RadagaisusRadagaisus (died 23 August 406) was a Gothic king who led an invasion of Roman Italy in late 405 and the first half of 406. A committed Pagan, Radagaisus evidently planned to sacrifice the Senators of the Christian Roman Empire to the gods, and to burn Rome to the ground. Radagaisus was executed after being defeated by the general Stilicho. 12,000 of his higher-status fighters were drafted into the Roman army and some of the remaining followers were dispersed, while so many of the others were sold into slavery that the slave market briefly collapsed.
JoannesJoannes or John (Johannes; died 425) was western Roman emperor from 423 to 425. On the death of the Emperor Honorius (15 August 423), Theodosius II, the remaining ruler of the House of Theodosius, hesitated in announcing his uncle's death. In the interregnum, Honorius's patrician at the time of his death, Castinus, elevated Joannes as emperor. Joannes was a primicerius notariorum or senior civil servant at the time of his elevation. Procopius praised him as "both gentle and well-endowed with sagacity and thoroughly capable of valorous deeds.
EugeniusEugenius (died 6 September 394) was a usurper in the Western Roman Empire (392–394) against Emperor Theodosius I. While Christian himself, Eugenius capitalized on the discontent in the West caused by Theodosius' religious policies targeting pagans. He renovated the pagan Temple of Venus and Roma and restored the Altar of Victory, after continued petitions from the Roman Senate. Eugenius replaced Theodosius' administrators with men loyal to him, including pagans. This revived the pagan cause.
InterregnumAn interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one monarch and the next (coming from Latin inter-, "between" and rēgnum, "reign" [from rex, rēgis, "king"]), and the concepts of interregnum and regency therefore overlap. Historically, longer and heavier interregna have been typically accompanied by widespread unrest, civil and succession wars between warlords, and power vacuums filled by foreign invasions or the emergence of a new power.
Valentinian IIValentinian II (Valentinianus; 371 - 15 May 392) was a Roman emperor in the western part of the Roman empire between AD 375 and 392. He was at first junior co-ruler of his brother, was then sidelined by a usurper, and only after 388 sole ruler, albeit with limited de facto powers. A son of emperor Valentinian I and empress Justina, he was raised to the imperial office at the age of 4 by military commanders upon his father's death.
Olympiodorus of ThebesOlympiodorus of Thebes (Ὀλυμπιόδωρος ὁ Θηβαῖος; born c. 380, fl. c. 412–425 AD) was a Roman historian, poet, philosopher and diplomat of the early fifth century. He produced a History in twenty-two volumes, written in Greek, dedicated to the Emperor Theodosius II, detailing events in the Western Roman Empire between 407 and 425. His friends included philosophers, provincial governors and rhetoricians. He made several journeys in an official capacity, accompanied for twenty years by a parrot.
CastinusFlavius Castinus held the position of patricius in the court of Roman Emperor Honorius at the time of the Emperor's death, and most likely for some time before. He also served as consul for the year 424. In 422 he fought an unsuccessful campaign in Hispania to subdue the Vandals. He was sent to support the Suevi or Suebians, enemies of the Vandals, and came with a force of Gothic foederati. However, the campaign was compromised at the very beginning when, according to one source, "his haughty and inept exercise of command" led to a quarrel between him and the military tribune Bonifacius, a protégé of Empress Galla Placidia.