[darkagebritain] Re: Aetius' fourth consulship
- From: Matthew Richardson <m.t.richardson@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: darkagebritain@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 5 Apr 2009 09:43:03 -0400
Robert,
This is interesting information. Kevin has suggested that the
reference to Aetius as 'thrice consul' was anachronistic, but the
difficulty with that view is that it was believed that Aetius was
consul four times. If this information is correct, then there is no
longer any contradiction.
Matt Richardson
2009/4/5 hotmail (vortigernstudies) <vortigernstudies@xxxxxxxxxxx>:
> Hi Dane,
>
> I came across something we briefly discussed on The Other Place: Aetius'
> fourth consulship. According to Thompson (Romans and Barbarians p. 151), the
> consulship of 454 was not awarded to Flavius Aetius, but to an eastern
> general. This is based on information from Hydatius, who alone reported that
> it was not the pope whose valiant resistance made Attila turn back on his
> invasion of Italy, but the emperor Marcian. He apparently sent an army under
> a general by the name of Aetius (obviously not 'our' Aetius) in to the
> Hunnic heartlands, ravashing their home base. Attila, realising that his
> loss of prestige damaged his ability to control his Germanic subjects, knew
> it was time to head home. It might also explain his next intended move: to
> attack Constantinople and claim the tribute which Marcian cut off.
>
> But it was not to be: Attila dead in early 453, and a year later the Huns
> were crushed by their former subjects on the river Nedao (summer), forever
> breaking their power. Aetius, bereft of his support among the Huns, was dead
> soon after (september). According to Thompson, it was the eastern dux who
> received the eastern consulship for 454, based on his victory of 452.
> Personally I'm not totally convinced, but it must be taken into account as a
> possibility. Hydatius is not likely to mave mixed up Aetius with another
> man - he knew Aetius personally, having visited him in 431 in a fultile
> attempt to ask for aid against the Sueves. So the report of the eastern
> expedition must be seen as a real acccount, and therefore the possibility
> that another Aetius was consul in 454 might be a real one.
>
> Link to Thompson:
> http://books.google.nl/books?id=BiXgsE7vsjcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=thompson+romans+and+barbarians#PPA151,M1
>
> Hydatius:
> XXIX. (Eus. MMCCCCLXI.) Secundo regni anno principis Marciani, Hunni qui
> Italiam praedabantur, aliquantis etiam civitatibus irruptis, divinitus
> partim fame, partim morbo quodam plagis coelestibus feriuntur: missis etiam
> per Marcianum principem Aetio duce caeduntur auxiliis; pariterque in sedibus
> suis et coelestibus plagis, et per Marciani subiguntur exercitum: et ita
> subacti, pace facta cum Romanis proprias universi repetunt sedes, ad quas
> rex eorum Attila mox reversus interiit.
>
> Best,
> Robert
> Vortigern Studies
>
>
>
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