Justa Grata Honoria

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Justa Grata Honoria crowned Augusta by the hand of God.

Justa Grata Honoria was the sister of the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III. Coins of her attest that she was granted the title of Augusta.

One of several striking examples, in which Late Antique history seems to abound, of ambitious women whose scope of action was restricted by her gender. Honoria was smart, ruthless and conniving as a young woman. She despised her brother for his weakness and lack of energy and was not content to wait on the side lines for a suitable marriage.

She refused to lead a chaste life and during her teen years she slept her way through the royal court.

She then used her womanly charms to seduce her brother's royal chamberlain, Eugenius, and they plotted to murder her brother and take over the crown. However, their plot was discovered and Eugenius was executed while Honoria was sent to live in a convent in Constantinople.

For Honoria, living as a nun was a fate worse than death and she began to plot one escape after another. None were successful and she finally had no other option, but to ask for outside help.

In 450 she sent a letter off to Attila the Hun and proposed a deal between the two: If Attila would help her escape, she would become his bride and as her dowry he would receive half of the Western Empire.

For years Attila had been planning to invade Rome and Honoria's letter gave him the incentive to make his move. He informed Valentinian that he was going to marry Honoria and demanded that he receive his dowry.

Valentinian refused and Attila invaded Roman territory in 451 using the excuse that he was a "wronged husband." Nevertheless, Rome was able to survive the attack with the help of a nomadic tribe, the Visigoths.

Subsequently, Attila never rescued Honoria and she was ultimately sent back to Rome to face her brother. He did not want to cause a scandal by executing her and was not willing to exile her again so in the end Honoria was married off to an elderly Roman senator, the fate that she had tried so hard to avoid. Nothing of her latter life was recorded.

Only the influence of their mother Galla Placidia convinced Valentinian to exile, rather than kill, Honoria, after the emperor discovered his sister's plan.

The sources for Honoria's life are Flavius Merobaudes, Carmina, I; Priscus, fragments 2, 7, 8, De legibus gentium; John of Antioch, frag. 84 De insidiis; and Jordanes, Get. 223‑224, Rom. 328.