75

The murder of Valentinian III on March 16, 455 was perceived by some contemporary historians as an epochal break. The event also seemed to predict impending doom for the Western Roman Empire, as the dynasty of Valentinian I and Theodosius was brought to an end. Valentinian’s assassination was followed by the sack of Rome by Geiseric (June 2-16, 455). The city was brutally ravaged by the Vandals. Since the emperor Petronius Maximus was killed during an unsuccessful attempt to leave the city, neither political mediation nor military reaction were possible. Only Pope Leo I courageously negotiated with the Vandals. They managed to reach an agreement: the safety of the population was guaranteed, but the wealth and monuments of Rome were delivered in their entirety to the Vandals. The devastating plunder of the city was not, in fact, caused solely by barbarian greed. Geiseric also acted according to his political strategy. As ruler of a powerful new kingdom, Geiseric took with him statues and treasures to adorn his own capital, Carthage. This decision should symbolize the transfer of hegemony from the Roman Empire in decline to the Vandal Kingdom. After the sack of 455, the recovery of the city—as it had happened after Alaric’s sack of 410—was not possible. Rome lost its majesty and its ancient grandeur. In this sorrowful atmosphere, the new emperor, Avitus, entered Rome in the fall of 455. Avitus had been proclaimed Emperor by the Gallic aristocracy and was also supported by the Visigoths. His entourage was in fact composed of Gallic officials and Visigothic troops. At his arrival, Avitus found the population devastated by a harsh famine. The presence of the Visigothic allies was not tolerated, and Avitus was forced to send them away. In order to dismiss them, he needed money. However, there was no gold in the imperial treasures. Consequently, Avitus ordered for bronze statues and decorations to be destroyed and sold to merchants in the city in order to pay the barbarians. This decision roused the Senate and the Roman population to revolt, since they were once again robbed of their city’s adornments. This time, however, it was a Roman emperor, rather than a barbarian king, who had outrageously insulted Rome, its monuments (ornatus civitatis) and its people. Avitus was considered unworthy of the imperial dignity. Majorian and Ricimer also rose in rebellion. Avitus was attacked on his way to Gaul and forced to renounce the throne. It is likely that this episode also influenced Emperor Majorian’s fourth Novella (July 11, 458). Inspired by the conservative faction of the Roman aristocracy, Majorian again stressed the importance of the city’s monuments (ornatus civitatis) as a symbol of Rome’s dignity. The Novella can be interpreted as a political and cultural response to the impiety of Geiseric and Avitus. On the other hand, after Avitus’s insult to Roman majesty, prophecies of decline were again spread across the Empire. They likely aroused the same political group of the conservative faction in the Roman Senate. A century later, in the cultural milieu of the Constantinopolitan bureaucracy, John Lydus continued to link Avitus’s decision to a prophecy of the fall of the Empire, preserved by the Libri Sibyllini. The same episode is narrated in John of Antioch’s Historia Chronike (composed at the beginning of Heraclius’s reign), as he described the sequence of tragic events that followed the murder of Valentinian III and foretold the end of the Western Roman Empire.