Theodosius I
Roman Emperor Theodosius I (A.D. 379-395)
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Word of warning: Valeo is the Latin verb 'to be strong'. It was a popular base for men's names in the Roman Empire. Valentinian was the name of two Rome emperors during the lifetime of Theodosius, and Valens was that of a third. Keep an eye on the accompanying table to keep these similar names straight.
Under Emperor Valentinian I (r. 364-375), army officer Flavius Theodosius was stripped of command and exiled to Cauca, Spain, where he had been born in about 346. Despite such inauspicious beginnings, Theodosius, with his 8-year-old son installed in name as ruler of the Western Empire, became the last emperor to rule the entire Roman Empire in fact.
| For Cauca, see sec. Bd on Map |
Against all odds, on August 9, 378 the Visigoths trounced the Eastern Empire and killed its emperor (Valens) at the momentous Battle of Adrianople. Although it took a while for the after-effects to play out, this defeat is a major event to look at when tracing the fall of the Roman Empire.
| For the route of the Visigoths and other migrating bands, see Barbarian Migrations Map |
With the eastern emperor dead, his nephew, the western Emperor Gratian, needed to reclaim command of Constantinople and the rest of the eastern part of the empire. To do so he sent in his best general -- the formerly-exiled Flavius Theodosius.
Theodosius' Hazardous Rise to Power
Theodosius' own father had been a senior military officer in the Western Empire. Emperor Valentinian had honored him by appointing him magister equitum praesentalis 'Master of the Horse in the Presence of the Emperor' (Ammianus Marcellinus 28.3.9) in 368, and then executed him in early 375 for unclear reasons. Perhaps Theodosius' father was executed for trying to intercede on behalf of his son. At about the time Emperor Valentinian executed his father, Theodosius went into retirement in Spain.
It was only after Valentinian's death (November 17, 375) that Theodosius regained his commission. Theodosius obtained the rank of the magister militum per Illyricum 'Master of the Soldiers for the Prefecture of Illyricum' in 376, which he kept until January 379 when Emperor Gratian appointed him co-Augustus to replace Emperor Valens. Gratian may have been coerced into making the appointment.
- Read about the Accession of Theodosius and Why Was Theodosius Called the Great?
Map Showing Illyricum, Macedonia, Moesia, Dacia, Thrace. Note Illyricum in white on the left.
Theodosius Recruits
The Goths and their allies were ravaging not only Thrace, but also Macedonia and Dacia. It was the eastern emperor, Theodosius' job to suppress them while the western emperor, Gratian attended to matters in Gaul. Although Emperor Gratian provided the Eastern Empire with some troops, Emperor Theodosius needed more -- because of the devastation caused by the Battle at Adrianople. So he recruited troops from among the barbarians. In an only partially successful attempt to stave off barbarian defection, Emperor Theodosius made a trade, he sent some of his new questionable recruits to Egypt and had presumed-loyal Roman soldiers sent to him as replacements. In 382 Emperor Theodosius and the Goths reached an agreement: Emperor Theodosius permitted the Visigoths to retain some autonomy while living in Thrace, and many of the Goths enlisted in the imperial army, and especially the cavalry, one of the Roman weaknesses at Adrianople.Maximus Emperor
In January of 383, Emperor Theodosius named his young son Arcadius successor. Maximus, a general who had served with Theodosius' father and may have been a blood relative, may have hoped to be named, instead. That year Maximus' soldiers proclaimed him emperor. With these approving troops Maximus entered Gaul to face Emperor Gratian. The latter was betrayed by his own troops and killed in Lyons by Maximus' Gothic magister equitum. Maximus was preparing to advance on Rome when Emperor Gratian's brother, Valentinian II, sent a force to meet him. Maximus agreed to accept Valentinian II as ruler of part of the Western Empire, in 384, but in 387 he advanced against him. This time Valentinian II fled to the East, to Emperor Theodosius. Theodosius took Valentinian II into protection. Then he led his army to fight against Maximus in Illyricum, at Emona, Siscia and Poetovio [see map]. Despite many Gothic troops defecting to Maximus' side, Maximus was captured and executed at Aquileia on August 28, 388. One of the defecting Gothic leaders was Alaric, who fought for Emperor Theodosius in 394 against Eugenius, another pretender to the throne, and then against Emperor Theodosius' son, but is best known for sacking Rome.Stilicho
From the time of Emperor Jovian (377) there had been a Roman treaty with the Persians, but there were skirmishes along the borders. In 387, Emperor Theodosius' magister peditum praesentalis, Richomer, put an end to these. Conflict over Armenia picked up again, until another of Emperor Theodosius' officials, his magister militum per Orientem, Stilicho, arranged a settlement. Stilicho was to become a major figure in Roman history of the period. In an effort to tie Stilicho to his family and presumably strengthen the claim of Emperor Theodosius' son Arcadius, Emperor Theodosius married his niece and adoptive daughter to Stilicho. Emperor Theodosius appointed Stilicho regent over his younger son Honorius and possibly (as Stilicho claimed), over Arcadius, as well.Theodosius on Religion
Emperor Theodosius had been tolerant of most pagan practices, but then in 391 he sanctioned the destruction of the Serapeum at Alexandria, enacted laws against pagan practices, and put an end to the Olympic games. [See Portrait of a Priestess.] He is also credited with putting an end to the power of the Arian and Manichean heresies in Constantinople, while establishing Catholicism as the state religion.
For information on civil and military titles, see Notitia Dignitatum and "The Roman Magistri in the Civil and Military Service of the Empire," by A. E. R. Boak. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 26, (1915), pp. 73-164.
This feature on Theodosius I © 2001-2009 N.S. Gill
