General Notes

Galla Placida married the Master of the Soldiers Constantius (who ruled briefly as co-Emperor with Honorius, Galla's brother) when he was at the height of his career, and their son Valentinian III reigned in the West. When the Visigoths under King Alaric I sacked Rome in 410, they carried off Galla with them as hostage. She was of course returned, and later went on to rule the empire when her son was very young with the formal title of "piissima et perpetua Augusta mater" which translates to "most pius and eternal Empress."
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Galla Placidia (Constantinopel 392 - Rome 27 nov. 450), de dochter uit het eerste huwelijk van de Romeinse keizer Theodosius I en halfzuster van de keizers Arcadius en Honorius. Na in 410 bij de verovering van Rome door de Visigoten onder Alarik I als gijzelaarster meegevoerd te zijn, huwde zij in 415 diens opvolger en zwager Athaulf te Narbonne, om de betrekkingen tussen de Goten en het Romeinse Rijk te bevorderen. Athaulf stierf en Galla Placidia kwam reeds in 415 te Ravenna terug. Daar huwde zij begin 417 Flavius Constantius, d.i. keizer Constantius III, die in het jaar van zijn troonsbestijging overleed (421). Hun zoon was Valentinianus III, voor wie zij, na gedurende twee jaar naar het Oosten uitgeweken te zijn, in 423 regentes werd. Als zodanig heeft zij grote verdiensten gehad. Ook de kerk ondervond haar steun: met Leo I hielp zij o.a. Flavianus in zijn strijd tegen het monofysitisme. Of zij ooit is bijgezet in het zgn. mausoleum van Galla Placidia te Ravenna is zeer onzeker. Twee brieven, die zij op verzoek van Leo I schreef aan Theodosius II en diens zuster Pulcheria, zijn opgenomen onder die van Leo Magnus (nrs. 56 en 58), in: Patrologia Latina van J.-P. Migne.
"Galla Placidia," Encarta - Encyclopedie 2000 - Winkler Prins.  1993-1999 Microsoft Corporation/Elsevier. Alle rechten voorbehouden.
Galla Placidia
Ralph W. Mathisen
University of South Carolina
Galla's Youth (395-423 A.D.)
Aelia Galla Placidia, born in the east circa 388/390, was the daughter of the emperor Theodosius I (379-395) and his second wife Galla. She was the half-sister of the emperors Honorius (393-423) (q.v.) and Arcadius (383-408). In the early 390s, she was granted her own household, which made her financially independent. In 394 she was summoned to Milan, and there she witnessed the death of her father in early 395. During her childhood she was named Most Noble Girl (Nobilissima Puella), and she seems to have been raised in the care of her cousin Serena, the wife of the western general Stilicho. She presumably received a classical education; she also knew how to weave and embroider.
Galla Placidia's First Marriage
When the Visigoths attacked Rome in 408, Placidia remained in the city, where, for whatever reasons, she concurred in the execution of Serena. By the time of the sack of Rome in 410, Placidia seems already to have been in Gothic hands. She was carried off with them to Gaul, and in 414 she was married in a Roman wedding ceremony to the Visigothic chieftain Athaulf at Narbonne. She may have been one of the causes of his eventual pro-Roman outlook. She subsequently traveled with the Goths to Spain and bore Athaulf a son, Theodosius, who died in infancy, thus destroying an opportunity for a possible Romano-Visigothic rapprochement.
Galla Placidia's Marriage to Constantius
In 416, after Athaulf's death, Placidia finally was restored to the Romans. In the next year, rather against her will, she was wedded to the powerful Roman general Constantius, to whom she bore two children, Justa Grata Honoria and the future emperor Valentinian III. In 419 she and her husband became involved -- on the losing side -- in the controversy over the election of a new bishop of Rome. She personally summoned the African bishops to a synod in Italy, and three of the letters she wrote in the matter still survive. In 421, Constantius became co-emperor in the west and she was made Augusta (Empress); their elevation