Editing Galla Placidia (section)

==Family==
Placidia was the daughter of [[Theodosius I]] and his second wife, [[Galla (wife of Theodosius I)|Galla]],<ref>{{citation |author=Stewart Irvin Oost |title=Galla Placidia Augusta: A Biographical Essay |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1968}}, p. 47</ref> who was herself daughter of [[Valentinian I]] and his second wife, [[Justina (empress)|Justina]].<ref>Williams, Stephen. ''Theodosius: the Empire at Bay''. Routledge, 1994, p. 42</ref> Galla Placidia's date of birth is not recorded, but she must have been born either in the period 388–89 or 392–93.<ref>Sivan, Hagith. ''Galla Placidia: The Last Roman Empress''. Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 12</ref> Between these dates, her father was in Italy following his campaign against the usurper [[Magnus Maximus]], while her mother remained in [[Constantinople]].<ref>Williams (1994), p. 42</ref>

A surviving letter from Bishop [[Ambrose]] of Milan, dated 390, refers to a younger son of Theodosius named Gratianus, who died in infancy; as Gratian must have been born in the period 388–89, it is most probable that Galla Placidia was born during the second period, 392–93.<ref>Rebenich, S. "Gratian, a Son of Theodosius, and the Birth of Galla Placidia." ''[[Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte]]'' 34 (1985), 372–85</ref><ref>Doyle, Chris. ''Honorius: the Fight for the Roman West''. Routledge. 2017, p. 74</ref> Placidia's mother Galla died some time in 394, perhaps giving birth to a stillborn son.<ref>Sivan (2011), p. 12</ref>

Placidia was a younger, paternal half-sister of emperors [[Arcadius]] and [[Honorius (emperor)|Honorius]]. Her older half-sister [[Pulcheria (daughter of Theodosius I)|Pulcheria]] predeceased her parents according to [[Gregory of Nyssa]], placing the death of Pulcheria prior to the death of [[Aelia Flaccilla]], the first wife of Theodosius I, in 385.<ref>''[[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]]''</ref> Coins issued in Placidia's honour in Constantinople after 425 give her name as AELIA PLACIDIA; this may have been intended to integrate Placidia with the eastern dynasty of [[Theodosius II]].<ref>Oost (1968), p. 49</ref> There is no evidence that the name Aelia was ever used in the west, or that it formed part of Placidia's official nomenclature.<ref>Holum, Kenneth G. ''Theodosian empresses: women and imperial dominion in late antiquity''. University of California Press, 1982, p. 130</ref>