Goth Sack of Rome

In his Wars (De Bellis), Procopius shares an extraordinary tale about Emperor Honorius, who allegedly heard about the plunder of Rome from his poultry keeper. First, Honorius misunderstood the report because he also had a huge rooster that bore the same name as that of the city. Therefore, the central element of the tale is the misunderstanding between the emperor and his eunuch about the name "Rome." However, the structural features of Procopius' work-the rooster and its keeper together-form a narrative in which a fowl and Rome were not two entities but one. The possibility of being a monarch ruling over the Eastern and the Western sides of the empire, his aim guarded by the keeper, could have worried Honorius. This paper aims to reveal the historical event behind Procopius' tale and its circumstances, that is, a meeting in mid-January 409 when Rome's first siege was reported to Honorius by Terentius, who had taken an active part in securing the emperor's prospective reign. It was in vain because Honorius was blinded by the possibility of becoming a monarch from the moment when he received the report of Arcadius' death.

In our days we tend to think of conspiracy theories as a predominantly modern concept, which expanded widely during the Cold War and we often underestimate their influence in the public Logos, classifying them as pseudo-history and product of collective illusion. However the occasional unexpected course of politics and the accidental events which might occur only make conspiracies to appear even more attractive, turning them to self-fulfilling prophecies. The term ‘conspiracy’ and its context in the ‘modern’ sense (i. e. a ‘secret’ conspiracy that threatens the existence of a society)was firstly introduced by the fourth century historian Ammianus Marcellinus in order to describe what seemed to be a barbarian collaboration to invade and pillage the north-western Roman provinces in 367 AD. Therefore in order to explain this supposed barbarian collaboration against Rome, he coined the term Conspiratio Barbarica.  Half a century later the Roman authorities and the populus Romanus felt that they were facing the combined forces of an external threat and a collaborating enemy within. The gradual rise and influence of men of (semi)barbarian origin in the army and Court and the increase and effectiveness of barbarian raids and invasions became a great concern causing people to start searching for answers beyond the field of the Obvious or the effectiveness of the of the late Roman modus gubernandi, concluding in their fear and anxiety that the only explanation was that someone from within had invited the barbarians in order to destroy Rome. In such a time of uncertainty and insecurity, the manufacturing of invisible intruders and traitors of the Romanitas in the collective imagination was almost inevitable. This paper will attempt to examine the rise and influence of conspiracy theories among the late Roman elites and people and will highlight all those conditions and factors that made those theories so appealing and attractive as an interpretation and explanation of the Late Roman Realities.

This paper intends to show the active participation of the
Augustan Aelia Gala Placidia on the politics of her time and the
autonomy she enjoyed when making her most important
decisions during her youth, first in Rome and later on during her
marriage with Ataulfus. Furthermore, free collaboration and the
influence of Placidia in Autaulfus’ project to govern part of the
Western Empire are highlighted as ways to move away from her
brother’s Honorius politics and to

This dissertation argues that martial virtues and images of the soldier’s life represented an essential aspect of early Byzantine masculine ideology. It contends that in many of the visual and literary sources from the fourth to the seventh centuries CE, conceptualisations of the soldier’s life and the ideal manly life were often the same. By taking this stance, the dissertation challenges the view found in many recent studies on Late Roman masculinity that a Christian ideal of manliness based on extreme ascetic virtues and pacifism had superseded militarism and courage as the dominant component of hegemonic masculine ideology.

When Rome fell under the siege of Alaric, king of the Goths, the capture of the emperor’s sister was one of the most shameful consequences. Galla Placidia remained captive of the Goths for six years; during that time she got married with Alaric’s successor, Athaulf, and conceived a son, Theodosius, who died within a few months. Shortly after the assassination of her husband, Placidia was returned to her brother to see herself obliged to get married with general Constancius, with whom she had the future emperor Valentinianus III. Over the next few years, Placidia was confronted with the death of her second husband, the exile as a consequence of the disagreements with her brother and Joannes’ usurpation to, fi nally, see her son sitting on the throne. The chronicles of the time portrayed her as a woman with an iron will, tenacious and ambitious; an image that
we aim to analyse.

Organized by Pierre Jaillette, with the collaboration of Stephane Benoist and Dominic Moreau.

Keynote speaker : Umberto Roberto (Università Europea di Roma).

Other speakers : Javier Arce (Université de Lille 3 - SHS), Stephane Benoist (Université de Lille 3 - SHS), Alain Chauvot (Université de Strasbourg), Pierre Jaillette (Université de Lille 3 - SHS), Charles Mériaux (Université de Lille 3 - SHS), Dominic Moreau (Université de Lille 3 - SHS).