Valentianus III Flavius Placidius

  Algemene notities:

Keizer van het West-Romeinse rijk (425-455). In 423 his uncle, Emperor Honorius, died and for two years the Imperial throne was taken by a usurper. Then Valentinianus's mother, Galla Placida, controlled the West in his name until 437, although the powerful patrician Aetius became the effective ruler toward the end of this regency. In 429 the Vandals went to Africa and, ten years later, threw off the overlordship of Valentinanus's government. However, at no time in his long reign were the affairs of state personally managed by Valentinianus. In 437 he married Licinia Eudoxia, daughter of his cousin, the Eastern Emperor Theodosius II. He spent his life in the pursuit of pleasure while Aetius controlled the government. In 444 Valentinianus, acting in conjunction with Pope Leo I, issued the famous 'Novel 17', which assigned to the bishop of Rome supremacy over the provincial churches. In 451 and 452 the Huns invaded Gaul and Northern Italy but it is not known whether Valentinianus took part in their repulsion. However, false information made him distrust Aetius and, on 21 September 454, he personally murdered Aetius in the imperial palace in Rome. A year later, Optila and Thraustile, retainers of Aetius, avenged their master by murdering the Emperor in the Campus Martius. In 425, Valentinian was placed on the Western imperial throne under the regency of his mother by the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II. Valentinian was a weak ruler, at first controlled by his mother and later by the powerful general Flavius Ætius. During his reign, the Western Empire was ravaged: in Africa by the Vandal king Genseric in 429, and in the Danubian provinces, Gaul, and Italy, by Attila, King of the Huns in 441. In 451, Ætius won a major victory over Attila at Chalons-sur-Marne, Gaul. In 454, Valentinian had Ætius killed, however 2 of the generals supporters killed Valentinian the next year.

Valentianus trouwde met Licinia Eudoxia, dochter van Theodosius II N.N. en Eudocia N.N., op 29 Okt 437. (Licinia Eudoxia werd geboren in 422 en overleed omstreeks 480.)