Decline & Fall

   A Friday Welcome from Joe McDonnell

   On this day in 455, an angry mob stoned Emperor Petronius Maximus to death while he was fleeing Rome. This Petronius was one of a handful of emperors at the end of the Roman Empire who had short and violent reigns. Petronius had murdered his predecessor, Valentinian III, who had ruled for  just two years after Petronius helped him murder his rival, the general Aetius. Petronius must have thought it was his turn, and after murdering Valentinian, he married Valentinian's widow. His big mistake was canceling the betrothal of Valentinian's daughter to the son of the Vandal king down in North Africa.
   The barbarians were at the gates of Rome at this point in the Empire's decline and fall. The Empire survived by playing one barbarian tribe off against another.. The Vandals were originally a Germanic tribe who had moved south and taken over the Roman colonies of Spain and North Africa. The Visigoths, also Germanic, lived in France and Italy and were on friendly terms with Rome now and then. Petronius neglected to line the Visigoths  up for when the Vandals arrived, ooking for trouble.
   Petronius had only been empower for six weeks when he had to head for the hills. He somehow became separated from his bodyguard. The locals were upset with Petronius for failing to provide security and buried him under a hail of stone.
   The Vandals went on a two week rampage. The pope asked them to refrain from murder, rape and torture so they settled for destroying homes and public buildings. For their activities, the Vandals' name was linked to every rascal with a can of spraypaint in his hand. The Visigoths had sacked Rome back in 410, but they got a Medieval style of architecture named after them plus a modern day state of mind.
   There were four more emperors after Petronius. The last was Athemius who was killed by one of his own generals of Gothic origin. That was in 472. Things got very dim in Europe for about three hundred years. My ancestors lived in hovels and scraped a living from the land. Over in India and China, civilization was still ticking along at a high level. In the Arabian desert, the mighty wind of Isalm was about to arise.
   In 800 Charlemagne declared himself Holy Roman Emperor. He provided the security to back it up. His first move to reestablish civilization was to build schools. In another six hundred years, Europe was ready to conquer the world, or at least try.

The ultimate sacking of Rome.