Constantine III (407 - 411 A.D.)
Constans (408 - 411 A.D.)
Maximus (409 - 411 A.D.)
Priscus Attalus (409 - 410 A.D. and 414 - 415 A.D.)
Jovinus (411 - 413 A.D.)
Sebastianus (412 - 413 A.D.)
Constantius III (421 A.D.)
Galla Placidia
Johannes (423 - 425 A.D.)
Eudocia
Pulcheria
Valentinian III (425 - 455 A.D.)
Licinia Eudoxia
Honoria
The descriptions below are based mainly on those in "Roman Coins and their values" by David R Sear
Constantine was a common soldier, who was proclaimed emperor by the legions in Britain in 407A.D. He immediately crossed over to Gaul where he established himself alongside the barbarian invaders of the province. The following year he added Spain to his conquests, but in 409 this province was overrun by the Vandals, Alani, and Suevi, due to treachery on the part of Gerontius, one of the Constantine's generals. Constantine was eventually captured by Constantius, the general of Honorius, and was sent to Italy for execution (411 A.D.).
Constans was the son of Constantine III, and was raised to the rank of Augustus by his father in 408 A.D. and led the invasion of Spain later the same year. In 411 he was besieged in Vienne by Gerontius who later put him to death.
A man of obscure origin, Maximus was proclaimed emperor in Spain in 409 A.D. by the general Gerontius, who had rebelled against Constantine III and Constans. After the death of Gerontius in 411, Maximus was pardoned by Honorius and permitted to retire into private life.
Attalus was a Roman nobleman and Prefect of Rome at the time of Alaric's second siege of the city, in 409 A.D. By threatening to destroy the granaries at Ostia, Alaric forced the Senate to raise Attalus to the rank of Augustus, who being grateful for his elevation, was content to act as a puppet of the barbarian king. The following year (410 A.D.) he was deposed because of his incompetence, but he remained with the Goths and four years later was again proclaimed emperor, by Ataulf, Alaric's successor. He was finally deposed in 415 and shortly afterwards was delivered into the hands of Honorius, who banished him to Lipara.
Jovinus was a Gaulish noble and was proclaimed emperor at Mainz in 411 A.D. by Guntiarius,. king of the Burgundians, and Goar, king of the Alani. He ruled in Gaul for about two years, but was eventually captured by Ataulf the Visigoth, who was in alliance with Honorius. He was taken to Narbonne where he was executed by the order of Dardanus, the Praefect of the Gauls.
Sebastianus was the brother of Jovinus, who raised him to the rank of Augustus in 412 A.D. The following year, however, he was defeated and killed by Ataulf.
Born of low rank at Naissus in Dacia, Flavius Constantius followed a military career and soon proved himself to be a soldier of outstanding ability. In the reign of Honorius, he became the foremost general of the Western division of the Empire, and achieved considerable success against both usurpers and barbarians. His authority was so great that he became the effective ruler of the Western provinces, and in 417 A.D. he married Galla Placidia, the half-sister of Honorius. On February 8th, 421, he was raised to the rank of Augustus, but the government at Constantinople refused to recognize the new emperor, and civil war was only averted by the premature death of Constantius, less than seven months after his elevation.
Galla Placidia was born about 388 A.D., the daughter of Theodosius I and Galla and the half-sister of Arcadius and Honorius. Taken prisoner by Alaric during the sack of Rome in 410, she was eventually married to his successor, Ataulf, in 414. On the death of Ataulf she was returned to the Romans in exchange for 600,000 measures of corn, and in January, 417, she was married to the general Constantius. During the first twelve years of the reign of her son, Valentinian III, she acted as his regent for the Western provinces, but her last years were devoted to the building of churches and other sacred buildings at Ravenna. She died at Rome in 450.
Johannes was born about 380 A.D. and entered the civil service, and becoming principal secretary to Honorius. On the death of the emperor, in August, 423, he immediately assumed the purple, but Theodosius II refused to recognize his elevation and sent an army to Italy to instate the rightful heir to the Western throne, the infant Placidius Valentinianus. Johannes had very few troops at his disposal and was finally captured at Ravenna in the early summer of 425. He was then taken to Aquileia where he was first mutilated, exhibited in the circus mounted on an ass, and finally executed.
The daughter of the Athenian sophist Leontius, she was originally named Athenais but changed this to Aelia Eudocia shortly before her marriage to Theodosius II in 421 A.D. For a time she exercised considerable political influence, but in 441 she retired to Jerusalem and devoted the rest of her life to the building of churches and monasteries. She died on October 20th, 460.
The daughter of Arcadius and Eudoxia, Aelia Pulcheria was born in 399 A.D. and made Augusta on July 4th, 414. Although only fifteen years of age, she immediately assumed the regency on behalf of her younger brother, Theodosius II, and as the young emperor was a poor ruler, she remained in control of the government even after he had attained his majority. The empress dominated throughout most of her brother's long reign, and after his death, in 450, it was she who selected a successor. She died in July, 453, leaving all her possessions to the poor.
Placidius Valentinianus was born in 419 A.D., the son of Constantius III and Galla Placidia. Some time after the death of Constantius, Placidia quarrelled with Honorius, and the empress and her children fled from Ravenna to Constantinople to seek refuge with their family (423 A.D.). Two years later, however, they returned to Italy, and after the death of the usurper Johannes they travelled to Rome where Valentinian was proclaimed Augustus (October 23rd, 425). For the first twelve years of the reign Placidia acted as regent, but the control of the government then passed into the hands of the great general Aetius, and he maintained his supremacy until his assassination in 454. The decline of the Western division of the Empire continued steadily throughout the long reign of Valentinian, the greatest disaster of the period being the loss of Africa to the Vandals. In 451 Attila the Hun invaded Gaul, but the immediate danger was averted by the victory of Aetius and his Visigothic allies over the Huns at the famous battle of Mauriacus. Valentinian III was assassinated in March, 455, the victim of a plot hatched by the senator Petronius Maximus.
The daughter of Theodosius II and Eudocia, Licinia Eudoxia was born in 422 A.D. and married Valentinian III on October 29th, 437. After her husband's death, in 455, she was forced to marry his murderer and successor, Petronius Maximus, but later the same year Rome was sacked by the Vandals and Eudoxia was carried off as a captive to Carthage. In 462 she was released by Gaiseric, the Vandal king, and travelled to Constantinople where she spent the remainder of her life.
The daughter of Constantius III and Galla Placidia, Justa Grata Honoria was born in 417 A.D. and was probably created Augusta in 425, soon after the elevation of her brother, Valentinian III, to the Western throne. She died in 454.
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