Editing Honorius (section)

==Assessments==
[[File:John Williams Waterhouse - The Favourites of the Emperor Honorius (1883).jpg|right|thumb|300x300px|''[[The Favourites of the Emperor Honorius]]'', by [[John William Waterhouse]], 1883]]
In his ''History of the Wars'', [[Procopius]] mentions a likely apocryphal story where, on hearing the news that Rome had "perished", Honorius was initially shocked, thinking the news was in reference to a favourite [[chicken]] he had named "Roma".
<blockquote>At that time they say that the Emperor Honorius in Ravenna received the message from one of the eunuchs, evidently a keeper of the poultry, that Rome had perished. And he cried out and said, 'And yet it has just eaten from my hands!' For he had a very large cock, Rome by name; and the eunuch comprehending his words said that it was the city of Rome which had perished at the hands of Alaric, and the emperor with a sigh of relief answered quickly: 'But I thought that my fowl Rome had perished.' So great, they say, was the folly with which this emperor was possessed.<br/>
—Procopius, ''The Vandalic War'' ([https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/ancient/410alaric.asp III.2.25–26])</blockquote>While the tale is discounted as a rumour by more recent historians like [[Edward Gibbon]], it is useful in understanding Roman public opinion towards Honorius.<ref>Edward Gibbon, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' Volume 3 (Harrison and Sons, 1854), p. 460.</ref>

Honorius was negatively assessed by some 19th and 20th century historians, including [[J.B. Bury]].<ref name=BuryChicago>Summarising Procopius's account of Honorius's reign, wrote: "His name would be forgotten among the obscurest occupants of the Imperial throne were it not that his reign coincided with the fatal period in which it was decided that western Europe was to pass from the Roman to the Teuton." After listing the disasters of those 28 years, Bury concluded: "[Honorius] himself did nothing of note against the enemies who infested his realm, but personally he was extraordinarily fortunate in occupying the throne till he died a natural death and witnessing the destruction of the multitude of tyrants who rose up against him."[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/BURLAT/6*.html#5 John Bagnall Bury, ''History of the Later Roman Empire'', 1923] (New York: Dover, 1958), p. 213</ref>

Honorius issued a decree during his reign, prohibiting men from wearing [[trousers]] in Rome.<ref>Codex Theodosianus 14.10.2–3, tr. C. Pharr, "The Theodosian Code," p.&nbsp;415.</ref> The last known [[gladiator]]ial games took place during the reign of Honorius,<ref>[http://www.tribunesandtriumphs.org/roman-emperors/honorius.htm "The Reign of Honorius – Telemachus and the End of the Gladiators"] by Linda Alchin, "Honorius", 5 March 2015, retrieved 12 October 2016</ref> who banned the practice in 399 and again in 404, reportedly due to the martyrdom of a Christian monk named [[Saint Telemachus|Telemachus]] while he was protesting a gladiator fight.