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Flavius
Arcadius (377/378-1 May 408) was
Byzantine Emperor
in the Eastern half of the
Roman
Empire
from 395 until his death.
//
Arcadius was born in
Hispania
,
the elder son of
Theodosius I
and
Aelia Flaccilla
, and brother of
Honorius
, who would become a
Western Roman Emperor
. His father declared him an
Augustus
and co-ruler for the
Eastern half of the Empire
in January, 383. His younger brother was also
declared Augustus in 393, for the Western half.![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Arcadius_Istanbul_Museum.PNG/250px-Arcadius_Istanbul_Museum.PNG)
As emperors, Honorius was under the control of the Romanized
Vandal
magister militum
Flavius
Stilicho
while Arcadius was dominated by one of his ministers,
Rufinus
. Stilicho is alleged by some to have wanted control of both
emperors, and is supposed to have had Rufinus assassinated by Gothic mercenaries
in 395; though definite proof of Stilicho's involvement in the assassination is
lacking, the intense competition and political jealousies engendered by the two
figures compose the main thread of the first part of Arcadius' reign. Arcadius'
new advisor, the eunuch
Eutropius
, simply took Rufinus' place as the power behind the Eastern
imperial throne.
Arcadius was also dominated by his wife
Aelia
Eudoxia
, who convinced her husband to dismiss Eutropius, who was holding the
consulate, at the height of his power, in 399. That same year, on the 13th July,
Arcadius issued an edict ordering that
all remaining non-Christian temples should be immediately demolished
.
Eudoxia's influence was strongly opposed by
John Chrysostom
, the
Patriarch of Constantinople
, who felt that she had used her family's wealth
to gain control over the emperor. Eudoxia used her influence to have Chrysostom
deposed in 404, but she died later that year. Eudoxia gave to Arcadius four
children: three daughters,
Pulcheria
,
Arcadia and Marina, and one son, Theodosius, the future Emperor
Theodosius II
.
Arcadius was dominated for the rest of his rule by
Anthemius
, the
Praetorian Prefect
, who made peace with Stilicho in the West. Arcadius
himself was more concerned with appearing to be a pious
Christian
than he was with political or military matters, and he died, only
nominally in control of his empire, in 408.
>
Character and works
In this reign of a weak emperor dominated by court politics,
a major theme was the ambivalence felt by prominent individuals and the court
parties that formed and regrouped round them towards
barbarians
,
which in Constantinople at this period meant
Goths
. In the
well-documented episode that revolved around
Gainas
, a
number of Gothic foederati stationed in the capital were massacred, the
survivors fleeing under the command of Gainas to
Thrace
, where
they were tracked down by imperial troops and slaughtered and Gainas dispatched.
The episode has been traditionally interpreted as a paroxysm of anti-barbarian
reaction that served to stabilise the East. The main source for the affair is a
mythology à clef by
Synesius
of
Cyrene, Aegyptus sive de providentia, (400)
an Egyptianising allegory that embodies a covert account of the events, the
exact interpretation of which continues to baffle scholars. Synesius' De
regno, which claims to be addressed to Arcadius himself, contains a tirade
against Goths.
A new
forum
was built in the name of Arcadius, on the seventh hill of
Constantinople, the Xērolophos, in which a
column
was begun to commemorate his 'victory' over Gainas (although the
column was only completed after Arcadius' death by
Theodosius II
).
The
Pentelic marble
portrait head of Arcadius (illustration) was
discovered in Istanbul close to the Forum Tauri, in June 1949, in excavating
foundations for new buildings of the University at
Beyazit
.
The neck was designed to be inserted in a torso, but no statue, base or
inscription was found. The
diadem
is a
fillet with rows of pearls along its edges and a rectangular stone set about
with pearls over the young emperor's forehead. |
Sole Reign (except 421 A.D., with Constantius III) Ruling in the East: Theodosius I (379-395 A.D.), Arcadius (383-408 A.D.) and Theodosius II (408-450 A.D.) | Son of Theodosius I and Aelia Flacilla | Brother of Arcadius| Brother-in-law of Aelia Eudoxia | Uncle of Theodosius II and Aelia Pulcheria | Half-brother of Galla Placidia | Flavius Honorius
( 9 September 384 - 15 August 423 ) was Roman Emperor (393-395) and
then Western Roman Emperor from 395 until his death. He was the younger
son of Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of
the Eastern Emperor Arcadius.
Even by the
standards of the rapidly declining Western Empire, Honorius' reign was
precarious and chaotic. His throne was guarded by his principal general,
Flavius Stilicho, who was successively Honorius's guardian (during his
childhood) and his father-in-law (after the emperor became an adult).
Stilicho's generalship helped preserve some level of stability, but with
his execution, the Western Roman Empire moved closer to collapse. Early reignAfter holding the consulate at the age of two, Honorius was declared Augustus,
and thus co-ruler, on 23 January 393 after the death of Valentinian II
and the usurpation of Eugenius. When Theodosius died, in January 395,
Honorius and Arcadius divided the Empire, so that Honorius became
Western Roman Emperor at the age of ten. During
the first part of his reign Honorius depended on the military leadership
of the general Stilicho, who was of mixed Vandal and Roman ancestry. To
strengthen his bonds with the young emperor, Stilicho married his
daughter Maria to him. The epithalamion written for the occasion by
Stilicho's court poet Claudian survives. At first
Honorius based his capital in Mediolanum, but when the Visigoths entered
Italy in 402 he moved his capital to the coastal city of Ravenna, which
was protected by a ring of marshes and strong fortifications. While the
new capital was easier to defend, it was poorly situated to allow Roman
forces to protect central Italy from the increasingly regular threat of
barbarian incursions. Erosion of the Western Roman Empire Honorius' reign was plagued by many threats: from the barbarians entering within the Empire's borders to several usurpers.
A revolt led by Gildo, comes Africae,
in Northern Africa lasted for two years (397-398). In 405, a barbarian
army led by Radagaisus invaded Italy, bringing devastation to the heart
of the Empire, until Stilicho defeated them in 406. The
situation in Britannia was even more problematic. The British provinces
were isolated, lacking support from the Empire, and the soldiers
supported the revolts of Marcus (406 - 407), Gratian (407), and
Constantine "III". Constantine invaded Gaul in 407, occupying Arles. An
invasion of Alans, Suevi and Vandals moved from Gaul on 31 December
406, and arrived in Hispania in 409. In 408, Stilicho (after forcing the
Roman Senate to pay 4,000 pounds of gold) was arrested and executed by
the order of Honorius, probably because of a court conspiracy against
the Arian general. The Visigoths under their King Alaric I invaded Italy
in 408, besieged Rome, and extorted from the city a ransom of 5,000
pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, 4,000 silken tunics, 3,000
hides dyed scarlet, and 3,000 pounds of pepper), while Honorius in
Ravenna did nothing. In 409, Alaric returned, and
with the agreement of the Senate supported the usurpation of Priscus
Attalus. In 410, the Eastern Roman Empire sent six Legions (6,000 men;
late Roman legions were small units) to aid Honorius. To counter
Priscus, Honorius tried to negotiate with Alaric. Alaric withdrew his
support for Priscus in 410, but the negotiations with Honorius broke
down. Alaric again entered Italy and sacked Rome. The
revolt of Constantine III in the west continued through this period. In
409, Gerontius, Constantine III's general in Hispania, rebelled against
him, proclaimed Maximus Emperor, and besieged Constantine at Arles.
Honorius now found himself an able commander, Constantius, who defeated
Maximus and Gerontius, and then Constantine, in 411. Gaul
was again a source of troubles for Honorius: just after Constantius'
troops had returned to Italy, Jovinus revolted in northern Gaul, with
the support of Alans, Burgundians, and the Gallic nobility. Jovinus
tried to negotiate with the invading Goths of Ataulf (412), but his
proclamation of his brother Sebastianus as Augustus made Ataulf seek
alliance with Honorius. Honorius had Ataulf settle the matter with
Jovinus, and the rebel was defeated and executed in 413. In
414, Constantius attacked Ataulf, who proclaimed Priscus Attalus
emperor again. Constantius drove Ataulf into Hispania, and Attalus,
having again lost Visigoth support, was captured and deposed. Northeastern
Gaul became subject to even greater Frankish influence, while a treaty
signed in 418 granted to the Visigoths the southwestern portion, the
former Gallia Aquitania. In 417, Constantius
married Honorius' sister, Galla Placidia. In 421, Honorius recognized
him as co-emperor Constantius III, but he died early in 422. In 420-422, another Maximus (or perhaps the same) gained and lost power in Hispania. DeathHonorius
died of dropsy in 423, leaving no heir. In the subsequent interregnum
Joannes was nominated emperor. The following year, however, the Eastern
Emperor Theodosius II elected emperor his cousin Valentinian III, son of
Galla Placidia and Constantius III. Sack of Rome
The Favorites of the Emperor Honorius, by John William Waterhouse, 1883. The most notable event of his reign was the assault and Sack of Rome on August 24, 410 by the Visigoths under Alaric. The
city had been under Visigothic siege since shortly after Stilicho's
deposition and execution in the summer of 408. Lacking a strong general
to control the by-now mostly barbarian Roman Army, Honorius could do
little to attack Alaric's forces directly, and apparently adopted the
only strategy he could in the situation: wait passively for the
Visigoths to grow weary and spend the time marshalling what forces he
could. Unfortunately, this course of action appeared to be the product
of Honorius' indecisive character and he suffered much criticism for it
both from contemporaries and later historians. Whether
this plan could have worked is perhaps debatable. In any case it was
overtaken by events. Stricken by starvation, somebody opened Rome's
defenses to Alaric and the Goths poured in. The city had not been under
the control of a foreign force since an invasion of Gauls some eight
centuries before. The sack itself was notably mild as sacks go; Churches
and religious statuary went unharmed for example. The psychological
blow to the Romans was considerably more painful. The shock of this
event reverberated from Britain to Jerusalem, and inspired Augustine to
write his magnum opus, The City of God. The
year 410 also saw Honorius reply to a British plea for assistance
against local barbarian incursions. Preoccupied with the Visigoths,
Honorius lacked any military capability to assist the distant province.
According to Zosimus, "Honorius wrote letters to the cities in Britain,
bidding them to guard themselves." Judgments on Honorius
Theodosius
I 'the Great' - Roman Emperor: 379-395
A.D. 379-383
A.D. Sole Reign
383-395
A.D. Senior Augustus with Arcadius
Ruling in
the West: Gratian (367-383 A.D.), Valentinian II (375-392 A.D.), Magnus Maximus
(383-388 A.D.), Flavius Victor (387-388 A.D.), Eugenius (392-394 A.D.) and
Honorius (393-423 A.D.) |
Son-in-law of Valentinian I | Brother-in-law of Valentinian II | Husband of
Aelia Flacilla and Galla (sister of Valentinian II) | Father of Arcadius and
Honorius (by Aelia Flacilla), and of Galla Placidia (by Galla) | Father-in-law
of Constantius III and Aelia Eudoxia | Grandfather of Honoria, Valentinian III,
Aelia Pulcheria and Theodosius II | Great-grandfather of Licinia Eudoxia | Flavius
Theodosius ( 11 January 347 - 17 January 395), also called Theodosius I and
Theodosius the Great (Greek: Θεοδόσιος Α΄ and Θεοδόσιος ο Μέγας), was Roman
Emperor from 379 to 395. Reuniting the eastern and western portions of the
empire, Theodosius was the last emperor of both the Eastern and Western Roman
Empire. After his death, the two parts split permanently. He is also known for
making Nicene Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire.
Career Theodosius
was born in Cauca, in Hispania (modern day Coca, Spain) or, more probably, in
or near Italica (Seville), to a senior military officer, Theodosius the Elder.
He accompanied his father to Britannia to help quell the Great Conspiracy in
368. He was military commander (dux) of Moesia, a Roman province on the lower
Danube, in 374. However, shortly thereafter, and at about the same time as the
sudden disgrace and execution of his father, Theodosius retired to Spain. The
reason for his retirement, and the relationship (if any) between it and his
father's death is unclear. It is possible that he was dismissed from his
command by the emperor Valentinian I after the loss of two of Theodosius'
legions to the Sarmatians in late 374. The death
of Valentinian I in 375 created political pandemonium. Fearing further
persecution on account of his family ties, Theodosius abruptly retired to his
family estates where he adapted to the life of a provincial aristocrat. From 364
to 375, the Roman Empire was governed by two co-emperors, the brothers
Valentinian I and Valens; when Valentinian died in 375, his sons, Valentinian
II and Gratian, succeeded him as rulers of the Western Roman Empire. In 378,
after Valens was killed in the Battle of Adrianople, Gratian appointed
Theodosius to replace the fallen emperor as co-augustus for the East. Gratian
was killed in a rebellion in 383, then Theodosius appointed his elder son,
Arcadius, his co-ruler for the East. After the death in 392 of Valentinian II,
whom Theodosius had supported against a variety of usurpations, Theodosius
ruled as sole emperor, appointing his younger son Honorius Augustus as his
co-ruler for the West (Milan, on 23 January 393) and defeating the usurper
Eugenius on 6 September 394, at the Battle of the Frigidus (Vipava river,
modern Slovenia) he restored peace.
Family By his
first wife, the probably Spanish Aelia Flaccilla Augusta, he had two sons,
Arcadius and Honorius and a daughter, Aelia Pulcheria; Arcadius was his heir in
the East and Honorius in the West. Both Aelia Flaccilla and Pulcheria died in
385. His second
wife (but never declared Augusta) was Galla, daughter of the emperor
Valentinian I and his second wife Justina. Theodosius and Galla had a son
Gratian, born in 388 who died young and a daughter Aelia Galla Placidia
(392-450). Placidia was the only child who survived to adulthood and later
became an Empress; a third child, John, died with his mother in childbirth in
394.
Diplomatic policy with the Goths The Goths
and their allies (Vandali, Taifalae, Bastarnae and the native Carpi) entrenched
in the provinces of Dacia and eastern Pannonia Inferior consumed Theodosious'
attention. The Gothic crisis was so dire that his co-Emperor Gratian
relinquished control of the Illyrian provinces and retired to Trier in Gaul to
let Theodosius operate without hindrance. A major weakness in the Roman
position after the defeat at Adrianople was the recruiting of barbarians to
fight against other barbarians. In order to reconstruct the Roman Army of the
West, Theodosius needed to find able bodied soldiers and so he turned to the
most capable men readily to hand: the barbarians recently settled in the
Empire. This caused many difficulties in the battle against barbarians since
the newly recruited fighters had little or no loyalty to Theodosius.
Theodosius
was reduced to the costly expedient of shipping his recruits to Egypt and
replacing them with more seasoned Romans, but there were still switches of
allegiance that resulted in military setbacks. Gratian sent generals to clear
the dioceses of Illyria (Pannonia and Dalmatia) of Goths, and Theodosius was
able finally to enter Constantinople on 24 November 380, after two seasons in
the field. The final treaties with the remaining Gothic forces, signed 3
October 382, permitted large contingents of primarily Thervingian Goths to settle
along the southern Danube frontier in the province of Thrace and largely govern
themselves. The Goths
now settled within the Empire had, as a result of the treaties, military
obligations to fight for the Romans as a national contingent, as opposed to being
fully integrated into the Roman forces. However, many Goths would serve in
Roman legions and others, as foederati, for a single campaign, while bands of
Goths switching loyalties became a destabilizing factor in the internal
struggles for control of the Empire.
In 390 the
population of Thessalonica rioted in complaint against the presence of the
local Gothic garrison. The garrison commander was killed in the violence, so
Theodosius ordered the Goths to kill all the spectators in the circus as
retaliation; Theodoret, a contemporary witness to these events, reports: the anger of the Emperor rose to the
highest pitch, and he gratified his vindictive desire for vengeance by
unsheathing the sword most unjustly and tyrannically against all, slaying the
innocent and guilty alike. It is said seven thousand perished without any forms
of law, and without even having judicial sentence passed upon them; but that,
like ears of wheat in the time of harvest, they were alike cut down.
In the
last years of Theodosius' reign, one of the emerging leaders of the Goths,
named Alaric, participated in Theodosius' campaign against Eugenius in 394,
only to resume his rebellious behavior against Theodosius' son and eastern
successor, Arcadius, shortly after Theodosius' death.
Civil wars in the Empire The
administrative divisions of the Roman Empire in 395, under Theodosius I. After the
death of Gratian in 383, Theodosius' interests turned to the Western Roman
Empire, for the usurper Magnus Maximus had taken all the provinces of the West
except for Italy. This self-proclaimed threat was hostile to Theodosius'
interests, since the reigning emperor Valentinian II, Maximus' enemy, was his
ally. Theodosius, however, was unable to do much about Maximus due to his still
inadequate military capability and he was forced to keep his attention on local
matters. However when Maximus began an invasion of Italy in 387, Theodosius was
forced to take action. The armies of Theodosius and Maximus met in 388 at
Poetovio and Maximus was defeated. On 28 August 388 Maximus was executed. Trouble
arose again, after Valentinian was found hanging in his room. It was claimed to
be a suicide by the magister militum, Arbogast. Arbogast, unable to assume the
role of emperor, elected Eugenius, a former teacher of rhetoric. Eugenius
started a program of restoration of the Pagan faith, and sought, in vain,
Theodosius' recognition. In January 393, Theodosius gave his son Honorius the
full rank of Augustus in the West, citing Eugenius' illegitimacy.
Theodosius
campaigned against Eugenius. The two armies faced at the Battle of Frigidus in
September 394. The battle began on 5 September 394 with Theodosius' full
frontal assault on Eugenius' forces. Theodosius was repulsed and Eugenius
thought the battle to be all but over. In Theodosius' camp the loss of the day
decreased morale. It is said that Theodosius was visited by two "heavenly
riders all in white" who gave him courage. The next day, the battle began
again and Theodosius' forces were aided by a natural phenomenon known as the
Bora, which produces cyclonic winds. The Bora blew directly against the forces
of Eugenius and disrupted the line. Eugenius'
camp was stormed and Eugenius was captured and soon after executed. Thus
Theodosius became the only emperor.
Art patronage Theodosius
oversaw the removal in 390 of an Egyptian obelisk from Alexandria to
Constantinople. It is now known as the obelisk of Theodosius and still stands
in the Hippodrome, the long racetrack that was the center of Constantinople's
public life and scene of political turmoil. Re-erecting the monolith was a
challenge for the technology that had been honed in the construction of siege
engines. The obelisk, still recognizably a solar symbol, had been moved from
Karnak to Alexandria with what is now the Lateran obelisk by Constantius II).
The Lateran obelisk was shipped to Rome soon afterwards, but the other one then
spent a generation lying at the docks due to the difficulty involved in
attempting to ship it to Constantinople. Eventually, the obelisk was cracked in
transit. The white marble base is entirely covered with bas-reliefs documenting
the Imperial household and the engineering feat of removing it to
Constantinople. Theodosius and the imperial family are separated from the
nobles among the spectators in the Imperial box with a cover over them as a
mark of their status. The naturalism of traditional Roman art in such scenes
gave way in these reliefs to conceptual art: the idea of order, decorum and
respective ranking, expressed in serried ranks of faces. This is seen as
evidence of formal themes beginning to oust the transitory details of mundane
life, celebrated in Pagan portraiture. Christianity had only just been adopted
as the new state religion. The Forum
Tauri in Constantinople was renamed and redecorated as the Forum of Theodosius,
including a column and a triumphal arch in his honour.
Nicene Christianity becomes the state religion Theodosius
promoted Nicene Trinitarianism within Christianity and Christianity within the
Empire. On 27 February 380, he declared "Catholic Christianity" the
only legitimate imperial religion, ending state support for the traditional
Roman religion.
Nicene Creed In the 4th
century, the Christian Church was wracked with controversy over the divinity of
Jesus Christ, his relationship to God the Father, and the nature of the
Trinity. In 325, Constantine I convened the Council of Nicea, which asserted
that Jesus, the Son, was equal to the Father, one with the Father, and of the
same substance (homoousios in Greek). The council condemned the teachings of
the theologian Arius: that the Son was a created being and inferior to God the
Father, and that the Father and Son were of a similar substance (homoiousios in
Greek) but not identical (see Nontrinitarian). Despite the council's ruling,
controversy continued. By the time of Theodosius' accession, there were still
several different church factions that promoted alternative Christology.
Arians
While no
mainstream churchmen within the Empire explicitly adhered to Arius (a presbyter
from Alexandria, Egypt) or his teachings, there were those who still used the
homoiousios formula, as well as those who attempted to bypass the debate by
merely saying that Jesus was like (homoios in Greek) God the Father, without
speaking of substance (ousia). All these non-Nicenes were frequently labeled as
Arians (i.e., followers of Arius) by their opponents, though they would not
have identified themselves as such.
The
Emperor Valens had favored the group who used the homoios formula; this theology
was prominent in much of the East and had under the sons of Constantine the
Great gained a foothold in the West. Theodosius, on the other hand, cleaved
closely to the Nicene Creed which was the interpretation that predominated in
the West and was held by the important Alexandrian church.
Establishment of Nicene Orthodoxy
On 26
November 380, two days after he had arrived in Constantinople, Theodosius
expelled the non-Nicene bishop, Demophilus of Constantinople, and appointed
Meletius patriarch of Antioch, and Gregory of Nazianzus, one of the Cappadocian
Fathers from Antioch (today in Turkey), patriarch of Constantinople. Theodosius
had just been baptized, by bishop Acholius of Thessalonica, during a severe
illness, as was common in the early Christian world.
On 27
February 380 he, Gratian and Valentinian II published an edict in order that
all their subjects should profess the faith of the bishops of Rome and
Alexandria (i.e., the Nicene faith). The move was mainly a thrust at the
various beliefs that had arisen out of Arianism, but smaller dissident sects,
such as the Macedonians, were also prohibited. The exact text of this decree,
gathered in the Codex Theodosianus XVI.1.2, was:
It is our desire that all the various
nations which are subject to our Clemency and Moderation, should continue to
profess that religion which was delivered to the Romans by the divine Apostle
Peter, as it has been preserved by faithful tradition, and which is now
professed by the Pontiff Damasus and by Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, a man of
apostolic holiness. According to the apostolic teaching and the doctrine of the
Gospel, let us believe in the one deity of the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit, in equal majesty and in a holy Trinity. We authorize the followers of
this law to assume the title of Catholic Christians; but as for the others,
since, in our judgment they are foolish madmen, we decree that they shall be
branded with the ignominious name of heretics, and shall not presume to give to
their conventicles the name of churches. They will suffer in the first place
the chastisement of the divine condemnation and in the second the punishment of
our authority which in accordance with the will of Heaven we shall decide to
inflict. (Henry Bettenson, Documents of the Christian Church, Oxford University
Press, 1967, 2nd. (1st. 1943), p. 22).
In May
381, Theodosius summoned a new ecumenical council at Constantinople (see First
Council of Constantinople) to repair the schism between East and West on the
basis of Nicean orthodoxy. "The council went on to define orthodoxy,
including the mysterious Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost who,
though equal to the Father, 'proceeded' from Him, whereas the Son was
'begotten' of Him." The council also "condemned the Apollonian and
Macedonian heresies, clarified church jurisdictions according to the civil
boundaries of dioceses and ruled that Constantinople was second in precedence
to Rome."
With the
death of Valens, the Arians' protector, his defeat probably damaged the
standing of the Homoian faction.
Conflicts with Pagans during the reign of
Theodosius I
Death of Western Roman Emperor Valentinian II
On 15 May
392, Valentinian II was found hanged in his residence in the town of Vienne in
Gaul. The Frankish soldier and Pagan Arbogast, Valentinian's protector and
magister militum, maintained that it was suicide. Arbogast and Valentinian had
frequently disputed rulership over the Western Roman Empire, and Valentinian
was also noted to have complained of Arbogast's control over him to Theodosius.
Thus when word of his death reached Constantinople Theodosius believed, or at
least suspected, that Arbogast was lying and that he had engineered
Valentinian's demise. These suspicions were further fueled by Arbogast's
elevation of a Eugenius, pagan official to the position of Western Emperor, and
the veiled accusations which Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, spoke during his
funeral oration for Valentinian.
Valentinian
II's death sparked a civil war between Eugenius and Theodosius over the
rulership of the west in the Battle of the Frigidus. The resultant eastern
victory there led to the final brief unification of the Roman Empire under
Theodosius, and the ultimate irreparable division of the empire after his
death.
Proscription of Paganism
For the
first part of his rule, Theodosius seems to have ignored the semi-official
standing of the Christian bishops; in fact he had voiced his support for the
preservation of temples or pagan statues as useful public buildings. In his
early reign, Theodosius was fairly tolerant of the pagans, for he needed the
support of the influential pagan ruling class. However he would in time stamp
out the last vestiges of paganism with great severity. His first attempt to
inhibit paganism was in 381 when he reiterated Constantine's ban on sacrifice.
In 384 he prohibited haruspicy on pain of death, and unlike earlier anti-pagan
prohibitions, he made non-enforcement of the law, by Magistrates, into a crime
itself.
In 388 he
sent a prefect to Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor with the aim of breaking up
pagan associations and the destruction of their temples. The Serapeum at
Alexandria was destroyed during this campaign. In a series of decrees called
the "Theodosian decrees" he progressively declared that those Pagan
feasts that had not yet been rendered Christian ones were now to be workdays
(in 389). In 391, he reiterated the ban of blood sacrifice and decreed "no
one is to go to the sanctuaries, walk through the temples, or raise his eyes to
statues created by the labor of man". The temples that were thus closed
could be declared "abandoned", as Bishop Theophilus of Alexandria
immediately noted in applying for permission to demolish a site and cover it
with a Christian church, an act that must have received general sanction, for
mithraea forming crypts of churches, and temples forming the foundations of 5th
century churches appear throughout the former Roman Empire. Theodosius
participated in actions by Christians against major Pagan sites: the
destruction of the gigantic Serapeum of Alexandria by soldiers and local
Christian citizens in 392, according to the Christian sources authorized by
Theodosius (extirpium malum), needs to be seen against a complicated background
of less spectacular violence in the city: Eusebius mentions street-fighting in
Alexandria between Christians and non-Christians as early as 249, and
non-Christians had participated in the struggles for and against Athanasius in 341
and 356. "In 363 they killed Bishop George for repeated acts of pointed
outrage, insult, and pillage of the most sacred treasures of the city."
Saint
Ambrose and Emperor Theodosius, Anthony van Dyck.
By decree
in 391, Theodosius ended the subsidies that had still trickled to some remnants
of Greco-Roman civic Paganism too. The eternal fire in the Temple of Vesta in
the Roman Forum was extinguished, and the Vestal Virgins were disbanded. Taking
the auspices and practicing witchcraft were to be punished. Pagan members of
the Senate in Rome appealed to him to restore the Altar of Victory in the
Senate House; he refused. After the last Olympic Games in 393, it is believed
that Theodosius cancelled the games although there is no proof of that in the
official records of the Roman Empire, and the reckoning of dates by Olympiads
soon came to an end. Now Theodosius portrayed himself on his coins holding the
labarum.
The
apparent change of policy that resulted in the "Theodosian decrees"
has often been credited to the increased influence of Ambrose, bishop of Milan.
It is worth noting that in 390 Ambrose had excommunicated Theodosius, who had
recently given orders which resulted in the massacre of 7,000 inhabitants of
Thessalonica, in response to the assassination of his military governor
stationed in the city, and that Theodosius performed several months of public
penance. The specifics of the decrees were superficially limited in scope,
specific measures in response to various petitions from Christians throughout
his administration.
Some
modern historians question the consequences of the laws against pagans.
Death
Theodosius
died, after battling the vascular disease oedema, in Milan on 17 January 395.
Ambrose organized and managed Theodosius's lying in state in Milan. Ambrose
delivered a panegyric titled De Obitu Theodosii before Stilicho and Honorius in
which Ambrose detailed the suppression of heresy and paganism by Theodosius.
Theodosius was finally laid to rest in Constantinople on 8 November 395.
Arcadius (Latin: Flavius Arcadius Augustus; Greek: Ἀρκάδιος;
1 January 377 – 1 May 408) was Eastern Roman Emperor from 395 to 408. He was
the eldest son of Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and brother
of the Western Emperor Honorius. A weak ruler, his reign was dominated by a
series of powerful ministers and by his wife, Aelia Eudoxia.
History
Arcadius was born in Hispania, the elder son of Theodosius I
and Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of Honorius, who would become the Western
Roman Emperor. His father declared him an Augustus and co-ruler for the eastern
half of the Empire in January 383. His younger brother was also declared
Augustus in 393, for the Western half.
As emperors, however, both Theodosius' sons are famous for
their extraordinarily weak wills and pliancy to ambitious ministers. At the
death of their father, Honorius was under the control of the Romanized Vandal
magister militum Flavius Stilicho while Arcadius was dominated by the
Praetorian Prefect of the East, Rufinus. Stilicho, who is alleged by some to
have aspired to control both Emperors, set off to the east shortly after
beginning his reign, leading back the Gothic mercenaries whom Theodosius had
taken west in the civil war with Arbogastes and Eugenius; Rufinus, who had
meanwhile stained his own rule with marked brutality and corruption, ordered Stilicho to retreat on threat of war,
revealing his suspicions. Stilicho complied and sent his army on under the
command of its general, Gainas, secretly his ally. When Rufinus greeted Gainas
with his army before Constantinople, he was suddenly assassinated on the parade
ground by the Goths. Arcadius had been on the verge of marrying Rufinus'
daughter, when the palace eunuchs under the influence of Eutropius,
apprehensive of this increase of the Prefect's power, conspired to switch the
bride with the daughter of Bauto, a Frankish general, called Aelia Eudoxia.[5]
Aside from the indignity to Rufinus, who was not informed of the change in
Arcadius' plans, and who was caught off guard in the middle of the marriage
ceremony, when the nuptial procession went to Eudoxia's residence rather than
his own, this change hinted at his fall from another aspect, since Eudoxia had
been raised, after her father's death, in the home of a general allegedly
murdered by Rufinus.[6] Subsequently, the eunuch Eutropius and Arcadius' wife,
Aelia Eudoxia, would assume Rufinus' place as advisors, or guardians, of the
emperor.
Eutropius' influence lasted four years, but ultimately, he
became as unpopular as Rufinus. Claudian, the court poet of Honorius, alleges
that the eunuch openly sold the governorships of the provinces, and the civil
magistracies, to the highest bidders; at the same time, many of the upper
classes were executed on trumped up charges, and their estates confiscated to
swell the coffers of the minister and his accomplices. New treason laws were
enacted under his auspices, by which the thought was not separated from the
execution of the crime, and by which the sons of the guilty were excluded from
the rights of citizenship. The last straw came in 399 when Eutropius, a eunuch
and former slave, had himself nominated to the consulship, an unprecedented
act. In the same year the Ostrogoths who
had been settled in Asia Minor by Theodosius I revolted, and Gainas, Eutropius'
personal enemy, who was appointed to suppress the insurrection after Eutropius'
appointees failed, ultimately persuaded the emperor to give in to their
demands, which included, inter alia, the dismissal of Eutropius. Eudoxia, sensing Eutropius' perilous
situation, quickly deserted her former ally, and convinced her husband to give
in to the Ostrogoths' demands. Subsequently, Eudoxia alone would have influence
over the emperor. That same year, on 13 July, Arcadius issued an edict ordering
that all remaining non-Christian temples should be immediately demolished.
After Eutropius' fall, Gainas joined the rebel Ostrogoths,
and forced Arcadius to make him Magister Militum, or chief general of the Roman
armies, and therefore the most powerful minister in the state. Additionally, he
demanded place for settlement for his troops in Thrace. Arcadius consented, but
the Ostrogoths' Arianism and hostile attitude brought them into conflict with
the populace of Constantinople, and Gainas' garrison in the capital was
overpowered and massacred in a general riot. Gainas reacted by declaring open
war on Arcadius, and advanced on Constantinople before realising it was too
strong for him to take. After this the Goths attempted to recross the
Hellespont and invade Asia, but were defeated by Fravitta, a loyal Goth in the
Roman service who replaced Gainas. The latter fled to the Danube with his
remaining followers, intending to establish an independent kingdom in Scythia,
but was ultimately defeated and killed by Uldin the Hun.
Eudoxia's influence was strongly opposed by John Chrysostom,
the Patriarch of Constantinople, who felt that she had used her family's wealth
to gain control over the Emperor. Eudoxia used her influence to have Chrysostom
deposed in 404, but she died later that year. Eudoxia gave to Arcadius four
children: three daughters, Pulcheria, Arcadia and Marina, and one son,
Theodosius, the future Emperor Theodosius II.
Arcadius was dominated for the rest of his rule by
Anthemius, the Praetorian Prefect, who made peace with Stilicho in the West.
Arcadius himself was more concerned with appearing to be a pious Christian than
he was with political or military matters, and he died, only nominally in
control of his Empire, in 408.
In this reign of a weak Emperor dominated by court politics,
a major theme was the ambivalence felt by prominent individuals and the court
parties that formed and regrouped round them towards barbarians, which in
Constantinople at this period meant Goths. In the well-documented episode that
revolved around Gainas, a number of Gothic foederati stationed in the capital
were massacred, the survivors fleeing under the command of Gainas to Thrace,
where they were tracked down by imperial troops and slaughtered and Gainas
dispatched. The episode has been traditionally interpreted as a paroxysm of
anti-barbarian reaction that served to stabilize the East. The main source for
the affair is a mythology à clef by Synesius of Cyrene, Aegyptus sive de
providentia (400), an Egyptianising
allegory that embodies a covert account of the events, the exact interpretation
of which continues to baffle scholars. Synesius' De regno, which claims to be
addressed to Arcadius himself, contains a tirade against Alaric and the Goths,
who had been ravaging Greece before being pacified by Arcadius' offer of peace
and independent settlement in Illyricum, in 398.
A new forum was built in the name of Arcadius, on the
seventh hill of Constantinople, the Xērolophos, in which a column was begun to
commemorate his 'victory' over Gainas (although the column was only completed
after Arcadius' death by Theodosius II).
The Pentelic marble portrait head of Arcadius (now in the
Istanbul Archaeology Museum) was discovered in Istanbul close to the Forum
Tauri, in June 1949, in excavating foundations for new buildings of the
University at Beyazit. The neck was
designed to be inserted in a torso, but no statue, base or inscription was
found. The diadem is a fillet with rows of pearls along its edges and a
rectangular stone set about with pearls over the young Emperor's forehead. |
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