Overview
Priscus Attalus was a Roman senator and urban prefect of Rome who was twice proclaimed emperor in the West in opposition to Honorius, in 409–410 and again in 414–415. On both occasions he was elevated with Visigothic support, first by Alaric I and then by Athaulf, and on both occasions his position depended on his patrons: Alaric deposed him when seeking a settlement with the court at Ravenna, and Athaulf's Visigoths abandoned him when the blockade of Gaul forced their withdrawal into Spain. Modern scholarship is divided over the first elevation, which has been read both as a nomination imposed by Alaric on a compliant senate and as the deliberate act of a senatorial majority that had come to prefer an alternative to Honorius.