Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/233

Rh immediately and it was not until after Placidia had suffered from the wanton insolence of Sigeric or Singerich, the ephemeral successor of Ataulphus, that she was restored by Valia or Wallia, who succeeded Sigeric. Her restoration took place in A. D. 416 ; and on the first day (1st January) of the next year (417) she was married, though against her will, to Constantius, by whom she had two children, a daughter, Justa Grata Honoria, and a son, afterwards the emperor Valentinian III. [Valentinianus, III.], born A. d. 419. Constantius was declared Augustus by Honorius, who was, however, somewhat reluctant to take him as colleague in the empire, and Placidia re- ceived the title of Augusta ; and the infant Va- lentinian received, through Placidia's influence, the title '• Nobilissimus," which was equivalent to his appointment as successor to the throne. Constan- tius died A. D. 421, about half a year after his ele- vation. After his death Honorius showed Placidia such regard and affection as gave rise to discredit- able surmises respecting them ; but after a time their love was exchanged for enmity, their re- spective friends raised tumults in liavenna, where the Gothic soldiers supported the widow of their king, and in the end Placidia and her children fled (a. d. 423) to Theodosius II. at Constantinople to seek his aid. It was probably in this flight that she experienced the danger from the sea, and made the vow recorded in an extant inscription on the church of St. John the Evangelist at Ravenna. (Gruter, p. 1048, No. 1.) It is not likely that Theodosius would have believed her against Ho- norius, as he had never acknowledged Constantius as Augustus, or Placidia as Augusta ; but the death of Honorius and the usurpation of Johannes or John, determined him to take up her cause, which had now become the cause of his family. He therefore authorized Placidia to take or resume the title of Augusta, and the little Valentinian that of Nobilissimus. They were sent back to Italy (a. d. 424), with a powerful army, under Arda- burius, Aspar, and Candidianus. John was taken and put to death ; and Valentinian, who had been previously raised to the rank of Caesar, was de- clared Augustus, or emperor, and left to govern the West, under the tutelage of his mother. Her regency was signalised by her zeal for the church and her intolerance. She banished from the towns Manichaeans and other heretics, and astrologers ; and excluded Jews and heathens from the bar and from public oflices ; but her lax government and easy disposition in other matters than those of the church left the empire to be torn by the disputes and rivalry of Aetius and Boniface [Aetius, BoNiFACius] ; and her over-indulgence to her son tended to make him an abandoned profligate. She died A. d. 450 or 451, at Rome, and was buried at Ravenna. (Zosim. vi. 12; Olympiod. apud Phot. Bill cod. 80 ; Socrat. H. E. vii. 23, 24; Philostorg. H. E. xii. 4, 12, 13, 14 ; Mar-

COIN OF GALLA PLACIDIA.

cellin., Idatius, Prosper Aquit., Prosper Tiro, Chronica ; Procop, de Bell. Vand. i. 3 ; Tillemont, Hist, des Emp. vol. v. vi. ; Gibbon, ch. 31, 33, and 35 ; Eckhel, vol. viii. p. 175.)  GALLA, A'RRIA. [Arria.]  GALLA, SO′SIA, the wife of C. Silius [], involved with him in a charge of treason A. D. 24. The pretext for Galla's impeachment was, that during her husband's command in Upper Germany, in A. D. 14, she had sold her influence with him, and shared in his exactions on the provincials. But the real motive was Galla's intimacy with Agrippina, the widow of Germanicus. Galla was sent into banishment. (Tac. Ann. iv. 19, 20.)  GALLICA′NUS, a Roman consular, who, along with Maecenas, rashly slew two soldiers who through curiosity had entered the senate-house, and thus gave rise to that bloody strife which raged for many days between the populace and the praetorians during the brief reign of Balbinus and Pupienus, A. D. 238. In the course of these disorders a large portion of the city was destroyed by fire. (Herodian. vii. 27; Capitolin. ''Maximin. duo, 20, Gordiani tres'', 22.)  GALLICA′NUS, a rhetorician mentioned by Fronto (p. 128, ed. Niebuhr), where, however, A. Mai remarks that the word Gallicanus may be a mere adjective to designate a rhetorician of Gaul, and that Fronto may allude to Favorinus, the Gallic sophist of Aries. Whether Mai is right or not cannot be decided, but the Squilla Gallicanus to whom one of Fronto's letters (Ad Amic. i. 28, p. 207, ed. Niebuhr) is addressed, must, at all events, be a different person. The latter is mentioned in the Fasti as consul, in A. D. 127, in the reign of Hadrian. Whether this M. Squilla Gallicanus, again, is the same as the one who occurs in the Fasti as consul in A. D. 150, is uncertain, as under the latter date the Fasti are incomplete, and have only the name Gallicanus.  GALLICA′NUS, VULCA′TIUS, the name prefixed in the collection, entitled Scriptores Historiae Augustae [see ], to the life of Avidius Cassias. Not one circumstance connected with this author is known; and Salmasius, following the authority of the Palatine MS. would assign the biography in question to Spartianus. Whoever the compiler may have been, the work itself is a miserable performance, so defective and confused, that several of the leading events connected with the rebellion in the East would be altogether unintelligible did we not possess more accurate and distinct sources of information. For editions, &c. see.  GALLIE′NA. We are told by Trebellius Pollio that Celsus [], one of the numerous pretenders to the purple who sprung up during the reign of Gallienus, was invested with the imperial dignity by Gailiena^ a cousin (consobrina) of the reigning monarch. A coin described in a MS. of Goltzius, as bearing the inscription licin. galli- ENA AUG., and supposed by some to belong to the subject of this article, is considered by the best judges to have been spurious, if it ever existed at all.

But two gold medals, which are admitted to be genuine, have proved a source of extreme embar- rassment to numismatologists. One of these pre- sents on the obverse a head, apparently that of Gallienus, encircled with a wreath of corn ears, 