became Christian and the Visigoths resettled in today's Croatia and Hungary: Theodosius had managed to remove them away from Constantinople, but they were now at the doorstep of Italy.

Archaeological Museum of Ephesus: relief fromHadrian's Temple portraying Emperor Theodosius among the Olympian gods: (1) Arcadius, Theodosius' son; (2) Artemis; (3) Theodosius' wife; (4) Theodosius; (5) Athena; see Theodosius and his court on thepedestal of the obelisk he erected in the hippodrome of Constantinople

Theodosius mainly devoted his attention to Constantinople where he built theGolden Gate and severalother monuments. Notwithstanding his religious policy and belief, in Ephesus he was portrayed among the Olympian gods.

Honorius

In 395 Theodosius died leaving the throne to his two young sons Arcadius and Honorius. He placed Honorius (who was then ten) under the tutelage of Stilicho, a general who had helped him in raising the army with which he had defeated Arbogastes. Although Theodosius did not mean to split the empire, historians traditionally associate Arcadius and Honorius with its division into a Western Roman Empire ruled by Honorius and an Eastern Roman Empire ruled by Arcadius.
Stilicho managed to contain the threat of the Visigoths, who, led by King Alaric, had crossed the Alps in 402 and laid siege to Milan in February. Honorius, who had set his residence in Milan, had to move toRavenna which was protected by marshes and was more easily defensible. In April Stilicho forced the Visigoths to lift the siege and he defeated them at Pollentia in Piedmont.

(above)Porta Tiburtina: upper part of the gate with inscription celebrating Emperors Arcadius and Honorius; the reference to Stilicho was deleted by removing a group of stones (see asimilar, but complete, inscription at Porta Maggiore);(below) the same in a XXth century photograph when the letters of the inscription were painted to make them more visible

S. P. Q. R.
IMPP. CAESS. DD. NN. INVICTISSIMIS PRINCIPIBVSARCADIO ET HONORIO VICTORIBVS AC TRIVMPHATORIBVSSEMPER AVGG. OB INSTAVRATOS VRBI AETERNAE MVROSPORTAS AC TVRRES EGESTIS IMMENSIS RVDERIBVS EX
- (removed)SVGGESTIONE V[iri] C[larissimi] ET INLUSTRIS MILITISET MAGISTRI VTRIVSQ[ue] MILITIAE FL[avii] STILICONIS - AD PERPETVITATEM NOMINIS EORVM SIMVLACRA CONSTITVIT
- (removed) CVRANTE FL[avio] MACROBIO LONGINIANO V[iro] C[larissimo] - PRAEF[ecto] VRBIS D[evoto] N[umini] M[aiestati]Q[ue] EORVM

Between 401 and 403 Stilicho promoted the strengthening of the walls of Rome: some gates were closed, others were reduced in size or modified to form a sort of small castle, e.g.Porta Ostiensis. The height of the walls was almost doubled, but there were fewer platforms for placing catapults and other defence engines.
Stilicho's father was a Vandal, a Germanic tribe who had settled on the right bank of the Danube, and an Arian; he mainly relied on commanders having the same background and faith; his influence on Honorius raised the envy of members of the court and over time the Emperor himself got suspicious about his father-in-law (he had married Stilicho's daughter). Eventually in 408 Honorius relieved Stilicho from his duty and soon after the old general was killed. The officers and troops of Germanic origin were slain by the Italian components of the army: those who escaped asked Alaric to come to their rescue, thus the Visigoths crossed the Alps and without caring about Ravenna moved towards Rome. In September they stood outside its walls. Alaric eventually accepted to retreat and to allow supplies into the sieged city, but in 410 he was again surrounding Rome with his troops, after having razed some minor towns, e.g.Urbs Salvia, to the ground.
On August 24 Alaric and his Visigoths broke into the streets of Rome fromPorta Salaria and sacked the city for three days. They were searching for gold and silver and they found them in the pagan temples.

Foro Romano: (left) pedestal of a statue dedicated to Arcadius; (right) pedestal of a statue dedicated to Valens which was reused by Petronius Maximus, twice Praefectus Urbis (the first time in 421), and emperor for two months in 455. The reuse of the pedestal and most likely of the statues of the emperors is an indication of the conditions of Rome after the 410 sack

The Western Roman Empire collapsed during the reign of Honorius: in 406Germanic tribes crossed the Rhine and invaded Northern France and subsequentlySpain; theRoman legions abandoned Britain; the Visigoths, after having sacked for a second time Rome in 411 and having taken prisonerGalla Placidia, half-sister of Honorius, settled inSouthern France, where Ataulph, their new king, married Galla Placidia, with the approval of Honorius. The direct authority of Honorius at his death in 423 was limited to Italy andAfrica (Tunisia), where however arift between followers of the Nicene Creed and those of a local church led to widespread conflicts and destructions, e.g. atThamugadi andSufetula.
The faith in Rome and in its resurrection was not however totally lost: a Roman citizen from Southern France on his way back home in 415 wrote a poem on this subject which can be regarded as the best epitaph to the glory of Ancient Rome.

Read other excerpts from his poem in pages coveringCivitavecchia,Orbetello,Porto Ercole,Southern France andGaul.

British Museum: four ivory panels with Christian subjects dated 420-430. They were bought in Rome in ca 1850 by Gábor Fejérváry, a Hungarian collector of antiquities, in particular ivories. They show that Rome was still a manufacturing centre of luxury goods, notwithstanding its political decline

Fall of the Western Roman Empire

The official fall of the Western Roman Empire is traditionally set at the year 476 when Odoacer, the commander of the troops in control of Italy deposed Emperor Romulus Augustus and sent to Constantinople the imperial insignia.
The ten emperors who officially ruled the Western Roman Empire between the death of Honorius in 423 and 476 were just puppets in the hands of themagister militum, the commander of the army, usually of barbarian origin.

Pedestal of a statue to Aetius, "magister militum" with a lengthy inscription (discovered in 1937 near Curia Julia): To ...and not just master of the army in Gaul which he returned a short while ago to Roman rule through victories sworn in war and peace, master of both armies and consul for a second time and patrician, forever dear to the Commonwealth (res publica) and decorated with all military gifts. For him, on account of the security of Italy which he was outstanding in winning with the distant peoples, the Burgundians and Goths, subdued, conquered, and oppressed. By order of the princes, our lords Theodosius and Placidus Valentinian, forever Augusti. In the atrium of Peace, which its kinfolk erects, extends, and cares for by nature, the Senate and Roman People justly sets up a [gold?] statue for him upright in morals, receding from wealth, most despised by informers and enemies, vindicator of freedom, avenger of honour. (Oxford University transl.)

For twenty years (431-454) the strong man was Flavius Aetius, who having spent some years as hostage of the Huns, convinced some of their tribes to follow him in Italy. He initially managed to control his troops and with their help defeated the Visigoths and tried to regain control of Gaul. During this period Pope Sixtus III rebuilt S. Maria Maggiore anddecorated it with still existing mosaics.
In 451 Attila, leader of the Huns, invaded Gaul, but was repelled by Aetius and most probably while retreating towards its base in Hungary he raided northern Italy and razedAquileia to the ground. According to the Christian tradition at the River Po he met an embassy led by Pope Leo I. Attila was warned by Leo not to cross the river: the Pope's words and the miraculous vision in the sky of St. Paul and St. Peter threatening him with their swords convinced Attila not to go further. The image used as a background for this page shows Attila as portrayed by Alessandro Algardi in alarge relief.

A rare inscription celebrating Emperors Theodosius II and Valentinian III for the construction of a portico atPorto; it was placed by Flavius Alexander Cresconius, Praef(ectus) Ann(onae) Urb(is), i.e. the magistrate in charge of the grain supply to the City of Rome; the two emperors were first cousins and Valentinian married the daughter of Theodosius

Emperor Valentinian III, who was under the tutelage of his mother Galla Placidia for many years, personally killed Aetius in 454 at the court of Ravenna in what is considered to be his one and only fatal decision. In 455 he was assassinated in Rome by two bodyguards of Aetius.
Without Aetius' firm handling of the troops, Italy was left defenceless, but Ravenna was not at risk and it was embellished with new monuments, e.g. theBaptistery of Neon. In 455, shortly after the death of Valentinian III, Genseric, head of the Vandals, a Germanic tribe he had led to the conquest of Africa (Tunisia), landed atOstia and easily conquered Rome. The sack which followed was so damaging that it granted the Vandals such a reputation that their name became a synonym for deliberate destruction.
Rome greatly relied upon supplies from Africa and so Ricimer, the strong man who had replaced Aetius, devoted his efforts at trying to regain control of that province. He eventually became an ally of the Vandals and in 472, when one of the puppet emperors rebelled, he occupied and sacked the city. He died shortly afterwards in what was seen as a curse which had already caused the death of Alaric soon after his conquest of Rome. He most likely promoted the construction ofS. Agata dei Goti for the Arians living in Rome.
In 476 Odoacer, head of the barbarian troops who were the main part of the imperial army, rebelled and conquered Ravenna. He chose not to rule through puppet emperors and after having deposed Emperor Romulus Augustus (an adolescent and maybe even a child) he sent back to Constantinople the imperial insignia and in return he was appointeddux Italiae by Zeno, the Eastern Roman Emperor, who thus became the theoretical ruler of a reunified Roman Empire. Italy seemed set on the path which eventually turned the kingdoms established by Germanic rulers in the former Roman provinces into some of the European nations (e.g. France and Spain).

Rostra Vandalica

The last Roman victory was celebrated in 470 by adding a small wall to theRostra where the Romans used to place the bronze beaks of enemy ships. A modest inscription bearing the name of Ulpius Giunius Valentinus,Praefectus Urbis, celebrated a naval fight against the Vandals which most likely had meant some more regular supplies for the still large population of Rome.

Iconography

The following links show works of art portraying characters and events mentioned in this page; they open in another window:
Ambrose and Theodosius by Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641).
Ambrose converting Theodosius by Pierre Subleyras.
Pope Leo and Attila by Raphael - 1514.
Attila - Opera by Giuseppe Verdi - 1846.

Next page: Part II: Medieval Rome
I - Byzantine Rome

Previous pages: Part I: Ancient Rome:
I - The Foundation and the Early Days of Rome
II - The Early Republican Period
III - The Romans Meet the Elephants
IV - Expansion in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea
V - Pompey and Caesar
VI - Augustus
VII - From Tiberius to Nero
VIII - The Flavian Dynasty
IX - From Nerva to Marcus Aurelius
X - A Century of Turmoil (180-285)
XI - From Diocletian to Constantine