<P> Constantius had married the princess Galla Placidia (despite her protests) in 417 . The couple soon had two children, Honoria and Valentinian III, and Constantius was elevated to the position of Augustus in 420 . This earned him the hostility of the Eastern court, which had not agreed to his elevation . Nevertheless, Constantius had achieved an unassailable position at the Western court, in the imperial family, and as the able commander - in - chief of a partially restored army . </P> <P> This settlement represented a real success for the Empire--a poem by Rutilius Namatianus celebrates his voyage back to Gaul in 417 and his confidence in a restoration of prosperity . But it marked huge losses of territory and of revenue; Rutilius travelled by ship past the ruined bridges and countryside of Tuscany, and in the west the River Loire had become the effective northern boundary of Roman Gaul . In the east of Gaul the Franks controlled large areas; the effective line of Roman control until 455 ran from north of Cologne (lost to the Ripuarian Franks in 459) to Boulogne . The Italian areas which had been compelled to support the Goths had most of their taxes remitted for several years . Even in southern Gaul and Hispania large barbarian groups remained, with thousands of warriors, in their own non-Roman military and social systems . Some occasionally acknowledged a degree of Roman political control, but without the local application of Roman leadership and military power they and their individual subgroups pursued their own interests . </P> <P> Constantius died in 421, after only seven months as Augustus . He had been careful to make sure that there was no successor in waiting, and his own children were far too young to take his place . Honorius was unable to control his own court and the death of Constantius initiated more than ten years of instability . Initially Galla Placidia sought Honorius's favour in the hope that her son might ultimately inherit . Other court interests managed to defeat her, and she fled with her children to the Eastern court in 422 . Honorius himself died, shortly before his thirty - ninth birthday, in 423 . After some months of intrigue, the patrician Castinus installed Joannes as Western Emperor, but the Eastern Roman government proclaimed the child Valentinian III instead, his mother Galla Placidia acting as regent during his minority . Joannes had few troops of his own . He sent Aetius to raise help from the Huns . An Eastern army landed in Italy, captured Joannes, cut his hand off, abused him in public, and killed him with most of his senior officials . Aetius returned, three days after Joannes' death, at the head of a substantial Hunnic army which made him the most powerful general in Italy . After some fighting, Placidia and Aetius came to an agreement; the Huns were paid off and sent home, while Aetius received the position of magister militum . </P> <P> Galla Placidia, as Augusta, mother of the Emperor, and his guardian until 437, could maintain a dominant position in court, but women in Ancient Rome did not exercise military power and she could not herself become a general . She tried for some years to avoid reliance on a single dominant military figure, maintaining a balance of power between her three senior officers, Aetius (magister militum in Gaul), Count Boniface governor in the Diocese of Africa, and Flavius Felix magister militum praesentalis in Italy . Meanwhile, the Empire deteriorated seriously . Apart from the losses in the Diocese of Africa, Hispania was slipping out of central control and into the hands of local rulers and Suevic bandits . In Gaul the Rhine frontier had collapsed, the Visigoths in Aquitaine may have launched further attacks on Narbo and Arelate, and the Franks, increasingly powerful although disunited, were the major power in the north - east . Aremorica was controlled by Bagaudae, local leaders not under the authority of the Empire . Aetius at least campaigned vigorously and mostly victoriously, defeating aggressive Visigoths, Franks, fresh Germanic invaders, Bagaudae in Aremorica, and a rebellion in Noricum . Not for the first time in Rome's history, a triumvirate of mutually distrustful rulers proved unstable . In 427 Felix tried to recall Boniface from Africa; he refused, and overcame Felix's invading force . Boniface probably recruited some Vandal troops among others . </P>

What problems led to the fall of the roman empire