Galla Placidia

c.390-450. Roman empress. Daughter of Theodosius I by his second wife Galla, she was captured by Alaric in 410 and married Alaric's successor, Ataulf, at Narbonne in 414. On Ataulf's death she returned to Italy, and in 417 married Constantius. When he died in 421, she retired to Constantinople, but when her brother Honorius died in 423, Theodosius II recognized her son Valentinian III as Honorius's successor and she returned to the West, establishing her court at Ravenna. An uncompromising Catholic, her influence may be seen in the edicts against all “Manicheans, heretics, and schismatics, and every sect opposed to the Catholic faith.” She also supported Leo against the Council of Ephesus in 449. She died shortly after this council and was buried at Ravenna.