Justa Grata Honoria was the sister of the western Roman emperor Valentinian III. Coins of her attest that she was granted the title of Augusta.

One of several striking examples, in which Late Antique history seems to abound, of strong women whose scope of action was restricted by her gender, she seems to have despised her brother for his weakness and lack of energy, and attempted to to make away with him using as an instrument her lover, the palace comptroller Eugenius. When found out, she was hurriedly betrothed to Flavius Bassus Herculanus, a senatorial nonentity: at which point she achieved her greatest notoriety, writing a letter to Attila the Hun in spring 450 asking him to save her from the unwanted marriage. Taking the letter — which came with her ring as proof it was sent by her — as a betrothal and thus an invitation to invade the Western Empire, using the letter as his excuse and "asking for half of the western Empire as dowry", Attila ravaged Gaul and Italy from 451 to 453.

When Valentinian discovered the plan, only the influence of their mother Galla Placidia convinced him to exile, rather than kill, Honoria.

The sources for Honoria's life are Merobaudes, Carmina, I; Priscus, fragments 2, 7, 8, De legibus gentium; John of Antioch, frag. 84 De insidiis; and Jordanes, Get. 223‑224, Rom. 328.

External link

• Capsule biography with photograph of a coin of hers (http://www.roman-emperors.org/justa.htm)