Galla (wife of Theodosius I)

Galla († 394 ) was a late ancient Roman empress. As the daughter of Valentinian I and wife of Emperor Theodosius I , she was a link between the Valentinian and Theodosian dynasties .

Galla was born as the youngest daughter of Valentinian I and Justina's . Her older siblings were Valentinian II and the two girls Iusta and Grata. After the death of Galla's father in 375, her brother, who was still a child at the time, was made emperor as Valentinian II. He lived with his family mostly in Mediolanum ( Milan ). When the usurper Magnus Maximus invaded Italy in 387 , Galla and her family had to flee to Thessalonica . There she met Emperor Theodosius, whose wife Aelia Flaccilla had died shortly before. Valentinian made him promise to attack the usurper Maximus and in return married him to his sister Galla. Zosimos , a historian of the second half of the 5th century, reports that Galla exerted some influence on her husband thanks to her particular beauty. As a result, she came into conflict with her stepson Arcadius , the son of Flaccilla, who even had her thrown out of the palace in Constantinople in 390 in his father's absence . When her brother Valentinian II died in 392, Galla was deeply shaken. She gave birth to her husband a daughter, Galla Placidia , who later became an important empress. After another pregnancy, Galla died in 394.

literature

• Anja Busch: The women of the Theodosian dynasty. Power and representation of imperial women in the 5th century (=  Historia - individual writings . Volume 237 ). Steiner, Stuttgart 2015, ISBN 978-3-515-11044-0 , pp. 35–39 ( specialist review by H-Soz-Kult ).
• Arnold Hugh Martin Jones , John Robert Martindale, John Morris : Galla 2. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1971, ISBN 0-521-07233-6 , p. 382.
• Otto Seeck : Galla 2 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VII, 1, Stuttgart 1910, Col. 608.

Remarks

1. ↑ Zosimos 4,43,1; Socrates Scholasticos 4,31,17; Philostorgios 9.16; Jordanes , Roman History 311; Zonaras 13.15.9; Paulus Deacon , Roman History 12.7; John of Antioch , fragments 187.
2. ↑ Zosimos 4,43,1.
3. ↑ Zosimos 4,44,2-4; Jordanes, Roman History 311; Zonaras 13,18,18; Socrates Scholasticos 4:31, 17-18; Philostorgios 10.7.
4. ↑ Zosimos 4,44,2-4; 4.55.1
5. ↑ Marcellinus Comes sub anno 390.
6. ↑ Zosimos 4,55,1; John of Antioch, fragments 187.
7. ↑ Zosimos 4,57,3; John of Antioch, fragments 187.