Aetius - the 'Last of the Romans'

[Salah]

Flavius Aetius was born in one of Rome's Danubian provinces, but has went down in history as the 'Last of the Romans'. Militarily speaking, he was the power behind the throne of Valentinian III (425-455 CE), Western Roman emperor.

As a youth, Aetius was a hostage amongst the Huns - it is distinctly possible that Aetius and Attila were friends, acquaintances or rivals during their teenaged years. In 430 he became Magister Militum and supported the throne of Valentinian for over two decades. One of the ironies of Aetius' life is that his armies were composed very largely of Hunnish mercenaries, yet in 451 he found himself in conflict with Attila. Aetius used an army composed predominately of Germanic allies to defeat Attila at Catalaunian Fields in that year, but was unable to keep Attila out of Italy.

Uniquely for his era, Aetius showed no desire to become emperor. His undying loyalty was rewarded with jealousy and suspicion. In 454, Aetius attained his fourth consulship, and his son became engaged to the daughter of Valentinian. On September 21st, Valentinian and his eunuch Heraclius stabbed Aetius to death.

The murder of Aetius was not only a senseless tragedy, it was obscenely foolish. Valentinian had killed the man to whom he owed his life and throne; one of his advisors even remarked 'you have cut off your right hand with your left hand'. Six months after the killing, Valentinian and Heraclius were practicing archery on the Field of Mars, when they were sprung upon and hacked to pieces. The murderers were former soldiers of Aetius - and perhaps fittingly, both were Huns.

 

[Son of Athena]

Great read. In your opinion, had Aetius lived would he have been able to prevent the Vandals from sacking Rome in 455?

 

[pikeshot1600]

Great read. In your opinion, had Aetius lived would he have been able to prevent the Vandals from sacking Rome in 455?

I will let Salah reply to the "what if" part of the question.

By 455 the Hunnish "empire" was dissolving and that flank was less a concern, although the Gepidae, and other Barbarian peoples formerly under Attila's domination, could still cause problems for Italy and the Balkans. The many Alpine passes are not impassable in summer. The Gepids seem to have concentrated in Pannonia - certainly close to the Balkans and close enough to Italy.

Aetius had sent the Visigoths away after Chalons in part to remove them from affairs away from Aquitaine, and keep them out of his hair. The Frankish foederati were far from Italy, and there were probably not enough Gallo-Roman military forces available to change the outcome in 455.

Aetius would have needed troops and the issues of logistics may have been too difficult to assemble enough troops to counter the Vandal invasion. That is conjecture of course, however there certainly was no one else standing in their way.

Lets see what Salah's opinion is.

 

[Salah]

If Aetius had not been murdered, there would have been no Vandal sack of Rome; or at least, that event would have occurred later and against a different political backdrop.

Valentinian was killed to avenge Aetius, and was succeeded by Petronius Maximus. The late Emperor's widow hated Maximus for his failure to punish the assassins (there is a tradition that Maximus and Valentinian were bitter enemies because Valentinian had seduced Maximus' first wife). It was Eudoxia who invited Gaiseric to sack Rome, hence the death of Maximus and the events of 455.

Looking at this hypothetical from a strictly military perspective, Aetius would have been hard pressed to scrounge together a coherent army and get into Italy in time. I suspect by the time he arrived, he would find Gaiseric already sailing home, and the Mother City thoroughly, erm, vandalized.

 

[Salah]

To my knowledge there are no descriptions of Aetius' personal appearance, though we know he was about sixty years of age at the time of his death. He was reportedly skilled with archery and horsemanship, presumably the result of growing up around Huns.

His father is described as a 'certain Gaudentius', who hailed from Moesia (other sources describe him as a 'Scythian' - which would probably imply a Goth or Herulian). He married twice; his first wife's name is unknown but she gave him a son named Carpilio. His second wife was Pelagia, the widow of his one-time rival Bonifatius. She gave him a son, who was named Gaudentius in honor of his grandfather. Aetius apparently also had a daughter, as one of his avengers was supposed to be his son-in-law.

A depiction of Aetius and two of his warriors (a Hun on the left, a Roman or German on the right), courtesy of Osprey.

 

[Son of Athena]

Thank you both for your responses.

 

[Perix]

Probably he would been regarded as the most legitimate from the usurpers, if he'd decided to usurp...And probably it would been much better for the empire

 

[caldrail]

An interesting title to give Aetius,. "Last of the Romans" was also applied to Ambrosius Aurelianus in the late 5th century. I suspect a few others may have had similar labels applied which have been forgotten since and it is a hint of the declining standards of Roman behaviour.

Why has god allowed us to become weaker and more miserable than all the tribal peoples? Why has he allowed us to be defeated by the barbarians, and subjected to the rule of our enemies?

Where now is the ancient wealth and dignity of the Romans? The Romans of old were the most powerful, now we are without strength. They were feared, now it is us who are fearful. The barbarians peoples paid them tribute, now we are the tributaries of the barbarians. Our enemies make make us pay for the very light of day, and our right to life has to be bought. Oh what miseries are ours! To what state have we descended? We even have to thank our the barbarians for the right to buy ourselves off them! What could be more humiliating and miserable.

We enjoy immodest behaviour, the goths detest it. We avoid purity, they love it. Fornication is considered by them a crime and a danger, we honour it.
Salvian (priest from Marseille, 440's)

But then Salvian was preaching christianity, so you would expect a moral lesson or two.

 

[SNascimento]

'you have cut off your right hand with your left hand'

I though this was from Gibbon's Decline and Fall.