PolledHistory: 15-22 Sep: Honorius

 Hello! After a week of polling we got some really strange results: there were just 3 views on the last blog but 5 votes on the poll.... but whatever it is, 3/5 votes voted on this topic on the "Terrible Leaders" for the Ancient/Classical era.

And the candidate I chose for the Ancient era and Antiquity was Honorius. Let's begin.

Honorius was born Flavius Honorius on September 9, 384 AD in Constantinople. He was the son of the current emperor at the time in the Eastern half of the divided Roman Empire - Theodosius I, or Theodosius the Great. He would have a elder brother, Arcadius.

In January 395 AD, his father Theodosius I died and left the empire to be divided once again (as Theodosius had united it once again). But this time, the division was going to be permenant. And from then on, there would no be sole ruler of Rome.

The division would be an East/West division. The East would be inherited by Arcadius and the west by Honorius. Honorius was not yet eleven years old when he became the emperor of half the empire. For his early reign, he himself was quite insignificant as he basically didn't do anything. The major player was really a general, of half-Germanic origin, Stilicho. 

Stilicho was not only the major military commander at the time but also was Honorius' caretaker. He basically was also the only man to keep and maintain the empire, which, at the time, was unstable. Military threats from all the Germanic tribes were always there.

Stilicho managed to keep away threats such as the Visigoth (a Germanic tribe) Alaric, who would be an important character later. In the first few years of the 400s AD, the Western Roman Empire, though still busy fighting off external threats, was somewhat safe.

All this changed by 406 and 407 AD. The first huge catastrophe was the crossing of the Rhine River by the barbarians, mostly Vandals and Alans, and they began an invasion of Gaul. And it got worse. An usurper from Britain, Constantine III, had crossed from Britain to Gaul. This crossing ended Roman hegemony in the British Isles. 

And it got worse. Those tribes that crossed the Rhine were now widespread across the Western Roman Empire, overrunning Spain and Iberia too. Stilicho was still trying to keep the empire in one piece. However, Honorius suddenly executed Stilicho and his supporters, which made the Romans both without protection and unhappy. 

Without security, Italy was open to invasion and Alaric the Visigoth poured down into Italy and sacked the city of Rome, which had not been sacked in about eight hundred years at that time. It is told when people told Honorius of the Sack of Rome, Honorius thought it his hen, called Rome, had died. But when the messengers told Honorius it was the city, Honorius sighed.

Honorius still basically did nothing and was idle, but he also had killed the only person that could really save the empire. Honorius found a new favorable general named Constantius III. He would die in 421 AD.  He died 423 AD at the age of thirty eight years.

He had done nothing to save the fragile empire and only contributed to its downfall. Some people say he is the worst Roman emperor. And that's a sensible claim.

Vote for next week: 

https://forms.gle/G4GxQWLV4EpRbqSZ8

Theme: Lesser-Known Civilizations

Let's study more less-known-to-public empires and peoples to find out what most don't!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PolledHistory: VS Roman History 3/3 (476-1453AD)

 Hello! Today is the third third of the Roman history series and the longest - under a millenium long, and comprising of 44.2% of the entire Roman timeline. This period was the Eastern Roman period, following the Fall of the Western Roman Empire and before the Fall of the east 950+ years later. This will be quite quick and broad of the large time period. Following the "Fall of Rome" in 476, Rome did not really fall. The eastern half remained territorially untouched following the Fall of Rome. The eastern half was ruled by a man named Zeno during the time of the fall of Rome. Anastasius succeeded him and was known for expanding the empire's wealth. Following him, the Justinian dynasty took power, starting with Justin I, who also enlarged the empire's wealth. Justinian would spend most of the empire's earning after expensive wars that reclaimed Italy and North Africa after the Fall of the West. The Justinian Plague really exhausted these wars, making the empire weak...
Read more

Turkic History: 2/3 - PolledHistory

 Hello! This is rhe first blog outside ReformedChildren to be posted since the new schedule change.  This episode will continue the series and cover from the end of the turkic migrations until the Fall of Constantinople. In the early 11th century, a Turkic chieftain known as Tughril, now a Muslim, began to conquer large swathes of territory in Persia and Turkmenistan , quickly taking good parts of the Middle East and forming the Seljuk Empire centered around the city of Ishafan, modern day Iran. His sucessors made conquests west, defeating the Byzantine empire at Manzikert (1071) which asserted control over Turkey and taking Jerusalem from the Fatimids, and blocked Christian pilgrimage there. This prohibition caused the Byzantine emperor Alexios to call for European support in retaking lost regions, including Anatolia and Jerusalem. The First Crusade was launched and Jerusalem fell. The Seljuks stopped making much conquests they began to decline (a common theme of quickly decl...
Read more

18 Oct Friday Bonus- The Battle of Vienna

 Hello! Source: Wikipedia This Friday's weekly history episode is about the Battle of Vienna - a key historical event that had a large effect in history. The powerful Ottoman Turkish empire, though have weakened in the past century, aspired to take the key city of Vienna which would grant them power even deeper into the European continent.  It was a key city and there was very intricate and well designed Ottoman logistical preparations under the Ottoman vizier (vizier is like an advisor) Kara Mustafa. Vienna was under the control of one of the many states in the larger state of the Holy Roman Empire. The Holy Roman Empire is a complex political entity. It was not Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire. It was barely an organized empire - more of a semi united collection of lots of small and large smaller kingdoms and barely had legitimacy as being Roman. The ruling Habsburg dynasty also was very messy and inbred. It was a messy thing. The Ottoman Turks (Turks were from Central Asia bu...
Read more