Theodosius the Great

Byzantine emperor (r. 379-395 c.e.)

• Born: January 11, 346 or 347
• Birthplace: Cauca, Gallaecia (now in Spain)
• Died: January 17, 0395
• Place of death: Mediolanum (now Milan, Italy)

Theodosius restored peace to the Eastern Roman Empire after the Roman defeat at Adrianople and established a dynasty that held the throne for more than seventy years. His settlement of Visigoths inside the Empire may have contributed to the fall of the western part of the Empire, and his religious policies were a major step in the development of a theocratic state in the East.

Early Life

Flavius Theodosius (FLAY-vee-uhs thee-oh-DOH-see-uhs), known as Theodosius the Great, was the son of Count Flavius Theodosius, a Hispano-Roman nobleman whose family estates were located at Cauca in northwestern Spain. Theodosius’s father distinguished himself in commands in Britain and North Africa. The younger Theodosius probably served under his father in Britain. He became military commander on the Danube River, in what is now Yugoslavia, and made a name for himself by winning victories over the Sarmatians, non-Germanic peoples who had been filtering into the Danube area from southern Russia since the first century c.e.

Theodosius’s military career ended suddenly in 376 c.e., when his father, who had just suppressed a revolt in North Africa, was accused on some charge and executed at Carthage. The whole incident seems to have occurred just after the death of the emperor Valentinian I (321-375 c.e.), and it is assumed that Valentinian’s young son Gratian (359-383 c.e.), the new emperor, was persuaded to authorize the execution by a newly powerful faction at court that included enemies of Count Theodosius. The younger Theodosius may have been in danger himself; at any rate, he retired to the family estates in Spain, his official career apparently over. He married Aelia Flavia Flacilla and had a son, Arcadius, during the two years spent in Spain.

A crisis in the Eastern Roman Empire brought Theodosius from retirement to the highest responsibility. The Germanic Visigoths had been defeated by the Huns as the latter advanced westward. The Visigoths asked for and received from the Romans permission to cross the Danube River and find refuge inside the Empire. When Roman officials sent to supervise their reception abused the Goths, they revolted and in August, 378, defeated and killed the emperor Valens in a great battle at Adrianople in Thrace. The Goths were then free to pillage the Balkans and Thrace.

Gratian, who had broken off wars with Germanic tribes in eastern Gaul to assist Valens, only to find that Valens had gone into battle without waiting for his aid, now had to find someone to restore Roman control in Thrace. The men who had accused Theodosius’s father were now out of favor; a new faction made up of friends and connections of the Theodosian family had the emperor’s ear. They suggested the younger Theodosius as a good candidate for emperor of the East. Gratian summoned Theodosius from Spain and apparently first gave him a military command, in which he again won victories against the Sarmatians, and then named him emperor. Theodosius officially took power on January 19, 379.

Life’s Work

Theodosius’s next few years were spent in campaigns against the Goths, first from headquarters at Thessalonica in northeastern Greece and then, after November, 380, from Constantinople. Very little is known about these wars, but Theodosius was unable to destroy the Goths or even to drive them out of the Empire, in part, perhaps, because of a manpower shortage caused by the losses at Adrianople. As part of an attempt to conciliate at least some of the Goths and perhaps disunite them, the emperor welcomed the Gothic chieftain Athanaric to Constantinople on January 11, 381, and, when the Gothic leader died two weeks later, gave him an elaborate state funeral. Such treatment impressed the Goths and may have disposed them to negotiate.

In October, 382, Theodosius, apparently having concluded that victory was not attainable, ordered one of his generals to make a treaty with the Goths. By its terms, they were allowed to settle in Thrace as federati. They owed military service to the Empire, but unlike earlier settlements of barbarians inside the Empire, the Goths were allowed to retain their arms as well as their own rulers and laws. In effect, they were a separate nation inside the Imperial borders. Many contemporaries criticized this arrangement; some modern scholars have even suggested that it was a factor in the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

On the other hand, Theodosius reorganized the eastern armies in a way that greatly contributed to the internal security of the Eastern Roman Empire. He set up five separate armies, each with its own commander who reported directly to the emperor. No single commander could concentrate power in his own hands as was still possible in the West.

In the same years in which he was engaged in campaigns against the Goths, Theodosius involved himself in religious affairs. He was baptized in the autumn of 380, when he was believed to be near death from illness. Many people in this period preferred to delay baptism until their deathbed, since the ritual absolved sins committed before the sacrament. There is no way of knowing whether baptism on threat of death caused Theodosius to have some sort of conversion experience or whether it only intensified an already strong adherence to the Church. Certainly he took vigorous steps shortly after his recovery to demonstrate his support of the Nicene Creed (which maintained that Father and Son were of the same substance). The Arians, who were especially powerful in the Eastern Roman Empire, believed that the Son was not divine, but only a creature, and thus subordinate to the Father.

Within two days after entering Constantinople on November 24, 380, Theodosius expelled the Arian bishop Demophilus and established his own candidate, the orthodox Catholic Gregory of Nazianzus (329 or 330-389 or 390 c.e.), as bishop. On February 28, 380, he had issued an edict requiring everyone to accept the Trinity. Yet the new decree was enforced mainly against bishops and priests, who lost their churches if they refused to accept it. It did not, apparently, represent an attempt to force all laymen to adhere to the Nicene Creed.

Toward paganism, Theodosius adopted a more conciliatory approach, at least in the early years of his reign, even reopening a pagan temple on the Euphrates River in 382 as long as no sacrifices took place there. In January, 381, he issued another edict ordering that all churches be turned over to the Nicene Catholics, and in May through July he held the Council of Constantinople, at which about 150 eastern bishops reaffirmed the divinity of Son and Holy Spirit.

Soon Theodosius was faced with a situation in which his loyalty to the Church conflicted with the duty he owed to the man who had made him emperor. In 383, Magnus Clemens Maximus (d. 388 c.e.) in Britain proclaimed himself emperor of the West and invaded Gaul, where Gratian’s army went over to the usurper and Gratian himself was killed, perhaps by his own men. Magnus Maximus controlled Britain, Spain, Gaul, and North Africa. In Italy and the middle Danube provinces Valentinian II (371-392 c.e.), Gratian’s younger brother, ruled under the tutelage of his mother, Justina, an Arian. Theodosius was placed in something of a dilemma. Loyalty to Gratian would have demanded that he avenge his patron’s death and restore all the western provinces to Valentinian. Religion complicated the picture, however, since Magnus Maximus was presenting himself as a champion of orthodox Catholicism. How could the defender of orthodoxy in the East put down a Catholic ruler in the West in order to put an Arian in his place?

There may also have been personal ties between Theodosius and Magnus Maximus; Maximus came from Spain, was apparently some sort of dependent of the Theodosian family, and may have served in Britain alongside Theodosius under Count Theodosius. His concern for his eastern frontier could have increased the emperor’s reluctance to divert his armies to a campaign in the West. When the envoys of Magnus Maximus arrived in Constantinople to ask for official recognition, the King of Persia, Ardashīr II, had just died, and it was not known whether his successor planned to attack the Romans. A revolt of tribes on the Arabian frontier, in modern Jordan, complicated the situation. Religion, personal ties, and military concerns apparently decided the issue. Theodosius not only made no attempt to get rid of Magnus Maximus but also gave him official recognition as ruler of Britain, Spain, and Gaul.

Many of the difficulties that had held Theodosius back in 383 were resolved in the next few years. In 384, the new ruler of Persia sent envoys to Constantinople with lavish gifts for the emperor, presumably to signal friendly intentions. The tribes in revolt on the eastern frontier had submitted in 385, and in 387 a treaty was signed with Persia. In an agreement similar to those made by Rome and Parthia in earlier centuries, Theodosius allowed the Persians to name a ruler for most of Armenia, a mountainous area in eastern Asia Minor that controlled the roads between Roman Asia Minor and Persia. This Persian treaty and the earlier one with the Goths gave the Eastern Roman Empire a long period of peace in which to rebuild its forces.

Although repeated incursions by bands of Huns and other tribes kept the frontier forces on the alert, the only major wars Theodosius fought in the remainder of his reign were against usurpers in the West, the first not until about ten years after Adrianople. In those ten years, he had succeeded in rebuilding his armies to a point where they could win victories over other Roman armies. Whether Theodosius’s decision to make peace with foreign enemies but to fight internal rivals was best for the whole empire in the long run is a question fundamental to any assessment of his accomplishments as ruler.

In the same year in which the Persian treaty was signed, Maximus invaded Italy, causing Valentinian II, his mother, and his sister Galla to flee to Theodosius for help. Theodosius was now militarily in a much better position to confront Maximus, and by marrying Galla he could claim that family loyalties outweighed the claims of religion. In June, 388, he led an army from the East, defeated Maximus twice in Pannonia, at Siscia and Poetovio, and forced him to retreat to Aquileia, at the head of the Adriatic Sea. There, Maximus surrendered and was killed by Theodosius’s soldiers, who feared that the emperor might pardon him. Indeed, Theodosius punished very few of Maximus’s supporters and issued a general pardon for the rest. He installed Valentinian as emperor in the West under the supervision of Arbogast (d. 394 c.e.), an army commander of mixed Germanic and Roman parentage. Valentinian converted from Arianism to Catholicism at Theodosius’s urging and established his court at Vienne in southern Gaul.

Theodosius spent considerable time in Italy between 388 and 391. On June 13, 389, he made a formal entry into Rome with his younger son Flavius Honorius. By generous gifts, reforms in the laws, and deference to powerful individuals, he cultivated the support of the senate. While in Italy, Theodosius himself came under the influence of Bishop Ambrose of Milan (c. 339-397 c.e.), one of the Fathers of the Church. If Theodosius had given orders to church officials in the East, he now found himself submitting to the demands of a western bishop. In 390, after the people of Thessalonica murdered one of the emperor’s German officers, soldiers were allowed to massacre thousands of spectators in the city’s stadium. Ambrose demanded that Theodosius do penance for the massacre, and after long negotiations the emperor conceded. Stripping himself of the diadem and purple cloak that symbolized his power, he knelt before the bishop in the cathedral in Milan to ask for a pardon. It was a vivid demonstration of the western Church’s power in relation to the government.

Having returned to Constantinople in 391, Theodosius found himself facing another western usurper in the following year. As Valentinian II grew into his late teens, the young man realized that Arbogast meant to keep real power in his own hands. In frustration, he apparently committed suicide, although many at the time and later accused Arbogast of murdering the young emperor. Arbogast named a teacher of rhetoric, Eugenius, as the emperor of the West.

Arbogast, a pagan himself, seems to have hoped for the support of the surviving pagan aristocracy, and a number of distinguished pagan nobles did rally to Eugenius’s cause. Pagan support for Eugenius allowed Theodosius to present himself as the defender of Christianity. In 394, Theodosius again led his armies westward; on September 6, 394, at the Battle of the Frigidus, a river in Yugoslavia, he defeated Arbogast and Eugenius. On the first day of the battle, ten thousand Visigoths in Theodosius’s army died in a frontal assault, and the emperor’s officers advised retreat. Theodosius refused to give up and on the next day won a decisive victory with the aid of a sudden windstorm. Eugenius was captured and executed; Arbogast escaped but killed himself two days later. Many consider this final defeat of the forces of paganism in the Roman Empire to have been Theodosius’s greatest achievement.

The emperor, however, had only a few months to enjoy the victory; he died in Milan in January, 395. He left the Empire to his sons Arcadius and Honorius—Arcadius to rule in the East and Honorius in the West. It has been argued that this division led to the fall of the Western Roman Empire because the wealthier East not only did not send aid when barbarians attacked the West but also diverted invaders westward to save itself, in some cases.

Significance

Theodosius the Great brought peace to the Eastern Roman Empire through diplomacy, rebuilt the eastern armies, and used them to win victories against western Roman armies. He ruled the East for fifteen years in which no one successfully disputed his authority, and he founded a dynasty that held power in the East until 450 and in the West until 455. In his zeal for Catholic orthodoxy, he issued orders to lay people and bishops on matters of doctrine, conciliated the senate with high offices, and won the people’s favor. He made sure that Constantinople had a secure supply of grain, extended the walls, and embellished the city with a forum and a column depicting his victories. He even managed to lower taxes.

By most of the standards applied to earlier emperors, Theodosius was successful; the Church thought he deserved the title “Great.” One could argue that the Eastern Roman Empire benefited substantially from his rule, in both the short and the long terms. Whether his settlement of the Goths and his division of the Empire between his sons did not in the long run prove disastrous to the West is a question still disputed.

Roman Emperors from Theodosius the Great to Leo I

379-395

• Theodosius the Great (all)

383-388

• Maximus (West, usurper)

392-394

• Eugenius (West, usurper)

393-423

• Honorius (West)

395-408

• Arcadius (East)

408-450

• Theodosius II (East)

421

• Constantius III (East)

425-455

• Valentian III (West)

450-457

• Marcian (East)

455

• Petronius Maximus (West)

455-456

• Avitus (West)

457-461

• Majoran (West)

457-474

• Leo I (East)

Bibliography

Ferrill, Arthur. The Fall of the Roman Empire: The Military Explanation. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1986. Chapter 4 on Theodosius is a careful evaluation of his military accomplishments, with a description of the Roman armies in 395. With table of emperors, bibliography, and illustrations, including a sculptural portrait of Theodosius and a map of the Battle of the Frigidus.

Holum, Kenneth G. Theodosian Empresses: Women and Imperial Dominion in Late Antiquity. 1982. Reprint. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. Part of chapter 2, “Theodosius the Great and His Women,” provides a useful summary of some of the main issues of Theodosius’s reign as well as a description of Theodosian Constantinople, a discussion of the position of the emperor’s first wife, and an account of the implications of his second marriage for the war against Maximus. With detailed footnotes, a plan of Constantinople under Theodosius, a genealogical table of the Theodosian family, illustrations with an emphasis on coins, extensive bibliography, and an index.

Jones, A. H. M. The Later Roman Empire, 284-602: A Social, Economic, and Administrative Survey. 2 vols. 1964. Reprint. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986. Detailed, authoritative treatment of the period includes material on Theodosius’s reign, his religious policy, and his laws. Third volume contains notes, three appendices, lists of collections and periodicals cited, and an exhaustive list of sources with abbreviations. With seven maps in a folder.

Matthews, John. Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court: A.D. 364-425. 1975. Reprint. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. Chapters 4 through 9 deal with Theodosius’s reign in considerable detail, intermingled with extensive and occasionally digressive treatment of the social and cultural background of the aristocracies under his rule.

Williams, Stephen, and Gerard Friell. The Rome That Did Not Fall: The Survival of the East in the Fifth Century. New York: Routledge, 2000. A well-illustrated analysis of the breakup of the Roman Empire and its division into the Eastern and Western Empires. A good presentation of the results of Theodosius’s reign and the consequences of his political decisions.

Williams, Stephen, and Gerard Friell. Theodosius: The Empire at Bay. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1998. This biography analyzes Theodosius’s military, political, and religious impact on Western history, using archaeological, literary, and numismatic evidence.