Ravenna, the midwife of Europe

[AndreaConti]

About

During the holidays, I was lucky enough to read an interesting essay, Ravenna, by Judith Herrin, which puts the historical role of this city in the right light. Inspired by the opera, I'm trying to jot down a timeline. Three things: not being a native speaker, please forgive my grammatical errors. Not being an expert on late antiquity, suggestions and corrections are welcome. Finally, I will post quite rarely, since I'm busy carrying on my Florio ASB and helping my daughter in writing her fanfiction.

This book, together with the Treccani encyclopaedia and other texts that I will quote along the way, are the primary and reworked sources of this attempt at Timeline

01: The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony

The book that has shaped the contemporary vision of the historical revolution that takes place in the fifth century is perhaps Peter Brown's The World of Late Antiquity: AD 150–750, which with its vibrant pages has spread, in the common reader, the concept of late antiquity . Perhaps an inaccurate concept, because it inextricably links this period to an idea of decline, of antiquarian citation, melancholy and nostalgia for the past: feelings which, after all, are also common in our postmodern culture. [1]

Yet, the fifth century was above all a time of great innovations and changes: with Augustine of Hippo modern theology was born and the genre of autobiography developed, Roman law was codified, ecclesiastical canon law was born and the religious plurality that characterizes Europe, founded on the concept of tolerance.

Changes that the men of the fifth century were aware of, whatever their origin, Latin, Greek, Goth or Germanic. Proof is the inscription that headed the entrance of the Pandidakterion of Rome, [2] founded by Anicius Severus [3] in 457, imitating what was done by Elia Eudocia in 425, who thus reported

"Flee, old age, surrender to the arrival of new times"

Therefore this era should be, more correctly, defined as Paleochristian: the fundamental difference with the classical age, following Maxentius, Galerius and Constantine, the Empire was no longer pagan, but Christian. The foreigners, the barbarians, thanks to their conversion to the various variants of Christianity, managed, albeit in a chaotic and convulsive way, to integrate into the administrative structure and imperial culture.

The primary role in this complex project of cultural fusion was played by Galla Placidia, who was taken as a hostage by Alaric's Goths after the sack of Rome, so that she could act as a pawn in the complex negotiations with Honorius and Flavius Constantius. Probably, the princess, who played a marginal role in the imperial court, would never have imagined spending more than three years in the chariots of the Goths, in a continuous movement from one place to another, with her future perpetually uncertain.

Galla followed the Visigoths to Campania, where she met Paulinus of Nola, [4] who in the future will have a fundamental role in mediating between Galla Placidia and the Iberian and Gallic ecclesiastical hierarchies: she witnessed the storm of Rhegion, which sank the badly organized fleet of the Goths, defeat of the Goths by Flavius Costantius near Scolacium, [5] and the death of Alaric from malaria near present-day Cosenza. According to what Jordanes recounts in De origine actibusque Getarum, the conqueror of Rome was buried with his treasures in the bed of the Busento river, at the convergence with the Crati; to allow this singular burial he resorted to the arms of hundreds of slaves who provided for a momentary diversion of the river's waters, and who, once the work was completed, were ferociously killed so that the undertaking remained secret.

Yet, Anicius Severus, in the Res Gestae Getarum, [6] simply tells that

"The body of Alaric was cremated, according to the customs of his people and his relatives, singing a funeral hymn, scattered his ashes in the river, so that, as if dead, he was as free as when alive"

Again Anicius Severus, in the Private Commentaries, [7] recalls how his friend Guilfridus [8] had once sung him the funeral hymn of Atalaric, of which he reports a fragment, obviously translated into Latin.

Gloomy in the night songs sound
from Costanzia on the Busento,
gloomy the river murmurs him
from its sleepy whirlpool.
Up and down the river they pass
and slow shadows pass over:
Alaric the Goths weep
the great dead of their lineage [9]

So it is probable that the story of the funeral is nothing more than a figment of Jordanes imagination. Galla then witnessed the Goths appointing Athaulf, who according to both Anicius Severus and the Fragmenta historicorum graecorum, Volume 4, was a brother-in-law of Alaric. Now according to the chronicle of the bishop Idatius, Galla Placidia intervened directly in the assembly of the Goths, to support Athaulf: something that appears very improbable. More realistic is what Anicius Severus recounts, in the Private Commentaries, in which the princess limited herself to making agreements with the pro-Roman faction of the Goths: in exchange for her release, she would have supported the negotiations with Honorius.

The Chronicon Albeldense and Jordanes report that Athaulf married Galla Placidia at Foro Iuli Aemiliae in 411, [10] and then continued towards Gaul: however, given that the high sources of the time, including Anicius Severus, do not mention it, we can consider it as a sort of narrative invention, also because the immediate actions of the Gothic king suggest everything, except a desire to find a compromise with the court of Ravenna.

In the spring of 412, in fact, Athaulf led, closely followed by Flavius Costantius, his people to Gaul, passing through the military road that from Turin led to the Rhone river through the Monginevro hill. Priscus Attalus also followed him, another usurper of the imperial title, who had been elevated to the office by Alaric and then deposed for the first time in 410.

Choice, due not only to the need not to die of hunger and not to be trapped by the imperial army, but also to the political chaos of those provinces: after the defeat and death of Constantine III, the Rhenish troops proclaimed Jovinus emperor, who was immediately supported by the Gallo-Roman nobility and by the Burgundians and the Alans, eager for booty. Saro the goth, one of Stilicho's generals, an intelligent and unscrupulous man, eager for revenge against Honorius, had put himself at the service of Jovinus, obtaining the title of magister militum. [11]

Athaulf had the goal of using Jovinus as a puppet, considered more easily manipulated and less stubborn than Honorius, in order to grant the coveted lands to the Goths; to do this, he first had to reduce Saro's influence, then somehow bind the secessionist emperor to himself. According to Anicius Severus, to increase the legitimacy of Jovinus , the Gothic king was tempted, to achieve this goal, to propose marriage to Galla Placidia. Jovinus, however, was far from foolish. For which, in addition to rejecting the marriage proposal, he ordered Saro to eliminate Athaulf with a conspiracy, organized together with the more traditionalist faction of the Goths, who however was warned of the intrigue by a deserter from the rival army, according to the Fragmenta historicorum graecorum, and with 10,000 men, faced in battle, defeated and killed the enemy general

Here too we have two different versions: the first is that of Jordanes, who claims that Saro had just twenty-eight men with him and despite this, he fought like a lion. The other, more realistic, is that of Anicius Severus and Cassiodorus [12], who both speak of 2,800 soldiers. Since both sources were consulted by Jordanes, it is probable that the number of the De origine actibusque Getarum was an oversight by the copyist, which was then handed down over time.

After the elimination of Saro, Jovinus had to make the best of a bad situation, appointing Athaulfas his Magister Militum, which among other things, caused a defection among his ranks: both the Alans and the Burgundians changed sides, passing on the side of Honorius. In particular, the Burgundians were recognized by Honorius as foederati on the west bank of the Rhine, to eventually be used as a pawn against the Goths.

With Athaulf's support, Jovinus expanded his territory into southeastern Gaul; on that occasion, he decided to appoint his brother, Sebastianus, co-emperor, without first consulting the Gothic king, who, having seen the previous ones, suspected that Jovinus wanted to organize a new conspiracy against him. To avoid future problems, Athaulf decided to make an agreement with Claudius Postumus Dardanus, prefect of the praetorium in Gaul and the only high official remaining loyal to Honorius in those provinces. The Goths, in exchange for food, gold and land, killed the two usurpers and returned Galla Placidia to Ravenna. Sebastianus was immediately defeated and killed. Jovinus took refuge in Valence, where he was besieged and captured by Athaulf. Sent from Narbonne by Dardanus, he was put to death together with his loyalists, the prefect of the praetorium Decimius Rusticus and the head of his secretariat Agroezius. The heads of Jovinus and Sebastianus reached the court of Honorius in August 413 and from there sent to Carthage, to be displayed on the city walls together with those of other usurpers. [13] As usual, Honorius did not respect his word: for once, in his defense, there was Heraclian's revolt in Africa and his subsequent invasion of Italy, which made it difficult to find the grain destined for the Goths.

Tired of being taken for a ride, Athaulf decided to imitate his predecessor Alaric, engaging in a showdown with the Empire. As a first move, he put Marseille under siege, with a dual purpose: to prevent the imperial fleet from carrying out a naval blockade, which would have led the Goths to starvation and to have, with control of the port, an instrument of pressure on the Gallo-Roman nobility. A project which however quickly went up in smoke: Marseilles was defended tooth and nail by Comes Bonifacius, who according to what Cassiodorus recounts, during a sortie challenged the Gothic king to a duel, seriously wounding him: Anicius Severus, whose career was due to protection of Flavius Castinus, [14] elegantly glosses over the episode. Following the defeat, Ataulf changed plans, invading Aquitaine, thus occupying Toulouse, Bordeaux and Narbonne.

This success, however, had a very different effect from the planned one: instead of forcing Honorius to negotiate, he convinced him to put an end to the Gothic threat once and for all: he gave Flavius Costantius carte blanche to organize a punitive expedition, to force the surrender the pernicious barbarians. Faced with this threat, Athaulf played one of the last cards he had left: in 414, at the age of about forty, he married the twenty-two-year-old Galla Placidia with Roman ceremonial with the aim of convincing Honorius with good manners, given that the bad ones had failed, to recognize the Goths as allies without losing face. Furthermore, marriage seemed the way to solve the problem of dynastic succession due to the emperor's lack of heirs; any son of Athaulf would have been Roman emperor and king of the Goths at the same time, thus favoring integration between the elites of the two peoples.

The wedding was celebrated on January 1, 414, in Narbonne, in the suburban villa of the noble and wealthy Ingenius. Thanks to Olympiodorus, a native of Thebes and of pagan faith, we have a lively description of the wedding ceremony: the historian, Greek-speaking and ambassador by profession, known for always carrying with him on his travels a parrot that could sing, dance and many other things, something useful to impress the barbarian leaders, he says

Placidia, in her royal clothes, sat in a room decorated in the Roman manner, with the walls covered with frescoes and the floors inlaid with precious marbles; at her side was Athaulf, wearing a general's cloak and a gold cingulum militiae, decorated with pearls and precious stones and other Roman clothes of precious purple silk. Among the gifts that the king gave to his wife were fifty young men dressed in silk, each of whom held up two very large dishes, one filled with gold and the other with priceless precious stones, which had been taken during the sack of Rome.

Which testifies to the groundlessness of the rumors about the riches with which Alaric was buried in Cosenza. The epithalamii were then declaimed: the first to sing the wedding song was the ex-emperor Priscus Attalus, followed by Rusticus and Febadius. The Goths, with this marriage, wanted to demonstrate all their commitment to respect Roman uses and customs: Galla Placidia, on the other hand, recognized the role of the Goths, attempting with marriage to exercise her political influence over them. The marriage, but Olympiodorus' description might be biased given his beliefs, followed traditional Roman procedures throughout, in which Christianity played no role, although Galla Placidia was of Nicean obedience and Athaulf Arian. Weddings, in fact, form the basis of our current civilization, based on the synthesis of Gothic and Roman traditions.

As further evidence of this political will, the poor Cyprianus Gallus[15] was forced by the Goths to forcibly abandon his main activity, the paraphrase in verse of the books of the Old Testament, and to devote himself to writing a celebratory poem, entitled

The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony [16]

If this wedding was the last occasion in which the gods of Olympus sat down to table with men, those of Athaulf and Galla Placidia, on the other hand, would bring the earth back to the golden age.

Given the result, we can say that Cyprianus Gallus did not put too much effort into carrying out the commission: but despite the evident reluctance with which he wrote the verses, Cassiodorus recounts that Athaulf rewarded him with a golden cup full of precious stones, which the poet sold, to donate all the money to the poor.

The political calculation of Athaulf and perhaps of Galla Placidia did not take into account the fact that Honorius was a man of few opinions, but decided: at the time, his basic and dominant principle was

"The only good goth is the dead one"

This did not allow him to understand that part of the will of the Goths was nothing more than to be accepted as confederates in the Roman system of government and that their elites only wanted to enter the senatorial ranks. Therefore, the emperor gave orders to Flavius Costantius to continue with his preparations. First, the Roman general blocked the Gallic ports, as Athaulf had feared, forcing the Goths into starvation, a move to which Athaulf, full of annoyance, responded by appointing Priscus Attalus [17] for the second time as usurper, in the hope of dividing the Roman camp .

A move that had no concrete result: Flavius Costantius began his military campaign, about which we have vague information, but which probably did not go brilliantly for the Goths, given that Athaulf had to flee to Tarraconense, occupying Barcelona, a city where, at the end of 414 o at the beginning of 415, the eldest son of the Gothic king and Galla Placidia was born, who, according to the Roman tradition, was given the name of Theodosius, in honor of his maternal grandfather. In this way, Galla Placidia presented her son as the herald of the new era of union between the Goths and the Romans, while Athaulf proclaimed his intention to restore the Roman empire in Gothic forms, over which Theodosius would reign.

Politically, the birth of Theodosius would have forced Honorius to recognize the ability of the Goths to support the empire, integrating themselves into its administration, improving their status: to favor this, according to what Cassiodorus recounts, Athaulf immediately sent an embassy to Ravenna, claiming willing to adopt Latin as the official language of the Gothic administration and to convert his people to the Nicean version of Christianity.

There are different versions of what happened afterwards, from the recovery of Theodosius' illness to the failure of the conspiracy of Sigeric, Saro's brother.[18] The official version of the Empire is probably that of the Res Gestae Getarum, in which Anicius Severus writes

"Emperor Theodosius, either due to his strong fiber or the loving care of his mother, recovered from the sudden illness, also thanks to the intercession of Saint Martin of Tours, to whom Augusta was very devoted; the same saint protected the magister militum and king Athaulf, noble heir of the Balti lineage"

But Anicius Severus, who was as fond of gossip as Procopius, knew a few more details, which he describes in the Private Commentaries, which we must remember, were initially intended for his family. The first is that Theodosius was treated by a Syriac doctor named Sergius, the second that it was Guilfridus's grandfather, a scutarium named Ademountus, who protected Ataulfo from Sigeric's stabs, which gave way to the fortunes of his family.

Obviously, Jordanes embroidered on both news, transforming them into anecdotes, for the amusement of the court of Constantinople; the third source, the least credible, is the bios of San Theodorus of Rhegion, [19] which is perhaps the archetype of all the agiogaphies of the Calabrian Byzantine saints. According to the story, Saint Basil the Great appeared in a vision to the hermit, who lived in the hermitage of Pentadattilos, who almost forced him to go by sea to Barcelona.

After a multitude of miracles performed during the sea voyage, [20] in which the saint calmed storms, sank pirate ships and drove away sea monsters with the sole force of prayer, he arrived in the Hispanic city, healed Theodosius and blinded Sigeric and his spatarium with a blessing Dubio, who mistook a column for Athaulf, breaking his bones trying to stab it. As icing on the cake, after so many miracles, the Gothic king made amends for his sins, returned all the looted goods to Roman monasteries and churches and converted to the Nicean creed.

This source, even more imaginative than Jordane's stories, was considered totally unreliable, until recent archaeological excavations showed the correspondence between what emerged and the description of Athaulf's palace: the author of the bios probably had to refer to a source , the X, to date unknown and lost.

Now, if it cannot be excluded that there is a foundation in the history of the Syriac doctor, net of all the embellishments introduced by Jordanes, for the conspiracy it is immediate to think that the pro-Roman faction of the Goths would not have renounced the possible benefits due to the eventual appeasement of Honorius, for the desire for revenge and the personal ambitions of Saro's brother.

---

[1] Tribute to the incipit of the book that inspired the Timeline
[2] One of many OTL variations
[3] Invented character, who will occasionally appear in history. Imagine him as a sort of gossipy and pedantic historian, vaguely inspired by Procopius of Caesarea
[4] ITL the theologian will have a longer life
[5] OTL where this battle in Calabria actually took place is a mystery. I based, for narrative reasons, ITL on the hypotheses of Rosario Savoia, contained in the book "Topography of Late Ancient Brutium"
[6] one of the pseudobiblions that will appear in the story
[7] Another pseudobiblion
[8] Another invented character, consider him as the archetype of the goth of good stock, who tries in every way to integrate and be accepted by the Roman senatorial class
[9] For those who know Italian literature, it is a simplified passage from a poem by Giosuè Carducci
[10] The current city of Forli: some authors claim that this marriage was celebrated, however according to the Arian rite
[11] It is probable that OTL the events are much more complex and that the chronologies of Constantine III and of Jovinus partially overlap. For narrative reasons, ITL have chosen the old hypothesis of Alfredo Carraggi, which greatly simplifies the chronology
[12] ITL the Historia Gothica is not lost
[13] To make my life easier in this chaos, I quoted part of Treccani's voice
[14] that OTL was Bonifacius's political protector
[15] OTL poet also existed... Obviously the story I'm telling is purely ITL
[16] Quotation of the title of a splendid book by Roberto Calasso, which narrates the Greek myths
[17] Priscus Attalus, who must have been a nice rogue, OTL was captured by Flavius Constantius, sent to Ravenna to participate in the triumph of Honorius over the Goths and instead of being impaled or quartered, he saved the pellaccia and was sent into exile on the island of Lipari .... ITL will continue to do damage!
[18] We have arrived at PoD!
[19] Totally invented saint, which however reflects all the standard characteristics of the Calabrian Byzantine saints
[20] The Calabrian saints are known for the quantity of miracles that are attributed to them (as a curiosity, take a look at the biography of San Francesco di Paola, who is a sort of record holder in this field)

 

[Kellan Sullivan]

interesting start

 

[LordCalner]

Watched

 

[AndreaConti]

02 A compromise is always more expensive than any of the solutions it mediates

Honorius,[1] objectively, does not enjoy a good reputation. The fault lies with the philogothic historical tradition, which attempted to denigrate this emperor in every possible way. If Cassiodorus did it with elegance, giving voice to the facts and highlighting his political limits, his followers, on the other hand, concentrated, taking the Historia Augusta [2] as a model, on gossip, often invented from scratch. More than historians, they were moralists, short-sighted chroniclers, partisans interested in denigrating this or that character. Even Procopius of Caesarea, who rises head and shoulders above them, indulges in this defect, inventing the famous anecdote, which states that Honorius loved to spend his days feeding and taking care of his hens that roamed freely around the building. Procopius adds that when a messenger brought him the news that Rome had fallen, Honorius replied:

But how, if he pecked out of my hand just a while ago!

alluding to his favorite hen, which he christened Rome. Tale taken from the Anglic historian Gibbon, whose "History of the Roman Empire" [3] must be read more on its literary merits, being a perfect example of the witty, brilliant, decidedly rococo style, with large, opulent swirls of phrase and glittering adjectives and adverbs, for actual historiographical content. Gibbon thus describes Honorius

His subjects, who carefully studied the character of their young ruler, learned that Honorius was without passions, and consequently without qualities, and that his weak and languid nature was equally incapable of fulfilling the duties of his rank and of enjoying the pleasures of society. his age. In his early youth he made some profit in the exercises of riding and archery; but soon he abandoned these strenuous activities and poultry farming became the serious and daily occupation of the monarch of the West

The predecessors of Honorius used to enliven by their example, or at least by their presence, the valor of the legions, but the son of Theodosius passed the sleep of his life as a prisoner in his palace, a stranger in his own country, and patient and almost indifferent spectator to the progressive erosion of his power.

His contemporaries are not so sarcastic. Anicius Severus commends his extraordinary determination in pursuing his goals, the patience in weaving his plans and in enduring the adverse blows of Fate and the extraordinary attention with which he followed the infinite details connected with the management of the Empire. It was he, for example, who wanted the first draft, then revised and completed by Theodosius III, of the Notitia dignitatum et administrationum omnium tam civilium quam militarium, [4] in order to rationalize as much as possible the civilian and military management of the Empire.

Always Anicius Severus, in the Private Commentaries, thus defines Honorius

"He lacked neither ideas, nor value, nor principles, to which he always adhered, like a Roman of ancient times. What he lacked was not luck, but the ability to understand that times were changing and that new problems required new solutions. His tragedy is that he was born in the wrong time: he would have liked to live with Scipio, but he was next to Flavius Costantius".

So Honorius was not a genius, the challenges he faced would have put a strain on Caesar, Augustus and Trajan, but neither would an absent and incompetent emperor. Many of the problems the Empire encountered were not due to his absence, but to his wanting to control everything, focusing on particulars of him, rather than on the big picture and on the ideas and principles he held true to.

Despite Honorius' warlike intentions, Flavius Constantius had, due to the military disasters of the years preceding his accession, a limited number of troops at his disposal, however well trained. However he had well understood how the fundamental problem of the Goths, linked to the nomadic life they had in previous years, which made it impossible for them to cultivate the land, was in the lack of food. Had he cut off their supplies, the Goths would have starved and with a little patience, they would have been easy to defeat and subdue. Therefore, repeating what was done in 414 in Gaul, he imposed a naval blockade, before starting his campaign in Northern Spain. In parallel, probably without warning Honorius, that otherwise, he would have wanted his head on a silver platter, he made contact with the Silingi Vandals and the Alans, to stipulate an anti-Gothic alliance with them. If successful, he would allow them to settle as foederati (allies of the Empire) in Gaul, where they would obtain lands to cultivate. A move that served to punish the Gallo-Roman nobility that in previous years, to save what could be saved, had found a compromise with the Goths: the news reached beyond the Pyrenees, determining the future political decisions of the senatorial class, which will influence subsequent events.

Anicius Severus, who in his historical works obviously depicts Flavius Costantius as the villain of the situation, insinuates in the Res Gestae Getarum how the magister militum, in order to respect the agreement, decided, in the event of a possible victory against the Goths, to depose and kill Honorius and marry Galla Placidia, to wear the imperial purple. To save appearances, he would adopt Theodosius, who would then be killed in a fake accident.

Athaulf, aware of the moves of Flavius Costantius, tried to anticipate it, taking up Alaric's old idea, i.e. transferring the Goths to Africa, occupying the provinces from which came the grain for Rome and the main proceeds for the imperial coffers. Threatening to block both, Honorius probably would have returned to mild advice, accepting both the marriage with Galla Placidia and the birth of Theodosius. But fate turned against Athaulf's plan. The makeshift Gothic fleet was wrecked in a storm on its way from Gibraltar, which could not be completed because Flavius Constantius, initially taken by surprise by Athaulf's audacious move, had sent a military detachment to occupy the Pillars of Hercules, at which the comes Bonifacius was placed in command. As in Marseilles, the comes proved to be the black beast of Athaulf, who, given the precedents, avoided crossing swords with Bonifacius.

In short, everything would have gone according to Honorius' plans, if Galla Placidia had not intervened, ready to defend her position as queen of the Goths and mother of the probable future emperor of the Romans tooth and nail. While Athaulf tried to resolve the issue with arms, Galla, worthy daughter of Theodosius, concentrated on politics, trying to gather all those who, for one reason or another, were hostile to Honorius.

The first faction to side with Galla Placidia, thanks to the rich donations of 415, which were financed thanks to Athaulf's wedding presents and therefore, indirectly, by the Sack of Rome, was that of the Gallo-Roman ecclesiastical hierarchy, which saw in its daughter of Theodosius also a sort of shield against the looting of the Arian Goths and an instrument to favor their conversion to Nicean Christianity. If the first result was obtained, the second was far from being achieved. Galla Placidia, though a fervent Nicean, was pragmatic enough to understand that any religious division in the Goth camp would hurt her cause. The role of Paulinus of Nola was fundamental in the mediation between Galla Placidia and the Gallic ecclesiastical hierarchies: in addition to the letters addressed to the Gallo-Roman bishops, partially cited in their histories by Anicius Severus and Cassiodorus, the same theologian repeatedly cites the his relations with Gallia Placidia in his correspondence with Augustine of Hippo and with Sofronio Eusebio Girolamo.

The second faction was that of the senatorial class of Gaul, which had a long list of complaints against Ravenna. Honorius was accused of not having adequately defended the prefecture of Gaul, of questioning local autonomy, due to his propensity for administrative control and centralization, which had led the senatorial class to support the separatist motions of Constantine III and Jovinus , and the most heartfelt argument for the Gallic elite, namely tax reform. Following the disasters of the previous years, the imperial budgets were close to the abyss and this made it difficult to keep the armies of Flavius Constantius in the field and finance their campaigns. To solve this problem, on 24 January 414, Honorius annulled all previous tax exemption or reduction decrees, while in 415 he annulled all the tax privileges of the wealthier classes, with this justification

The emperors of previous ages... granted such privileges to people of illustrious rank in the opulence of an era of plenty, without this entailing disaster for other landowners... In present difficulties, however, this practice becomes not only unfair but also ... impossible. [5]

In 416, to finance the final stages of the campaign against the Goths, Honorius seemed to be intent on introducing a new tax on land ownership, which would have further damaged senatorial interests; to this were added the rumors about the promises of lands to the barbarians made by Flavius Costantius, which increased the fears of the Gallo-Roman elites towards the politics of Ravenna

The Gallic senators, looking for a compromise, initially sent a delegation to Ravenna, led by a very particular character, Paulinus of Pella, a free thinker, follower of Lucretius and Epicurus, who was excommunicated by both the Niceans and the Arians, for the his heterodox views on atomism, free will and the eternity of the World. [6]

Paulinus had been appointed Comes rerum privatarum by Priscus Attalus, in his second usurpation attempt: thanks to this assignment, purely symbolic, given that all power was in Gothic hands, he managed to obtain the esteem of Galla Placidia. However, the Goths, leaving Bordeaux, by command of Athaulf, set the whole city on fire and plundered all the possessions of Paulinus; as a result, I change sides again, taking the side of Honorius. To demonstrate his loyalty to the new cause, he led the defense of the city of Bazas, which was besieged by a horde of Goths and Alans and at the same time within the walls, faced a servile revolt.

Paulinus of Pella, personally going outside the walls to deal with the enemy, managed to push the Alans to defect, passing on the side of the defenders; the Alans therefore entered the city and contributed to its defense against the Goths, who were forced to lift the siege, testifying to his political ability and oratory ability. Counting on this and on the merits acquired, the Gallic senators were certain of the success of the mission. Among other things, thanks to Anicius Severus, we have a fragment of the oration held before Honorius

Meanwhile the poor are robbed, the widows groan... causing many, even people of good birth and liberal education, to seek shelter with the enemy to escape the... general persecution. They look to the barbarians for Roman mercy, because they could not bear the barbarous lack of mercy they found among the Romans. ... The result is that those who have not taken refuge with the barbarians are now forced to be barbarians themselves; and this is the case with the great majority of Hispanics, no small proportion of Gaul, and…all those in the Roman world whose Roman citizenship has been nullified by Roman extortion. [7]

Honorius already didn't like dealing with anyone who disputed his ideas about him, especially if they were a turncoat: then, on the need for money for the Empire, he wasn't willing to compromise. Therefore, not only did the embassy of the Gallic senators resolve with nothing, but Paulinus, in order not to be arrested, had to flee Ravenna during the night, disguised, according to Cassiodorus' testimony, as a fisherman.

Faced with the refusal of any compromise, the Gallo-Roman nobility had to turn to Galla Placidia, thanks to the mediation of Paulinus: the daughter of Theodosius, in exchange for their support, promised, in the event of an agreement with Honorius, to engage in the revision of the tax legislation .

The agreement with the church and the Gallic Roman senatorial class was providential for the Goths, who, in order to survive, had begun to buy from the Vandals Hasdingi, who were playing a double game with Athaulf and Flavius Costantius, to ally themselves with the winner of the war wheat at an exorbitant price of a gold coin for each trula [8] of wheat (and for this reason the Asdingi Vandals began to nickname the Goths "truli"). In fact, the Church and the Senators began to supply Galla Placidia with loads of grain at a reduced price, which were distributed to the Goths, increasing the authority of Theodosius I's daughter among them.

The third faction, somewhat unexpected, consisted of a part of the by now very limited circle of the great Roman senatorial families, which despite the sack of the city, had preserved and increased its very high levels of wealth produced by land rents, and on a social level had consolidated and the image of a senatorial order more legitimized than ever - as a depositary, by divine will, of the semina virtutum and, therefore, of that 'morality' which made it the "light of the world" and "the best part of mankind".

This awareness drove her to want to take back the government's reins, at the cost of entering into conflict with Ravenna. The issue, which divided the Roman senatorial nobility was over what should be done, in the unlikely event that this goal was achieved. Everyone agreed on the need for the capital of the Empire to return to Rome: the majority of senators, despite their bad relationship with Honorius, shared his views on the need to restore the mos maiorum. A minority instead had positions similar to those of Galla Placidia.

In addition to political reasons, the division was also probably linked to family dynamics: the traditionalist faction was led by Petronius Maximus Anicius, [9] who was the head of the main branch of the gens Anicia, while the philogoths were led by Anicius Probus, [10] grandfather of the historian Anicius Severus , which did not enjoy a good reputation among the Roman plebs. First, unlike Petronius, who had paid 4,000 pounds of gold, the average income of a Roman senator, to finance the games at the Circus Maximus to celebrate his appointment as praetor, Anicius Probus, like his nephew, had the reputation of being rather sparing. According to him, due to his philogothic sympathies, there was a rumor that his properties had been spared from the sack. To divide Maximus and Probus, in addition to a profound antipathy, there was a long legal case, relating to the possession of a large estate near Syracuse. Beyond personal issues and Anicius Probus' reluctance to pay taxes, he was realistic enough to understand how the social and economic conditions of the empire had profoundly changed since the times of Diocletian and Constantine, so returning to the mos maiorum , that objectively, beyond the slogans, nobody from the faction of Maximus Anicius had clear what it was, was an impracticable nonsense.

Then, Anicius Probus had become aware of a concrete and objective problem, which the abilities of Flavius Constantius were hiding, but not resolving: due to the civil wars of the previous generation, the Comitatens army of the West had been reduced by half effective and with the decrease in tax revenues, due to the war devastations, the loss of territories and the climatic cooling, which was decreasing the productivity of the fields and these losses, also due to the disinterest of Theodosius, had not been filled by new troops. The solution introduced by Stilicone, transforming departments of "limitanei" into "comitatensi", in addition to clashing with the eternal problem of the blanket being too short, took away on one side and placed on the other, had not guaranteed adequate training for the new troops, which had been literally thrown into jeopardy.

Now if the taxes introduced by Honorius could provide sufficient resources to raise and arm new comitatensian troops, their training would have taken time, just what the Empire lacked. Therefore, according to the vision of Anicius Probus, to stabilize the situation, instead of using an increasingly reduced and precious army, to restore the situation, the Goth troops could be used to restore order in Gaul and Hispania. Had not Athaulf had declared, in the proclamation celebrating the birth of his son Theodosius, according to Jordanes

I Athaulf declare that I will fight faithfully for the Emperor Honorius and employ the forces of the Goths for the defense of the Roman state... In the name of my son, my will not to conquer and rule as a tyrant the lands of the Empire, but to have the glory of restoring and increasing the greatness of the Roman name through the power of the Goths, to be remembered as the restorer of the Roman Empire and not its destroyer... [11]

If to obtain this result, it would have been necessary to recognize Theodosius as heir to the imperial succession, to grant Athaulf the title of Magister Militum and to give some lands to the Goths, obtained from the imperial domain or even better, from the large estates of Maximus Anicius, the price to Anicius Probus, he seemed honest.

For which, in secret, he began a correspondence with Paolinus of Pella: the pro-Gothic faction of the Roman Senate would have supported any initiative of Galla Placidia, in exchange for the possible reduction or even elimination of the tax on land ownership,, the protection of their assets in cases of redistribution of the lands to the Goths and a congruous number of squares occupied in the new hierarchy of power.

Galla Placidia's last ally was certainly the least expected: it was precisely the black beast of Athaulf, the comes Bonifacius. Anicius Severus compares him to Catiline, saying that even Bonifacius, with a cruel soul, always desired immeasurable, incredible, unattainable things. In reality, beyond the disagreements with Flavius Costantius and personal ambition, Comes shared the same perplexities as the philogothic faction of the Roman Senate. According to Cassiodorus, Comes, in opening the negotiations with Galla Placidia, told her this sentence

"We like jackals along the banks of the Nile, fight for the carrion of the Empire, while the Vandals fill their bellies, laughing at our backs"

Bonifacius believed that the war wanted by Honorius against his brother-in-law was a useless waste of scarce imperial resources and that the real danger was not the Goths, inclined to compromise, but other Germanic peoples out of control. After months of secret negotiations, the pro-Gothic factions succeeded in January 416 in defining a common plan of action.

1. Bonifacius allegedly killed Flavius Costantius, who was wrongly considered the real enemy of compromise, and after declaring that the magister militum had fomented discord between Honorius and Galla Placidia to eliminate both and aspire to the imperial purple, he would march on Ravenna, officially to restore order and harmony in the family of Theodosius and punish the accomplices of the alleged conspiracy of Flavius Costantius
2. At the same time, Anicius Probus would have taken possession of Rome and with the support of his ally Giovanni Primicerio, [12] head of the imperial civil administration, would have organized a coup d'état, imprisoning Honorius, to convince him, by hook or by crook bad, to accept the compromise with Galla Placidia.

However, this plan quickly degenerated into chaos. On April 8, 416, taking advantage of a banquet to celebrate a victory over the Goths and the fact that, to favor the conspiracy, Athaulf had sent an embassy declaring himself ready to surrender and deliver his wife and son, Bonifacius killed Flavius Costantius, and then show the army fake letters from the magister militum, relating to the imaginary conspiracy against the Theodosian dynasty. Event that probably inspired the future accusations of Anicius Severus

Only that neither Bonifacius nor Galla Placidia took into account one factor: being just as autocratic as Honorius, the power structure of Flavius Costantius collapsed miserably. The imperial army, after agitating like a headless chicken, dissolved: many departments returned home, others deserted, joining the Bagaudi or the Germans. Bonifacius quickly found himself without troops. In Italy, then chaos broke out. The moves of Anicius Probus were anticipated by Maximus Anicius, who, believing that Bonifacius' goal was the imperial purple, led the revolt against Honorius, while Giovanni Primicerio arrested Honorius, while returning from the games of the Circus of Ravenna,[13] on April 20, 416.

Anicius Probus had to improvise: he started his revolt, but with the utmost chutzpah, under the legitimist banner, so much so that Giovanni Primicerio affirmed that his action was aimed at protecting Honorius. Faced with this unexpected chaos, which depending on the areas of Italy varied from civil war to the clash between criminal gangs, Athaulf, increasingly convinced of the

"These Romans are crazy"

He decided to take the initiative: he gathered the Gothic warriors, who thanks to his wife were on a full stomach and without opponents, and marched on Rome, officially to defend the rights of his brother-in-law, accompanied by Bonifacius, who continued to declare that he had no imperial ambition, was very faithful to Honorius and that it was not all in a damned misunderstanding. After the first clashes, Maximus Anicius, seeing that his candidate did not want to be emperor and that he had no intention of undergoing a second sack of Rome, laid down his arms, Giovanni Primicerio opened the gates of Ravenna and Honorius had to make the best of a bad game and agree to finally come to terms with his brother-in-law and with Galla Placidia.

The compromise was stipulated on 4 September 416 in Classe,[14] the Port of Ravenna: Galla Placidia was granted the title of Augusta, Athaulf obtained the longed-for appointment as Magister Militum and Theodosius obtained the title of nobilissimus from his uncle Honorius, with the consequent preemption to the imperial succession. Furthermore, the Goths obtained their share of lands to cultivate in the Garonne valley and in the Po Valley, a move desired by Honorius in an attempt to divide the forces of his brother-in-law, and the right to maintain their own institutions and religion

The much contested land tax, given the disastrous state of the imperial finances, was not abolished, but reduced to a fifth: to meet the requests of the senatorial nobility of Gaul, the Council of Gaul was instituted, in which they would meet periodically on the prefect of the praetorium, the civil governors and representatives of the landowners, to discuss how best to govern what remained of the prefectures of Gaul. [15]

Priscus Attalus, who continued to enjoy Athaulf's trust, returned from his confinement in Lipari and was nominated Praefectus praetorio Galliarum, [16] so that he could mediate between the Goths and Roman senators, Paulinus of Pella was nominated Praefectus praetorio Italiae, [17] with the thankless task of provide for the distribution of land to the Goths, Anicius Probus was appointed Praefectus urbis Romae, [18] to keep the city under control, Giovanni Primicerio was promoted Magister officiorum,[19] with the aim of keeping Honorius under control and Bonifacius was appointed Comes Africae, [20] in order to enjoy position of prestige, such as to satisfy his ambition and control the grain supplies to Italy.

In return, the Goths pledged to annihilate the Vandals, Alans and Suebi in Hispania, to re-establish imperial control north of the Loire and to try, as far as possible, to restore order in Britain. In all this, despite the requests of Anicius Probus, who wanted an exemplary punishment for Maximus Anicius, he got away with a lot and with the transfer of a third of his large estates in the Po valley to the Goths. [21]

In October 416, Athaulf chose Mediolanum as his seat, both for logistical reasons, the proximity to the warm borders of the Empire and to the lands entrusted to his nobility and his warriors, and because it was, despite the previous action of bishop Ambrogius, a of the Italian cities that had the highest presence of Arian Christians. If the Gothic king was satisfied with the results achieved and couldn't wait to fight for the Romans, Galla Placidia was much less optimistic: she knew Honorius better and knew well that in the secret rooms of her palace in Ravenna, he was meditating revenge. ..

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[1] I don't know abroad, but in Italian historiography the figure of Honorius is subject to a progressive re-evaluation, given that he has often been used as a scapegoat for the mistakes of his successors
[2] It is a collection of imperial biographies, from Hadrian to Numerian: it would seem that an author of the tetrarchic age has collected and given a stylistic revision, inspired by Suetonius and of content, highlighting the senatorial line, of a series of biographies written by previous authors
[3] Obviously in this TL it is difficult to talk about the fall of the Western Roman Empire, which in reality gradually changes shape and above all Great Britain could be different
[4] For narrative reasons I follow the minority theory that attributes it to Honorius: OTL was probably compiled by Valentinian III
[5] Tax reforms and decretal OTL were accomplished by Valentinian III. ITL considering the expenses of the war against the Goths, I assume that Honorius takes the same drastic decisions
[6] Think of him as a kind of finance minister, who has to get the Goths to curb their claims and the Senators to open the purse strings... That he had strange religious ideas, it is true, since he was effectively kicked out of the church: since he is not accused of heresies, in the chronicles of the time, but of following the ideas of the ancient philosophers, I hypothesized that he was an Epicurean
[7] OTL is part of a speech by the rhetorician Salviano
[8] Just under 12 kilos
[9] OTL the future emperor of the West, that ITL will have a different life
[10] Invented character (however, since there are a lot of Anicii, I don't exclude that someone at the time could have been called that!)
[11] Paraphrase of the famous passage by Paolo Orosio
[12] OTL the future emperor of the West, that ITL will have a different life
[13] OTL one of the archaeological mysteries of Ravenna: we know from the sources that it existed, that it had similar dimensions to the Circus Maximus, that it was made of bricks and marble, but despite centuries of research, it has not been identified
[14] Ravenna was divided into three parts: the city itself, the port, Classe and Cesarea, the settlement that had arisen on the banks of the canal that connected Ravenna to Classe, the Fossa Augusta, named after Augustus who had it built
[15] What OTL is the Council of the seven provinces wanted by Flavius Costantius
[16] The highest civil authority of the portion of the Empire which included Gaul, Hispania and Britannia
[17] The highest civil authority of the portion of the Empire which included Italy, except Rome and the provinces of Africa
[18] Imagine, more or less, the equivalent of the mayor of Rome
[19] Being head of the imperial administrative secretariat, he could validate Honorius' acts and verify his correspondence, avoiding some of his initiatives
[20] Commander-in-chief of the troops of the province of Africa, the same role that OTL will have
[21] Very similar to the deal OTL made with Wallia

 

[AndreaConti]

03 Like a snake, Mediolanum sheds its skin and rejuvenates

Throughout the history of the Empire, the choice of a city as the seat of the court and of the central administration, dictated by general or contingent reasons, as well as a political fact, has always had a series of economic and social repercussions. If in the Pars Orientis, given the stability of Constantinople as an imperial seat, this phenomenon was greatly reduced, in the Pars Occidentis, due to the movement between Mediolanum, Rome and Ravenna of the Theodosian court, its impacts were amplified.

In fact, the presence of the emperor and his family, especially if of a lasting nature, implies the presence of a retinue, a court, a guard, personnel (even at a high level), a complicated bureaucratic and military apparatus and buildings suitable for housing and representation. It also constitutes a pole of attraction for representatives of the most varied interests: economic, cultural, artistic, religious. In short, if on the one hand the establishment of the imperial court can mean for a city the recognition and consecration of a previously acquired and de facto political, strategic, economic and cultural importance, on the other hand it can constitute a formidable element propeller, a fact capable of activating already existing energies and of creating future and otherwise unthinkable developments. [1]

On the contrary, the abandonment of one location for another, in addition to denouncing a change in the general historical conditions, can represent an element of crisis or, at least, of involution for the abandoned urban centre. This phenomenon is particularly evident and rapid in Mediolanum. At the time of Ambrogio and Theodosius, the city was in full economic growth.

Around the Forum, although it was no longer the fulcrum of the city since the time of Maximian, life was buzzing: there was the market, there were shops and taverns, temples arose, which despite being closed, served as a reference point for the he civic identity and tourist attraction, and the court, business and... the underworld were dealt with, as always happened in populous centres. All around the Forum narrow streets branched off, on which stood very crowded houses, which divided the city into blocks. The streets were paved and had lateral spillways and underground sewers.

Given the relationship between surface area and population, even more extreme than in Rome, the traffic of pedestrians, carts and litters must have been chaotic, the noise deafening, the crowd incredible. The city was therefore crowded and frenetic, due to the simultaneous presence of the court, officials, bureaucrats and soldiers. Like present-day Milan, the city was full of canals, crossed by bridges, [2] which converged in the river port, which connected Mediolanum, via the Vittabium canal[3], with the Lambro river,[4] then with the Po and finally with the Adriatic Sea. thus connecting it with Aquileia and Ravenna.

This abundance of water allowed Mediolanum to do without aqueducts and ensured the widespread use of public latrines: the reverse of the coin, as witnessed several times by Anicius Severus, who in his Private Commentaries continually complains of the summer heat and especially the mosquitoes. We can also understand his discontent: in a scholium of Res Gestae Getarum, the soulless commentator recalls how the historian, during the period in which he lived in Milan, lived in a domus which overlooked the Vetrae canal[5] , at the level of the mouth of the canals Sevesum Magnus [6] and Sevesus Parvum[7]

And that even Athaulf and Gallia suffered from the summer heat was testified by their habit of moving in the warmer months to the villa of the Imperial State property Lacus Benacus,[8] recently identified with that of Desenzano, whose first excavations date back to 1921. [9] Like today, in the Mediolanum by Theodosius the rich lived with uncommon prosperity: not only were the houses luxuriously decorated with mosaics, marbles and frescoes, but they also had running water and centralized heating with hot air coming from the floor. The poor, on the other hand, lived in dirty and dilapidated buildings, many floors high, overcrowded and noisy, in apartments of one or at most two rooms, heated only with a brazier placed in the center of the room. Naturally these palaces, built mainly in wood, were often and easily prey to fire, as happened in Rome.

Although smaller than their Roman equivalents, the Herculean Baths, commissioned by Maximian, were a place for cleaning, entertainment and work, because business was also transacted there. Hot, tepid and cold water, Turkish baths, a gym, but also reading rooms, music rooms and restaurants were the services that the Baths offered to the Milanese, probably already then "stressed out" by excessive work dynamism. The Herculean Baths, despite their relatively small size (127 meters long and 112 wide, compared, for example, with the 250 meters long and 180 m wide of the Baths of Diocletian in Rome) and the fact that they were fed by canals, instead of from aqueducts, they were rich in marble and works of art.

Another big difference was in the plan of the Baths: if the Roman ones were inspired, with some variations, by the Baths of Trajan on the Esquiline, designed by Apollodorus of Damascus, with the subdivision between the enclosure with exedras, dedicated to social and sporting activities, and the body central, the Hercules instead followed a very different model, namely the "oriental" one, inspired by the great gymnasiums of Asia Minor, in which the enclosure was not present.

The Herculean Baths were characterized by two separate and specular paths, one dedicated to men and the other to women, which started from an entrance consisting of a spacious courtyard adorned with a colonnade and eight lateral semicircular exedras placed on three sides of the portico, with the latter serving to allow citizens to sit down.

From this courtyard the citizens accessed two large rooms with a mosaic floor which were used as changing rooms (apodyteria), where a large tub was built in; the entrances to the two changing rooms, one for men and the other for women, were located on the sides of a large apse which was located in the colonnaded entrance courtyard opposite the entrance; after leaving the changing rooms, citizens returned to the colonnaded entrance courtyard, which also served as a gym for muscle warm-up (here it was possible to play ball, do physical exercises, etc.).

Citizens went back to the changing rooms to strip naked and then continue their journey southwards making a series of stops in small adjacent rooms heated to increasingly high temperatures; finally they reached the calidarium, or in the room having the highest temperature of the baths, which was located in the southern part of the building complex and which was equipped with two large tubs of hot water built into the sides of the room inside as many positioned apses, respectively, east and west.

From the calidarium, citizens headed north to the tepidarium, i.e. a room which was located in the center of the baths and which had a floor covered with small marble tiles. The tepidarium, which had a lower temperature than the calidarium, was characterized by a rectangular shape and by the presence of some heated rooms. The path of the citizens continued north, ending at the frigidarium, i.e. in a large rectangular room at room temperature which was paved with large slabs of marble and which had a pool of cold water inside an apse. Then from the frigidarium, which was the most richly decorated room in the baths and which was located in the northern part of the baths, it was possible to access the changing rooms again, completing the route. The path inside the baths could also be done in the opposite direction, i.e. starting from the frigidarium towards the calidarium. Having such an organized structure, the Erculee baths were equipped with complex water systems and articulated space and water heating systems.

Ideally walking through the city we also find a theater with nine thousand seats: when Mediolanum became the imperial capital, it was enriched with marble and works of art. Ausonius mentions it in his poetic tourist guide of the city

In Mediolanum everything is worthy of admiration, there are great riches and there are numerous noble houses. The city has grown and is surrounded by a double circle of walls. There are the circus, where the people enjoy the shows, the theater with wedge-shaped steps, the temples, the fortress of the imperial palace, the mint, the district which takes its name from the Herculean baths. The colonnaded courtyards are adorned with marble statues, the walls are surrounded by a wall of fortified embankments. Its buildings are one more imposing than the other, as if they were rivals, and their proximity to Rome does not diminish their grandeur. [10]

However, Maximian, as a good soldier, was not too enthusiastic about watching tragedies and comedies: according to the poet Claudian, he ordered the theater orchestra to be transformed into a kind of swimming pool where half-naked mimes performed in dances. Obviously, Ambrogio was not very enthusiastic about these shows, so much so that Theodosius I, in order not to hear his complaints, had dedicated him to carrying out naumachie. [11] The last we know of was on the occasion of the proclamation as consul, inside the theatre, of Manlius Theodorus, a Roman writer and grammarian, friend of Augustine of Hippo and not much loved teacher of Anicius Severus. Given the importance of the city which had now become the capital, there was also a mint, which at the time of Theodosius was operating at full capacity.

Thrill-loving citizens flocked to the Amphitheater, which was outside the city walls: in Maximian's time, not only lions, tigers, ostriches [12] and gladiators fought here, but also dwarfs and women who killed each other, or bears and bulls chained together. Although in 399 AD. Honorius had abolished the munera ludorum, [13] and closed the gladiatorial schools in the Western Roman Empire, the structure was not unused.

At the beginning of the fifth century there is in fact the culmination of the success of the venationes, [14] which even by Christians, were seen as a transposition of the struggle between good and evil, embodied by the beasts. From simple hunts or parades, the venationes take on a character that Cassiodorus in the Variae defines as "dangerous games". In fact, these are shows of dexterity, in which the purpose of the venator was to escape the beast through the use of various tools: cochlea (i.e. a revolving fence capable of inciting and disorienting the animal), contomonobolon (lances) and the ericius (a sort of oval cage that served as a refuge).

For those who preferred horse racing there was the Circus, where betting was a must: the large space of the Circus, intended to accommodate large crowds, was communicating with the palace and was used to present the person of the emperor to the people. Everyone poured into it even before daybreak, including Anicius Severus , who was a great fan of it, as evidenced by the pages of the Private Commentaries in which he shows an unexpected technical competence on carts and horses.

Another testimony, albeit with disapproval, on the importance of racing in the Milan circus comes from Cassiodoro, when he writes

“All the time that God has allowed the inhabitants of Mediolanum to live, they consume it between wine, dice, crapule, amusements and shows; the Circus is their church, their home, their assembly and the center of their longing hopes”. [15]

As in Rome and Constantinople, real sports clubs existed, called factiones, divided into reds, whites, blues, and greens to organize these entertainments. Each factio had its own supporters, and as Procopius of Caesarea well remembers, whose supporters fought each other without restraint, even violently, overcoming ties of blood and friendship. Not even women were exempt from this fanaticism, although they were forbidden to go to watch the races. This secular dimension was flanked by the great basilicas commissioned by Ambrogio, in which Nicean Christianity celebrated its triumphs and the Palatium.

From the scarce archaeological evidence, it appears that Maximian had very different tastes from Diocletian. If the latter conceived the Palatium of Split as a compact structure, inspired by the legionary camps, Maximian, taking the Roman imperial residences of the Sessorianum [16] and Villa Gordiani [17] as a model, had a polycentric structure built, with both a residential and official function, headquarters administration, but probably also a place where the imperial guard was lodged.

For this reason, the environments were organized in groups, around short porticoes that served as junction areas and connections between private and public environments, well interconnected with each other. On the decumanus maximus, there was a monumental access, which gave access to an apsidal room. The sections of the palace intended for representative functions were characterized by larger rooms and equipped with apses, often with raised floors, given the possible presence of the emperor in official attire. A part of the palace was intended for the imperial family

The economy of this vital city was based on artisanal weapon factories, wool factories and tanneries, which displayed signs in front of the shops and which, to better characterize the type of production, exhibited the artefacts outside, on the public Street. The owners of these businesses often lived above their shops. Many tombstones have been found which testify to the presence of numerous artisans, from shoemakers to blacksmiths, from wine wholesalers to weavers and so on, often non-native: even then Mediolanum was a cosmopolitan city, with indigenous people decidedly in the minority.

The transfer of the imperial court to Ravenna, with the migration of administrative personnel and luxury merchants and craftsmen, had a disruptive effect on the city, which lost 18% of the population overnight. The Imperial Palace remains unused, except for the administrative sections, which continued to deal with asset management. Most of the shops around the Forum closed, the theater and the amphitheater were closed and began to be dismantled, with their marbles used in the construction sites of the Nicean basilicas, in particular the Palatine, [18] whose works, financed by their bishop, continued to full speed. The archaeological evidence testifies how the activities of the Erculean Baths, the Circus and the River Port dropped drastically, testifying to the economic recession, accentuated by the fact that unlike Rome, the senatorial class did not like to reside in the city, preferring to live in its suburban villas [19]

Therefore, the news that Athaulf, Galla Placidia and little Theodosius, with their retinue, had decided to settle in the old capital, was greeted with enormous jubilation by Mediolanum. Anicius Severus in the Res Gestae Getarum, mentions the song with which the inhabitants welcomed the imperial family on 14 October 416

What a day it was when you entered Mediolanum!
What congratulations from the first ones of the city!
What applause from the people! How safe mothers and daughters felt
virgins who admired your strength and your beauty!
Everyone showed and manifested their limitless joy [20]

Although probably invented, the chant conveys the city atmosphere well.

The imperial family crossed the quadriphon triumphal arch of Gratian, covered with marble and reliefs representing his exploits and those of Theodosius, walked along via Porticata,[21] which took its name from two porticoes with stone columns that ran along the entire length of the road on both sides, onto which shops and stores opened, decorated for the occasion and entered the city through Porta Romana.[22]

From there he traveled the decumanus, with a stop, commissioned by Galla Placidia, in front of the Basilica Apostolorum, [23] where Honorius' sister honored the Milanese bishop Marolo,[24] reassuring him of the intentions of the aryan Goths, and ended his triumphal ride, amid the applause of the crowd, at the entrance to the Imperial Palace.

Athaulf and Galla Placidia did not disappoint expectations: first of all they ordered the maintenance of the river port, to favor the recovery of trade and guarantee supplies both to the city and to their court, then they provided for the restoration of the walls and the horrea. [25] The Milanese mint, given that their adventus [26] is commemorated with minting of gold coins, resumed its activity. Thanks to the excavations in the early Christian cemetery adjacent to the Basilica Trium magorum, [27] we have found some tombs of pictores parietari, [28] musaearii [29] and tessellarii [30] in whose epigraphs they boast of having worked in the Palatium, for the Augusta Galla Placidia and the Magister Militum Ataulfus, we have had confirmation of a bizarre piece of news contained in the Suda encyclopedia [31]

Milan: very populous city, in which Ataulf the Goth established his residence. As he saw the Roman emperors represented in a painting seated on golden thrones and the Goths killed and stretched out in front of them, he sought out a painter and ordered him to effigy him on his throne and instead the Roman emperors in the act of carrying sacks on his shoulders and to pour gold at his feet [32]

Given that it is unlikely that Athaulf, who posed as restorer of the Roman Empire, could have taken such a decision, it is probable that the Palatium however underwent a restoration and a restructuring, to make it usable again. Anicius Severus, in pages that ooze enthusiasm and contentment, tells how the Gothic king brought the competitions back to full capacity in the Imperial Circus. From archaeological excavations we have had confirmation of the fact that the Herculean Baths were restored and of two pieces of news, supplied by Jordanes. The first blocking the counting of the material of the Theater and the Amphitheater, the second on the change of intended use. According to the testimony of the historian, the Theater became the place where the assembly of notables of the Gothic people gathered, to support Athaulf in his decisions, while the Amphitheater became the Campus Martius, with its arena assigned to the exercise of the people in arms. [33]

In January 417, Athaulf had to resolve his first crisis in Milan: the Goths following him requested a church to celebrate their rites. Athaulf, after discussing with the local Arian bishop, named Eusebius, decided to assign the Basilica Portiana [34] to the Goth community.

In the epistula ad sororem, [35] Ambrogio provides us with the only concrete indications about the building, writing that it is a church outside the Wall, smaller than the nova, [36] the largest of the basilicas in the city

nec iam Portiana, hoc est extramurana, basilica petebatur, sed basilica nova, hoc est intramurana, quae maior est

located between the Palatium and the Imperial Mausoleum [37]. At the time, its shape recalled the great Roman basilicas, with three naves divided by rows of columns, the central one closed by a semicircular apse. The building, covered by exposed beams, was oriented to the east and with the entrance perhaps proceeding from a four-sided porch, from which, on the left, one entered the baptistery. [38] Also from Ambrogio, we know of the existence of a sort of pulvinar, a stage where the court could assist, protected by curtains at religious ceremonies.

The Basilica Portiana had long been disputed between the two variants of Christianity. Initially, it had been built as an Arian place of worship, but following a series of riots, Gratian seized a disputed basilica between the two factions and, influenced by Ambrogio, granted it to the Catholics. Things change with Valentinian II and his mother Justina returned it to the original faction. With the arrival of Theodosius, it reverted to the Niceans. [39]

The definitive assignment to the Arians, caused a series of riots, instigated by Honorius, who from Ravenna had suddenly discovered himself interested in religious matters. Despite the Gothic will to resolve the issue in a strong way, the protest did not degenerate thanks to mediation of Galla Placida, who promised Bishop Marolo to build a new church, at the expense of the imperial family, intended for the Nicesan cult, to compensate for the loss of the Basilica Portia. [40]

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[1] The source of this post, appropriately modified and readapted, is the introduction of the book "Milano Tardoantica" by Alessandro Sangiovanni
[2] This is in Milan ITL: in our Milan OTL, by order of the fascist podestà Marcello Visconti di Modrone, the canals, the so-called Navigli, were filled
[3] This is the Naviglio Vittabia, still existing and partially visible in the Milanese suburbs

[4] Lombard river, tributary of the Po, which runs alongside Milan and which gives its name to the Milanese district of Lambrate, where the Innocenti factory was located, which after the war launched a scooter that had great commercial success all over the world with the Lambretta brand, a name inspired to the river and rival of Piaggio's Vespa
[5] Canal now filled in... The point of Anicius Severus' ITL house is in the current OTL Piazza Vetra, where in the seventeenth century the Milanese burned heretics and witches
[6] The Seveso river, which in Celtic times almost cut Milan in half, was diverted by the Romans into two channels, to create the defense moat for the walls. The first, in English the great Seveso , went to east
[7] The other channel that went east, in English it was called little Seveso, due to the lower flow rate of the waters, went west. Both canals are now underground
[8] Our Lake Garda
[9] Purely ITL attribution. OTL we don't have a clue who owned the villa
[10] Excerpt from the poem "Order of Famous Cities"
[11] Shows, somewhat bloody, which simulated naval battles
[12] From what the chronicles of the time tell us, the Milanese had an immoderate passion for the fights between gliadiators and ostriches!
[13] gladiator fights
[14] Show that involved hunting and killing wild animals
[15] Paraphrase of a passage by Ammianus Marcellinus, which describes the Circus Maximus in Rome
[16] Imperial palace of Rome, built by the Severi family and inhabited by Elena, mother of Constantine, where the basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme now stands. Every now and then he will peep into this story
[17] Roman Imperial Villa, built on the third mile of the Via Prenestina

[18] It is the current basilica of San Lorenzo Maggiore

[19] Phenomena that also occur OTL
[20] inspired by Claudian's verses
[21] street with porches
[22] One of the ancient city gates of Milan, from which the road leading to Rome started
[23] It is the current basilica of Nazaro Maggiore

[24] Bishop also lived OTL, who according to tradition was of Mesopotamian origin
[25] The warehouses where cereals and wine were kept and regularly distributed to the citizens
[26] Arrival of the imperial family in the city
[27] The current basilica of Sant'Eustorgio, where the presumed relics of the Magi were kept until the sacking of Federico Barbarossa, now in the cathedral of Cologne... Nearby, also OTL, there is an early Christian necropolis

[28] the artists responsible for the pictorial decoration of the walls with frescoes
[29] the mosaicists (yes, a mass of mosaics will appear in this story)
[30] the artists who created the inlaid marble floors
[31] It is a sort of Greek encyclopaedia of the 10th century, in which there is a mass of bizarre invented news
[32] Anecdote that OTL concerns Attila
[33] All urban planning changes that take place ITL
[34] Most likely the current basilica of San Vittore in Corpo
[35] The letter to the sister
[36] Early Christian church of Milan, which was demolished in 1461 for the construction of the Duomo. This basilica, commissioned by Emperor Constantius II, was a sort of clone of San Giovanni in Laterano, with a five-nave plan, with an inscribed transept also with five naves and a semicircular apse. It had a total length of 80.80 m and a total width of 45.30 m. The lateral aisles measured 7 m, the central one 17 m. The majesty of the basilica was highlighted by the chromaticism, also traced from Sa Giovanni in Laterano: African red breccia, coming from the imperial Numidian quarry of Simitthu (Chemtou in Tunisia) for the columns of the main nave and verde antico marble for the columns on the minor naves, resting on plinths in white Ossola marble. In front of the façade there was an esonarthex or portico only 14 m deep, because the dense network of buildings, albeit modest, which surrounded the basilica did not allow for the construction of a grandiose quadriporticus, as in the Vatican Basilica. Also in this case, the façade was a reference to the Lateran: San Giovanni had a portico supported by six columns which supported an architrave, which in turn consisted of a jutting frame, a mosaic frieze and another smaller frame and the band on which ran the inscription "Dogmate papali datur"..., which celebrated the role of "Mater et Caput" of the Lateran Basilica. The difference between the two porticoes, however, was in the coverage: if the Roman one was covered by a sloping roof covered with tiles, the Milanese one, on the other hand, must have had a sort of terrace

[37] The mausoleum, which is believed to have been built by Valentinian I for his dynasty, had a single room, which defines its Christian nature, and was inspired, in its conception, by the Constantinian mausoleums in Rome and by the so-called temple of Minerva Medica: it appeared as an octagon (side of 7.5 meters) characterized, on the outside on the corners by book pilasters and on the inside by eight alternating rectangular and semicircular niches divided by columns. Although it was demolished in 1570, thanks to a Dutch painter, we have an idea of what it looked like, with a second floor decorated with blind arcades. Very little of its decoration remains. The floors were covered with opus sectile (marble slabs) and the lower part of the walls must have been covered with a gray marble plinth probably surmounted by marble and glass inlays, painted plaster, stucco and mosaics.

[38] Baptistery that will also appear in the next chapters
[39] Another difference from OTL
[40] Another future difference in Mediolanum's urban planning

 

[Andristan]

St Ambrose is probably rolling in his grave, with another empress giving one of his churches to the despised heretics. Kinda surprised that the current bishop didnt hold a sit in like Ambrose did, following his example of 40ish years before

 

[AndreaConti]

St Ambrose is probably rolling in his grave, with another empress giving one of his churches to the despised heretics. Kinda surprised that the current bishop didnt hold a sit in like Ambrose did, following his example of 40ish years before

On the one hand, Athaulf, for reasons of internal Goth politics, could not give in, in order not to appear too submissive towards the Romans. On the other hand, not all bishops have the makings of a martyr, especially in the face of a slightly irritated Goth horde...

Being serious, even for the Roman legal precedents, Ambrogio's position on this basilica was highly questionable: after all, Ataulfo can justify himself by saying that he returned an illegally stolen property to its rightful owners

 

[AndreaConti]

04 Land to the soldiers!

To be honest, Athaulf's interest in Mediolanum was simply linked to the need to affirm the legitimacy of his son Theodosius, as direct heir to the imperial dynasty, which was reaffirmed with the taking possession of the seat of his maternal grandfather's court. The real, understandable concerns of the Gothic king in 416 were linked to the settlement process of his people in the lands of Aquitaine and Italy.

For Aquitaine, Ataulf was well aware that it was a move desired by Honorius, to weaken the Goths, dividing their forces and breaking the alliance between Galla Placidia and the Gallo-Roman senatorial nobility, which certainly would not have liked being expropriated part of its estates. However, if the task of Priscus Attalus seemed improbable, even more complicated was that of Paulinus of Pella, for the division of the dioecesis Italiciana, wanted by Constantine into two administrative partitions each governed by a vicarius: Italia Suburbicaria and Italia Annonaria.

Italia Annonaria, which was directly affected by the Gothic settlement, included the following regio

• Venetia et Histria, directed by a corrector. [1]
• Aemilia and Liguria, directed by a corrector.
• Flaminia et Picenum, supported by a corrector.
• Raetia, governed by a praeses. [2]
• Alpes Cottiae, governed by a praeses.

Italia Suburbicaria, where most of the Roman Senators of the pro-Gothic faction had landed properties, included

• Tuscia and Umbria
• Picenum Suburbicarium
• Valeria (northern Lazio and southern Umbria)
• Campania (coastal Campania)
• Samnium (Abruzzo, Molise, Sannio and Cassino)
• Apulia and Calabria (Puglia and Salento, plus Irpinia)
• Lucania and Bruttii (Cilento, Basilicata and Calabria)
• Sicilia
• Sardinia
• Corsica

This division, among its many consequences, also had an impact on the structure of the senatorial aristocracies. Among the most significant results of these reforms in Italy, there was the growth in the wealth of groups of the aristocracy of the Annonaria. In part, these are families coming from the urban elite, already endowed with significant influence at the local level, even if often burdened with the responsibilities related to the management of the city curiae. [3] After provincialization, these notables, together with other owners not subject to curial constraints, exploited their fertile properties in the Po Valley, entering the fiscal and commercial circuits activated by the presence first in Mediolanum and Aquileia, then in Ravenna, of a court, a bureaucracy, of important military departments.

This led to a structure of the property in the Po Valley made up of land of different sizes, carefully exploited in
intensive polyculture regime. These exploitation techniques made possible a significant production surplus which was divided between the satisfaction of the fiscal demand, on the one hand; and free market distribution, on the other. and in fact, even if to a different extent in the different areas of the Annonaria, the trade flows contributed to the prosperity of the territory and its aristocracies

Furthermore, unlike Suburbicarian Italy, there was no center of power and influence similar to Rome. The local and municipal aristocracies of central and southern Italy were entirely subject to the political direction of the senators of Rome; their economic activity was bent to the ration requirements of the great metropolis which, still in the middle of the fifth century, had a few hundred thousand inhabitants. On the one hand, this led these elites to be co-opted, through the Senate, in the administrative management of the Empire: on the other, to maintain their status and promote their political careers, they had to commit themselves to preserving the monumental decorum of their cities and their relevance in the territory

In ration Italy, on the other hand, the economic prosperity of the aristocracies did not correspond to an equivalent effect on the political level. [4] If this allowed them to save the costs of evergetism and public utility interventions, dumped on the imperial coffers, however, given the contingency, this awareness of their political marginality unleashed panic, in the face of rumors of massive expropriations in favor of the Goths, instigated also by the agents of Honorius, which caused numerous riots.

To prevent the situation from degenerating, both Priscus Attalus and Paulinus of Pella had to collaborate closely to define pragmatic and flexible solutions: a collaboration that was strengthened by the continuous exchange of letters and the comings and goings of officials, including the poet Claudius Rutilius Namatianus, who took advantage of these trips to write his most famous poem, De reditu suo. [5] First, the Gothic nobility was co-opted into the senatorial class. Then, both in Italia Suburbicaria and in the Annonaria, a third of the latifundia owned by Maximus Anicius was distributed to it, with the help of a network of delegares, who, having carried out the calculations and the appropriate divisions, issued to the beneficiaries regular titles of possession, called pittacia. Given that the lands were obviously not sufficient to satisfy the Gothic requests, a part was covered by the imperial state property, a part with a mechanism for the division of the land rent, invented, according to what Anicius Severus recounts in the Res Gestae Getarum , precisely by Paulinus of Pella : the Roman owners paid the Goth recipient a rent for that third party made available, even if not actually occupied, called tertia.

Mechanism, also enthusiastically adopted by Priscus Attalus which was much less burdensome than it might seem at first glance: on the one hand, the lands subject to tertia were exempt from Honorius' land tax, on the other well, the Roman senators had a long accounting experience in falsifying the accounts on land revenues, so the Goth nobles always got a lower amount than they should, which always according to the Private Commentaries led to a blunder of lawsuits in the time of Theodosius III, when the Goths made themselves more or less account of the scam suffered.

For the Goth soldiers, the situation was less complicated: both in Italia Annonaria and in Aquitaine, they were equated to discharged Roman soldiers, for which they obtained possession of uncultivated and abandoned fields, which happened without too much difficulty. Now, according to the Treaty of Classe, the territories assigned to the Goths still legally remained the property of the Empire, so much so that the Roman civil administration remained standing. However, this led to a couple more problems between Milan and Ravenna in June 416, which had not been considered in the agreement.

The first to whom the Goths had to pay taxes: according to the interpretation given by Honorius to the treaty, these were due to the Empire. Obviously Athaulf did not agree: the mediation of Anicius Probus and Galla Placidia led to a Solomonic decision. Half of the Gothic taxes would go to the Imperial coffers, half to Athaulf's. The other problem was how to handle the lawsuits, which surely would have arisen, between Goths and Romans.

Athaulf had addressed the problem, according to Cassiodorus, well before the marriage of Galla Placidia, so it was easy for him, in September 416, to promulgate the so-called Codex Ataulfinus, which unfortunately has been lost, which has led to a blunder of often fierce discussions between historians, in relation to its contents. Until about thirty years ago, scholars hypothesized that the Codex Ataufinus contained a mysterious "Lex Gothorum", the set of traditional tribal rules of the Goths, rationalized and amended according to the logic of Roman law. To date, following a critical re-reading of Jordanes' quotes, it would seem simply a sort of compendium, oriented towards the management of concrete cases, of the Roman laws on landed property.

At the same time, Ataulf was posing the problem, given the ancient proverb

When the cat's away, the mice play

of how to control the Goths stationed in the Garonne valley, to prevent them from taking strange initiatives and not making enemies of the Gallo-Roman senators. For this reason, again in September 416, he sent his brother-in-law Wallia as Dux getarum, with the task of acting as chief judge for lawsuits between the Goths and Romans, of collecting the portion of the taxes for the royal taxes, of supporting Priscus Attalus, whose authority over the Goths was very limited, and they organize the promised military expeditions north of the Loire and in Hispania. Furthermore, he had to represent the Goths in the Council of Gaul, showing how they were a component, however eccentric and particular, of the Res Publica
This decision was part of a much broader project for the reorganization of the royal power and the administrator of the Gothic people, which we are managing to reconstruct in broad terms thanks to the testimonies of Anicius Severus, Cassiodorus and Jordanes. Despite the restructuring and change of intended use of the Mediolanum Theater, what Anicius Severus calls the fingus [6] the assembly of free Goths capable of bearing arms, for logistical reasons, could be convened once a year in Mediolanum and which therefore lost any effective decision-making utility, becoming the occasion for Athaulf to appear in public and distribute prizes to followers of him.

Many of the prerogatives of the figus were thus assumed by the assembly of nobles, the gitanemotus,[7] which Anicius Severus compared to the Senate, which always met in the now former Theater of Mediolanum, gave opinions on the administration and organization of the Gothic people, dealing of subjects such as taxes, jurisprudence and both internal and external security. Senate which in Rome, instigated by Anicius Probus, precisely to reaffirm its role in the government of the Empire, for the first time since the third century had copper coins minted by the mint of Rome with the initials SC engraved on the back (Senatus Consult). Adding to Honorius' anger, these "beautiful and massive," as Olympiodorus calls them, copper coins were of far superior quality to the paltry nummus issued by the last two Theodosian emperors. [8]

Finally, in November 416 Athaulf made two decisions that were historical in their own way: the first, apparently trivial, concerned the confirmation to the Curia Mediolanensis of a series of administrative functions, such as the registration of commercial deeds, real estate sales and wills. Now it would seem something very marginal, but we have preserved a fragment of the papyrus that transcribes it, the oldest act of the Gothic chancellery. The papyrus was found at the end of the eighteenth century by Muratori [9] in the Casa dei Teatini di S. Paolo in Naples [10] and from the analyzes we know how the raw material came from the imperial plantations of Cyperus papyrus near Syracuse. [11] Another instead attributed the primacy to Eusebius, the Arian bishop of Milan, over all the priests of the Gothic people, starting a process of centralization analogous to that of Nicean Christianity [12]

---

[1] Civil official of the Roman Empire, in charge of the administration of a more or less extensive area within a Roman province, of senatorial rank.
[2] As above, but of equites rank
[3] The equivalent of the current city councils
[4] Phenomenon that also occurs OTL
[5] Very beautiful poem, which OTL was obviously written in slightly different circumstances, from which a historical film was made years ago

[6] Attempt to translate the term thing into Latin
[7] Attempt to translate the term Witenagemot into Latin
[8] OTL this coinage occurred in the time of Odoacer
[9] Ludovico Antonio Muratori was a great Italian historian and scholar of the late eighteenth century, who discovered many ancient documents... So ITL attributed this discovery to him
[10] The story is inspired by the OTL story of the "Odoacer papyrus"
[11] Few know it, but papyrus also grows spontaneously in Sicily: today, the few producers of this type of paper are in Syracuse
[12] ITL the Arian rite will be very similar to our Ambrosian rite and the Milanese will also be able to boast of having a Pope

 

[Andristan]

Nicene Christians dont consider arians to be Christian at all, seeing as their baptizm is not trinitarian, very similar to Jehovahs witnesses today. Arianism cannot be really included under Christianity not like the Monophysites/miaphysites or the Nestorians or the Pelagians.

 

[AndreaConti]

Nicene Christians dont consider arians to be Christian at all, seeing as their baptizm is not trinitarian, very similar to Jehovahs witnesses today. Arianism cannot be really included under Christianity not like the Monophysites/miaphysites or the Nestorians or the Pelagians.

It is not so drastic, as a situation: at the time the Thomistic definition of the Trinity was not yet formalized, which taken literally would exclude from the definition of "Christian" not only the Monophysites/miaphysites and the Nestorians, but also our OTL Orthodox, for the filioque question. At the time, being the most fluid definition, the Arians were considered heretics, but Christians in all respects. In turn, and their surviving texts confirm it, the Arians considered themselves Orthodox Christians in all respects and the Niceans as heretics... In short, it's all a matter of points of view and perspectives 😁

 

[Xenophonte]

Interesting and detailed TL.
Would appear that if I interpret it correctly that the currently situation may evolve to the OTL , Ostrogothic Italian Kingdom with a still Arian Gothic elite superimposed over the Roman one, but, here , instead, extended to what would remain of the Roman State...

 

[AndreaConti]

05 The Art of War

The long times taken by Athaulf for the organization of the expedition to Hispania did not depend only on the need to better manage the settlement of the Goths in the imperial territories, but also on the objective shortage of men and money. Even if for different reasons Athaulf and Honorius, in fact, agreed that the campaign in Iberian land should have been carried out by a joint army of Goths and Romans.

For Athaulf this was linked to the need not to strengthen the traditionalist faction of the Goths, which despite the assignment of lands and tax revenues, continued to be dissatisfied with royal politics, appearing too subordinate to Ravenna. At the same time, Honorius' pride prevented him from showing how the Empire, in order to regain control of the lost provinces, had to rely entirely on the help of what he considered impertinent barbarians.

The problem is that, with the death of Flavius Constantius, the imperial army was totally in disarray, which had favored the march of Athaulf and Galla Placidia to Ravenna, but which was now complicating any form of mobilisation. In theory, the Comes Bonifacius would have been able to make available the troops stationed in Africa and Mauritania, the only ones who had maintained efficiency and operational capacity, but this did not happen. The historian Evagrius of Epiphany, [1] in his Chronicle, accuses the comes of cowardice, which is unlikely, given the courage shown during the Gothic wars, which Athaulf had paid for, and the praise given by Cassiodorus

Boniface, a Roman general, was the first in the art of war and endowed with a lot of acumen of ingenuity, and with many other admirable prerogatives, so much so that at the time there was no one else between the Romans and the Goths, endowed with the same temper in the command. All the virtues of the ancient Romans were concentrated in him [2]

Nor can the insinuations of Zosimus [3] in the True History, in which Comes Bonifacius is accused of having changed sides and of plotting with Honorius, to betray and eliminate the Goths, be considered historically reliable: in subsequent events, the comes always maintained his alliance with Galla Placidia and then with Theodosius III.

In reality, Comes Bonifacius could not supply troops to Athaulf, because he was engaged in a ferocious campaign against the Mauri,[4] who had invaded and plundered the provinces entrusted to him, as mentioned by Anicius Severus in the Res Gestae Getarum and by Zechariah Scholasticus [5] in his History Ecclesiastica, which embellishes the story with a series of edifying anecdotes concerning Augustine of Hippo. [6] Unfortunately, we know very little about this war, recently confirmed by the discovery of three epigraphs in Carthage celebrating the victories of Bonifacius, given that the historians of that era are essentially concentrated on the Gothic events: the duration, the two-year period 416/417 and the fact that in Milan, Ravenna and Rome he was considered an equally important success of the campaign in Hispania, so much so that Athaulf and Galla Placidia, in addition to publicly congratulating Comes, portrayed him in the mosaics of the new Milanese basilica of San Giovanni Evangelista,[7] considering him like a member of the imperial family, Honorius granted him the ornamenta triumphalia and Anicius Probus had a statue erected in his honor in the Roman Forum.

However, despite the successes of Comes Bonifacius, his troops certainly could not fight at the same time in two different places. It was Honorius who solved the problem, finding the right man at the right time, Flavius Castinus,[8] who had been comes domesticarum ('commander of the guard') to Flavius Costantius. After the assassination of his commander, to avoid ending up in disgrace, he had retired to his villa near what would later become Castrum Sancti Pauli,[9] where, according to the testimony given by Anicius Severus in the Private Commentaries, he was dedicating himself to drafting of a treatise on military theory.

How Honorius came into contact with Flavius Castinus is a mystery: what Procopius of Caesarea declares that Flavius Castinus's sister was the emperor's favorite mistress is probably baseless gossip. Honorius, even in his time, was accused of everything but not indulging in lust. In any case, when Flavius Castinus was appointed Comes Italiae in March 416, he acted with the expected energy. As Jordanes recounts, in a way that is as concise as it is suggestive

Rallied, punished, trained, promoted

It is very probable that the chapters of the Notizia Dignitatum [10] relating to the military organization are the stuff of Flavius Castinus' sack. Chapters showing how the 42 legions of the field army had been divided into three classes: legiones palatinae (e.g. Ioviani Juniores and Herculiani Iuniores), legiones comitatenses (e.g. Decima Gemina), and legiones pseudocomitatenses (e.g. eg Prima Italica and Quarta Italica).

There was a completely new class of foot soldiers in the field army: the auxilia palatina; they are mentioned in the Notitia Dignitatum 65 auxilia palatina, (eg the Batavi Seniores and the Mattiaci Seniores.) As to what role these units played, there are considerable discussions among historians. They probably served as light infantry, armed with bows and the evolution of the pilum, the spiculum, which had a shorter and wider tip, which allowed it to be used both as a throwing weapon and as a spear. To complete the armament a round shield and a short sword, semispatha. From the testimony of Anicius Severus, some auxilia were instead armed with verutum, a short throwing javelin, with a 1 m shaft and a 12 cm iron tip.

The cavalry of the field army consisted of 12 vexillationes palatinae (e.g. Equites Promoti Seniores and Comites Clibanarii) and 30 vexillationes comitatenses (e.g. Equites Quinto Dalmatae), partly horse archers, partly cataphracts, protected clad in full armor and armed with a double-headed spear and a metre-long spatha. This is how Anicius Severus describes them

On both sides marched a double line of soldiers clad in shining cuirasses, with shields and helmets adorned with crests shining with dazzling light. The cuirassiers on horseback came in no particular order, usually called "clibanari", who were equipped with visors and covered with plates on the chest. Iron bands wrapped their limbs so that they would have believed statues carved by Praxiteles, not men. They were covered by thin iron plates arranged for all the limbs and adapted to the movements of the body, so that whatever movement they were forced to make, the armor would bend due to the effect of the well-connected joints [11]

In this arrangement, so characteristic of the mentality of Honorius, which gave great importance to the rank, both of individuals and of groups, and associated different ranks with different burdens and benefits, the palatine troops are the elite of the field army, the troops comitatensi are the "line" ones, and the pseudo-comitatensi are those transferred ex officio from the territorial to the field army (and this demonstrates, instead of the desperation of Flavius Castinus, ready to scrape the bottom of the barrel, that instead it was a question of professional soldiers, sufficiently armed and trained, and ready, if necessary, to take on even offensive tasks).

Furthermore, as if to underline the evolution of the Roman army towards a mainly mounted force, the Palatine and Comitatensis cavalry ranked higher than the Palatine and Comitatensis infantry respectively. The Emperor's guards are also mentioned, obviously the highest in rank, divided into 5 scholae palatinae (e.g. Scola Scutariorum Secunda and Scola Armaturarum Seniorum); the scholae are particular units, as the scholares are often appointed officers or are entrusted with special missions; they are placed under the orders of the magister officiorum, a civil office similar to that of chancellor of the Empire, rather than under the orders of magistri militum, a military office which holds the command of several units.

More specifically intended to serve as a school for future officers were the Protectores Domestici, who also served as the Emperor's bodyguard. Among the infantry troops of the territorial army are about 80 legiones and 64 cohortes, but there are also 16 numeros, other units called milites (e.g. Milites Fortenses, Milites Munifices) and auxiliares. As regards the cavalry of the territorial army, it is divided into alae, cunei equitum or equites; there are also a couple of cohortes equitatae (Cohors Prima Equitata, Cohors Prima Claudia Equitata)

Obviously, in 416 this military organization, which will later be extended also in the pars Orientis, was far from being so complete and articulated: however, broadly speaking, the Notitia Dignitatum gives us an idea of what the reorganization of Flavius Castinus may have been . Among other things, the Gothic army, notwithstanding the lack of heavy cavalry and the prevalence of light infantry, adopted a similar organization on the initiative of Athaulf, as proof of the esteem enjoyed by Comes Italiae.

As a curiosity, a testimony of this convergence is in a law of June 416 by Honorius, which forbade, even to soldiers and slaves, to wear long hair and fur clothes in the city. [12] If in the intention of the Emperor, this law was to impose a sort of discrimination against the Goths, it was instead used by Athaulf and Galla Placidia as a tool to encourage the adoption of Roman customs by the Goths.

However, despite the efforts of Flavius Castinus, the imperial troops available were few and badly trained and Athaulf was aware that they could be insufficient to guarantee a rapid victory in the Iberian campaign: therefore, the Gothic king, at the suggestion of Galla Placidia, had to seek allies. Thus, in the summer of 416, two embassies left, directed to Gundahar, king of the Burgundians, and to Goard, king of the Alans of Gaul. Both, in the convulsive events of the previous years, had juggled with skill, between Honorius, the Goths and the various usurpers, so much so that, more or less tolerated, they had seized, officially as allies of the Empire, two portions of Gaul. The Burgundians had established themselves on the left bank of the Rhine, between the Lauter and Nahe rivers, seizing Worms, Speyer and Strasbourg, while the Alans of Gaul had occupied part of the south bank of the Loire acting as a buffer between the imperial lands and the Franks, the Alamanni and the rebel Bagaudi.

At the head of this embassy was Flavius Aetius, [13] at the time an official of the Praetorian tribunes partis militaris, who was a sort of compromise between Honorius and Athaulf. The emperor esteemed the young man, considering him destined for great things, following the friendship existing between their fathers, Theodosius and the Magister Equitum Gaudentius. The Gothic king, on the other hand, had met the young man in the period between 405 and 408. He was given hostage to Alaric, king of the Visigoths, of whom he was a page.

Now the proposal of the embassy to Burgundians and Alans of Gaul consisted in the regularization of their position: they would have the same rights, with the distribution of lands and tax revenues and the access of their nobility in the senatorial order, and duties, pay taxes, accept the Roman civil administration and provide contingents in case of war, of the Goths. Gundahar would have been recognized the title and role of Comes Burgundiorum, while Goard that of Comes Alanorum and both would have participated in the Council of the Gauls. Furthermore, in a small way, such as the clauses of the insurance contracts, there was a condition desired by Athaulf: the Arian church of the Burgundians and the Alans should have recognized the disciplinary and theological authority of the bishop of Mediolanum, Eusebius, who was considered an instrument to influence and control the two peoples. [14]

Either through the rhetorical skills of Flavius Aetius, as Cassiodorus affirms, or through divine inspiration, as Paulinus of Nola writes, who among other things was a friend and correspondent of Goard, or as Anicius Severus cynically declares in the Res Gestae Getarum,

for fear of Gothic and Roman arms, whose number and value they overestimated
the two kings accepted the conditions of Milan and Ravenna. Now, however, having found the soldiers, however, the other main element for fighting wars was missing: money, money and more money. The proceeds of the land tax, while providing relief to the imperial finances, seemed insufficient to pay for a major military campaign in Hispania. Honorius was convinced that this military campaign, however it went, would be a success for him: if Athaulf won, he would recover a province from the barbarians, if he lost, he would take the opportunity to get rid of his brother-in-law and eliminate the concessions to Goths, Burgundians and Alans of Gaul. So he began to rack his brains and in the autumn of 416 he had a brilliant idea, which would become the practice in the future financial management of the Empire. He issued a loan. public, guaranteed by the imperial state, repayable in fifteen years, at an annual rate of 5%.

The very rich Roman senatorial nobility, starting with Anicius Probus, either out of patriotism or out of the hope of a secure financial income joined en masse, thus allowing the war to be financed. Among other things, a couple of months ago, in the excavations of the domus Anicia on the Caelian, [15] some bronze tablets were found, with the conditions of the loan, the amount provided, the initials of Petronius Maximus Anicius and Giovanni Primicerio, which constitute the debt certificate of the time, the ancestor of our government bonds [16]

---

[1] Historic Byzantine also exists OTL, known for its habit of polemicising with the rest of the world
[2] Rewriting of a passage by Procopius
[3] Philopagan Byzantine historian
[4] Campaign that also takes place OTL and of which as ITL we know very little, except that Bonifacius won
[5] Byzantine historian who focuses his history on religious events
[6] Although, depending on the years, Bonifacius OTL varied his religious opinions from Nicean to Arian and vice versa, he always maintained a good friendship with Augustine
[7] No, I have not forgotten the story of the Basilica Portiana
[8] ITL Castinus will be more fortunate and will not have a passion for coups
[9] The current Poli, between Tivoli and Palestrina

[10] ITL the Notitia Dignitatum is written by Honorius... For the description of the army, I based myself on the hypotheses of an article by Giovanni Baldi, which I take up again and of which I appropriately reduce the numbers of the troops
[11] Adaptation of a quote from Ammianus Marcellinus
[12] Law also promulgated OTL
[13] ITL will have an equally adventurous life and which, however, will not be killed by treachery
[14] Butterflies that will change the religious landscape of Europe
[15] For those who know Rome, it is in the area of the church of San Gregorio al Celio

[16] More butterflies on public debt

 

[Gateis]

Reading the story I have this hilarious picture of Honorius brooding and sitting in his palace, driving needles into a doll with the likeness of Athaulf.

 

[AndreaConti]

Interesting and detailed TL.
Would appear that if I interpret it correctly that the currently situation may evolve to the OTL , Ostrogothic Italian Kingdom with a still Arian Gothic elite superimposed over the Roman one, but, here , instead, extended to what would remain of the Roman State...

Yes, absolutely! Here the process of integration between the Gothic elites (in Spain and Italy the distinction between Ostrogoths and Visigoths is being considered artificial for linguistic and cultural reasons) begins earlier, will not be abruptly interrupted and will also extend to the East, given that the Athaulf's example will influence the politics of Flāvius Theoderīcus and Theoderīcus Strabo

 

[AndreaConti]

Reading the story I have this hilarious picture of Honorius brooding and sitting in his palace, driving needles into a doll with the likeness of Athaulf.

Imagine what he could have done to the dolls of Stilicho and Alaric 😁 😁 😁

 

[Danifa94]

Imagine what he could have done to the dolls of Stilicho and Alaric 😁 😁 😁

"At that time they say that the Emperor Honorius in Ravenna asked for some dolls to be made in the image and likeness of his enemies, which he ordered to be filled with wheat. Each morning, the master of the Roman world tossed the dolls, clad in the regalia of a master of the soldiers or the furs of a barbarian king, to his beloved chickens, who gladly proceeded to tear them apart for food. Thus, the son of Theodosius, as incapable of emulating the tyrants of the Republic as of following the example of its heroes, was content to do to straw and cloth victims with meek poultry, what Nero did to flesh and bone victims with savage lions."
—Historia Augusta, Honorius

 

[AndreaConti]

06 Reconquista

Although it is often overlooked, the economic role of the Iberian provinces was fundamental in the imperial economy, starting with agricultural resources: in the Baetis valley wine and oil of notable quality were produced in abundance, which fueled a flourishing export, second only to those of the African provinces: production which was further increasing following the increase in precipitation due to climate cooling.

Let us remember that in Rome, the main importer of foodstuffs from Hispania, the accumulation of oil amphorae from Baetica, especially the so-called Dressel 20, [1] with its characteristic pot-bellied shape, even gave rise to the formation of a hill, the Mons Testaceus, that is literally “mountain of pieces” (Testaccio). [2] The singular accumulation of shards was determined by the fact that, after use, the amphorae could not be reused and therefore had to be eliminated.

The main industries were also linked to the food sector, such as salting and preserving fish, which was particularly important on the Atlantic and southern coasts. Furthermore, in northern Hispania, a livestock industry was developing, which was leading to the progressive increase in exports of wool, cheese and leather. But the main strategic value of Hispania was linked to the exploitation of mineral resources, such as lead, copper, iron ore and above all gold, taken from the mines of Las Médulas, as defined by Pliny the Elder in the Naturalis Historia,

What happens in Las Médulas is much more than Giganti's work. The mountains are pierced by corridors and tunnels created by lamplight. For months the mines are not illuminated by sunlight and many miners die inside the tunnels. This type of mine was defined as Ruina Montium. The cracks created inside the mine are so dangerous that it is easier to find purpurine or pearls at the bottom of the sea than to chip this rock. With what danger have we built the earth!

Pliny also stated that 20,000 pounds of gold were extracted every year and as many as 60,000 free workers were employed in excavations that produced 5 million pounds over the 250 years of the mine (corresponding to 1,635,000 kg of gold).

This entire economic system went into crisis in 410, the year in which, according to what Bishop Idatius [3] recounts in his Chronicles

As the barbarians raged through Spain, and the evil of the plague raged, the tyrannical tax collector and the soldier plundered the substances hidden in the cities: the famine raged, so strong that human flesh was devoured by the human race: the mothers killed or cooked the own children by eating them. Ferocious beasts, accustomed to corpses killed by the sword, by hunger or disease, kill any human being with the strength they have left, feed on meat, preparing the brutal destruction of mankind. And God's punishment, foretold by the prophets, occurred with the four plagues that devastated the entire Earth: iron, famine, plague and beasts.

According to the chronicler Idatius, in 411 the invaders divided the occupied lands in this way:

The Barbarians divided among themselves the various lots of the provinces to settle there: the Hasding Vandals took over Galicia, the Swabians took over that part of Galicia located along the western coast of the Ocean. The Alans had Lusitania and Carthaginense, while the Siling Vandals took Betica. The Romans of the cities and strongholds who had survived the disaster surrendered into slavery to the barbarians who dominated all the provinces.

Obviously, such a situation could not have been pleasing to Honorius, with a view to re-establishing both finances and imperial power. Consequently, despite the discontent with Athaulf's role, the court of Ravenna had to make the best of it. In February 417, Athaulf, having gathered his troops from the Po Valley, crossed the Alps to go to Arleate, where he was to join up with the Gothic contingent of Wallia, which also included the troops provided by the Burgundians and the Alans of Gaul. In those days, while he was organizing his army, he participated in the session of the Council of Gaul convened by Priscus Attalus.

Council which had to address three issues: the resolution of some disputes between the Romans and the foederati, which concerned the gray areas and ambiguities contained in the agreements of the previous years, the logistics of the Iberian campaign, whose financing Honorius had caused, as punishment for having supported Galla Placidia and as an attempt to open a wedge with the Goths, on the pockets of the Gallo-Roman senatorial nobility and the need to regain control of the area north of the Loire, from which the continuous raids of the Franks and the Bagauds began.

From what Anicius Severus tells us, the Council issued a series of resolutions, to address the main themes of the dispute, which ranged from grazing rights to the distribution of water: in part, these decisions, those of more general topics, were incorporated into the Codex Theodosianus minor, [4] are partly known from archaeological research in the Garonne valley and in Arles, in which some epigraphs have been identified which report numerous references and citations. [5]

On the question of logistics costs, the compromise proposal formulated by Priscus Attalus was accepted: the Gallo Roman senators would cover the costs, in exchange for exemption from the land tax for the entire duration of the military campaign in Hispania. At the news of this reasonable compromise, according to Cassiodorus, Honorius, who was busy with the accounts of the state's income and expenditure, fainted, cursing the Goths. Anicus Severus, specifying that it was a joke that went around the court of Theodosius III, says that instead the emperor tore his clothes, shouting

Prisce, Prisce, nummos mihi redde [6]

making an ironic comparison with Augustus' behavior after the defeat of Teutoburg. Finally, Athaulf promised following the successful outcome of the Iberian campaign, he would send a contingent to re-establish order in the north of Gaul: in the meantime both the Gallo Roman senators and the Gothic nobles would pay a subsidy to the Alans of Gaul who would guarded the Loire and prevented the raids of the Franks and the Baguads.

Having resolved the problems in Gaul more or less effectively, Athaulf joined the imperial army, led by Flavius Castinus, in Barcelona.If we were to rely on Hydatius as a source, we would know very little about this Gothic campaign, given that the bishop limits himself to writing

The Silingi Vandals of Betica were wiped out through King Athaulf. The Alans, who reigned over the Vandals and Suevi, were exterminated by the Goths to the point that they even forgot the name of their kingdom and placed themselves under the protection of Gunderic, the king of the Hasdingian Vandals who had settled in Galicia

And unfortunately, for reasons unknown to us, Anicius Severus was equally less than talkative in describing the military campaign. Luckily for us, we have an alternative source Urbicius' Strategies, ratio et stratagema. [7] Now a source that was considered reliable until a few decades ago, but which with the passage of time is generating a series of doubts among scholars: Urbicius, writes in Greek more than a century after the events in Hispania, so it is difficult to discern between what he derived from previous sources unknown and lost to us and how much is the fruit of his imagination. Furthermore, we know that Urbicius was very polemical towards the operational decisions of the Magister militum per Orientem, Flavius Belisarius, [8] so he may have distorted the events of the time, to support his tactical and strategic theses. Ursinus thus introduces his story, in the chapter dedicated to the campaigns of Flavius Castinus and Athaulf. Now, given that Urbucius shares Honorius' opinion on the Goths, which among other things in his time were somewhat anachronistic, he tends to favor the imperial role in the description of the battles.

Unlike the magister militum praesentalis Flavius Ardaburius [9] who had to face the treacherous Persians, whose strength consisted both in the ability to deceive the enemy and in the heavy cavalry of the cataphracts and clibinari, the army of Flavius Castinus specialized in fighting infantry barbaric, unarmoured, except for the optimates, the wealthy, and the nobles. For this reason, Castinus decided to abolish the use of the pilum, given that the use of javelins and darts would have been enough, the range being more important than penetration. Likewise, it replaced the gladius designed to pierce armour, which the barbarians were unable to operate within a legion deployed in closed order during a pitched battle, which the Germans, especially the Vandals and Franks, avoided as much as possible, to fear of Roman weapons. So the war, unlike in the past, was reduced to a dust of small clashes, where the spatha, with its greater length and the ability to strike with a cut and thrust, helped more to mow down the enemy like ears of wheat.

Flavius Castinus also gave the soldiers a short spear for better defense against cavalry, and had a certain percentage of the soldiers trained in archery, so that they could shoot from behind, which was useful against cavalry, but also against infantry. Furthermore, he lightened the armor, to facilitate the speed of the march and the agility of the movements during the battle and to improve protection he gave orders to enlarge the shields.
Now, although it is probable that the Roman general standardized the adoption of these weapons, there is no doubt that, unlike what Urbicius states, this process of modifying the armament had been underway since the time of Valentinian I. However, continuing in the chapter, we have the description of the clash between the Gothic and imperial army and that of the Silingi Vandals, which Urbicius says took place in the Guiamus location, where there was a ford of the Betis and which, integrating with what was written by Jordanes, should be between Italica and Hispalis:[10] as the hydrography of the area has changed heavily over the centuries, scholars are thoughtfully debating its exact location

Flavius Castinus had divided his troops into three lines. The first acies [11] was made up of the auxilia skirmishers, who were supposed to disturb the enemy. In the second acies there were instead the heavy infantry, with their ranks tightly closed, which presented the enemy with a wall of shields bristling with short spears. In the third line, there were the sagittarii, armed with bows and javelin throwers. Flavius Castinus personally led the second line

The disposition of the Silingi Vandals was similar: in the front line there were their few archers, with weapons, aim and training worse than that of the Romans. Behind them was the first group of Optimates, with their armor. In the second acies there were the lightly armed soldiers and in the last line, the few knights, under the personal command of the Vandal king.

The battle began in the morning, when the Vandal king had his first line, the archers and the optimates, cross the ford. These forces attacked the Roman infantry, but inexperience confused their action: the enemy archers, frightened by the fencers of the auxilia , they dropped their bows and fled, throwing the optimates into chaos, who did not close ranks and were killed one by one. Faced with such a massacre, the barbarians, with hot blood and ferocious souls, so ready to be overwhelmed by both anger and discouragement, who were present in the second line attacked the Romans, without waiting for the orders of their king. At first, the Vandals, with their fury, seemed to overwhelm the Roman front line. But Flavius Castinus remained calm and gave the order to the second acies to attack: the Romans beat the spatha on the shields, made the earth tremble with their shouts, arranged themselves according to the formation of the caput porci [12] and charged. The melee was ferocious.

The Vandal king, with a bold move, tried to outflank the Roman troops, to strike them from behind, but first he was slowed down by the Sagittarii and the javelin throwers, who aimed at the horses, then overwhelmed by the cavalry of Flavius Castinus. While the battle raged, the Vandals did not realize that Athaulf's Gothic troops, who had remained in reserve until then, were surrounding them to the north and south, closing them in a vice. When the Vandal king realized this, seeing the battle lost, he threw himself into the fray, seeking a heroic death and was killed.

To be honest, in his laconism, Anicius Severus tells us something different

The Silingi, more brigands than soldiers, were defeated and dispersed and their king, Freddalius was sent prisoner to Ravenna, as a gift to the emperor Honorius.

Returning to Urbicius' story, the battle against the Alans took place near Scalabis Iulia. The general tells us that

The Alans of Spain, frightened by the victory of the Romans and the Goths, gathered a large army: to face it, Athaulf devised the following stratagem: one of his scutariums wore the king's clothes and with part of the Gothic army launched into battle, preceded by the royal insignia, passing themselves off as comitatus. [13] The Alans threw themselves en masse against this group, routing them. Once the scutarium fell, the barbarians had the illusion of having killed the Gothic king and that they had victory in their grasp. Thus they broke their formations, indulging in great scenes of jubilation, disorganizedly launching themselves in pursuit of the apparently routed Goths. This gave Athaulf and Flavius Castinus, who had kept their troops in reserve, hidden in the woods, the opportunity to launch a surprise attack, taking the Alans from behind. The barbarians, taken by surprise, could not withstand the attack of the Goths and Romans, were overwhelmed and dispersed, to be slaughtered like chickens by a weasel

Anicius Severus instead writes, confirming this victory

In the ensuing battle the Alan king Attavus fell with all his people

Unfortunately, things were not destined to be so simple: Gundericus,[14] king of the Asdingi Vandals, was of a very different kind compared to his previous enemies. In May 417, after having discussed in a war council, they decided to march north, to settle the situation with the enemies. Anicius Severus, in the Private Commentaries, tells us how both the Roman and the Gothic armies, when they undertook a march, had a light chariot for every ten men, which carried the grain mill, the axes, the saw, the mace , two shovels and two dolabra, [15]a sickle, a basket, coarse canvas, a reserve of plumbatae (hand-thrown leaded darts), of caltrops, with an iron tool to recover them.

In another chapter of the Strategies, ratio et stratagema Urbicius tells us how it was recommended that the soldiers follow alongside their tanks, in order to be able to quickly recover the material in the event of an attack. As a rule, when battle was imminent, useless impediments were left behind, 30 or 50 leagues away, with enough reserves of water and fodder to supply the animals. The guards had to remain in contact with the rest of the army to follow the developments of the combat. But if this removal proved impossible, it was necessary to place the baggage just behind the infantry lines, taking care not to overrun them. The chariots were turned with their rears facing the battle, with traps in the intervals to form an impenetrable wall and shelter. Their tarpaulin, undoubtedly placed on a wooden frame, served to protect the animals and the handlers from the rain of arrows. The vehicles that transported the war machines, i.e. ballista tanks, were placed on the wings, essentially turned towards the front of the battle.

Therefore, we can imagine how the Roman and Gothic army proceeded in this way: Gundericus, thanks to spies, discovered his route near Lucus Augusta, in a narrow passage between the mountains, and organized an ambush. The Goths who had taken advantage of the smaller amount of baggage began to follow a path that ran through a tortuous and narrow gorge between the mountains, hoping to surprise their enemies. From above the mountains the Astingi Vandals prepared the ambush. Both the exit and the entrance were blocked, with Gundericus' soldiers pelting the astonished Goths from the heights. Athaulf managed to make his men gain a slightly less vulnerable position, after having suffered the loss of many men and baggage trains, but the situation remained very serious.

What saved her was the arrival of the Roman cavalry, which Flavius Castinus had sent to reconnoiter along another path, which charged the Vandals, taking them by surprise: probably Gundericus' troops would have easily overwhelmed her, the Vandal king underestimated the distance at which they were the Roman troops and prudently moved away from the battlefield. With a hint of controversy, in recounting this event, he highlights how the choice of the Pars Occidentis, compared to the Pars Orientis, to favor the light cavalry against the cataphracts, was the winning choice guaranteeing maximum flexibility in battle. Probably, at the time of Belisarius, given the clashes with the Sasanians, this was not true at all, but the choice of Flavius Castinus responded to a precise tactical need.

For logistical reasons the barbarians, once in Roman territory, had to disperse to forage and plunder; if they concentrated, they could not do so for long, because they ran out of food. The light cavalry was perfectly capable of surprising and destroying, and more generally prohibiting isolated groups of barbarians from using the surrounding territory. If these barbarians then concentrated, they could be starved to the point of exhaustion, as Flavius Constantius had done with Athaulf, or even give battle, if the conditions were favourable.

After this first clash, Gundericus realized that his army could do nothing, in a pitched battle with the Goths and Romans, he decided to adopt a tactic that today we would call guerrilla warfare, to wear down the enemy with ambushes and rapid attacks. In turn, Athaulf and Flavius Castinus decided to reverse the strategy of Flavius Costantius on the vandals: they imposed the embargo, burned the fields and killed the flocks, to force the enemies to starve. Furthermore, Athaulf negotiated an alliance with the Suebi king Emericus, in September 417, who, having two armies on his doorstep, was happy to accept the same conditions as the Burgundians and the Alans of Gaul: obviously the new Comes Sueborum , wanting to show all his sudden loyalty to Ravenna, attacked the territory of the Vandals.

A strategy which, however, to be successful, required precisely what Athaulf and Flavius Castinus lacked, time: on the one hand the Goth, Burgundian and Alani soldiers wanted to return to their fields, on the other the imperial finances were increasingly in difficulty . Faced with the hole in the public accounts, happy with the result and not wanting to grant too much glory to his Gothic brother-in-law, Honorius sent a delegation to Hispania to mediate peace in November 417. Bishop Idazio tells the story

General Castinus, with numerous troops and his Gothic allies, brings the war in Asturiae-Calleciae to the Vandals who he besieges and starves; but, just at the moment in which they were about to surrender, Honorius gave the order to stipulate peace, which he received with enormous disappointment from the Romans

In reality, as Anicus Severus recounts, Honorius' order was welcomed with jubilation by both parties, even for the Vandals who were beginning to suffer from hunger. Therefore, Gundericus accepted the same conditions as Emericus, becoming Comes Vandalorum. However, both Athaulf and Gondericus knew that the agreement, signed on Christmas 417, was nothing more than a fragile truce and that in the following years, the war in Hispania would resume... Cassiodorus tells us, but it is certainly a legend which at the meeting between Gundericus and Athaulf, the Vandal king said

Even those who don't know you will say from your appearance alone: this must be a king.

and the Goth replied

And from your appearance he will say: this is a snake

---

[1] For those curious about the shape of this type of amphora. The flat bottom made it easier to load onto ships

[2] For those who don't know Rome, an idea of what Monte Testaccio is

[3] Historian of the time, OTL also existed
[4] ITL legislative code, which will appear later in the story
[5] Obviously, these are invented archaeological discoveries
[6] In English, Prisco, Prisco give me my money back
[7] It's not really an invented book: OTL this Roman general from the time of Justin wrote a treatise on military tactics and strategy, of which only two chapters remained, which ended up as an appendix to Maurice's Strategikon. ITL the book, in addition to being preserved, will have different contents
[8] who will have a very different life...
[9]The general of Theodosius II, of Alan origin, who defeated the Persians several times
[10] On the outskirts of Seville
[11] in English, battle line
[12] wedge formation of the Roman legion

[13] The king's bodyguards
[14] For him too, life will be different
[15] Double-headed tool, having a sharp blade on one side and a point on the other, with a long handle, used by the Romans as an ax or hammer, called in Italian "evil and worse"

 

[Gateis]

Well, I'm sure Honorius is hating every second of every minute of this, and he would almost certainly see me executed for writing this, but things could be looking a lot grimmer for him right now.

But I suppose it's not in his nature to make peace with his brother-in-law.

 

[AndreaConti]

Well, I'm sure Honorius is hating every second of every minute of this, and he would almost certainly see me executed for writing this, but things could be looking a lot grimmer for him right now.

But I suppose it's not in his nature to make peace with his brother-in-law.

Let us remember that Honorius, also OTL, was a firm believer in the old Klingon proverb

Revenge is a dish best served cold 😊

 

[AndreaConti]

08 Every man must be free to choose his path to descend into Hell

While the Roman and Gothic armies achieved their successes in Hispania, the attention of the rest of the Pars Occidentis was caught up, unexpectedly for all the protagonists of its politics, in a series of religious and ecclesiastical disputes. Unexpected, because, unlike the Pars Orientis, the elites of Milan, Ravenna and Rome had very little interest in theology. Even though they would both have been scandalized by it, Athaulf and Honorius both shared a pragmatic vision of religion, understood as Instrumentum regni, [1] as a means of controlling their restless subjects. Both would have subscribed to the words of Polybius, who we know, from the testimony of Anicius Severus in the Private Commentaries, was, together with Tacitus, among the Emperor's favorite writers, so much so that we owe the integral preservation of their works to the scriptoria of Ravenna [2]

That religious superstition which among other men is the object of blame, serves in Rome to keep the State united: religion is more deeply rooted and public and private ceremonies are celebrated with greater pomp than among any other people. This might arouse the wonder of many; It seems to me that the Romans instituted these customs with the nature of the masses in mind. In a nation made up of only wise men, it would in fact be useless to resort to means such as these, but since the multitude is by its nature fickle and subject to passions of all kinds, to unbridled greed, to violent anger, there is no alternative but to restrain them with such apparatuses and with mysterious fears. For this reason, I am of the opinion that the ancients did not introduce religious faith and superstitions about Hades to the multitudes without reason, but rather that those who try to eliminate them in our days are foolish.

Galla Placidia, despite being a fervent Nicaean, was quite aware, in order not to lose the support of the Goths, to guarantee tolerance towards Christians of Arian obedience. Anicius Probus, with utmost equanimity, politely despised all Christian confessions, without showing preference. Not because, like Paulinus of Pella, he was a follower of Epicurus and the ancient philosophers or a crypto-pagan: as Anicius Severus always remembers, his grandfather, despite his wealth, was a fervent Christian, but he had an idea of religion similar to that of the hermits of Thebaid: the church, whatever the idea about the nature of Christ, had to be humble, poor and at the service of the poor, an idea that both the Nicaean bishops and the Arian bishops looked at with smoke and mirrors in their eyes. [3]

In this sort of anticlericalism, Anicius Probus considered the Christian bishops, who often came from the senatorial class, as a sort of parasites, who took holy orders to avoid paying taxes and not respecting their obligations towards the community. In this spirit, the Praefectus urbis Romae had to face the first major challenge of his career.

Bishop Innocent, who was appreciated by all the faithful, both for his charitable spirit and because, despite his condemnation of the Manichaeans and the Priscillians,[4] he was quite tolerant with the Arians, had resigned from office on 12 March 417, due to the worsening of his health conditions.[5] Having no male relatives to leave the position to, as per local tradition, the assembly of the faithful was convened in the Liberian Basilica [6] to elect the successor. According to local tradition, this very lively assembly often degenerated into clashes in the streets between supporters of one or the other candidate. To avoid problems, Anicius Probus mobilized the public force, summoned the deacons holding the city titulus[7] in the Palatine and threatened them, in case of disturbances, with sending them to work in the Sardinian mines: given that his antipathy for the presbyters was known, his words were taken seriously. The problem is that, unlike his predecessors, Acilius Probus, due to his pauperistic vision of the church, had no candidate to support for the nomination of bishop of Rome, so he made the mistake of remaining neutral. It's a shame that Honorius, in Ravenna, did not share this position: with a fair amount of corruption, he managed to have Zosimus elected as bishop of Rome.[8]

Except for the few notes contained in the Liber Pontificalis, [9] nothing is known of his history before his election, nor of his ecclesiastical career. Notes which state that Zosimos was originally from Mesorachìon [10]and his father was called Abraham. Scant information that makes us suppose that he was of Greek language and culture, at the time the predominant language in the south of Brutium and in the Chora of Rhegion [11] and his family was of Jewish origin. [12] Furthermore, in his ecclesiastical career, Zosimus had somehow frequented Gaul, where he had become a friend of Patroclus, bishop of Arles; this, being related to Flavius Constantius, was one of the few exponents of the Gallo-Roman church not to be allied with Galla Placidia.

Patroclus was present in Rome, as an agent of Honorius, to support the election of Zosimos and was one of the bishops who participated in his enthronement. Just four days after his consecration, on 22 March 417, Zosimos returned the favor to Patroclus and put the first piece of the complex plan conceived by the emperor to undermine one of the bases of Galla Placidia's power, all wrapped in a robe of legality, in order to tie Galla Placidia's hands, preventing her from intervening. There was in fact an ongoing dispute between Patroclus and Proculus, bishop of Marseilles, a fervent supporter of Galla Placidia, regarding the jurisdiction of two parishes, Citarist and Gargario, included in the territory of the bishop of Arles and disputed between the two bishops. Not only had Proculus arbitrarily appointed the parish priests Urso and Tuenzio, but these two were also convinced Priscillians. [13]

Now, Zosimus, with one of his epistle of 22 March, the Arelatensis 1 [14] of the Regesta Pontificum Romanorum, [15] not only restored the power over the two parishes to Patroclus, something on which everyone in Gaul, except Proculus, was more or less in agreement , but appointed him metropolitan of Gaul, granting him the following privileges: no member of the Gallic clergy could go to Rome or elsewhere without letters of presentation ("formatae") from Patroclus and his successors in the see of Arles under penalty of exclusion from communion with the Bishop of Rome; that the bishops of the province of Vienne and of the two provinces of Narbonensi (I and II) were ordained by the metropolitan of Arles, and warned not to touch the parishes of the Church of Arles and finally established that any problem that emerged in those Churches must be referred to Patroclus, unless he deemed the involvement of the Bishop of Rome necessary.

To justify these privileges, Zosimus, in addition to basing himself on the unspecified merits of Patroclus, referred to the tradition which stated that the evangelization of Gaul had begun precisely in Arles, thanks to Trophimus, a companion of Saint Paul, cited in the Acts of Apostles. In reality, and the clergy of Gaul, as testified by Gregory of Torus was aware of it, it was a case of homonymy: it was instead one of the bishops sent by Pope Fabian, together with Saint Dionysius, in the third century, to Gaul in the time of Decius. So in Ravenna they were certain that such a provision would cause an uproar; to further accentuate this, the timing of the dispatch was carefully chosen, so that Athaulf was in Hispania and could not act as a mediator between the parties.

Honorius' move, in addition to dividing the supporters of Gallia Placidia, was aimed at tying the city to the court of Ravenna, in order to politically marginalize Priscus Attalus. Added to this was Zosimus' attempt to strengthen the bond between Rome and Arles, which was rooted in time, given that from the time of Cyprian it was the bishop of Rome who installed or deposed the bishop of Arles; furthermore, with this stance, Zosimos and Honorius probably intended to counteract the possible aspirations of the see of Milan in the south of Gaul, which was under the control of Galla Placidia, especially since in the meantime the political influence of Arles had greatly increased being which became the seat of the praetorian prefect of Gaul in place of Trier in 400.

Upon receiving the letter, chaos broke out in the Gallic church: if some of the bishops accepted Rome's provisions, Hilary of Narbonne and Proculus, seeing the rights they considered acquired in the synod of Turin in 401 [16] violated, protested vigorously. It was exactly what Honorius wanted: Zosimos, in retaliation, responded to him on 26 September 417, with the epistle Arelatensis 2 of the Regesta Pontificum Romanorum,[17] forbidding him to ordain the bishops of his province, a right which he declared granted to the bishop of Arles by an ancient decision. He then motivated his decree not only with custom, but also with the reference to "reverentia" towards Sam Trofimo and with his recent and very clear and recent provision, threatening both the invalidity of the ordinations possibly carried out by Ilario and the separation of Hilary himself from communion with the universal Church. Faced with this position, Hilary, who had been one of the great supporters of the alliance with Galla Placidia and Athaulf, had to bow his head and was politically marginalised.

On 26 September Zosimos, who was getting used to it, wrote the epistle Arelatensis 3 of the Regesta Pontificum Romanorum, [18] intended for Patroclus, which gave precise instructions on the protocol followed to draft the letters of introduction that Patroclus had the task of drafting for anyone from Gaul had wanted to go to Rome, where in addition to obedience to the provisions of the Bishop of Rome, proclaimed loyalty to the Emperor was required as a binding condition, thus excluding the possibility of the followers of Galla Placidia going on a pilgrimage "in limina apostolorum" ,[19] undermining its credibility, and to the court of Milan, to obtain political support.

Yet, beyond these low-grade political maneuvers, this epistle is a milestone in the history of Christianity: Zosimus required aspirants to the priesthood to gradually go through all the steps of the clerical orders on the basis of 1 Timothy 3, 6 and of canon 2 of Nicaea: also in this case, there was a very concrete need on the part of Honorius, namely to make the consecration of the exponents of the senatorial order as complicated as possible, which as already mentioned was an excellent escape route from of taxes and curial obligations.

On 29 September Zosimos sent an epistle to the bishops of the province of Vienne and of Narbonensis II to reiterate that it was the exclusive task of the metropolitan of Arles to consecrate the bishops of both the two provinces of Narbonensis and that of Vienne, and not of Proculus of Marseilles nor of Simplicius of Vienne. In the letter, the bishop of Rome underlined how unfounded were the protests of Proculus who, in the synod of Turin, had claimed metropolitan power over Narbonensis II for the bishop of Marseille and had involved Simplicius to claim this power also for the province of Vienne. Furthermore, Zosimus threatened to resort to the secular arm if Proculus did not renounce his claims and usurpations.

On 7 January 418, Priscus Attalus received an imperial rescript from Ravenna, requesting the arrest of Proculus for sedition and rebellion against the authority of the Bishop of Rome. Priscus found himself in an embarrassing situation: if he had arrested Proculus, he would have lost the favor of Galla Placidia, on which his newfound political power was based. If he had refused, he would have given Honorius the right to dismiss him. But the Praetorian Prefect of Gaul was evidently a lucky man: on 21 January, Proculus died suddenly and Zosimos took the opportunity to replace him with Palladius, another loyalist of Honorius and Patroclus: in a few months, the alliances that Galla Placidia had woven in the Gallic church had been broken. [20]

In parallel with all the intrigues in Gaul, Zosimos was involved in two other affairs. The first was strictly local: as proof that Alaric's sack had been less dramatic than we think, Rome was in full economic boom. The fulcrum of this recovery was the Esquilino district, for two very specific reasons. [21]The first was linked to the development of productive activities in that area of the city: there was the factory of uniforms and shields for the Roman army, [22] the mint, near the current church of San Clemente, the Forum Esquilinum market,[23] which Anicius Probus had just had the numerous workshops of marble workers, who worked on the maintenance of the imperial palace of Sessorianus and the Basilica of the Holy Savior [24] and the Liberian Basilica, of goldsmiths and silversmiths.

In particular, proof of the diffusion and level of the workshops of these luxury artisans is the discovery of the Esquiline treasure created between the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th century and found in the 18th century in via Lanza. Treasure consisting of numerous objects of various uses and of excellent workmanship, characterized by pagan iconography, but with inscriptions which reveal that its owners were Christians, among which the so-called "Proiecta casket" stands out

The second reason was linked to the availability of low-priced houses: at the end of the 4th century the gardens not belonging to the imperial estate had been parceled out and built, [25] as evidenced by the insula on which the church of San Eusebio stands. [26] As a result, the neighborhood was full of immigrants of Germanic origin, many of the Arian religion, who did not have a church in which to celebrate their rites. So, around 415, the community taxed itself and with the money from the collection, they took over an abandoned ruin, once a summer triclinium of the Gardens of Maecenas. This structure consisted of a rectangular hall, with an apse on one of the smaller sides, with a dimension of 10.60 meters wide by 24.40 meters long and covered with a barrel vault. The front part of the room was wider and narrowed towards the back to make room for a series of niches, six on each side. Another five niches opened in the apse, above the flight of seven semicircular steps, originally covered in cipollino marble, which formed a small theater auditorium. The floor was decorated in opus sectile, while each niche was decorated according to a pattern with a tree in the centre, placed beyond a marble balustrade with a central recess where a fountain or vase is located. The surrounding trees, moved by the wind, are populated by a vast number of birds in flight and perched. The presence of the real niches forced the artists to invent a way of occupying the upper spaces, which were decorated with an artificial shower of flowers.

The Arians built the staircase to more easily reach the triclinium which was several meters below the road level due to the rising phenomena of the Roman soil, they redid the façade, building a small portico and opening an oculus, to better illuminate the interior of the room, they placed a small altar above the staircase and used the steps as a choir. Lacking the money to redo the decoration, which they probably interpreted as a representation of Paradise, which generated the misunderstanding that the Arians were aniconic. Thus the triclinium, with the name of San Severino iuxta domum Merulana, [27] from the name of the street did not coincide with the current one as it extended from the nymphaeum Alexandri (current Piazza Vittorio) to the Lateran. The founding of this Arian church triggered a series of riots on the part of the Niceans.

To restore public order, Anicius Probus appealed to a law issued in 386 by the fifteen-year-old Valentinian II, inspired by his mother Justina, in 386, in which the Arians were granted the right to hold their functions without being bothered. [28] The agitators who disturbed the peace of the church were identified as authors of sedition and had to pay the penalty of high treason with their lives and their blood. The Nicaeans, not trusting Galla Placidia, appealed to Honorius for her marriage to Athaulf. The emperor, however, with his usual cynicism, refused their requests, wanting to undermine his brother-in-law's role as protector of the Arians: faced with his protector's position, Zosimos decided to mediate with Anicius Probus... The turbulent Nicaeans they did not end up on the gallows, getting away with a heavy fine: in exchange, the Arians would have celebrated their ceremonies in peace

The second story, of greater historical importance, concerned the Pelagian question and therefore the relationship with Augustine and the other African bishops. Bishop Innocent, Zosimos' predecessor, seemed to have resolved the issue by condemning Pelagius and his disciple Celestius, but the two had reacted to the condemnation by appealing to Rome with a letter containing their profession of faith, of which the following passage remains

Despite having created him weak and helpless externally, God created man strong internally, giving him the gift of reason and wisdom, and did not want him to be a blind executor of his will, but to be free in doing good or evil. If you think about it carefully, it will become clear to you how, precisely for this reason, the condition of man is higher and more dignified, where it seems and is instead believed to be more miserable. In being able to distinguish the dual path of good and evil, in the freedom to choose one or the other lies his pride of being rational. There would be no merit in persevering in good if he did not also have the possibility of doing evil. Therefore it is a good thing that we can also commit evil; because this makes the choice to do good more beautiful. It seems that many want to reproach the Lord for his work, saying that he should have created man incapable of doing evil: not knowing how to amend their life, they want to amend nature! Instead, the fundamental goodness of this nature has been imprinted in everyone, without exception, so much so that even among pagans, who do not know the cult of God, it surfaces and often shows itself clearly. In fact, how many philosophers have we heard or seen with our own eyes who lived chaste and abstinent, modest, benevolent, contemptuous of worldly honors and pleasures, lovers of justice? Where did these virtues come from, if not from nature itself? Therefore, ensure that no one surpasses you in the good and virtuous life: all this is in your power and belongs to you alone, since it cannot come to you from outside, but germinates and arises from your heart. [29]

However, due to Innocent's resignation, the letter reached Zosimos, who also received a visit from Celestius, who in January 417 had been expelled from Constantinople for his theological positions. Zosimos received him in the Basilica of San Clemente, where the question was examined in the presence of Italian bishops, Roman presbyters and clerics: Celestius' defense writing (the Libellus fidei) was read, and he was minutely questioned and, while refusing to retract what had professed at the Council of Carthage in 411 in response to the accusations of the deacon Paulinus of Milan, he declared himself in agreement with the propositions expressed by Innocent in his letters. [30]

Faced with this declaration, Zosimos considered Celestius innocent, also because the initial accusations of heresy, formulated by Eros of Arles and Lazarus of Aix, had been exposed by letter, and not in the presence of the accused who could have defended himself, and coming by people who had been deposed because they were unworthy of their ministry. The two bishops of Gaul, in fact, who had been exiled by the emperor Honorius perhaps because they were favorable to the usurper Constantine III, had not presented themselves at the council of Diospolis as accusers due to the illness of one of them. Therefore, in the Epistle Africana 2 of the Regesta Pontificum Romanorum, [31]in order not to fall into conflict with Augustine and the other African bishops, he said he did not want to decide hastily on the question and invited Celesius' accusers to come to Rome, to contest the his doctrinal errors. To protect Celesius, Zosimos had introduced the clause that his accusers would have only two months to go to Rome, which was objectively complicated, due to the war that Boniface was fighting against the Mauri and which made every communication complicated: if the accusers had they not shown up, the charges would have been dropped.

In the meantime, Pelagius' writings to Innocent had reached Rome, together with a letter from Bishop Praulius, who had succeeded John in the see of Jerusalem, in defense of Pelagius. In the epistle Africana 2 sent to Aurelius of Carthage and the other African bishops on 21 September, Zosimos informed them that these documents had been read publicly and it was possible to observe with great joy and emotion the agreement of Pelagius and Celestius with orthodoxy. He had been favorably impressed by Pelagius' continuous call to condemn various heretical positions in the Trinitarian and Christological fields. The bishop insistently underlined the falsity of the accusations brought by Lazarus of Aix and Eros of Arles, whose negative past he highlighted, and above all of the former the habit of slander that had already emerged against Bishop Brixio of Tours and the solidarity with Proculus of Marseille which took place in the synod of Turin, as well as the collusion with the imperial usurper Constantine III, and the latter's tendency towards sedition, which was the reason why he had been expelled from the city. Among other things, precisely to distinguish himself from his predecessor, Patroclus had declared himself in favor of Pelagius' positions and obviously Zosimos, who owed him the election as bishop of Rome, could not fail to take this into account.

Furthermore, Zosimos noted that, while Pelagius and Celestius had presented themselves to the Apostolic See with their letters and professions of faith, this had not been done by Eros and Lazarus. The bishop of Rome therefore invited Africans not to listen to unfounded rumors and recalled the false witnesses who rose up against Christ, as well as all the invitations present in the Scriptures not to accuse someone without having subjected him to judgment and not to proceed against absentees relying on others absent. To affirm prudence in judging, he also referred to the legislation in force to resolve secular disputes. Finally he reiterated the seriousness of the attitude of the African bishops in having slavishly followed the letters of Lazarus and Eros, but he also highlighted the naivety of the two accusers in having believed that the Africans would not turn to the Apostolic See: in doing so he accompanied the he blamed the bishops of Africa with an expression of confidence in their behavior which he judged to be correct. Finally he concluded by imagining the joy of all of Africa in recognizing that Pelagius and Celestius, considered guilty by false judges, had in reality never distanced themselves from the Church and the "Catholic truth" and saying that he had sent to his recipients copies of the letters that Pelagius had written: therefore Celestius' appeal was accepted and Pelagius' writings proposed for further examination. In fact, reading the Africana 2 epistle, it appears that Zosimos was interested in asserting his authority over the African church rather than in the theological position of Pelagius.

Zosimos' decision to absolve Pelagius and Celastius provoked a divided reaction among the anti-Pelagians, which, with hindsight, helped the British theologian's position. The first to react was the deacon Paulinus of Milan, supported by Galla Placidia, who considered Pelagius' ideas heretical: Paulinus wrote a libellus against Celesius, sent on 8 November 417 to Zosimos, in which he recalled the condemnation of Pelagius and Celestius issued by his predecessor Innocent if they had persevered in their doctrine, and brought the discussion back to the consequences of Adam's sin and baptism by referring to Cyprian, Ambrose, Gregory Nazianzen and Innocent himself. But despite all this theological doctrine, Paulinus, not trusting Zosimos, did not show up in Rome. Zosimos saw this as an offense to his authority, took the pamphlet and burned it publicly in front of San Marcello al Corso.

Aurelius also took action: he met with the other African bishops and together they published an official document ("obtestatio") letting the pope know that they continued to abide by Innocent's decisions, since they did not consider the justifications of Celestius and Pelagius sufficient , and also contesting the procedure followed by Zosimus in conducting the whole matter. They had never done it! On 18 December 417, Zosimos, offended by what he considered impertinent behavior on the part of the African bishops, wrote the epistle Africana 3, [32]solemnly reaffirming the authority of the Apostolic See, based on the promise made by Christ to Peter and his successors who hold the "care of all the Churches" so that "the Church of Rome is based on both human and divine laws": so the decision to absolve Pelagius and Celestius was irrevocable. Zosimus ended the epistle by quoting the Gospel of Matthew

I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven

Faced with this position, Augustine, although considering Pelagius' positions theologically incorrect, accepted the judgment, pronouncing the famous phrase

Roma locuta, cause finished est [33]

but the other African bishops put their foot down: on 29 January 418 they opened the plenary council of Africa in Carthage, with the presence of two hundred and fourteen bishops. In it the Augustinian theology on the controversial topics was accepted and it was decided that the judgment expressed by Innocent on Pelagius and Celestius would be preserved, unless they explicitly retracted their errors and the African clerics were forbidden to appeal to Rome. However, the African bishops naively made the naive mistake of appealing to Honorius. [34] For the emperor, Pelagius' theological position was too complex to understand: however, it was quite clear that his Christological positions were in line with the decisions of the Council of Nicaea. Furthermore, Honorius could not disavow the positions of his allies Zosimos and Patroclus. Finally, Pelagius and Celesius had considerable support and protection in the Roman senatorial nobility. For example, Celesius was a childhood friend of Anicius Probus, who in private shared, as Anicius Severus testifies, many of Pelagius' theses: if Honorius had condemned Celesius and Pelagius he would have antagonized the Roman senators and it was probable that the latter, out of spite, had stopped lending money to state coffers, something the Empire desperately needed. On 12 April 418 Honorius sent a rescript to Paulinus of Pella, in which he subscribed to Zosimos' position on the orthodoxy of Pelagius and Celesius and invited the African bishops to accept the decisions of Rome, otherwise they would be considered seditious

Faced with this imperial stance, the African bishops accepted a compromise, mediated by Augustine: the absolution of Pelagius and Celesius would be accepted, but the ban on their clerics from appealing to Rome would remain. A compromise which, however, fell through due to another issue, relating to the African priest Apiarius, who in February 418 had been deposed by his bishops Urban of Sicca Veneria and, ignoring the decrees of the Council of Carthage, had appealed to Zosimos, who took advantage of this to close the match with the restless African church. Zosimos sent three of his legates to Africa, the bishop Faustino of Potenza in Picenum and the Roman presbyters Philip and Asellus, to report his requests: to deal with the question of bishops' appeals to the Roman See, to stigmatize the too frequent habit of episcopal trips to the court imperial, allow presbyters and deacons condemned by their own bishop to consult neighboring bishops, and finally propose excommunication or summoning Urban to Rome. Otherwise, all African bishops would have been excommunicated. Now, although the African bishops were ready for schism, they were brought back to the meek advice of Comes Bonifacius, who at the request of Augustine, who did not want a break with Rome, said he was ready to apply the rescript of Honorius on sedition in case of refusal of the Zosimos' requests. [35]

Therefore, on May 18, the African bishops, with a declaration from Carthage, accepted the requests of Zosimos and the orthodoxy of Pelagius and Celestius. But the bishop of Rome did not enjoy the triumph: he died on 26 December 418 and was buried "iuxta corpus beati Laurentii martyris", [36] in the underground cemetery of Ciriaca on the Via Tiburtina. Honorius, to honor his ally, decided to transform the oratory that overlooked the tomb of the martyr Lorenzo with a basilica, the Minor, which flanked the Maior built by Constantine. [37]

Now it is difficult to make a judgment on the figure of Zosimos: despite being a useful instrument of Honorian politics, he had undoubtedly strengthened the primacy over the church of the Pars Occidentis of the diocese of Rome, cynically exploiting the story of Pelagius, whose theological position would cause many divisions and problems in the future

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[1] In English, instrument of government
[2] ITL, Tacitus will be preserved entirely, like many other works of Latin literature
[3] We remember that Saint Benedict of Norcia, founder of the Benedictines, belonged to the gens Anicia
[4] Priscillian's condemnation was probably more political than theological, so much so that both Saint Martin of Tours and Saint Ambrose spoke in his favor. We know very well what the Priscillians really said: the heresiological tradition, which depicted the Priscillianists as magicians, gnostics and Manichaeans, had to be revised following the discovery of texts of direct Priscillianist derivation. But the new texts, far from resolving the issue, seem to have complicated it and have in any case authorized the most opposite conclusions: there was no shortage of those who supported the perfect orthodoxy of the Priscillianists, who stood out only for a more rigorist streak
[5] Although it is a rarity today, at the time the resignation of the bishop of Rome for health reasons and the coexistence between a titular bishop and an emeritus bishop was quite common. just as it was common for the position to be inherited between relatives of the same family. St. Jerome, for example, tells us that Innocent was the son of a previous bishop of Rome
[6] The current basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore
[7] The current parishes
[8] This is likely to have happened OTL as well.
[9] The collection of biographies of the bishops of Rome
[10] Current Misuraca, in the province of Crotone
[11] There are a series of discussions among Italian scholars about the language spoken in southern Calabria in the 5th century... Recent archaeological excavations suggest that it was Greek, but we have difficulty determining the linguistic boundary. I stuck to the hypothesis that it coincided with the borders of Cosentino
[12] The second oldest synagogue of the Roman period, found in Italy, in the province of Reggio Calabria, which testifies to the presence of a thriving Jewish community

[13] The complex story also occurred OTL. The source is an article by Alessandra Pollastri
[14] Letter also written OTL
[15] Collection of the apostolic letters of the bishops of Rome
[16] Council dedicated questions relating to the Church in Gaul by examining the discussions of some dioceses regarding metropolitan primacy and healing the position of some bishops whose appointment had been irregular. The date is uncertain, but I based myself on the one considered most reliable by most scholars
[17] Letter also written OTL, but which ITL is anticipated and exchanged in chronological order with the following one
[18] OTL is reversed compared to Arelatensis 2
[19] In English, on the tomb of the apostles. The pilgrimage to Rome, obviously, allowed one to increase one's legitimacy in the eyes of the faithful
[20] It seems strange, but we have big holes in the apostolic succession of the bishopric of Marseille at the time... ITL to fill them I appointed a prelate friend of Honorius as bishop
[21] Economic growth that also happens OTL
[22] OTL its location is one of Rome's many archaeological mysteries
[23] The Forum Esquilinum was the oldest and most important commercial space on the Esquiline in ancient times, but no trace of this vast square with market functions has come down to us and we don't have the faintest idea where it is... A passage by Appiano makes us think that it is near the Porta Esquilina, but centuries of archaeological excavations have found no trace of it
[24] Our basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano
[25] Another phenomenon that occurs OTL
[26] Church of Piazza Vittorio built on several levels: the oldest is the Esquiline necropolis, the second is one of the gardens from the time of Maecenas, belonging to an imperial freedman, the third is the 5th century domus, in which according to tradition Eusebius was starved to death by the Arians, then the Carolingian church, finally the current church
[27] OTL we have no trace of this Arian church, mentioned in the documents
[28] law also promulgated OTL
[29] OTL excerpt from the Letter to Demetrias
[30] Story also occurred OTL. The source is an article by Alessandra Pollastri
[31] Letter also written OTL
[32] OTL Zosimos, being less certain of Honorius' support, is more inclined to compromise
[33] In English, Rome has spoken, the matter is closed
[34] OTL Honorius takes a stand in favor of African bishops, leading to the condemnation of Pelagius, which Zosimos had to join
[35] OTL yet another compromise was found
[36] In English, at the body of the blessed martyr Lorenzo
[37] ITL we would have the Honorian basilica, compared to that of Pelagius II, built OTL at the end of the 6th century