Flavius Aëtius
Categories: NPOV disputes | 1911 Britannica | 396 births | 454 deaths | Roman generals | Murdered Romans
- This article is about the 5th-century Roman general Aëtius; for the 4th-century theologian, see Aetius (theologian); for the 6th-century Byzantine physician, see Aëtius Amidenus.
Flavius Aëtius or simply Aëtius, (circa 396–454), was a Roman general of the closing period of the Western Roman Empire. He is often called, sometimes along with Count Boniface, "the last of the Romans". His victory over Attila the Hun, guarantees him, as Edward Gibbon says, immortality for as long as men remember Rome.
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Early years
Aëtius was born at Dorostolus in Moesia, late in the 4th century. He was the son of an Italian mother named Auraelia and of Gaudentius, who, many historians point out, was possibly of a Germanic family. He rose in the service of the Western empire to be master of the horse, and later count of Africa. Aëtius passed some years as a hostage, first with Alaric and the Goths, and later in the camp of Rugila, king of the Huns. In this way he acquired the knowledge that enabled him to defeat them. There is also a school of thought that Aëtius's upbringing among vigorous and warlike peoples such as the Huns gave him a martial vigour lacking in Rome itself at that period. Certainly he learned every trick the Huns themselves utilized in battle, and he used that knowledge well in his conflicts with Attila.
Aëtius, Boniface and Placidia
In 425, Aëtius led an army of 60,000 Huns into Italy. He first moved to support Joannes, who had proclaimed himself emperor. However, he arrived in Ravenna three days after Joannes' defeat and execution. With his large force of Huns, Aëtius was able to secure a pardon and obtain the office of Magister militum per Gallias (or Master of Soldiers in Gaul) from Galla Placidia, the empress-mother and regent for Valentinian III.
In Gaul, Aëtius defeated the Visigoths at Arles, forcing them to return to Aquitaine. He then proceeded to reinforce the Rhine frontier and defend Noricum against German attacks. Meanwhile, in Africa, Count Boniface fell into disfavour with Placidia, perhaps partly due to the intrigues of Aetius and other Roman generals.
Boniface was eventually returned to favour by Placidia, not before revolting in Africa and calling in the Vandals. In 432, Boniface was recalled to Italy and given the rank of patrician. Aëtius, believing that Placidia had decided to get rid of him, marched against Boniface and fought against him in a battle near Rimini. Boniface won the battle tactically but was mortally wounded and died a few months later. Aëtius escaped to Dalmatia, and, with the help of the Huns (for which they were rewarded with territory in Pannonia), was restored to power by Placidia in 433.
Ascendancy
From 433 to 450, Aëtius was the dominant personality in the Western empire. He continued to devote his attention to Gaul after his restoration to power. In 436, the Burgundians tried to take advantage of disturbances caused by Bagaudae, bands of lawless brigands, to seize more territory. Aëtius responded by calling in the Huns to intervene, and 20,000 Burgundians were killed. This slaughter is the basis of the Nibelungenlied, a German epic. In 443 Aëtius settled the remaining Burgundians in Savoy, south of Lake Geneva. In the 440s he was mainly occupied with problems in Gaul and Spain, mainly with the Bagaudae. He settled Alans around Valence and Orleans to control unrest around Brittany.
In 451 a large army of Huns, led by Attila, invaded Gaul and captured several cities, and proceeded towards Orleans. When the Alans living in the region were ready to defect to Attila, Aëtius and the Visigoth king Theodoric moved in to relieve the city. The Huns abandoned the siege and retreated to open country, where, on September 20, 451 (some sources place the date at June 20, 4511), they and their allies battled the Romans and Visigoths, along with their Alan, Frank, and Burgundian allies, on the Catalunian Plains near Chalons. Although tactically the outcome of the Battle of Chalons was indecisive, it was a great triumph for Aëtius and the Romans. Attila was forced to retreat beyond the Rhine and never threatened Gaul again.
Assassination
Although in 453 Aëtius had been able to betroth his son Gaudentius to Valentinian's daughter Placidia, Valentinian felt intimidated by Aetius, who had once supported Joannes against him and whom Valentinian believed wanted to place his son upon the imperial throne. The Roman senator Petronius Maximus and the chamberlain Heraclius were therefore able to enlist Valentinian in a plot to assassinate Aëtius. On September 21, 454, when at court in Ravenna delivering a financial account, Aëtius was slain by Valentinian's own hand. Edward Gibbon credits Sidonius Apollinaris with the famous observation, "I am ignorant, sir, of your motives or provocations; I only know that you have acted like a man who has cut off his right hand with his left" (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. 35).
Maximus expected to be made patrician in place of Aëtius, but was blocked by Heraclius. Seeking revenge, Maximus arranged with two Hun friends of Aëtius, Optila and Thraustila, to assassinate both Valentinian III and Heraclius. On March 16, 455, Optila stabbed the emperor in the temple as he dismounted in the Campus Martius and prepared for a session of archery practice. As the stunned emperor turned to see who had struck him, Optila finished him off with another thrust of his blade. Meanwhile, Thraustila stepped forward and killed Heraclius. Most of the soldiers standing close by had been faithful followers of Aetius and none lifted a hand to save the emperor.
After death
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His final legacy has been similar to that of Stilicho. Both were the best Roman generals of their time, and both were killed by jealous emperors. Aëtius was a brilliant general but failed to look at how the map of Rome would stand later on. At the time of his death, not one province of Rome in western Europe was without a significant barbarian presence. After his victories he allowed the barbarians to stay inside the Empire's borders in exchange for peace, and their military service. He is also alleged to have failed to continue to develop Rome's navies, a significant problem for later emperors. That blindness, if true, was his greatest mistake. Simply put, he is alleged not to have seen the danger of Africa in barbarian hands. In that he would have been the only significant figure to have not foreseen that danger. Africa was the breadbasket of the Empire, and the source of most of the wealth remaining to the Western Empire. Gibbon however is more kind to Aëtius, and believes his preoccupation with the Huns, more than not caring, limited his attention to the navy, and the subsequent loss of Africa. Emperors Majorian, Leo I and Anthemius saw the necessity of Africa liberation. Even Visigoth puppet Roman emperor Attalus after sacks of Rome in 410 refused to give ships to barbarians for transport to Africa. Many historians feel Aëtius nominally preserved the peace and order, (in addition to his macrohistorical victory over Attila), but his reactionary stances left Rome ripe for its fall. It should be noted however that again, Gibbon, among others, disputes this. One fact however cannot be disputed. Even Gibbon agrees the reliance on barbarian troops was the primary reason for the ultimate fall of the Western Empire, and Aëtius certainly relied on them, to the detriment of the Empire when he was gone.
J. B. Bury's assessment, however, was that the battle of Chalôns was fundamentally unimportant. Aëtius attacked the Huns when they were already retreating from Orleans, so Gaul was not in immediate danger; and he declined to renew the attack, the next day, to preserve the balance of power. The important battle was three years later, when the Germans rose up against the Huns after Attila's death, and defeated them at the Nedao, in 454. This decided that there would be no Hunnic Empire, which Bury thinks would have been unlikely even they had crushed the Germans that time. In this light, Chalôns determined chiefly whether Attila spent his last year looting Gaul or Italy.
See also
References
- Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire from the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinia, Chapter 9, § 4.
- Ferrill, Arther, The Fall of the Roman Empire: The Military Explanation. Thames and Hudson, London, 1986.
- Jones, A.H.M., The Later Roman Empire 284-602. Oxford Press, Cambridge, 1964.
- Oost, Stewart I., Galla Placidia Augusta. Chicago, 1968.
- Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum ii.8, gives a condensed version of Aetius' character and career, using a lost history of Renatus Frigeridus.
This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain.bg:Аеций cs:Flavius Aetius de:Aëtius es:Aecio fr:Aetius it:Flavio Ezio nl:Flavius Aetius pl:Flawiusz Aecjusz pt:Aécio fi:Aëtius sv:Aëtius tl:Flavius Aëtius