Honorius, FLAVIUS

Honorius, FLAVIUS, second son of the Roman emperor, Theodosius the Great, was born in 384. On the death of his father the empire was divided between him and his brother Arcadius, Honorius receiving the western half, with Rome as his capital. Being only ten years old, he was put under the guardianship of Stilicho (q.v.), who was the de facto ruler of the western empire until 408. After the death of Stilicho, who had been the strong bulwark of western Rome against the barbarian invasions, Alaric the Goth overran Italy, and besieged Rome, and took it in 410. A new champion of the empire arose in Constantius, who was appointed the colleague of Honorius in the consulship, and received in marriage (417) the hand of his sister Placidia, along with a share in the empire. But he did not long enjoy his good fortune, as his death took place a few months after. Thereafter things went from bad to worse in the empire, and the weak Honorius lost his hold of the fair provinces beyond the Alps, whilst Africa was a seething caldron of revolt and civil war. The first emperor of the West died in 423, at Ravenna, which he had made his capital in 403. See J. B. Bury's History of the Later Roman Empire (1890).