Arcadius I (Emperor Of The Eastern Roman Empire - 395-408)

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Aradius (c. 377-408), Eastern Roman emperor conjointly with his father,Theodosius I, from 383 to 395, then solely til 402, when he associatedhis son Theodosius II with his own rule. Frail and ineffectual, he wasdominated by his minsters, Rufinus, Eutropius, and Anthemius. His empirewas a prey to the Goths, and his consort Eudoxia abetted the persecutionof the patriarch St. John Chrysostom. [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1995]

From Geoffrey S. Nathan, University of California at Los Angeles:

Introduction and Early Life - The ineffectual life and reign of FlaviusArcadius are of considerably less importance than the quite significantdevelopments that occurred during his reign. Born either in 377 or 378 tothen general Theodosius and Aelia Flavia Flacilla, he and his youngerbrother, Honorius, ruled the eastern and western halves of the RomanEmpire respectively from 395.

Shortly after his birth, his father was raised to the imperial purple in379. Events in Illyricum with the massive influx of Ostrogothic andVisigothic peoples had resulted in the defeat of the Roman army and thedeath of the emperor, Valens. Theodosius' first task was to confront theVisigoths who had been ravaging the Balkans. Perhaps in the wake of thisdifficult and almost insurmountable task, the emperor wanted to insurethat his infant son would bear some legitimacy should he die on campaign.Whatever the reason, Arcadius was proclaimed Augustus in January of 383at the age of five or six. In the following year, his younger brother wasborn and it seems as if Theodosius initially had been interested inpreserving the theoretical position of his elder son. While Arcadiusenjoyed the status of Augustus, Honorius only achieved the office ofconsul posterior in 386. Perhaps the eastern emperor had wanted to avoidthe possible conflicts that arose earlier in the century with the familyof Constantine. Recent events in the west with the assassination ofGratian by Magnus Maximus may have also played a part: Theodosiusinitially had to leave the murder of his imperial colleague unavenged andleave the boy- emperor, Valentinian II, largely undefended. The profusionof emperors may well have been seen by Theodosius as kindling for civilwar. His own autocratic tendencies may have also meant that he saw onlyone possible successor for himself.

Nevertheless, Theodosius gave Arcadius very little independence in earlylife. When he went to campaign against Magnus in the late 380's, heplaced his son under the Praetorian Prefect of the East, Tatian, who wasthe de facto emperor in Theodosius' absence. This began a long series ofregencies for Arcadius. The strength of Tatian's position with theeastern governing class made the office of Praetorian Prefect all themore powerful in Constantinople, which in turn made it easier to dominatefuture emperors. When Theodosius replaced Tatian with the more malleableand more ambitious Rufinus in 392, he had appointed a minister who wouldcentralize even greater authority under the prefecture.

By 393, the emperor's situation had changed radically. When events in thewest demanded his attention again, Theodosius was in a much strongerposition. The ascendancy of the general, Arbogast, and his own puppetemperor, Eugenius, in the west provided Theodosius an opportunity and,indeed, the obligation to take full control of the Empire. The chance forhaving his own two sons ruling both halves of Rome not only seemedpractical and feasible, but such an arrangement would establish himselfas the head of a new dynasty. With thoughts in that direction, Honoriuswas made Augustus in 393 and accompanied his father west in the summer of394. Arcadius, although near his majority, was nevertheless placed againunder the guardianship (epitropos) of the Prefect of the East. In Januaryof 395, Theodosius the Great died and his two sons took theoreticalcontrol of the two halves of the Roman Empire.

Early Reign and the Dominance of Rufinus and Eutropius (395-399) -Arcadius was eighteen when he assumed the throne in the east. We do notknow whether or not he was ready for the responsibilities. During themid-380's, the young emperor had been educated in part by Themistius, afamous pagan statesman, philosopher, and speaker. In what way he affectedArcadius is impossible to say, but surely his teachings must haveincluded statecraft. Perhaps because of this influence, the new emperor'sattempt to establish himself as an independent force can be seen in aseries of laws passed at his accession. In contrast to trying to create amilitary image for himself, which would not be allowed either by Rufinusor by the eastern court, he attempted to portray himself as a piousChristian emperor. He enacted several comprehensive laws against heresyand paganism.

This was not necessarily an ineffectual strategy. By celebrating hisreligious piety, he expressed his power in the only way available to anemperor largely controlled by his ministers. He also perhaps sought togain support and power from the local governing and religious hierarchiesin Constantinople. Arcadius also perhaps thought that he was carrying onin the tradition of his father and so, by extension, might share in someof his glory. Rufinus in contrast wanted to tie himself to the emperorthrough a marriage connection to his daughter. But in April of 395,Arcadius had taken advantage of the Prefect's temporary absence to marryAelia Eudoxia, whose guardian, the general, Promotus, had been a bitterenemy of Rufinus. Arcadius had been aided in this move by his own grandchamberlain (praepositus sacri cubiculi), Eutropius, and it perhapsindicated the degree to which he wanted to be free of any regent.

But in reality, Arcadius gained little if any power. Rufinus assumed fullcontrol of the east, and the Vandal Stilicho, Theodosius' closest advisorand general, took control of Honorius in the west. The tension betweeneast and west quickly grew when Stilicho, in command of all the easternand western armies, tried to press his guardianship over Arcadius aswell. Moreover, there was considerable resentment against Rufinus in theeast for using his office to greatly enrich himself and perhaps, too,because he was a westerner. Rufinus, understanding the perils around him,acted quickly. He had Arcadius demand the return of the eastern armies atonce. Stilicho acquiesced, perhaps because the general was basing hisclaim of guardianship on his own legitimacy: to have taken control of theeast and Arcadius by force would have undermined his position there andperhaps in the west. The soldiers returned under the command of theGothic general, Gainas. With the control of the field army, it seemed asif Rufinus was going to be more thoroughly in control of the east andover Arcadius.

He did not long enjoy his victory. When Arcadius and Rufinus came togreet the armies at Hebdoman near Constantinople in November of 395, thesoldiers turned on the Praetorian Prefect and cut him down in front ofthe emperor. Whether Stilicho instigated the assassination is a matter ofsome debate, but if he did, he received no benefit from it. The armiesremained and Arcadius soon fell under the sway of other ministers.Nevertheless, despite the shock and fear Arcadius may have felt atwitnessing such a brutal murder, he probably missed Rufinus' presence notat all and even thought it might provide an opportunity to assert his ownauthority. For the bureaucracy, the death meant that maintaining civiliancontrol over the army was paramount to their own survival.

Soon thereafter, Eutropius assumed Rufinus' place in dominating Arcadius.Since the grand chamberlain could control access to the emperor andcommanded the powerful palace bureaucracy, he was well-placed to dictatewhat and whom the emperor saw and heard. Military officers--frequentlyGermanic--who dominated the western government, were held suspect byfearful and jealous civil administrators in Constantinople. Eutropiusused that fear to his advantage and froze out any access they may havehad to the circles of power. His decision to effectively eliminate themilitary's input in decision-making would eventually lead to his demise.

It is difficult to determine how popular Eutropius was either withArcadius or with the wider population. As a eunuch and a former slave,the sources generally portray him very negatively. He nevertheless seemsto have enjoyed some support from the emperor, likely aided by Eudoxiawith whom the grand chamberlain had close ties. The emperor happily tookannual vacations in Galatia, apparently upon the Eutropius' suggestion.Moreover, the chamberlain showed great personal courage and talent inleading a campaign against invading Huns in 397/8, for which he won theconsulship and the rank of patrician in the following year of 399. Healso seems to have gained considerable support from the local clergy byprocuring the patriarchate of Constantinople in 398 for John Chrysostom.

Despite Eutropius' rise to power, however, eastern policy changed little.The religious policies of Theodosius and Arcadius continued, includingthe forced closure of pagan temples in Gaza. More significantly, tensionbetween the two halves of the empire persisted as Stilicho continued topress for his position as guardian. Although Stilicho led periodic raidsinto Greece and Thrace to attack the new Visigothic king, Alaric, hisvictories were incomplete and were more likely meant to keep the Germanicpeople out of western territory. This meant, among other things, that theVisigoths were an enduring problem for the east. Eutropius in turnsupported the revolt of the Count Gildo in Africa, which was underwestern control, in an attempt to destabilize Stilicho's control andfurther eastern domains.

The failure of the revolt in 398 was the first step in Eutropius'downfall. The decision to exclude the military men of the period,particularly among the growing importance of Germanic officers, created adangerous situation. By 399, the dissatisfaction with east-west affairsand the Gildo fiasco resulted in a revolt by the Gothic count, Tribigild.He was apparently in collusion with Gainas, who had taken advantage ofthe crisis to be named chief general in the east (magister utriusquemilitiae). Gainas quickly reached an agreement with the rebel and part ofthe settlement was the dismissal of Eutropius, to which Arcadius--atEudoxia's urging--agreed. The chamberlain took refuge in the HagiaSophia, and was exiled to Cyprus. But shortly thereafter, in the autumnof 399, Eutropius was recalled, tried and executed in Chalcedon.

The Age of Eudoxia (400-404)- The death of Eutropius precipitated aserious crisis. Gainas, who had wanted high office for years, now triedto force the hand of Arcadius. Having come to a quick resolution withTribigild, he moved from Thrace towards Constantinople in 400. With theGermanic troops supporting him, Gainas tried for six months to initiatehis own primacy-- including seizing the imperial palace--but whichfailed. He was forced to withdraw personally from the city to regroup andplanned to use his troops remaining there to seize the entire city. Butthey were slaughtered by the inhabitiants and he fled first to Thrace andthen to Asia. Eventually Gainas was killed by the Huns later in thatyear. His attempted coup ensured that Germanic officers would never againbe trusted by the eastern government and would forever be kept out of anyimportant decision-making roles.

The likely successor to Eutropius had been the anti-Germanic leader,Aurelianus, who had succeeded to the Prefecture of the East in 399. ButGainas had exiled him, having forced Arcadius to hand him over, andalthough Aurelianus returned triumphantly after Gainas' departure, heappears to have lost his hold over the emperor. In the meantime, AeliaEudoxia had done much to forward her own place in the government. InJanuary of 400, she had been named Augusta, a singular distinctionoffered to only three other women in the previous century. Her positionthus gained a semi-official legitimacy afforded to very few Romanempresses. It has been assumed that because of her beauty, herintelligence, and her fecundity (she bore Arcadius five children), shewas able to assert her influence to a point where she was the new powerbehind the throne.

That assessment, while held by many scholars, is not entirely accurate.While there were several events in which she played a crucial part, theywere not terribly important moments during Arcadius' reign. But becauseEudoxia was enormously wealthy, because she delivered a male heir in 401,and because she was involved in a highly publicized and drawn outpolitical fight with John Chrysostom, this belief that there was anassumption of power is based more on the notoriety of her acts than onactual control. The fact that there was no one clearly dominating thegovernment nor the emperor during this time implies perhaps that Arcadiushad more power during these five years of his reign than at any othertime.

There are several indications that he did try to improve and assert hisown position. The emperor and his court immediately came to someunderstanding with the west. The east at the very least gave Honorius andStilicho moral support in their increasing problems with Alaric. In 402,the feeling of goodwill was sealed by a joint consulship between Arcadiusand his brother. The emperor also sought to establish his own militaryprowess and Christian piety with the erection of a column set up in theHippodrome of Constantinople in 402/3. The column depicted his militaryvictory over Gainas, crowned with a capital emblazoned with the Greekletters chi-rho, symbolizing his devotion to Christ. Arcadius' son,Theodosius II, was born in 401, and was quickly made Augustus at the ageof eight months. The eastern ruler was thus interested in assuring hisown dynasty.

In all these things, the emperor was largely successful, but they werelargely overshadowed by the feud between his empress and the bishop ofConstantinople. Eudoxia had already shown herself able in pushing herinterests during the baptism of her son. The Bishop of Constantinople,however, was a much tougher opponent than her husband. John Chrysostom, astrong believer in social justice, had boorishly attacked Eudoxia andmany of her friends for the conspicuous luxury in which they lived anddisplayed themselves. At the height of these attacks, John compared theempress to Jezebel. Eudoxia in turn used her considerable influence toinflame hostility among the clergy against the bishop. Working throughBishop Theophilus of Alexandria, in 403 Chrysostom was deposed and forcedinto exile at a Church council convened by the emperor (the Synod of theOak at Chalcedon). However, there was soon such turmoil and uproar in theimperial city that the bishop was recalled a few days later. But thepublic feuding between Eudoxia and Chrysostom continued until at last shehad him banished again in 404, this time permanently. Among other things,it caused a breach between Arcadius and his brother, who had, with PopeInnocent I, tried to support Chrysostom.

Eudoxia's victory was short-lived, however. In October of 404, theAugusta died of a miscarriage. Her death was seen by some as retributionfor dismissing John. Whatever the reason, her end also signaled acomplete retreat into the background by the emperor and no furtherinitiatives seem to have been pushed by the 27-year-old Augustus.

The Final Years: Anthemius and Death (404-408)- The last years ofArcadius' reign were completely dominated by his Praetorian Prefect ofthe East, Anthemius. It was perhaps fitting that when the emperor seemsto have been most retiring, the most able and energetic of his highministers came to power. Anthemius worked hard to solve a series ofgovernmental abuses, continue to push for Christianization, and securethe east from attack.

Anthemius first seems to have tried to reconcile with the west, so muchso that there was a joint consulship between Anthemius and Stilicho in405. This might have also been meant to symbolize the Prefect's newdominance, however. Additionally, a number of new laws were passed,curtailing paganism, Judaism and heresy. He tried to make use of thecontinuing problem of incoming Germanic peoples to combat the Isauriantribes which had been plaguing Asia Minor since 403. While it failed tohalt either group's incursions, it was nevertheless a practical andintelligent strategy. As a means of protecting the imperial capital,Anthemius also strengthened the walls around Constantinople. Our recordsfor the last years of Arcadius' rule are quite spotty, but the emperorhimself seems to have completely vanished, even symbolically, from thepolitical scene.

In May of 408, Flavius Arcadius died at the age of 31 of unknown causes.Our only physical description of Arcadius is heavily influenced by thegenerally low regard in which he was held. The emperor was supposedlyshort, thin and dark-complected. A more kindly correspondent describedhim as good-natured and temperate. His son succeeded him without anycontroversy and the government remained unchanged. Arcadius thus left theworld much as he entered it: without much significance and overshadowedby more powerful forces.

Assessment - Despite the ineffectual nature of Arcadius and his rule, anumber of significant changes occurred during his stewardship of theeastern empire. His inability to forcefully or at least effectivelygovern meant that there were few consistent or long-range goals of hisadministration. With the exception of trying to emphasize the emperor'spiety, an important development in the history of the Byzantine monarchy,Arcadius and his ministers were for the most part simply reacting toevents.

The emperor became an even more remote figure to the general public. Evenin the capital city itself, he was rarely seen: we read in one accountthat people came running to see the emperor for the first time when hehappened to be praying in a local church. A series of "orientalizing"court practices no doubt continued in order to emphasize the symbolicseparation of the emperor from the rest of society. The hieratic, almostsemi- divine nature of the imperial person, also became a feature of theeastern ruler.

Perhaps of greatest importance was the political and cultural splitbetween east and west. With the death of Theodosius, the two halves ofthe Roman Empire increasingly went their separate ways. For the mostpart, the west was thrown back upon its own resources, unable to dealwith the problems of the fifth century. The east proved more compact andmore resilient: it largely weathered the political storms from withoutand within.

Moreover, Constantinople fully became the imperial capital of the east, aRoma nova. The emperor rarely left the city and the palace officialsbecame more influential than many of the more theoretically importantministers outside the city. Constantinople was also made anarchepiscopate and Chrysostom and others started to push strongly for itsprimacy in the east. Both public and private building projects beautifiedand enlarged the city. Under Arcadius' reign, it truly became the secondcity of the Roman Empire.

Finally, the hard stance against Germanic officers in Roman governmentbecame a central feature in the east. While the reasons for thisdevelopment were inspired largely out of fear and perhaps racism, theeastern Roman Empire did manage to avoid the largely detrimentalsuccession of Germanic generalissimos who controlled the west in thefifth century. It also encouraged the eastern rulers in the followingcentury to take hard lines against other peoples, including theIsaurians, the Huns and the Persians. Taken in all, the era of Arcadiuswas far more important than Arcadius himself. He perhaps had his father'spretensions, but none of the skills or powers necessary to leave his markon the Empire.

Sources and Bibliography -
There are a number of sources that treat the age of Arcadius. Thehistorians Zosimus (New History), Socrates (Ecclesiastical History) andSozomon (Ecclesiastical History) offer the most complete accounts.Additionally, Bishop Synesius of Cyrene in letters and other works (Onthe Kingship and On Providence) specifically addresses a number of theproblems and issues going on in Constantinople and the imperial court atthat time. The letters and homilies of John Chrysostom are also ofenormous value and tell us more about the social history of the capitalthan any other source. Minor accounts include the Chronicon Paschale andthe Chronicle of Marcellinus Comes. Several important saints' lives,including the Life of Porphyry, provide valuable information about eventsoutside the capital. Finally, for the military and political organizationof the Roman Empire, the Notitia Dignitatum offers a static look at theearly fifth century.

Cameron, Alan, and Long, Jacqueline (1993) Barbarians and Politics at theCourt of Arcadius (Berkeley).
Demougeot, Emilienne (1951), De l'unit?? ? la division de l'empireromain, 395-410: Essai sur la government imp?rial (Paris).
Holum, Kenneth (1982), Theodosian Empresses (Berkeley).
Jones, A.H.M. et al. (1970), The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire,vol. 1 (Cambridge).
Liebeschuetz, J.H.W.G. (1991), Barbarians and Bishops. Army, Church, andState in the Age of Arcadius and Chrysostom (Oxford).
Martindale, J.R. (1980), The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire,vol. 2 (Cambridge).
Seeck, Otto (1896), "Arcadius," in RE, v. 2 (Berlin), 1137-53.
Van Ommeslaeghe, F. (1979) "Jean Chrysostome en conflit avecl'imp?ratrice Eudoxie," Analecta Bollandiana 97, 131-59.

Copyright (C) 1998, Geoffrey S. Nathan. This file may be copied on thecondition that the entire contents, including the header and thiscopyright notice, remain intact.

Arcadius married ?lia Eudoxia Of The Eastern Roman Empire on 27 Apr 395. ?lia (daughter of Bauto Of The Franks (Roman Consul)) was born in 377 in Frankish Gaul; died on 6 Oct 404. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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Pulcheria was the daughter of the Eastern Roman Emperor Arcadius and wifeof the Eastern Roman Emperor Marcian.

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• RULED: 408-450
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Theodosius II (b. 10 April 401, Constantinople [now Istanbul, Turkey] -d. 28 July 450), Eastern Roman emperor from 408 to 450. He was a gentle,scholarly, easily dominated man who allowed his government to be run by asuccession of relatives and ministers.

The son of the Eastern emperor Arcadius (reigned 383-408), he was madeco-emperor in 402 and became sole ruler of the East upon his father'sdeath in 408. At first the able Anthemius, praetorian prefect of theEast, was regent for young Theodosius. Anethemius dropped out of sight in414, when the emperor's sister, Pulcheria received the title augusta andassumed the regency. Throughout his reign, control of the governmentremained out of Theodosius' hands.

At various times during his reign, Theodosius sent armies against theVandals of Africa, the Persians, and the Huns. His generals defeatedPersian (Sasanian) invaders in 422 and 447, but campaigns against theVandals, who had occupied most of Roman Africa in 429, ended in failure.Theodosius' policy of appeasing the mighty Hun leader Attila did notprevent massive Hun invasions of the Danube provinces in 441-442 and 447.His reign was also troubled by a dispute over the heretical doctrines ofNestorius, whom Theodosius appointed patriarch of Constantinople in 428.Nesorius was deposed by a church council in 431.

Theodosius' name is associated with three important projects. The first,erection of an impregnable wall around Constantinople (413), was actuallythe work of Anthemius. The emperor did, however, have a hand in foundingthe University of Constantinople in 425 and in supervising compilation ofthe Theodosian Code (published 438), which codified the laws issued after312. Theodosius died from injuries suffered during a hunting accident.His daughter Licinia Eudoxia married the Western Roman emperorValentinian III (reigned 425-455). [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1995]

From Geoffrey S. Nathan, University of California- Los Angeles:

Early Life and Reign - Theodosius II was born to the eastern emperorArcadius and the empress Aelia Eudoxia in April of 401. As Eudoxia hadproduced three girls prior to this time, Theodosius' birth was receivedwith considerable excitement, both by his family and by the broaderpopulation of Constantinople. He was baptized and crowned Augustus inJanuary of the following year to enthusiastic crowds. Unlike hisfather, about whose early life we know practically nothing, Theodosius'youth is well-attested and it was spent preparing him for his futureimperial duties. From what we can tell of his education, the youngemperor was not trained to be the passive figurehead his father largelywas.

He began, as did most upper class youths, in the cursus of classicaleducation, with grammarians and later rhetoricians. He was apparentlybilingual and showed a thirst for learning. The young emperorparticularly enjoyed editing and correcting manuscripts. As he grew olderand succeeded his father as sole ruler of the east in 408, Theodosius wasinstructed in the more martial skills of horsemanship, swordplay andperhaps other military arts as well. His eldest sister, Pulcheria, whowould gain great importance after the end of Anthemius' career, oversawhis moral education: orthodoxy, philanthropy and asceticism were all partof the curriculum. Pulcheria also taught Theodosius the subtleties ofbeing emperor: how to physically comport oneself, how to control emotion,and how to deal with ministers and aides. Given his sister's piety, it isprobable that the young man was also kept isolated from women.Theodosius' education, in sum, was training for an active, involvedChristian emperor.

But like his father before him and his uncle Honorius in the west,Theodosius' youth at accession meant that he would be unable to evereffectively assert himself later in his reign. The Persian King,Isdigerdes, had briefly inserted himself into Roman affairs bythreatening war if any but Theodosius succeeded his father, a planapparently devised by Arcadius. The young Augustus was quickly accepted,but the Praetorian Prefect, Anthemius, continued to dominate politicalaffairs as he had in the last years of Arcadius' reign. In part dueto the acceptance of Isdigerdes' role as guardian, Rome and Persiaremained at peace until the Great King's death in 421.

Anthemius meanwhile continued his work at mending fences with the west.When the western generalissimo, Stilicho, was assassinated, relationsbetween the two halves of the empire improved considerably. Honorius andTheodosius shared the consulship in 409 and Constantinople even sent4,000 troops to help guard Ravenna and Honorius against theVisigoths. While this gesture proved fruitless, the east and westnow worked more closely than they had since the death of Theodosius I.

Anthemius also set about making Constantinople more defensible. In 413,he completed a circuit wall that enclosed most of the city andestablished a crucial water supply. Events since the 370s had proved thehinterlands unsafe: Illyricum, Thrace and other Balkan provinces had beenrepeatedly overrun by Germanic and Hunnic peoples. Indeed, as recently as408, the city had been threatened by a group of Huns under the leadershipof Uldin. He had been defeated, but the memory of that and other raidsspurred Anthemius' building projects.

After 414, however, Anthemius fell off the political map and we canassume that he died. It is possible, however, that Theodosius dismissedthe Prefect. If that is the case, it perhaps indicates the degree towhich new powers at court now gained influence over the emperor. Theyoung man increasingly came under the control of Pulcheria, who began toinsert herself into public life. Whatever the reason, by mid-414,the young woman had risen to dominate the still underaged emperor.

The Regency of Pulcheria - Edward Gibbon once wrote of Pulcheria: "shealone, among all the descendants of the great Theodosius (I), appears tohave inherited any share of his manly spirit and abilities." Evenbefore she took full control of her younger brother, she had shownherself a powerful force: in 412, at the age of 15, she had convincedTheodosius to dismiss the chamberlain (praepositus), Antiochus, who hadbeen overseeing the imperial household since the days of Arcadius. In thefollowing year, Pulcheria had consecrated herself to perpetual virginityand likewise exhorted her two sisters to do the same. It was a vow shewould not break, even when she married the emperor, Marcian, thirty-sevenyears later. More immediately, however, it gave her enormous moralauthority to oversee the upbringing and education of the young emperor.

No sooner had Anthemius disappeared than Pulcheria completed herascendancy by having herself made Augusta in July of 414. She may havegotten help from Aurelian, who was named Praetorian Prefect of the eastshortly thereafter. With or without his help, the young woman's bidwas successful. So that there be no question of her authority, anofficial portrait in Constantinople was dedicated in the following year,depicting Honorius, Theodosius II and Pulcheria. And by denying hercapacity for childbirth, she offered a new conception of female power inthe public sphere, based on sanctity and the cult of the imperialmystique.

Her authority manifested itself in a strongly pro-orthodoxadministration. Pulcheria, in her adolescent brother's name, passed lawsagainst Jews, pagans and heretics. For the first time, pagans wereofficially banned from holding public office and serving in themilitary. This would set an important precedent in the followingcentury for ostracizing other undesirables. Her movements against Jewsand their religion were particularly onerous: one early constitutionordered an end to the building of synagogues and the destruction ofexisting ones in places where there would be little or noresistance. It was also under Pulcheria's stewardship that themurder of the popular pagan philosopher, Hypatia, occurred in Alexandriaat the hands of Christians, encouraged, no less, by the archbishop,Cyril. Her order was brutal and barbaric, but the imperial court let itgo unpunished. To what degree this decision represented Theodosius'acceptance is difficult to establish, but clearly he did not strenuouslyobject to this pro-active policy of asserting Christianity as the properbelief of the empire.

Apart from educating Theodosius in the arts of statecraft and heavilyimbuing him with Christian morals, Pulcheria made it her business to findher younger brother an appropriate spouse. Such arrangements would havenormally been carried out by a mother or father, but since they were bothdeceased, the job fell to the eldest sibling. Traditionally, Pulcheriawas thought to have picked an appropriate wife for her younger brother.The chosen girl, Athena?s, was young, intelligent, and well-educated byher philosopher father. She herself was a poet of some repute. Althoughpoor, Athena?s converted to Christianity, took the name Aelia Eudocia,and married the young emperor in June of 421. Recent scholarshiphas suggested, however, that Eudocia was less the choice of Pulcheriathan she was the candidate of many of the disenfranchised aristocrats ofthe eastern empire. Indeed, the two women's subsequentdisagreements and Eudocia's eventual disgrace implied that there wasconsiderable competition for prestige and authority.

Pulcheria's most visible influence on state policy came during theecumenical council held at Ephesus in the summer of 431. Trying to settleonce and for all christological issues surrounding God's nature, thecouncil condemned the Nestorian controversy, which had presumed thatChrist had two separate persons -- one human, one divine -- in hisincarnation. Pulcheria engineered opposition against Nestorius (who wasthe patriarch of Constantinople at the time), not so much because of hisobjection to the Nicene creed, but because of his rejection of theincreasingly important Mother of God (Theotokos) movement. Nicaea wasupheld, Nestorius was deposed and exiled, and Nestorianism was declaredheresy. Pulcheria had used Cyril of Alexandria and other bishops to gaincontrol of the religious debate in the capital and the eastern Empire.

In other areas of government, Pulcheria's hand rested more lightly.Military affairs and administrative changes were for the most part leftto the experts. Helion, for example, was made Master of Offices (magisterofficiorum) and held the post for thirteen years. Nevertheless, evenafter the emperor's majority, the Augusta's presence was always felt: weknow little of Helion's magistracy other than he seems to have been acompetent minister. Nor did her power ebb after her brother's death: itwas Pulcheria, after all, who lent legitimacy through marriage toTheodosius' successor, Marcian.

The only real threat to her dominance over Theodosius came in the personof the emperor's wife. Aelia Eudocia had at first tried to build afaction of loyal officials around her, including her uncle Asclepiodotus,and sought to pursue more moderate religious policies. She alsoapparently bore the emperor three children, although only Licinia Eudoxiasurvived. But such power proved transitory and slowly Pulcheriacame back to the fore with her persecution of the Nestorians. Themarriage of Licinia to Valentinian III in 437 only reinforced thestruggle: Pulcheria gained by virtue of her own Theodosian blood, butEudocia also gained as mother of the bride.

In the late 430s, the two struggled directly for dominance over theemperor's favor. As with Pulcheria's rise to power, the augustae chosethe religious sphere to assert their control. The emperor's sisteroversaw the return of John Chrysostom's relics to Constantinople andlobbied for the passage of new strict anti-pagan and anti-Jewishlegislation. As a means of reasserting her own standing, Eudociawent to the Holy Land on pilgrimage with the famous ascetic, Melania theYounger, and returned in 439 with important relics and enormous prestige.With the help of the sword-bearer (spatharius), Chrysaphius, she soughtto have Pulcheria removed from court. While this plot had some limitedsuccess, the eunuch soon turned on Eudocia and engineered her fallthrough rumors of adultery. Theodosius' wife once again left the capital,this time permanently. In the late 440s, she eventually took up themonophysitic cause. Thus, Pulcheria may have won the struggle, bustshe had lost the prize: Theodosius was no longer under her influence.

Foreign Relations - Theodosius' foreign policies centered around threeaxes: relations with the Persians, the encroachment of the Hunconfederation under Rua and later Attila, and the precarious balance ofpower in the Mediterranean. In all three areas, the emperor and hisministers showed themselves to be occasionally adept, but for the mostpart unable to deal effectively with the rapid changes occurring aroundthem.

Persian relations were good for the first years of Theodosius' reign.Isdigerdes' sponsorship of the emperor at his accession and hisapparently moderate attitudes towards Christianity assured amicabilitybetween the two empires until the Great King's death in 421. Butwith his death and the accession of his son, Vararanes V, hostilitiesbroke out again. The new king allegedly began a persecution ofChristians, and some Roman citizens were harassed. The king embarked upona campaign against Rome's eastern territories, but was very quicklydefeated by several able generals, including one Germanic officer,Ardabur. Having been defeated on all fronts, the Persians and Rome signedthe One-Hundred-Year Peace, which was supposed to recognize each nation'sborders and keep them largely demilitarized. Despite severalinfractions of that peace, including one in 440-441 with the accession ofIsdigerdes II, the treaty remained largely unviolated for the rest of thefifth century. Not until 502 did a major confrontation between Rome andPersia erupt into war.

Of much greater concern were the steppe-dwellers of central Asia, theHuns. As nomadic horsemen, they rarely recognized central authority andthus had not represented a concerted threat to Rome's security. But underRua, who successfully united the smaller tribes under his rule, they wereable to directly affect the overall state of the Empire. Early inTheodosius' reign, a large contingency of Huns under Uldin had attackedThrace. Although defeated, this first major sojourn into imperialterritory presaged things to come. Despite repeated attempts to fortifythe Balkan hinterlands against incursions of foreign invaders, the courtat Constantinople found it politically expedient to deal with Hunaggression more directly; thus sometime in the mid-420s, the first annualindemnity, amounting to 350 pounds of gold, was paid to Rua.

Shortly thereafter, Rua died and was replaced by his even more ablenephew, Attila (and Attila's brother, Bleda), who immediately demandedthe doubling of the annual tribute to 700 pounds of gold and forcedTheodosius' government to sign a treaty that was highly advantageous tothe Huns. In 441, while Theodosius was engaged in campaigns against thePersians and the Vandals in the west, Attila made new demands on thegovernment. When they were refused, the king plundered and sacked citiesalong the Danube. The Roman army was defeated and in 443, an even morehumiliating treaty and tribute was forced upon the court. Now the annualtribute stood at 2,100 pounds of gold, with an additional punitivepayment of 6,000 pounds due immediately. In 448, the demands were againraised and met by the Empire. By the time of Theodosius' death, theeastern empire's resources were near exhaustion.

For fifteen years, then, Constantinople had been forced into a policy ofaccommodation. Many in the government had been responsible for acceptingthe extortion, although many more opposed any payments at all. In 449,Chrysaphius -- now chamberlain (praepositus) and in effective control ofthe eastern empire -- plotted Attila's murder. Although it failedand created even greater attempts to please the Huns, it represented thefirst serious attempt to oppose Hunnic hegemony. Since the eunuch hadprobably been one of the main architects of appeasement, his plot nodoubt signified the degree of desperation felt in the empire.

Despite these threats from the east, however, western affairs dominatedTheodosius' foreign policy. Strong ties remained between Theodosius andhis uncle, Honorius, and later his cousin, Valentinian III. When Honoriusdied in 423 and a pretender, Ioannes, tried to assume the purple inRavenna, Theodosius sent a force under Ardabur to force recognition ofhis cousin, Valentinian. Galla Placidia's regency for the six-year-oldemperor assured Theodosian legitimacy. Theodosius even recognizedposthumously Constantius III (Galla Placidia's husband) as Augustus. Thetwo emperors would eventually share four consulships together.

Nor was the east's support strictly symbolic. On two occasions,Theodosius sent large forces to aid the west against Vandal incursions.The first was an army in 431, led by Ardabur's son, Aspar, in an attemptto stop King Gaeseric's advance into the African provinces. Along withthe count of Africa, Boniface, Roman forces were badly beaten andretreated to Carthage. The defeat emboldened the Vandals to take most ofthe rest of North Africa by 439.

Gaeseric's successes led to attacks on Sicily and the Italian coast. Theylaid siege to Palermo and may have taken Lilybaeum. Theodosius onceagain sent a large naval force against the Vandals in 441, with severalinitial successes. But perhaps through Gaeseric's diplomacy, the Persianschose at this time to attack Rome's eastern borders. Attila, too, saw theopportunity for aggression. Theodosius was forced to conclude a hastytreaty in 442. The agreement recognized the Vandals' holdings as aseparate, independent kingdom in formerly Roman territory. This wassymbolically a significant event: before this time, Germanic peoples hadaccepted settlement in Roman territory as official allies (foederati) ofthe empire. The treaty made manifest to all that Rome was no longermaster of its own domain.

In all these dealings, Theodosius and his ministers did the best theycould to deal with a series of crises happening throughout Europe andwestern Asia. The eastern half of the Roman Empire was able to weatherthem, the west was not. In sum, to survive, the government inConstantinople was forced to redefine its place in the world.

Legal and Administrative Programs - It was during the reign of Theodosiusthat the first great pandect of Roman law was published, with directparticipation from the emperor himself. In the age since Diocletian, whenthe last comprehensive law code had been issued, a large number ofgeneral constitutions had been published by both eastern and westernemperors. Many were no longer salient to modern-day concerns, and manymore were unworkable or contradictory. There was an additional problem ofharmonizing the law codes of the east and the west, and creating aprocess by which each half of the empire could recognize one another'slaws.

In March of 429, Theodosius set up a commission to take all existing lawsfrom the late third century onward and arrange them in such a way as topresent a completely new and current code of jurisprudence. Theodosiusseemed less interested in getting rid of potential conflicts than he wasin providing completeness and creating a truly comprehensive law.After six years, an initial edition was completed in 435, but was notpublished. A new commission was appointed, headed by a lawyer fromAntioch, Antiochus Chuzon, to improve the language and create a system bywhich the code could be further emended and enlarged. In February of 438,the Codex Theodosianus was published and presented to the Senates in Romeand Constantinople, which both received the work with apparententhusiasm. Consistent with his desire to make the code an expandabledocument, Theodosius himself issued several supplementary laws(novellae).

The code had enormous influence, both in itself and in future legalhistory. It proved to be the basis for the emperor Justinian's much moreambitious judicial reforms in the following century. The Visigothic king,Alaric II, also incorporated large parts of Theodosius' work into the LexRomana Visigothorum in 507. The code is probably the only majoraccomplishment during Theodosius? reign that can be directly attributedto his influence.

The emperor's administrative reforms were also aggressive, although theirresults were mixed. In the 420s and 430s the emperor and his ministers,perhaps because of fiscal pressures, enacted fiscal policies thatattempted to bring more revenue into the imperial coffers. One suchpolicy was a much more forceful collection of rents on imperial landsgranted to lessees, another discontinued the extensive tax exemptionsheld on large tracts of land, and still another attempted levy wealthytaxpayers in gold coin. In the last case, the levies were in directresponse to the increasing monetary demands of the Huns. The emperor alsotried to cut down on the sale of offices, which was a ubiquitous problemat all levels of government. Subsequent legislation of the samesort in the following centuries suggests that such measures were notaltogether successful.

These fiscal policies went hand-in-hand with Theodosius' legal work.Theodosius moved towards greater administrative control by reserving theissuance of grant deeds of imperial lands to the very highest ofoffices. Such moves were part of a broader centralization ofauthority in the eastern Rome and helped create the apparatus of theByzantine state.

Final Years and Assessment - On July 28, 450, Theodosius II fell from hishorse in an accident and died shortly thereafter. On his deathbed, hepurportedly named Marcian as his successor. Whether or not this wasthe case, Marcian was crowned emperor less than a month later in thehippodrome.

The emperor's death could not have come at a more confusing time. Sincethe emperor had produced no male issue, there was no clear heir to thethrone. From his immediate family, only his sister, Pulcheria, survivedin the eastern Empire. Moreover, following the attempted assassination ofAttila, both Romans and Huns were deeply suspicious of one another. Thepast twenty years of Hun extortion had also drained the imperialtreasury. In the west, despite strong support for Valentinian, Theodosiuswas unable to keep the Vandals from consolidating their gains in theMediterranean. Gaeseric was willing and able to take up further wars whenopportunity presented.

Finally, the religious victories of orthodox Christians were temporarilythrown into disarray by Theodosius II himself. Calling a general councilat Ephesus in 449, usually called the Robber Council or Latrocinium, itfavored the christological stance of Eutyches and his supporters. Heargued the monophysitic position that Christ had only one nature and itwas divine. Matters were made worse by the deposition and subsequentdeath of Constantinople's patriarch, Flavian. The decision to support hisbeliefs caused widespread dissent in Constantinople, insulted andalienated the west in the person of Pope Leo I, and represented the firstmajor split between eastern and western Christendom.

In the end, Theodosius II had a small enough legacy given the length ofhis reign aside from his legal initiatives. His studied and visible pietywould become a model for future emperors, and his Theodosian blood keptcivil wars practically non-existent. For that, the east enjoyedconsiderable internal stability. But his reign also marked the clearshrinking of Rome's empire and its influence. Future emperors were forcedto deal with a western empire politically disintegrating and aMediterranean that was no longer mare nostrum ("our sea"). Much of thefollowing fifty years helped to create the empire of Byzantium.Theodosius II's quiescence helped in no small part.

Bibliography and Notes -
There are a large number of primary sources, both religious and secular,that deal with the reign of Theodosius II. They include theecclesiastical histories of Sozomen (ed. J. Bidez and G.C. Hanson; 1960),Evagrius(ed. J. Bidez and L. Parmentier; 1898), Theodoret(ed. F.Scheidweiler; 1954), and Socrates(ed. R. Hussey, 1853); the fragmentedsecular histories of Olympiodorus and Priscus (ed. C. Mueller, iv; 1870);and later historians such as Philostorgus (ed. J. Bidez; 1913),Marcellinus Comes (ed. T. Mommsen; 1894), John Malalas (ed. L. Dindorf;1831), and Theophanes (ed. C. de Boor; 1883). There are also churchchronicles detailing the religious events of his reign, particularly theChronicon Paschale (ed. L. Dindorf; 1832). The Acta of the Council ofEphesus also survive (ed. J.D. Mansi; 1759-1798). The Codex Theodosianuscontains a large number of the emperor's legal enactments as well as anexcellent description in the opening sections of the pandect's inceptionand presentation (ed. T. Mommsen and P. Krueger; 1905). The CodexJustinianus also contains a number of laws from the emperor's reign (ed.P. Krueger; 1877).

Bibliography -
Bury, J.B. (1958) History of the Later Roman Empire, 2 volumes, repr.from a 1923 ed. (New York).
Cameron, Al. (1982), "The Empress and the Poet: Paganism and Politics atthe Court of Theodosius II," Yale Classical Studies 27, 217-89.
________.and Long, J. (1993), Barbarians and Politics at the Court ofArcadius (Berkeley).
Charlesworth, M.P. (1947), "Imperial Deportment: Two Texts and SomeQuestions," Journal of Roman Studies 37, 34-8.
Drake, H. (1979), "A Coptic Version of the Discovery of the HolySepulchre," Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 20, 381-92.
Giacchero, M. (1983), "Il realismo della politica orientale di TeodosioII," Accademia romanistica constantiniana. Atti del voConvergnointernazionale (Perugia), 247-54.
Gibbon, E. (1958), The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 3 volumes(New York).
G?ldenpenning, A., (1885) Geschichte des ostr?mischen Reiches unter denKaisern Arcadius und Theodosius II (Halle; repr. 1965, Amsterdam).
Haehling, R. von (1978), Die Religionszugeh?rigkeit der hohen Amtstr?gerdes r?mischen Reiches seit Constantins I. Alleinherrschaft bis zum Endeder Theodosianischen Dynastie, Antiquitas ser. 3, vol. 23 (Bonn).
Harries, J. and Wood, I. (1993), eds., The Theodosian Code: Studies inthe Imperial Law of Late Antiquity (London).
Holum, Kenneth (1982), Theodosian Empresses (Berkeley).
Lippmann, A. (1973), "Theodosius," Real-Encyclop?die der classischenAltertumwissenschaft suppl. 13 (Berlin), 961-1044.
Lubh?id, C. (1965), "Theodosius II and Heresy," Journal of EcclesiasticalHistory 16, 13-38.
Martindale, J.R. (1980), The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire,vol. ii (Cambridge).
Seeck, O. (1920), Geschichte des Untergangs der antiken Welt,? 6 vols.(Stuttgart).

Notes -
Marc. comes, 402:2; Marc. Diac., V. Porph. 33-50.
For his education, see Sozomon, ix:1; cf. Philostorgius, xii:7 andTheophanes, AM 5901. Charlesworth (1947).
Procopius, Persian Wars, i:2:1-10; Theophanes AM 5900.
Zos. v:22; cf. Soc. vii:10 and Soz. ix:9.
Soz. ix:5.
For his possible dismissal, see Seeck (1920):vi:69.
Gibbon (1958):ii:218.
Cameron and Long: 399-403.
Holum (1982):97.
CTh xvi:10:21 (415). On its significance, see von Haehling(1978):600-5.
CTh xvi:8:22 (415).
John Malalas, 14; cf. Chron. pasch. aa 420-1, Theophanes AM 5911,and Evagrius i:20.
Holum (1982):112-30.
Al. Cameron (1982).
Martindale (1980):130, 473.
NTh 3 (438).
Drake (1979).
Soc. vii:8.
See Soc. vii:18-20 for these events.
Priscus, fr. 7, 8, 12, 13.
Bury (1958):1:254-5.
Harries and Wood (1993):15-20.
CTh xxi:20:5 (424), CTh xi:20:6 (430) and Priscus, fr. 5.
CJ ix:27:6 (439).
Nov. Theo. II, v:2:1 (439) and xvii:2:3 (444).
Chron. Pasch. a.a. 450.

Copyright (C) 1999, Geoffrey S. Nathan. This file may be copied on thecondition that the entire contents, including the header and thiscopyright notice, remain intact.

Family/Spouse: Eudocia (Athenais) Of Athens. Eudocia (daughter of Leontius Of Athens) was born in 401 in Athens, Greece; died on 20 Oct 460 in Jerusalem, Palestine. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events:

• _UID: 7024FEA327C044D6AD01D8BB93BA3E5F6104

Other Events:

• _UID: 8E88BED841E14B9EABE4F4FECE9FCF88FCE4

Notes:

Licinius Eudoxia was the daughter of the powerful Eastern EmperorTheodosius II, married off to the Western Emperors Valentinian III andhis successor Petronius Maximus.

Licinia married Valentinian III (Emperor Of The Western Roman Empire - 425-455) on 29 Oct 437 in Constantinople, Turkey. Valentinian (son of Constantius III (Emperor Of The Western Roman Empire - 421) and Aelia Galla Placidia Of The Western Roman Empire (Imp?ratrice Of Rome - 421-450)) was born on 2 Jul 419 in Ravenna, Italy; died on 16 Mar 454-455 in Rome, Italy. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Licinia married Petronius Maximus (Roman Emperor Of The West) before 455. Petronius died in 455. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Licinia married Gaiseric (Genseric) (King Of The Vandals In Spain & Africa) VANDALS after 455. Gaiseric (son of Gondeguslus (Corisco) (King Of The Vandals)) was born in 400 in Baetica, Andalusia, Spain; died in 477 in Carthage, Tunisia, Africa. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events:

• _UID: 2C395B96304E40FDAD36A318AE2ECF72CC2C

Notes:

Flacidia was the daughter of the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III,sister of Eudoxia, and wife of the Western Roman Emperor Olybrius.

Other Events:

• FamilySearch ID: GJNW-SJJ
• _UID: 7B0796E6F10549069B41EFDDE1DC49DECFA0

Notes:

The marriage of the Western Emperor Valentinian III's daughter to the sonof the brilliant Vandal king Gaiseric, Huneric, was a carefullythought-out political manoeuver.

Family/Spouse: Hunneric (King Of The African Vandals). Hunneric (son of Gaiseric (Genseric) (King Of The Vandals In Spain & Africa) VANDALS) was born in 440 in Carthage, Tunisia, Africa; died in 484 in Carthage, Tunisia, Africa. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]