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Emperor Honorius
Western Roman Emperor (r. 393–423 AD)
"But I have just fed him myself!"
Biography
Honorius became Western emperor as a child and remained, by most accounts, a feeble and ineffectual ruler throughout his long reign (393–423) — presiding from the safety of Ravenna while the empire disintegrated around him. His reign saw the barbarian flood across the Rhine, the rise and murder of his great protector Stilicho, and the sack of Rome itself in 410. He is the emblem of imperial impotence in the West's final century.
Did you know?
He moved the Western capital to Ravenna, protected by marshes, where emperors would shelter for the rest of the century.
Key Battles
The Sack of Rome by the Visigoths
Germanic & Hunnic Peoples victoryAugust 24, 410 AD · 5,000 total casualties
For the first time in nearly 800 years, the city of Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy. The psychological shock reverberated across the Mediterranean world — Saint Jerome wept that 'the city which had taken the whole world was itself taken,' and Augustine wrote 'The City of God' in response. Rome was no longer the seat of power, but its fall to barbarians announced that the Western Empire was dying.
Life Journey
Timeline
September 384 AD
🌅 Birth
Born in Constantinople
402 AD
📍 Posting
Moves the Western capital to Ravenna
410 AD
⚔️ Battle
Rome sacked during his reign
August 423 AD
✝️ Death
Dies at Ravenna after a 30-year reign