Flavius Eugenius

Khairete!

Flavius Eugenius wearing imperial insigna, on a coin celebrating the VIRTVS ROMANORVM, the "(military) value of the Romans". (Image via Wikipedia)

Today I wanted to tell you a bit about this little know West-Roman Emperor, who ruled from 22 august 392 till 6 september 394 CE. Despite the fact he had no legal right to the throne whatsoever, he knew to ascend the throne against Theodosius II, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, who called him a usurper. He was the very last Roman Emperor to support traditional polytheism in his realm, although his own religious beliefs are unknown.

Flavius Eugenius started his career as a teacher of grammar and rhetoric, and politically he was Magister Scrinorum. He was an acquaintance of the Magister Militum of the Franks, Arbogast, who de facto ruled the Western Roman Empire. Arbogast may or may not have had a hand in the death of Valentinian II, Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, but in any case placed his friend Eugenius on the throne. This had the advantage that Eugenius, being a Roman, was bette replaced and more likely to be accepted by the people and senate of Rome, than he himself, being a Frank.

One of the first thing she did was replace several administrators that had been placed in their position by Theodosius II of the Eastern Empire, as he left the West to Valentinian II, to keep a firm grasp on the West. So senators loyal to Eugenius took their place. One of the greatest curiosities of his reign was that he was the last ruler to support polytheism. While he himself seems to have been at least nominally Christian (this is high unclear though), his supporters convinced him to spend public money to fund “pagan” temples and the like. He rededicated the Temple to Venus and Roma, and restored the Altar to Victory in the Curia of Milan. These “blasphemous” politics naturally created tension with Theodosius and the bishop of Milan, Ambrosius.

Together with Arbogast he renewed the bonds with both Franks and Alemanni, and pacified the Germanic tribes at the Rhine border. Despite his military successes, on the 6th of  september 394 CE, Theodosius defeated him at Frigidus (near the border of modern Italy and Slovenia). Eugenius had sought his support and recognition, but Theodosius refute whim and gathered an army. He named his son Honorius “Augustus” of the West. The battle lasted two days and sources state many strange astronomical and meteorological phenomena occurred. Upon Eugenius’ defeat, Arbogast committed suicide. Eugenius was convicted as a criminal, his decapitated head displayed on Theodosius’ camp.

Flavius Eugenius was the last chance pagans had to stop the christianisation of the Imperium Romanum, but ultimately he was defeated, and with him the last hope for polytheism in the Imperium was destroyed. Theodosius united the Empire, died a year later leaving it divided between his sons. The Empire never united again, and in 476 CE the Western Empire fell for good. The Eastern Empire survived until 1453, when the capital of Kōnstantinoúpolis fell to the Ottoman Turks and became Istanbul, the capital of the Islāmic Ottoman Empire.