Galla Placidia, daughter of the Roman emperor Theodosius I, was a mother, tutor, and advisor to emperor Valentinian III. She was queen consort to Ataulf, King of the Visigoths from 414 until his death in 415, briefly empress consort to Constantius III in 421, and managed the government administration as a regent during the early reign of Valentinian III until her death.
Year 432 (CDXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aetius and Valerius. The denomination 432 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
The 430s decade ran from January 1, 430, to December 31, 439.
The 420s decade ran from January 1, 420, to December 31, 429.
The 450s decade ran from January 1, 450, to December 31, 459.
The 440s decade ran from January 1, 440, to December 31, 449.
Anicius Olybrius was Roman emperor from July 472 until his death later that same year; his rule as augustus in the western Roman Empire was not recognised as legitimate by the ruling augustus in the eastern Roman Empire, Leo I. He was in reality a puppet ruler raised to power by Ricimer, the magister militum of Germanic descent, and was mainly interested in religion, while the actual power was held by Ricimer and his nephew Gundobad.
Valentinian III was Roman emperor in the West from 425 to 455. Starting in childhood, his reign over the Roman Empire was one of the longest, but was dominated by civil wars among powerful generals and the invasions of late antiquity's Migration Period.
Flavius Aetius was a Roman general and statesman of the closing period of the Western Roman Empire. He was a military commander and the most influential man in the Empire for two decades (433–454). He managed policy in regard to the attacks of barbarian federates settled throughout the West. Notably, he mustered a large Roman and allied (foederati) army in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, ending a devastating invasion of Gaul by Attila in 451, though the Hun and his subjugated allies still managed to invade Italy the following year, an incursion best remembered for the ruthless Sack of Aquileia and the intercession of Pope Leo I.
Eparchius Avitus was Roman emperor of the Western Empire from July 455 to October 456. He was a senator of Gallic extraction and a high-ranking officer both in the civil and military administration, as well as Bishop of Piacenza.
Magister militum was a top-level military command used in the late Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine the Great. The term referred to the senior military officer of the empire. In Greek sources, the term is translated either as strategos or as stratelates.
Petronius Maximus was Roman emperor of the West for two and a half months in 455. A wealthy senator and a prominent aristocrat, he was instrumental in the murders of the Western Roman magister militum, Aëtius, and the Western Roman emperor, Valentinian III.
Bonifatius was a Roman general and governor of the diocese of Africa. He campaigned against the Visigoths in Gaul and the Vandals in North Africa. An ally of Galla Placidia, mother and advisor of Valentinian III, Bonifacius engaged in Roman civil wars on her behalf against the generals Felix in 427-429 and Aetius in 432. Although he defeated the latter at the Battle of Rimini, Bonifacius suffered a fatal wound and was succeeded by his son-in-law Sebastianus as patricius of the Western Roman Empire.
Licinia Eudoxia was a Roman Empress, daughter of Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II. Her husbands included the Western Roman Emperors Valentinian III and Petronius Maximus.
Flavius Felix, sometimes erroneously called Constantius Felix, was a general of the Western Roman Empire, who reached the prominent rank of patrician before being killed probably by order of Aetius. For his consulate in 428 he issued some consular diptychs, one of which has been preserved until modern times.
Libius Severus, sometimes enumerated as Severus III, was Western Roman emperor from November 19, 461 to his death on November 14, 465. A native of Lucania, Severus was the fourth of the so-called "Shadow Emperors" who followed the deposition of the Valentinianic dynasty in 455. He ruled for just under four years, attaining the throne after his predecessor, Majorian, was overthrown by his magister militum, Ricimer. Severus was the first of a series of emperors who were highly dependent on the general, and it is often presumed that Ricimer held most of the de facto power during Severus' reign
Theodoric I was the King of the Visigoths from 418 to 451. Theodoric is famous for his part in stopping Attila the Hun at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451, where he was killed.
Zerco or Zercon was a Moorish dwarf and the jester of the magistri militum Aspar and Aetius and of the Hunnic kings Bleda and Attila.
The Roman Civil War (432) was a military conflict between the Roman generals Aëtius and Bonifatius during the reign of Emperor Valentinian III. This war took place on Italian soil and was decided in the Battle of Rimini. Despite Aëtius losing the battle, the civil war ended in his favor, because Bonifatius was wounded in battle and eventually died of his injuries.
Aetius' campaign in the Alps was a military campaign of the Roman army in the northern Alpine region, where the dioceses Raetia and Noricum were situated. The campaign was directed against the Juthungi and the rebellious population of Noricum. The command of the campaign was in the hands of magister militium Aëtius and it began in the spring of 430 CE. In May, the campaign was interrupted to continued the following year.
