165- Reviving the Roman Name

Hello, and welcome to the history of Rome. Episode one sixty five, reviving the Roman name. In early four twelve AD, two forces converged on Northern Italy. Coming up from the South was Atalp and the Goths, who were now more than a year removed from the sack of Rome, but still no closer to finding the permanent home or the permanent place in the Roman world that they had been searching for. Coming down from the North was Constantius the third, commander in chief of the Western Roman army, who had just whipped two usurpers in the span of a single summer. Neither side was entirely sure what the motivations of the other were, so they gingerly skirted around each other trying to get a feel for what the other intended to do. Were the Goths going to follow-up on their sack of Rome by attacking Ravenna? Was Constantius going to go for the hat trick and press for a decisive battle? As it turned out, the answer to both of these questions was a resounding no. Atoll was obviously interested in all the things Alaric had been interested in. A homeland for the Goths, a regular stipend for his people, and a place in the Roman military order for himself personally. But he was not particularly interested in using brute force to get there, at least not at the moment. Constantius for his part opened with a hard line, ordering the Goths to leave Italy immediately, But, he was clearly not sitting on a hair trigger. A battle with the Goths, even a victorious battle, risked the precious military resources of the faltering Western Empire Neither side wanted a battle, and so it was to everyone's great relief that the Goths decided to leave Italy without a fight, and Constantius decided to let them go without a fight The man who did the most to convince Atoll to leave Italy was, surprisingly, the deposed puppet emperor Priscus Attalus. Just because he had not worked out as an emperor did not mean that the Goths did not still value his council, and he had stayed on with Alaric as an advisor after the sack of Rome and now served Atoll in the same capacity. Atoll has pointed out to the Gothic king that Southern Gaul was now not only pacified, but in the process of remaking itself politically and economically after five years of chaos. It would be the perfect time for the Goths to head over the Alps and stake some kind of claim for themselves. Atoll was intrigued by the possibility of becoming a power broker in a newly reorganized Gaul, and so he ordered his people over the mountains. The departure of the Goths was a mixed blessing for Honorius and Constantius. Naturally, Ravenna was happy to see them out of Italy, but it's not like Gaul was a really super place for them to be setting up shop. Jovinus's revolt in Upper Germany was still …