Theodosius I - Revision history

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''' Flavius Theodosius''' (Cauca (modern [[Coca]], [[Segovia (province)|Segovia]], [[Spain]]), [[January 11]], [[347]]-[[Milan]], [[January 17]], [[395]]), also called '''Theodosius I''' and '''Theodosius the Great''', was a [[Byzantine emperor]]. He was the son of a senior military officer, [[Count Theodosius|Theodosius the Elder]]. Theodosius was the last ruler of a united [[Roman Empire]] - after the division between his heirs it was never again ruled by a single man. He is also known for making [[Christianity]] the official state religion of the Roman Empire.

== Career ==

Theodosius 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 Cauca. 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 of his command by the emperor [[Valentinian I]], after the loss of two of Theodosius' legions by the Sarmatians in late [[374]].

In [[378]], after the death of the emperor [[Valens]] at the Battle of Adrianople (378), the emperor [[Gratian]] appointed Theodosius ''co-augustus'' for the East. After [[392]], following the death of [[Valentinian II]], whom he had supported against a variety of usurpations, Theodosius ruled as sole emperor, defeating the usurper [[Eugenius]] on [[September 6]], [[394]], at the Battle of Frigidus.

== Family ==

By his first wife, [[Aelia Flaccilla]], he had two sons, [[Arcadius]] and Honorius and a daughter, [[Pulcheria]]; Arcadius was his heir in the east and Honorius in the west. Both Pulcheria and Aelia Flaccilla died in [[385]]. By his second wife, Galla, daughter of the emperor [[Valentinian I]], he had a daughter, Galla Placidia, the mother of [[Valentinian III]].

== Diplomatic policy with the Goths ==

The East was quiet during the reign of Theodosius. The Goths and their allies entrenched in the [[Balkans]] consumed his attention. The Gothic crisis was bad enough that his co-Emperor Gratian relinquished control of 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 in recruiting barbarians to fight against barbarians. Theodosius was reduced to the expensive 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 Illyria of Goths, and Theodosius was able finally to enter [[Constantinople]] on [[November 24]], [[380]], after two seasons in the field. The final treaties with the remaining Goth forces, signed [[October 3]], [[382]], permitted large contingents of Goths to settle along the Danube frontier in the diocese of [[Thrace]] and largely govern themselves. Many would serve in Roman legions and others, as ''foederati,'' would join for a single campaign, while bands of Goths switching loyalties became a destabilizing factor in the internal struggles for control of the Empire. In the last years of Theodosius' reign, one of their emerging leaders named Alaric I, participated in Theodosius' campaign against [[Eugenius]] in [[394]], only to resume his rebellious behaviour against Theodosius' son and eastern successor, Arcadius, shortly after Theodosius' death.

== Civil wars in the Empire ==

The army of [[Eugenius]], marching under the banner of ''Hercules invictus'' marked the last stand of an official segment of the Roman Empire against the new official religion, Christianity. It was defeated at the Battle of Frigidus.

==Theodosius the patron==

Theodosius oversaw the erection in [[390]] of the Egyptian obelisk from Karnak. As Imperial spoils, it still stands in the [[Hippodrome of Constantinople|Hippodrome]], the long racetrack that was the center of Constantinople's public life and scene of political turmoils. Re-erecting the monolith was a challenge for the technology that had been honed in siege engines (compare the [[20th century]] arms race). The obelisk, still recognizably a [[Helios|solar symbol]], was removed to [[Alexandria]] in the first flush of Christian triumphalism at mid-century, but then spent a generation lying at the docks while people figured how to ship it to Constantinople. (It was cracked in transit nevertheless.) The white marble base (''illustration left'') is entirely covered with bas-reliefs documenting the Imperial household and the engineering feat itself. 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 the Roman tradition in such scenes is giving way to a conceptual art: the ''idea'' of order, decorum and respective ranking, expressed in serried ranks of faces, is beginning to oust the mere transitory details of this life, celebrated in pagan portraiture.

== Nicene Christianity becomes the state religion ==

In the [[4th century]], the Christian Church in the Roman Empire was wracked with controversy over the nature of the Trinity. In [[325]], the [[First Council of Nicaea|Council of Nicea]] had condemned the teachings of the theologian [[Arius]]: that Jesus was a created being and inferior to God the Father, and that the Father and Son were of a similar substance (''homoiousion'' in Greek) but not identical. The Council had formulated the [[Nicene Creed]], which declared that Jesus and God the Father were of the same substance (''homoousion'' in Greek). The Council did not settle these controversies, and by the time of Theodosius' accession, there were still several different church factions that sought to impose their views on Christianity as a whole. While no mainstream churchmen within the Empire explicitly adhered to Arius or his teachings, there were those who still used the ''homoiousion'' formula, as well as those who attempted to bypass the debate by merely saying that Jesus was like (''όμοιος'' in Greek) God the Father. 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. (For a succinct survey of the situation just before Theodosius' accession, see ''Failure of Empire,'' by Noel Lenski (U. of California Press, 2002, ISBN 0520233328) pp. 235-237).

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: this was the line that predominated in the West and was held by the important [[Alexandrian church]].

Two days after Theodosius arrived in Constantinople, ([[November 24]], [[380]]), Theodosius expelled the non-Nicene bishop, [[Demophilus of Constantinople]], and surrendered the churches of that city to [[Gregory Nazianzenus]], the leader of the small Nicene community there, an act which provoked rioting. Theodosius had just been baptized, by bishop [[Acholius of Thessalonica]], during a severe illness, as was common in the early Christian world. In February he and Gratian published an edict that all their subjects should profess the faith of the bishops of Rome and Alexandria (i.e., the Nicene faith).

Although much of the church hierarchy in the East had held non-Nicene positions in the decades leading up to Theodosius' accession, he managed to impose Nicene uniformity during his reign. Later Nicene writers took special glee in the ignominious death of Valens, the Arians' protector, and indeed his defeat probably damaged the standing of the Homoian faction.

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. Then, 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 outlawed [[Animal sacrifice|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 ''[[Mithraism|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 and its library by a mob in around [[392]], authorized by Theodosius (''extirpium malum'') and described in exultant detail by Christian propagandists, was only the most spectacular such occasion (see Peter Brown, ''The Rise of Western Christendom,'' 2003, p. 73-74). The destruction of the greatest temple in Alexandria gave encouragement to Christian vigilantism and mob action in other centers, often spurred on by the local [[bishop]]s, as early [[hagiographies]] proudly relate.

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 [[Vesta|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 [[Roman Senate|Senate]] in Rome appealed to him to restore the Altar of Victory in the Senate House; he refused. After the last [[Ancient Olympic Games|Olympic Games]] in [[393]], Theodosius cancelled the much-diminished games, and the reckoning of dates by [[Olympiad]]s 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. The personal piety of Theodosius cannot be assessed. It is worth noting that in [[390]] Ambrose had excommunicated Theodosius, who had recently ordered the massacre of several thousand inhabitants of [[Thessaloniki]], 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 and accusations from the increasingly militant Christians throughout his administration. In 391 or [[392]] he officially sanctioned the destruction of the most famous of the temples in the East, the Serapeum at Alexandria. Bands of monks and Christian officials had long been accustomed to take the law into their own hands and destroy various centers of pagan worship, but the destruction of the Serapeum seemed to confirm that such actions enjoyed the emperor's tacit approval at least, and served to encourage such action in the future. Theodosius had been effectively manipulated into sanctioning the destruction of the Serapeum by local officials who had essentially engineered the crisis there for this very purpose.

Ambrose preached a [[panegyric]] at Theodosius' funeral.

==External link==
*[http://www.roman-emperors.org/theo1.htm De Imperatoribus Romanis, Theodosius I]

[[Category:340s births]]
[[Category:395 deaths]]
[[Category:House of Theodosius]]
[[Category:Byzantine Emperors]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:17, May 23, 2006
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	''' Flavius Theodosius''' (Cauca (modern [[Coca]], [[Segovia ~~(province)\|Segovia]]~~, [[Spain]]), [[January 11]], [[347]]-[[Milan]], [[January 17]], [[395]]), also called '''Theodosius I''' and '''Theodosius the Great''', was a [[Byzantine emperor]]. He was the son of a senior military officer, [[Count Theodosius\|Theodosius the Elder]]. Theodosius was the last ruler of a united [[Roman Empire]] - after the division between his heirs it was never again ruled by a single man. He is also known for making [[Christianity]] the official state religion of the Roman Empire.	+	''' Flavius Theodosius''' (Cauca (modern Coca, Segovia, Spain), [[January 11]], [[347]]-[[Milan]], [[January 17]], [[395]]), also called '''Theodosius I''' and '''Theodosius the Great''', was a [[Byzantine emperor]]. He was the son of a senior military officer, [[Count Theodosius\|Theodosius the Elder]]. Theodosius was the last ruler of a united Roman Empire - after the division between his heirs it was never again ruled by a single man. He is also known for making [[Christianity]] the official state religion of the Roman Empire.

	== Career ==		== Career ==

@@ Line 47: / Line 47: @@
-[[Category:340s births]]
+[[Category:347 births]]
 [[Category:395 deaths]]
 [[Category:House of Theodosius]]
 [[Category:Byzantine emperors]]

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 Theodosius 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 Cauca. 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 of his command by the emperor [[Valentinian I]], after the loss of two of Theodosius' legions by the Sarmatians in late [[374]].
-In [[378]], after the death of the emperor [[Valens]] at the Battle of Adrianople (378), the emperor [[Gratian]] appointed Theodosius ''co-augustus'' for the East. After [[392]], following the death of [[Valentinian II]], whom he had supported against a variety of usurpations, Theodosius ruled as sole emperor, defeating the usurper [[Eugenius]] on [[September 6]], [[394]], at the Battle of Frigidus.
+In [[378]], after the death of the emperor [[Valens]] at the Battle of Adrianople (378), the emperor [[Gratian]] appointed Theodosius ''co-augustus'' for the East. After [[392]], following the death of [[Valentinian II]], whom he had supported against a variety of usurpations, Theodosius ruled as sole emperor, defeating the usurper [[Eugenius]] on [[September 6]], [[394]], at the [[Battle of Frigidus]].
 == Family ==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-''' Flavius Theodosius''' (Cauca (modern Coca, Segovia, Spain), [[January 11]], [[347]]-[[Milan]], [[January 17]], [[395]]), also called '''Theodosius I''' and '''Theodosius the Great''', was a [[Byzantine emperor]]. He was the son of a senior military officer, [[Count Theodosius|Theodosius the Elder]]. Theodosius was the last ruler of a united Roman Empire - after the division between his heirs it was never again ruled by a single man. He is also known for making [[Christianity]] the official state religion of the Roman Empire.
+''' Flavius Theodosius''' (Cauca (modern Coca, Segovia, Spain), [[January 11]], [[347]]-Milan, [[January 17]], [[395]]), also called '''Theodosius I''' and '''Theodosius the Great''', was a [[Byzantine emperor]]. He was the son of a senior military officer, Theodosius the Elder. Theodosius was the last ruler of a united Roman Empire - after the division between his heirs it was never again ruled by a single man. He is also known for making Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire.
 == Career ==
@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 ==Theodosius the patron==
-Theodosius oversaw the erection in [[390]] of the Egyptian obelisk from Karnak. As Imperial spoils, it still stands in the [[Hippodrome of Constantinople|Hippodrome]], the long racetrack that was the center of Constantinople's public life and scene of political turmoils. Re-erecting the monolith was a challenge for the technology that had been honed in siege engines (compare the [[20th century]] arms race). The obelisk, still recognizably a [[Helios|solar symbol]], was removed to [[Alexandria]] in the first flush of Christian triumphalism at mid-century, but then spent a generation lying at the docks while people figured how to ship it to Constantinople. (It was cracked in transit nevertheless.) The white marble base (''illustration left'') is entirely covered with bas-reliefs documenting the Imperial household and the engineering feat itself. 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 the Roman tradition in such scenes is giving way to a conceptual art: the ''idea'' of order, decorum and respective ranking, expressed in serried ranks of faces, is beginning to oust the mere transitory details of this life, celebrated in pagan portraiture.
+Theodosius oversaw the erection in [[390]] of the Egyptian obelisk from Karnak. As Imperial spoils, it still stands in the [[Hippodrome of Constantinople|Hippodrome]], the long racetrack that was the center of Constantinople's public life and scene of political turmoils. Re-erecting the monolith was a challenge for the technology that had been honed in siege engines (compare the [[20th century]] arms race). The obelisk, still recognizably a solar symbol, was removed to [[Alexandria]] in the first flush of Christian triumphalism at mid-century, but then spent a generation lying at the docks while people figured how to ship it to Constantinople. (It was cracked in transit nevertheless.) The white marble base is entirely covered with bas-reliefs documenting the Imperial household and the engineering feat itself. 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 the Roman tradition in such scenes is giving way to a conceptual art: the ''idea'' of order, decorum and respective ranking, expressed in serried ranks of faces, is beginning to oust the mere transitory details of this life, celebrated in pagan portraiture.
 == Nicene Christianity becomes the state religion ==
@@ Line 34: / Line 34: @@
 Although much of the church hierarchy in the East had held non-Nicene positions in the decades leading up to Theodosius' accession, he managed to impose Nicene uniformity during his reign. Later Nicene writers took special glee in the ignominious death of Valens, the Arians' protector, and indeed his defeat probably damaged the standing of the Homoian faction.
-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. Then, 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 outlawed [[Animal sacrifice|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 ''[[Mithraism|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 and its library by a mob in around [[392]], authorized by Theodosius (''extirpium malum'') and described in exultant detail by Christian propagandists, was only the most spectacular such occasion (see Peter Brown, ''The Rise of Western Christendom,''  2003, p. 73-74). The destruction of the greatest temple in Alexandria gave encouragement to Christian vigilantism and mob action in other centers, often spurred on by the local [[bishop]]s, as early [[hagiographies]] proudly relate.
+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. Then, 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 outlawed 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 and its library by a mob in around [[392]], authorized by Theodosius (''extirpium malum'') and described in exultant detail by Christian propagandists, was only the most spectacular such occasion (see Peter Brown, ''The Rise of Western Christendom,''  2003, p. 73-74). The destruction of the greatest temple in Alexandria gave encouragement to Christian vigilantism and mob action in other centers, often spurred on by the local bishops, as early hagiographies proudly relate.
-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 [[Vesta|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 [[Roman Senate|Senate]] in Rome appealed to him to restore the Altar of Victory in the Senate House; he refused. After the last [[Ancient Olympic Games|Olympic Games]] in [[393]], Theodosius cancelled the much-diminished games, and the reckoning of dates by [[Olympiad]]s soon came to an end. Now Theodosius portrayed himself on his coins holding the ''labarum''.
+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 [[Hestia|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 [[Ancient Olympic Games|Olympic Games]] in [[393]], Theodosius cancelled the much-diminished games, and the reckoning of dates by [[Olympiad]]s 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. The personal piety of Theodosius cannot be assessed. It is worth noting that in [[390]] Ambrose had excommunicated Theodosius, who had recently ordered the massacre of several thousand inhabitants of [[Thessaloniki]], 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 and accusations from the increasingly militant Christians throughout his administration. In 391 or [[392]] he officially sanctioned the destruction of the most famous of the temples in the East, the Serapeum at Alexandria. Bands of monks and Christian officials had long been accustomed to take the law into their own hands and destroy various centers of pagan worship, but the destruction of the Serapeum seemed to confirm that such actions enjoyed the emperor's tacit approval at least, and served to encourage such action in the future. Theodosius had been effectively manipulated into sanctioning the destruction of the Serapeum by local officials who had essentially engineered the crisis there for this very purpose.
-Ambrose preached a [[panegyric]] at Theodosius' funeral.
+Ambrose preached a panegyric at Theodosius' funeral.