Батыс Рим императорының әйелі Лициния Евдоксия

Wife of Western Roman emperor Valentinian III

Licinia Eudoxia (Greek: Λικινία, 422 – c. 493) was a Roman Empress, daughter of Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II. Her husbands included the Western Roman Emperors Valentinian III and Petronius Maximus.

Eudoxia was born in 422, the daughter of Theodosius II, Eastern Roman Emperor and his consort Aelia Eudocia, a woman of Greek origin. Her only known siblings, Arcadius and Flacilla, predeceased their parents. Their paternal grandparents were Arcadius and Aelia Eudoxia. Their maternal grandfather was Leontius, a sophist from Athens. The identity of her maternal grandfather was first given by Socrates of Constantinople. John Malalas later gave a more detailed account of her mother Eudocia's history, which is also summarised in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. The identity of Eudoxia's maternal grandmother is not recorded.

In 424, Eudoxia was betrothed to Valentinian III, her first cousin, once removed. The year of their betrothal was recorded by Marcellinus Comes. At the time of their betrothal, Valentinian was approximately four years old, Eudoxia only two. Gibbon attributes the betrothal to "the agreement of the three females who governed the Roman world", meaning Galla Placidia, her niece Pulcheria, and Pulcheria's sister in law Eudocia. Galla Placidia was Valentinian III's mother and a younger, paternal half sister of Arcadius. Valentinian III was at the time being prepared to claim the throne of the Western Roman Empire, which was held by Joannes. The latter was not a member of the Theodosian dynasty and thus regarded a usurper by the Eastern court. Within 424, Valentinian was proclaimed a Caesar in the Eastern court. The following year, Joannes was defeated and executed. Valentinian replaced him as Augustus of the West. In 439, Eudoxia was granted the title of Augusta, with the birth of their first daughter Eudocia. They also had a second daughter, Placidia. The births and eventual fates of the two daughters were recorded by Priscus, Procopius, John Malalas and the Chronicon Paschale. "Maximus, failing in both his hopes, was bitterly angry. He summoned Optila and Thraustila, brave Scythians who had campaigned with Aëtius and had been assigned to attend on Valentinian, and talked to them. He gave and received guarantees, put the blame for Aëtius' murder on the Emperor, and urged that the better course would be to take revenge on them. Those who avenged the fallen man, he said, would justly have the greatest blessings. Not many days later, Valentinian rode in the Field of Ares with a few bodyguards and the followers of Optila and Thraustila. When he had dismounted from his horse and proceeded to archery, Optila and his friends attacked him. Optila struck Valentinian on his temple and when turned around to see the striker he dealt him a second blow on the face and felled him, and Thraustila slew Heraclius. Taking the Emperor's diadem and horse, they hastened to Maximus "(John of Antioch fr.201.4–5: Gordon trans., pp. 52–53). Heraclius is identified as "a eunuch who had the greatest influence with the emperor" and his associate in murdering Aetius.

Valentinian had no male descendants and had never designated an heir. Several candidates claimed the throne. Petronius Maximus, who was the highest ranking of all Roman senators, was among them. A second candidate was Maximianus, son of Domninus. Domninus was a merchant from Egypt who had earned a considerable fortune. Maximianus had served as a domesticus, member of an elite guard unit of the late Roman Empire, under Aetius. Eudoxia promoted her own candidate, in the person of Majorian. Regardless, Maximus arranged the marriage of his son Palladius to his new stepdaughter Eudocia, the daughter of Eudoxia from her first marriage, again to secure a dynastic relation to the Theodosian dynasty. However, considering the other possible filiation of Flavius Magnus given by Christian Settipani, as well as the lack of the name of Flavius Probus' mother, it can be assumed that he was a grandson of Petronius Maximus but from his mother. Maximus appointed Avitus as his Magister militum praesentalis ("Master of Soldiers in Attendance") and send him to Toulouse. There Avitus was to try to secure the loyalty of Theodoric II of the Visigoths to the new emperor. However his reign was to prove short. According to the chronicler Malchus, "Around this time, the empress Eudoxia, the widow of the emperor Valentinian and the daughter of the emperor Theodosius and Eudocia, remained unhappily at Rome and, enraged at the tyrant Maximus because of the murder of her spouse, she summoned the Vandal Gaiseric, king of Africa, against Maximus, who was ruling Rome. He came suddenly to Rome with his forces and captured the city, and having destroyed Maximus and all his forces, he took everything from the palace, even the bronze statues. He even led away as captives surviving senators, accompanied by their wives; along with them he also carried off to Carthage in Africa the empress Eudoxia, who had summoned him; her daughter Placidia, the wife of the patrician Olybrius, who then was staying at Constantinople; and even the maiden Eudocia. After he had returned, Gaiseric gave the younger Eudocia, a maiden, the daughter of the empress Eudoxia, to his son Huneric in marriage, and he held them both, the mother and the daughter, in great honor" (Chron. 366). Eudoxia was presumably following the example of her sister in law Justa Grata Honoria who had summoned Attila the Hun for help against an unwanted marriage. According to Prosper, Maximus was in Rome when the Vandals arrived. He gave anyone who could permission to flee the city. He attempted to flee himself but was assassinated by the imperial slaves. He had reigned for seventy seven days. His body was thrown into the Tiber and never recovered. Victor of Tonnena agrees, adding the detail that Pope Leo I negotiated with Geiseric for the security of the city's population. Hydatius attributes the assassination to revolting troops of the Roman army, enraged at Maximus' attempted flight. The Chronica Gallica of 511 attributes the assassination to a rioting crowd. Jordanes identifies a single assassin as "Ursus, a Roman soldier". Ursus is Latin for "bear". Sidonius Apollinaris makes a cryptic comment regarding a Burgundian whose "traitorous leadership" led the crowd to panic and to the slaughter of the Emperor. His identity is unknown, presumably a general who failed to face the Vandals for one reason or the other. Later historians have suggested two high ranking Burgundians as possible candidates, Gondioc and his brother Chilperic. Both joined Theodoric II in invading Hispania later in 455.

The three women stayed prisoners in Carthage for seven years. In 462, Leo I, Eastern Roman Emperor paid a large ransom for Eudoxia and her daughter Placidia. Eudoxia returned to Constantinople after an absence of twenty five years, Placidia joining her. Eudocia stayed in Africa and took Huneric as her husband. They were parents to Hilderic, king of the Vandals from 523 to 530.