Ever since the Romans were anounced for AOE2, was the question of who exactly were they supposed to be. We can take a good guess with AI player names. Here is the list of names I saw in various videos :
Anthemius : roman western emperor, reigned 467-472
Arbogast : frankish magister militum, died in 394
Avitus : roman western emperor, reigned 455-456
Flavius Aetius : western magister militum, died in 454
Galla Placidia : dowager empress, died in 450
Honorius : roman western emperor, reigned 393-423
Majorian : roman western emperor, reigned 457-461
Odoacer : king of Italy after deposing Romulus Augustulus, reigned 476-493
Pope Leo I : pope 440-461
Ricimer : western magister militum, died in 472
Romulus Augustulus : last western emperor, reigned 475-476
Stilicho : roman general, died in 408
Theodosius I : last unified roman emperor, reigned 379-395
Valentinian III : roman western emperor, reigned 425-455
Might have missed some but we have a pretty good sample. The Romans cover the Western Roman Empire (395-475), with some extensions like Odoacer’s kingdom (that would quickly fall to Theodoric the Ostrogoth).
I thought the Romans would start earlier, with Constantine or Diocletian, but the devs apparently make them start when Theodosius split the Empire between his two sons : Arcadius (East) and Honorius (West).
Before 476 there were two Emperors called Constantine who ruled an unified Empire and one who ruled the West. I say this because there is also an Emperor Constantine in the Byzantines leaders list. However, there were a lot of Constantines in the East
They say “pope” as around the same time, an Eastern Emperor is called Leo too. Thus, avoiding any confusion.
Leo the Great sure was “only” the Pope but he famously convinced Attila to turn back instead of marching on Rome. Which is more than many could have done with a legion.
"It ain’t about how hard your legions hit barbarians. It’s about how hard you can get hit by barbarians and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep the Empire moving forward. That’s how winning is done!” - Constantine the Great
Might be, it could also be supplies, it could also be Attila realising the walls of Rome were too large for him to take the city, or fearing that if he goes too far south a roman army would have the time to arrive and blocked his retreat, forcing a costly battle to escape as was the case the year before at Châlons… but I like a good story. Logistics is how you win wars but it’s not how you write something epic.
I think is lame that we ddin’t get a Roman campaign for AOE 2, Aetius is the best option because he appears in Attila so a campaign about him to connect with Attila was the way.
Majorian would be a much better option. But the first scenario could be following Aetius, only for Majorian to take power for himself as Aetius was quickly assassinated then Rome sacked by the Vandals.
Sadly the developers forgot two men who were the leader of the Kingdom of Soisson, an roman enclave in northern Gaul. This kingdom was like the Trebizond empire for the Byzantine, a rump state who survive for little years his fallen empire.
The first leader was Aegidius
The second was Syagrius, Aegidius’s son, beaten by Clovis in 486