| Stewart Irvin Oost, Galla Placidia Augusta: A Biographical Essay (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1968), pp. 73-4. What Placidia thought of the situation we cannot know; there is no reason to believe that she looked with favor upon a life of Christian virginity and retirement; most young girls wish to be married when their contemporaries are. It is not unlikely that she resented the situation, and that she also was irritated by being kept in the background while the less exalted family of Stilicho was preferred to her in the limelight. This visit of the court to Rome beheld a clear example of the power and majesty of Serena, who was less closely connected with the imperial house than Placidia, and whom the latter quite likely secretly detested. In the summer of 404 Melania and Pinianus, a young married couple, sought and obtained an interview with Serena. The two young people, wishing to lead a life of Christian poverty and consecrate themselves to God, desired to sell all they had and give the proceeds to the poor. But both of them belonged to the most wealthy and exalted circles of the Roman aristocracy, and their relatives were much opposed to their literal interpretation of the injunction of Christ. Yet Serena, they thought, would be able by her power and influence to override family opposition, and so it turned out. Serena was able to persuade Honorius o interpose his authority in favor of the two. But the entire account of this transaction is evidence of the power and splendor, who is referred to as empress (basilissa, regina); although the title is technically incorrect, in every way her power and magnificence reflect the majesty of the imperial court. She has her own chamberlain, for example, for whom as well as for Serena the young couple thought it wise to bring rich presents. Serena's intervention of course springs from her Christian piety. It is difficult to avoid the impression that Serena, niece of Theodosius, has put his daughter quite in the background and out of countenance, and that the increasing dislike for her that Placidia was presumably coming to feel was probably in part caused by sheer jealousy. |
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