Pope Leo the Great

Rome Imploding. The western Roman Empire^[1] in the fifth century was a shell of the Empire’s former greatness. Corruption filled the government, which taxed its citizens so heavily that some fled beyond the Empire’s borders to live among the so-called barbarians. Rome’s economy—dependent for so long on the wealth of its conquered territories—was being bankrupted by the gradual loss of those possessions. The use of mercenaries had debilitated the once-invincible Roman Army. Rome frequently sought peace through gold rather than by military might, paying some of the barbarian leaders to remain outside the Empire’s borders. In the fifth century, this sorry state of affairs unraveled.

In 406 the Vandals invaded Gaul (France)—plundering its wealth, burning its cities, and murdering many of its inhabitants. They moved on to Spain in 409, and north Africa in about 420, ultimately sacking Carthage in 439.[2] Meanwhile, the Visigoths invaded Italy in 408, led by their king, Alaric. Two years later, the Visigoths sacked Rome itself. But yet to come was the most frightening barbarian of all.

Attila the Hun. Attila became the sole ruler of the Huns^[3] in 444. He was the most powerful—and the most feared—man in Europe at that time. Stories of his cruelty were so frightening that Christians called him the “scourge of God.” Both the eastern and western branches of the Roman Empire paid him tribute to keep him from attacking. But when the emperor in the west, Valentinian III,^[4] stopped paying tribute in about 450, Attila invaded Gaul with an army of 500,000 men. Only the combined armies of Rome and the Visigoths stopped his advance, achieving a draw against him in one of the deadliest battles in history, on the Catalaunian Fields. Having been stalemated in Gaul, Attila invaded Italy in 452. He destroyed the city of Aquileia, captured Verona, collected tribute from Milan, and advanced on Rome. No army remained in his way—only a pope. . . .

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[1]. Beginning at least as early as the Roman Emperor Valerian (ruled 253-260), many of the Emperors found it useful to divide responsibility for governing the Empire. Valerian appointed his son, Gallienus, to rule in the West, while keeping the East for himself. While Diocletian reigned in the East (284-305), one of his generals, Maximian, was in charge in the West. By the time of Pope Leo, these two halves of the Empire had become essentially independent of one another.

[2]. I also discuss the Vandals in Chapter 4, and especially in endnote 16 thereof.

[3]. The Huns originally migrated from Mongolia and eastern Russia in about the third century. By 375 they had crossed the Volga River (which flows into the Caspian Sea) into western Russia. In Attila’s time, the Huns were established in Hungary and Germany, on the borders of the Empire, and had subordinated most of the Germanic peoples under their rule.

[4]. Valentinian III was the Western Roman Emperor from 425 to 455.