hus was
stricken down by the hand of an assassin; his enemy was seated upon his
throne; and Placidia, being brutally and of purpose made one of a number
of common captives, was compelled to run for twelve miles before the
horse of the barbarian chieftain, the murderer of a husband whom she had
sincerely loved. Possibly it was her sufferings which aroused the
people; however, her persecutor was himself assassinated a few days
after his own murderous act; and Placidia was restored to her brother,
her ransom being six hundred thousand measures of wheat.

Placidia would have been willing, in accordance with the Christian
teaching of the time, to have lamented the loss of Adolphus in continual
widowhood. But another marriage was arranged for her, without her
consent: she was awarded as a prize to Constantius the general for his
services to Honorius. The results of this marriage were the birth of
Honoria and of Valentinian III., and, probably through the schemes of
Placidia, the promotion of her husband to the title of Augustus. But it
was not long before the princess again found herself a widow; and though
mischievous tongues magnified the caresses of childish affection on the
part of Honorius to signs of a fondness warmer than their kinship would
warrant, a quarrel between these two caused Placidia to go with her
children to Constantinople.

At the death of Honorius, Valentinian, though no more than six years of
age, was invested with the purple. But his mother was empress; the
policy of the Empire was directed by her; and for twenty-five years she
maintained her power. Gibbon speaks slightingly of her ability; but it
could not have been little, else how did she retain a rule which any
chance military adventurer might be tempted to seize? The historian
refers to Cassiodorus, who compares the regencies of Placidia and
Amalasuntha, to the disadvantage of the former.

The life of the Roman empress had been filled with more adventures and
changes of fortune than were wont to fall to the lot of woman, even in
those troublous times, but her story is less strange and is certainly
happier than that of her daughter, Honoria. There is in existence a
medal bearing the countenance of Honoria, and it is a fair face; it
bears the inscription Augusta. The young princess was invested with this
honor and rank in order that she might be above the aspirations of any
subject. As early as her sixteenth year, however, she chafed against the
i