emperor of the West for one year (Hist. Eccl. 9.9.) Having become senator and praefect of the city at the time
of Alaric's second siege of Rome, he was, after the surrender of the place, declared emperor
by the Gothic king and his army, in the place of Honorius, and conducted by them in state to
Ravenna, where he sent an insulting message to Honorius, commanding him to vacate the throne,
amputate his extremities, and retire to a desolate island. (Philostorgius, 12.3.) But the
union of pride and folly which he had shewn in the first days of his reign, by proposing to
reannex Egypt and the East to the empire (Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. 9.8), and
later by adopting measures without Alaric's advice, induced the Gothic chief to depose him on
the plain of Ariminum. (Zosimus, 6.6-13.) After the death of Alaric, he remained in the camp
of Ataulphus, whom, as emperor, he had made count of the domestics, and whose nuptials with
Placidia he celebrated as a musician. He was again put forward by Ataulphus as a rival
emperor, during the insurrection of Jovinus, but on being abandoned by him (Olympiod. apud Phot. p. 58), was taken prisoner, and on being brought before the
tribunal of Honorius, was condemned to a sentence with which he had himself threatened
Honorius in his former prosperity, viz. the amputation of his thumb and forefinger, and
perpetual banishment to the island of Lipari,
There is in the British Museum a silver coin of this emperor, once in the collection of Cardinal Albano, and supposed to be unique. It is remarkable as exceeding in size all known ancient silver coins, and weighs about 1203 grains, and in the usual numismatic language would be represented by the number 13 3/4.
The obverse is, PRISCUS. ATTALVS. P. F. AUG., a protome of
Attalus, turned to the right, wearing a fillet ornamented with pearls round his forehead, and
the bulla.
The reverse is, INVICTA. ROMA. AETERNA. R. .M. Rome, helmeted and
draped to the feet, sitting right hand she holds a globe, on which a small
Victory is standing and holding in her right hand a crown and in her left a branch of palm;
the left rests upon a spear with a long iron head, and inverted.