Flavius Timasius (died 396) was a general of the Roman Empire, a relative of the Empress Aelia Flaccilla, wife of Emperor Theodosius I (r. 379–395).
Timasius was a Roman officer, serving under the command of Emperor Valens (r. 364–378), who survived the Battle of Adrianople (378), in which the Roman emperor lost his life. [1] Emperor Theodosius I appointed Timasius magister equitum in 386 and magister peditum in 388. [2] During his tenure as magister militum praesentalis (386–395), [3] Timasius was made a consul, along with Promotus, in 389. [2] [4] In 391, he followed Theodosius in the campaign against the barbarians in Macedonia. [2] In that same year, Theodosius was on the verge of annihilating some barbarian units that were hiding in Roman territory when Timasius told him that the troops needed food and rest; the Roman soldiers, numbed into a slumber by too much food and drink, were taken by surprise and even Theodosius was almost taken prisoner. [5] When Theodosius returned to Constantinople, there was a clash between Timasius and his colleague Promotus and the powerful Rufinus; Theodosius sided with Rufinus, who arranged for Promotus's death. [6]
Timasius also fought in the Battle of the Frigidus of 394, against the usurper Eugenius, as commander-in-chief of the Roman troops, but with the collaboration of Stilicho. [7] After the victory, he returned to the East. [8]
In 395, Theodosius died and his son Arcadius (r. 383–408) had succeeded him on the Eastern throne. The following year, Timasius was the victim of a purge of Theodosius's generals orchestrated by the powerful eunuch Eutropius to get rid of potential opponents. [2] [9] Eutropius specifically forced Bargus, a Syrian sausage-seller brought by Timasius from Sardis and later made tribunus(?) of the East, to falsely accuse Timasius of high treason. [10] As a result, Timasius was put on trial and the judge, Saturninus, exiled him in 396 to the Kharga Oasis of the Libyan Desert. [2] [11] Slightly conflicting accounts report that Timasius was either unable to escape from the oasis or that his attempted escape led him to his death on the border between Egypt and Libya. [12]
Timasius had a wife named Pentadia and a son named Syagrius. [4] [13]
Alaric I was the first king of the Visigoths, from 395 to 410. He rose to leadership of the Goths who came to occupy Moesia—territory acquired a couple of decades earlier by a combined force of Goths and Alans after the Battle of Adrianople.
Arcadius was Roman emperor from 383 to his death in 408. He was the eldest son of the Augustus Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and the brother of Honorius. Arcadius ruled the eastern half of the empire from 395, when their father died, while Honorius ruled the west. A weak ruler, his reign was dominated by a series of powerful ministers and by his wife, Aelia Eudoxia.
The 390s decade ran from January 1, 390 to December 31, 399
Stilicho was a military commander in the Roman army who, for a time, became the most powerful man in the Western Roman Empire. He was of Vandal origins and married to Serena, the niece of emperor Theodosius I. He became guardian for the underage Honorius. After nine years of struggle against barbarian and Roman enemies, political and military disasters finally allowed his enemies in the court of Honorius to remove him from power. His fall culminated in his arrest and execution in 408.
Magister militum was a top-level military command used in the later 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.
Aegidius was the ruler of the short-lived Kingdom of Soissons from 461 to 464/465 AD. Before his ascension, he became magister militum per Gallias serving under the Western Roman emperor Majorian, in 458. An ardent supporter of Majorian, Aegidius rebelled against General Ricimer when he assassinated Majorian and replaced him with Emperor Libius Severus. Aegidius may have pledged his allegiance to the Eastern Roman emperor Leo I the Thracian.
Aelia Eudoxia was a Roman empress consort by marriage to the Roman emperor Arcadius. The marriage was the source of some controversy, as it was arranged by Eutropius, one of the eunuch court officials, who was attempting to expand his influence. As Empress, she came into conflict with John Chrysostom, the Patriarch of Constantinople, who was popular among the common folk for his denunciations of imperial and clerical excess. She had five children, four of whom survived to adulthood, including her only son and future emperor Theodosius II, but she had two additional pregnancies that ended in either miscarriages or stillbirths and she died as a result of the latter one.
Constans II was caesar or heir apparent to his father Emperor Constantine III from 407 to 409 and co-emperor with Constantine and the Western Roman Emperor Honorius from 409 until his death. Constans was a monk prior to his father being acclaimed emperor by the army in Britain in early 407. Constans was summoned to the new imperial court, in Gaul, appointed to the position of Caesar and swiftly married so that a dynasty could be founded. In Hispania, Honorius's relatives rose in 408 and expelled Constantine's administration. An army under the generals Constans and Gerontius was sent to deal with this and Constantine's authority was re-established. Honorius acknowledged Constantine as co-emperor in early 409 and Constantine immediately raised Constans to the position of co-emperor, theoretically equal in rank to Honorius as well as to Constantine. Later in 409 Gerontius rebelled, proclaimed his client Maximus emperor and incited barbarian groups in Gaul to rise up. Constans was sent to quash the revolt, but was defeated and withdrew to Arles. In 410, Constans was sent to Hispania again. Gerontius had strengthened his army with barbarians and defeated Constans; the latter withdrew north and was defeated again and killed at Vienne early in 411. Gerontius then besieged Constantine in Arles.
The fall of the Western Roman Empire, also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome, was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vast territory was divided into several successor polities. The Roman Empire lost the strengths that had allowed it to exercise effective control over its Western provinces; modern historians posit factors including the effectiveness and numbers of the army, the health and numbers of the Roman population, the strength of the economy, the competence of the emperors, the internal struggles for power, the religious changes of the period, and the efficiency of the civil administration. Increasing pressure from invading barbarians outside Roman culture also contributed greatly to the collapse. Climatic changes and both endemic and epidemic disease drove many of these immediate factors. The reasons for the collapse are major subjects of the historiography of the ancient world and they inform much modern discourse on state failure.
Bacurius was a Roman general and a member of the royal family of Iberia mentioned by several Greco-Roman authors of the 4th and 5th centuries. It is accepted, but not universally, that all these refer to the same person, an Iberian "king" or "prince", who joined the Roman military ranks. Scholarly opinion is divided whether Bacurius can be identified with one of the kings named Bakur, attested in medieval Georgian annals, who might have taken refuge in territories obtained by the Eastern Roman Empire during the Roman–Persian Wars that were fought over the Caucasus.
Flavius Rufinus was a 4th-century East Roman statesman of Aquitanian extraction who served as Praetorian prefect of the East for the emperor Theodosius I, as well as for his son Arcadius, under whom Rufinus exercised significant influence in the state affairs.
Eutropius was a fourth-century Eastern Roman official who rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Arcadius. He was the first eunuch to become a consul in the Roman empire.
The Battle of Pollentia was fought on 6 April 402 (Easter) between the Romans under Stilicho and the Visigoths under Alaric I, during the first Gothic invasion of Italy (401–403). The Romans were victorious, and forced Alaric to retreat, though he rallied to fight again in the next year in the Battle of Verona, where he was again defeated. After this, Alaric retreated from Italy, leaving the province in peace until his second invasion in 409, after Stilicho's death.
The sack of Rome on 24 August 410 AD was undertaken by the Visigoths led by their king, Alaric. At that time, Rome was no longer the capital of the Western Roman Empire, having been replaced in that position first by Mediolanum in 286 and then by Ravenna in 402. Nevertheless, the city of Rome retained a paramount position as "the eternal city" and a spiritual center of the Empire. This was the first time in almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy, and the sack was a major shock to contemporaries, friends and foes of the Empire alike.
Gildo was a Roman Berber general in the province of Mauretania Caesariensis. He revolted against Honorius and the Western Roman Empire, but was defeated and possibly killed himself or was assassinated.
Gainas was a Gothic leader who served the Eastern Roman Empire as magister militum during the reigns of Theodosius I and Arcadius.
Aurelianus was a prominent politician of the Eastern Roman Empire. He was praefectus urbi of Constantinople from 393 to 394, Praetorian prefect of the East from 399 to 400, and consul in 400. In 400, Gothic rebels under Gainas forced the emperor Arcadius to give them Aurelianus, and he was exiled; he returned to Constantinople after the defeat of the Goths later that year. He served as Pretorian Prefect to the East a second time from 414 to 416.
Flavius Promotus was a Roman general who served under Theodosius I until his death in 391 AD. In 386 he had a command in Africa, and was magister peditum for Thrace. In 388 he was made magister equitum, and the following year was consul. He was killed in an ambush organised by Rufinus, a rival for Theodosius' favour.
Aristaenetus was a Roman politician who was appointed consul in AD 404 alongside the western emperor Honorius.
Eucherius was the son of Stilicho, the magister militum of the Western Roman Empire, and Serena, a Roman noblewoman who was the niece of Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius I. He was born in c. 388 in Rome, Italy. Despite being the son of the magister militum, Eucherius did not rise farther than the modest rank of tribune of the notaries. Stilicho was accused by his political opponents of plotting to install Eucherius as a third emperor in Illyricum, and as a result of this Stilicho was arrested and executed on 22 August 408, and Eucherius soon after.