Selected Families and Individuals
Notes
Theodosius II, Emperor of the East
Emperor of the East 408-450
Valentinian III Constantius
He was born on July 2, 419 in Ravenna and was murdered on March 16, 455 in Rome. He was the last Roman emperor of the family of Theodosius. (Wurts, 1942)
On October 29, 437 he married LICINIA EUDOXIA. She was born about 422 and was the daughter of Theodosius II (Emperor of the East 408-450) and Eudocia Athenais, daughter of Leontius. (Wurts, 1942)
When Valentinian was 35 he murdered his general Aetius - said to be the only time he'd ever held a sword. A Roman citizen said: "I am ignorant, sir, of your motives or provocations; I only know that you have acted like a man who cuts off his right hand with his left." Valentinian raped the wife of Petronius Maximus, a wealthy senator of the Anician family. Valentinian took Maximus' ring as security for a gambling debt, and it was this he sent to the unsuspecting wife along with an order that she attend the empress Eudoxia. Maximus sought revenge and through Valentinian's unwise action of taking into his personal household loyal followers of Aetius, he was able to have the emperor assassinated. While on the field of Mars, amusing himself with the spectacle of military sports, two guards rushed him with drawn weapons and stabbed him through the heart. No one opposed the move.
Hunneric, King of the Vandals
Eight years after the Roman general Boniface evacuated Hippo and the Vandals reduced Carthage, Genseric negotiated a treaty of peace by which he gave his son Hunneric for a hostage and consented to leave the Western emperor in the undisturbed possession of the three Mauritanias. After the death of Genseric in 477, Hunneric persecuted the Catholics and kept the Mediterranean in terror through piracy. It's also possible that it was political intrigue which brought the Vandals into Africa, and invited Genseric to Italy where, in 455, he sacked the ancient capital and carried off into captivity (in true Barbarian fashion) the widow and daughters of the recently murdered Valentinian III. Eudoxia was married to his son, and it is with the last of the Vandal kings of Africa that the race of Theodosius finally disappears from history. (Wurts, 1942)
Genseric
Eight years after the Roman general Boniface evacuated Hippo and the Vandals reduced Carthage, Genseric negotiated a treaty of peace by which he gave his son Hunneric for a hostage and consented to leave the Western emperor in the undisturbed possession of the three Mauritanias. After the death of Genseric in 477, Hunneric persecuted the Catholics and kept the Mediterranean in terror through piracy. It's also possible that it was political intrigue which brought the Vandals into Africa, and invited Genseric to Italy where, in 455, he sacked the ancient capital and carried off into captivity (in true Barbarian fashion) the widow and daughters of the recently murdered Valentinian III. Eudoxia was married to his son, and it is with the last of the Vandal kings of Africa that the race of Theodosius finally disappears from history. (Wurts, 1942)
Hilderic
Hilderic acceded to the throne in 525 and died in 532. (Wurts, 1942)
Hilderic was by blood half-Roman and the last descendant of the old imperial family. He was pro-Catholic in his religious sympathies and in friendly relation with the reigning Roman Emperor, Justinian, was too novel a type to win much sympathy from his Vandal nobility. That he was not a soldier increased their hostility, and in 532 a revolt broke out headed by the heir to the throne. Hilderic was captured and dethroned and thereupon Justinian - braving the warnings of counsellors who recalled the disastrous defeat at sea of the last Roman force that had ventured itself against these barbarians - intervened with a fleet and an army. Hilderic and his friends were promptly massacred and on September 14 the imperial general Belisarius laid hold of Carthage. His victory was the beginning of the end of the Vandal regime.
