Hello, and welcome to the history of Rome, episode 159, The Divine Winds.

Last time, we left off on the eve of a great battle.

In the late summer 394, the army of Theodotus entered the Alpine passes, and the army of

Arbigost and Eugenius set a few miles east of Aquileia waiting for them to emerge from

the mountains.

Today, we'll get into the guts of the battle that is about to ensue, and then get into

the guts of what happened next.

Since he was just 47 years old, you would think that what happened next was another 15 odd

years of solid rule from Theodotus before he handed the reins of power off to his two

now-grown and groomed sons.

But instead, less than six months after his great victory at the frigidest river, Theodotus

was dead, and the Empire was forced to hand the reins of power to the dead Emperor still

under age, and not at all properly groomed sons.

With no shortage of powerful and ambitious men more than willing to exploit the deficiencies

of the inadequate Brother Emperors, Theodotus's early demise turned out to be one of the more

destabilizing events in an era absolutely rife with destabilizing events.

But before we get into that, we must turn our attention to Theodotus' last great triumph,

a triumph that will eventually be painted as nothing less than proof that the Christian

God was more powerful than all the pagan gods put together.

Adding to the notion that the coming battle was some kind of religious showdown, when

Arbagost and Eugenius arrived at the spot they had chosen to meet Theodotus, they

planted a statue of Jupiter on the field and then affixed images of Hercules to the banners

...