Honorius was the son of the Emperor Theodosius I and Aelia Flaccilla, and was raised to be co-emperor with his father Theodosius and brother Arcadius in 393. When Theodosius died in 395, he divided the Empire in half, making his older son, Arcadius, emperor of the east, and his younger son, Honorius, emperor of the west. Honorius based his Western Roman capital not in Rome, but first in Milan, then, more permanently, in Ravenna, a marshy, defensible city in north-eastern Italy. When Alaric the Goth sacked Rome in 410, hostile attitudes towards the Emperor, not improved by his closeness to the 'mixobarbaros' general, Stilicho, Honorius's father-in-law. In many modern narratives, Honorius is portrayed as a weak emperor, cowering in Ravenna, not dealing with the 'barbarians' invading the empire, though he did come the the throne at the age of ten, and Stilicho was an advisor to Theodosius I (a well-remembered emperor) as well as to Honorius, who is demonised because of the association.

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