Chapter X: Imperial Blood

„Sire, your own blood may flow in your children’s veins, not on the battle field, but years will pass and from generation to generation, more drops of your blood will run out of your offspring’s corpse, down our swords, into the ground, following the water of once Roman rivers to the sea. You will salt the ocean more with every generation and may your own body rest one day in the Italian soil, your blood will never rest.“ – Odo

Aelia Eudoxia is 34 years old and gave birth to ten children. It was her duty as the wife of Arcadius and Empress of Rome to produce a potential heir, but she failed every single time. Eight daughters gave she birth to, one son died only a few hours after he saw the daylight the first and last time; he should have been a second Theodosius. Now she lays in her own sweat and blood, in unbelievable pain, and dies the death of a dutiful wife: giving birth to the tenth child, a healthy son.

Gratianus, born 414 AD, is the long awaited heir of the eastern throne. Arcadius feared his brother’s children could rule one day in Constantinople and should they prove to be as week as their father, it would be the end of the east too. The emperor would have liked to name the child after his own father, Theodosius, but Galla Flavia, his sister-in-law, gave birth to a Theodosius first. Naming the child Arcadius would have been an option, but that seems so egocentric and a bit impropriated in the emperors eyes. So Arcadius decided in favour of the name of the former emperor Gratianus, a short-lived half-brother of him had also this name and his family and Gratian’s are more or less related.

Flavius Aelius Gratianus – Aelius in honour of his mother – had as he was born four siblings, the other five died before him, all of them girls. From the oldest to the youngest there were Arcadia, Pulcheria, Theodosia and Thermantia. At Gratianus’ birth his father was already planning the wedding of Arcadia. A son of her could be a fall-back option if Gratianus shouldn’t live long enough to take his father’s throne. 

Exactly six month after the birth of his son Arcadius married his oldest daughter to the son of his general Gaudentius, a young man named Aetius. It would not be the last wedding of the year but the last the world would take such notice of. In the winter of 414, near the Atlantic, in the province of Aremorica, far away from Rome, closer to the Barbarians than to the Emperors, a relative of Honorius and Arcadius marries again; Eucherius. The son of Stilicho and Serena lost his first wife as he escaped from Burdigala, fleeing Odo’s Gothic troops, who sieged the city. With small ships did he, his families and his friends escape, his wife got sick and died before they reached northern Gallia, but Eucherius himself survived and so did his son Serenus. Gildo was the father of Serenus mother, his new step mother is the niece of the leader of the Suindini. They are the former inhabitants of Suindinum and the surrounding but lost their home to the plundering Silingi. Here a bit further to the west they try to build up an alliance against the invaders and seek to reconquer their homeland.

A few months later in the beginning of 415 the dream of the Suindini became true, at least the first part of it; the cities of Aremorica are united in their fight against the Goths and Silingi, even some Frankish tribes fight now on their site. Honorius has no power over this alliance; they swore loyalty to Constantinus in Britannia but even he doesn’t really rule them. The emperor stayed on his island with the most of the troops, whereas his son and Caesar, of the same name, led some soldiers to the mainland. In theory Caesar Constantinus commands the troops, but de facto it is Eucherius who leads the Aremoricans in the war for Gallia.

The Silingi and Goths move with the biggest part of their army to south-west, towards the Alps and into Hispania. The magister militum of the west, Asterius, was able to stop them for short time in the beginning of the war, but now, in the autumn of 415, they destroyed already the most of the Roman army. They crossed the Rhodanus and took Nemausus and Arelate. Asterius collects the rests of his troops on the Italian side of the Alps, awaiting Odo’s horde on the other side of the mountains. Waiting are also Honorius and Eucherius. The first in the palace at Mediolanum, the latter on the battle field near the Sequana, both waiting for their wives to give birth.

Two weeks later Honorius will get a daughter, Honoria; Eucherius a son, Romanus; blood flows in the empire: on the battle field and in the veins.

 

Map 

The Western and parts of the Eastern Roman Empire in 415 AD.

Red=Western Empire; Striped/Outline=foederati

Purple=Eastern Empire; Striped=foederati
Brown=Vandals

Green=Hispanian Empire
Blue=Gothic Empire
Magenta=Britannian Empire; Light Magenta=Aremorica; Stripped=foederati
Yellow=Gepids