157- Only the Penitent Man Shall Pass

This holiday season, reach for the one butter that never disappoints, Kerrygold. Made with milk from grass fed cows on Irish family farms, it's rich, creamy, and perfect for baking. Whether browning butter for cookies or crafting the flakiest pie crust, Kerrygold's high butter fat content makes all the difference in flavor and texture. Holiday treats will taste extraordinary. Hello, and welcome to the history of Rome. Episode one fifty seven, only the penitent man shall pass. In late three eighty seven AD, the 12 year old emperor Valentinian the second, his mother Justina, and the rest of the Milan Court showed up in Thessalonica begging Theodosius for asylum. The Eastern Augustus, aware that his brother emperor had been put to flight by the usurper Maximus, had traveled down to the port city in advance and received the exile court with open arms, promising to do everything he could to restore Valentinian to power. But not just out of the goodness of his heart. The price for Theodosius' help was the hand of Valentinian's sister Gala in marriage. The Eastern Augustus' first wife Aelia Fliscilla, mother of the two future emperors Arcadius and Honorius, had died in March, and Theodosius was looking for a marital alliance that would bind his clan to the Valentinians, forming a single intertwined dynasty. The price seemed reasonable enough to the Empress Justina, and the marriage was hastily arranged. Emerging from the wedding ceremony as a single political unit, the Theodosian Valentinian dynasty then prepared for war. Maximus had timed his attack on Italy perfectly, waiting until the last minute before winter sent in to pounce. By the time Theodosius learned of the attack, it was too late in the year for the Eastern Augustus to do anything about it. He would have to wait until spring, which meant that Maximus had bought himself six months to get his house in order and ready his troops for an inevitable counter attack. The general had already laid the groundwork for defending Italy during his initial invasion, as it is assumed that bribery and induced defections had been the main reason he had penetrated the Alpine Passes so easily. When these Italian forces were combined with his Gallic legions, Maximus' army was, at least on paper, equal to just about anything Theodosius would be able to put in the field. After all, we are still just a few years removed from the devastating Gothic war. It's not like the legions of the middle empire had a lot of men to spare for a civil war. But Theodosius had been laying some groundwork of his own. We saw last week how the peace treaty with the Sassanids freed up at least some Syrian border troops for the campaign. But the Eastern Augustus' main source of recruits for the coming civil war would actually come from the ranks of the very barbarians he had spent his first few years in office fighting. In these turbulent times, alliances were formed, …