Princess Placidia — Elizabeth May

This is the incredible story of Galla Placidia, Imperial Princess, Queen of the Goths, Empress of Rome and Regent for her son, the emperor, Valentinian III. From birth in the 390s until her death in 450 she inhabited the highest stages of the eastern and western Roman Empires. However, her life was riddled with calamities. She was orphaned as a very young girl, besieged in Rome only to be taken hostage by Alaric the Goth, widowed young - twice, lost a child in infancy, had to flee from her brother the emperor Honorius, was almost shipwrecked with her young children escaping to Constantinople, fought for her son to become emperor and in her final days had to cope with her daughter's attempted elopement with Attila the Hun. On her death she was honoured as the Roman Empress she was.
Throughout her life she had conflict with those who would rule her and the Empire; her brother Honorius, her nephew Theodosius and crucially the Magister Militum (most senior general) of the West, Flavius Aetius. Without an army she could wield herself she used her intellect, beauty and ruthless ambition to battle her way through life. Princess Placidia tells of her life until she became Empress of Rome. The companion book Empress Placidia will continue her story.