164- The Sack of Rome

Hello, and welcome to the History of Rome. Episode one sixty four, the Sack of Rome. Okay. Where were we? When we left off last time, the Western Roman Empire was in the middle of a diplomatic crisis. The Gothic King Alaric had spent the last year holding the city of Rome's head underwater, letting it up to breathe for a bit before plunging it back underwater again as a part of a larger strategy to force the emperor Honorius to give in to his demands. But Honorius had apparently concluded that since it wasn't his head in the bucket, he was under no immediate pressure to make a deal with the Goths, even if, as we saw at the end of the last episode, the deal on the table was a really, really good deal for Rome. So we now find Alaric presently back in Rome, holding the city's collective head underwater once again, this time with the added twist of forcing the senate to appoint a puppet emperor named Priscus Attalus. Alaric was probably hoping that the people of Italy would take note of how disconnected from reality Honorius had become, how much his intransigence threatened their lives and property, and how much better off they would be maybe recognizing the goth backed Ataulus rather than continuing to support the isolated and delusional Honorius. I say the people of Italy rather than the people of the Western Empire because, as you'll also recall, control of the northern provinces had been lost back in 04/2006. First, to the semi anarchy that had set in after the barbarian invasion of New Year's Eve, and then to the semi imperial order of the usurper Constantine the third. Not that he was actually a usurper anymore. Alaric's presence in Italy had forced Honorius to recognize Constantine as a legitimate imperial colleague. But if you thought that this recognition would prove to be a boon to the fortunes of Constantine the third, well, you just don't know the fifth century. Just a few months after receiving a purple cloak in the mail from Honorius, Constantine had to deal with a rebellion of his own. This new rebellion had its genesis in a previous rebellion that had been organized in Spain by members of the Theodosian household back in 04/2008. Constantine had dispatched his son, Constans, and one of his top generals, Gorontius, to put down this revolt, which the Theodosians not being the most popular family on the block these days, they were able to do fairly quickly. Constans then returned to his father's headquarters at Arles, leaving Gorontius in control of Spain. Unfortunately, the general's ego swelled considerably at the sight of his newfound autonomy, and he decided to challenge Constantine's rule by arranging for his troops to elevate a local Spanish noble named Maximus to the rank of Augustus. As if that was not bad enough, Constantine found out about this little rebellion at the same time he found out that …