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158 158 ST. PLACIDIA tbat under his mother, Yalentiuian lost more than if he had had no guardianship and no help. Perhaps the strongest tribute to her good qualities was the suddenly increasing demoralization that set in immediately after her withdrawal from the government, a few years before her death. She spent the rest of her life in pious retirement. She died at Bome and was buried, by her own wish, in the church of SS. Naza- rius and Celsus, which she had built at Bavonna. Her ashes rest there be- tween those of her husband and son, the last Constantius and the last Valenti- nian, the only tombs of Emperors of the East or West that remain in their original places; and there, for more than a thousand years, embalmed and seated in a chair of cypress wood, and dressed in imperial robes, she could be seen. This strange relic of the declining empire was accidentally burnt in 1577. Some of the clergy, struck by the great length of certain of the bones which alone re- mained, had the curiosity to measure them, and came to the conclusion that the empress must have been of immense stature. She had some share in the building of the great church of SS. Peter and Paul at Bome, begun by her father and finished by Houorins. She built, in 440, the triumphal arch which may still be seen in that church, having survived the fire of 1823. Above the arch is a mosaic head of Christ, one of the most precious gems of ancient Christian art now existing. The earliest extant specimens of Byzan- tine sculpture are in the churches she built in Baveuna. The Bollandists promise an account of her when they come to her day. Colin de Plancy. Monstier. Mart, of Salisbury y Dec. 3, "Barbaciane." Gibbon. Lebeau. Tillemont and other modem authors cite Sozomen, Olympiodorus, Theodoret, Peter Chrysologus, Idatius, Sidonius, and Jomandes. St. Placidia (3), Oct. lO, grand- daughter of St. Placidia (2), and possibly also named like her, Galla. Placidia (3) was born about 441, and died towards the end of the same century or begin- ning of the next. She was the younger daughter of Valentinian III. and Endoxia, daughter of Theodosius II. In 455, Valentinian, who had scarcely a redeeming quality, was assassinated at the instigation of the senator Maximus, who was at once elected emperor. He compelled the widowed Empress Eudoxia to become his wife, an indignity she bitterly resented; and when he shortly .afterwards admitted to her that he had planned the murder of Valentinian, and why, she determined that she would no longer remain in his power. Her own near relations were dead. She bethought her of Genseric, king of the Vandals, and invited him to come to her rescue. He set sail at once and the first tidings Maximus had of the negotiations were the appearance of the Vandal fleet at the mouth of the Tiber. The new emperor fled but was killed by the servants of Eudoxia. Despite the intercession of Pope (St.) Leo, the city was given up to pillage for fourteen days. Among the spoils were the golden candlestick and other sacred treasures brought from Jerusalem by Titus. Many precious trophies perished in a ship that sank on its way to Carthage. Eudoxia and both her daughters — Eudooia and Pla- cidia — were carried thither as captives. On their arrival, Genseric married his son Hunneric to the Princess Eudocia, whose first husband had been killed in the sack of Bome. The three im- perial ladies adhered to their Catholic faith, although the Vandals were Arians and persecuted the Catholics. Many acts of plunder and cruelty were perpetrated by heathens, Catholics and Arians, under pretence of opposing heresy and establishing the true €uth. The Emperor Marcian, husband of St. PuLcHEKiA (and consequently uncle by marriage of the captive empress), de- manded that the widow and unmarried daughter of Valentinian should be set at liberty. This was eventually ar- ranged under his successor Leo I. ; and, in 462, they were sent to Constan- tinople. Eudocia, the wife of Hun- neric, escaped many years afterwards and spent her last years at Jerusalem, leaving a son Hereric, who succeeded his &ther and gave peace to the Church.