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Justa Grata Honoria


Justa Grata Honoria, commonly referred to during her lifetime as Honoria, was the older sister of the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III — famous for her plea of love and help to Attila the Hun, which led to his proclamation of his claim to rule the Western Roman Empire.

Coins attest that she was granted the title of Augusta not long after the ascension of her brother in 426.

Honoria was the only daughter of later Emperor Constantius III and Galla Placidia. Her first two names were after her maternal aunts, Justa and Grata, the daughters of Valentinian I and Justina, and the third for the emperor who reigned at the time of her birth, her half-uncle Honorius. She had an older, maternal half-brother by the first marriage of Placidia to king Ataulf of the Visigoths, Theodosius, who was born in 414 but died early in the following year. Her younger brother, Valentinian III, was her full brother.

The historical record of most of her life is little more than brief mentions of or allusions to her presence. Oost notes that she accompanied her mother and younger brother as they set sail for Constantinople in Spring of 423, and that Honoria was with them when they joined the expeditionary force at Thessalonica in the Summer of 424 that would restore Galla Placidia and Valentinian to power in the West. She was included in mosaics of the Imperial family, now lost, at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme and in a church dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist in Ravenna. Last is Carmen I of Merobaudes written circa 443, although a fragmentary poem it clearly includes her in a description of the family of Valentinian III. These details have led Stewart Oost to observe that Honoria came to feel "that life had condemned her to a dull and impotent backwater."


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