Theodosius II
| Theodosius II | |
|---|---|
| Emperor of the Byzantine Empire | |
 Bust of Theodosius II |
|
| Reign | 1 May 408 – 28 July 450 (His sister acted as regent from 408 to 416) (42 years, 88 days) |
| Full name | Flavius Theodosius Augustus |
| Born | 10 April 401 |
| Died | 28 July 450 (aged 49) |
| Predecessor | Arcadius |
| Successor | Marcian |
| Wife | Aelia Eudocia |
| Offspring | Licinia Eudoxia |
| Father | Arcadius |
| Mother | Aelia Eudoxia |
Theodosius II (Latin: Flavius Theodosius Junior Augustus;[1] 10 April 401 – 28 July 450), commonly surnamed Theodosius the Younger,[2] or Theodosius the Calligrapher, was Byzantine Emperor from 408 to 450. He is mostly known for promulgating the Theodosian law code, and for the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople. He also presided over the outbreak of two great christological controversies, Nestorianism and Eutychianism.
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[edit] Life
Theodosius was born in 401 as the only son of Emperor Arcadius and his Frankish-born wife Aelia Eudoxia. In 408, his father died and the seven-year-old boy became Emperor of the Eastern half of the Roman Empire.
Government was at first by the Praetorian Prefect Anthemius, under whose supervision the Theodosian land walls of Constantinople were constructed.
In 414, Theodosius' older sister Pulcheria was proclaimed Augusta and assumed the regency. By 416 Theodosius was capable of ruling himself, but his sister remained a strong influence on him. In June 421, Theodosius married Aelia Eudocia, a woman of Greek origin.[3][4][5][6][7] The two had a daughter named Licinia Eudoxia.
Theodosius' increasing interest in Christianity, fueled by the influence of Pulcheria, had him start a war against the Sassanids (421–422), who were persecuting Christians; the war ended in a draw, when the Romans were forced to accept peace as the Huns menaced Constantinople.[8]
In 423, the Western Emperor Honorius, Theodosius' uncle, died and the primicerius notariorum Joannes was proclaimed Emperor. Honorius' sister Galla Placidia and her young son Valentinian fled to Constantinople to seek Eastern assistance and after some deliberation in 424 Theodosius opened the war against Joannes. In May 425, Valentinian III was installed as Emperor of the West, with his mother acting as regent. To strengthen the ties between the two parts of the Empire, Theodosius' daughter Licinia Eudoxia was betrothed to Valentinian.
[edit] University and Law Code
In 425, Theodosius founded the University of Constantinople with 31 chairs (15 in Latin and 16 in Greek). Among subjects were law, philosophy, medicine, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music and rhetoric.
In 429, Theodosius appointed a commission to collect all of the laws since the reign of Constantine I, and create a fully formalized system of law. This plan was left unfinished, but the work of a second commission that met in Constantinople, assigned to collect all of the general legislations and bring them up to date was completed, and their collection published as the Codex Theodosianus in 438. The law code of Theodosius II, summarizing edicts promulgated since Constantine, formed a basis for the law code of Emperor Justinian I in the following century.
[edit] Wars with the Huns, Vandals, and Persians
The Eastern Empire was also plagued by short raiding attacks by the Huns. In 447 the Huns went through the Balkans, destroying among others the city of Serdica (Sofia) and reaching Athyra (Büyükçekmece) on the outskirts of Constantinople. Then, an agreement was reached with the Eastern Roman Empire, negotiated by Anatolius. The Emperor chose to pay tribute, which amounted to 350 Roman pounds (ca. 114.5 kg) of gold until 435 and 700 Roman pounds after that.[citation needed]
When Roman Africa fell to the Vandals in 439, both Eastern and Western Emperors sent forces to Sicily, to launch an attack at the Vandals at Carthage, but this project failed. Seeing the Imperial borders without significant forces, the Huns and Sassanid Persia declared war. During 443 two Roman armies were defeated and destroyed by the Huns. In the subsequent peace agreement Roman tribute was tripled to 2,100 Roman pounds (ca. 687 kg) in gold after which the Huns withdrew into the interior of their empire. The war with Persia on the other hand proved indecisive, and a peace was arranged in 422 without changes to the status quo.
[edit] Theological disputes
During a visit to Syria, Theodosius met the preacher Nestorius and appointed him Patriarch of Constantinople in 428. Nestorius quickly became involved in the disputes of two theological factions, which differed in their Christology. Nestorius tried to find a middle ground between those that, emphasizing the fact that in Christ God had been born as a man, insisted on calling the Virgin Mary Theotokos ("birth-giver of God"), and those that rejected that title because God as an eternal being could not have been born. Nestorius suggested the title Christotokos ("birth-giver to Christ"), but did not find acceptance by either faction and was accused of detaching Christ's divine and human natures from each other, a heresy later called Nestorianism. Though initially supported by the Emperor, Nestorius found a forceful opponent in Patriarch Cyril of Alexandria. With the consent of the Emperor and Pope Celestine I, an Ecumenical Council convened in Ephesus in 431, which affirmed the title Theotokos and condemned Nestorius, who was then exiled by the Emperor.
Almost twenty years later, the theological dispute broke out again, this time caused by the Constantinopolitan abbot Eutyches, whose Christology was understood by some to mingle Christ's divine and human nature into one. Eutyches was condemned by Patriarch Flavian of Constantinople but found a powerful friend in Cyril's successor Dioscurus of Alexandria. Another council convoked to Ephesus in 449, deemed "robber synod" because of its tumultuous circumstances, restored Eutyches and deposed Flavian, who was mistreated and died shortly afterwards. Pope Leo I of Rome and many other bishops protested against the outcome, but the Emperor supported it. Only after his death in 450 would the decisions be reversed at the Council of Chalcedon.
[edit] Death
Theodosius died in 450 as the result of a riding accident. In the ensuing power struggle, his sister Pulcheria, who had recently returned to court, won out against the eunuch Chrysaphius. She married the general Marcian, thereby making him Emperor.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Consular diptych of 430
- ^ Gibbon, Edward. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapters 32 & 34
- ^ Duncan, Alistair (1974). The noble heritage: Jerusalem and Christianity, a portrait of the Church of the Resurrection. Longman. p. 28. ISBN 058278039X. "In 438 the Empress Eudocia, wife of Theodosius II, visited Jerusalem. On her return to Constantinople, after donating towards the building of new churches, she was displaced in court circles by her sister-in-law because of her Greek origin. Only one part of her churches remains."
- ^ Morgan, Robin (1996). Sisterhood is global: the international women's movement anthology. Feminist Press. p. 270. ISBN 1558611606. "Greek women also were visible during the Byzantine period. In 421 CE, Emperor Theodosius II married a pagan Athenian woman, Athenais; after baptism she became Eudocia."
- ^ Mahler, Helen A. (1952). Empress of Byzantium. Coward-McCann. p. 106. OCLC 331435. "Athenais, daughter of the Athenian scholar, Leontius. Before the wedding she would receive in holy baptism the name of his mother, the exalted Empress Eudoxia but because of Athenais' Greek origin the name would be pronounced Eudocia."
- ^ Cheetham, Nicolas (1981). Mediaeval Greece. Yale University Press. p. 12. ISBN 0300105398. "Immensely proud of her Hellenic ancestry and culture, Eudocia dominated her…"
- ^ Cuming, G. J. ; Baker, Derek ; Ecclesiastical History Society (1972). Popular belief and practice: Volume 8 of Studies in church history. CUP Archive. p. 13. ISBN 052108220X. "Eudocia herself, the daughter of a pagan Athenian philosopher, embraced the new faith in a mood of total acceptance. Very conscious of her Hellenic heritage, as her famous address to the citizens of Antioch showed,"
- ^ Warren T. Treadgold, A history of the Byzantine state and society, Stanford University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8047-2630-2, p. 90.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- S. Crogiez-Pétrequin, P. Jaillette, J.-M. Poinsotte (eds.), Codex Theodosianus V. Texte latin d'après l'édition de Mommsen. Traduction, introduction et notes, Brepols Publishers, 2009, ISBN 978-2-503-51722-3
- Fergus Miller: A Greek Roman Empire: Power and Belief Under Theodosius II. University of California Press, Berkeley 2006.
- Vasiliki Limberis, Divine Heiress: The Virgin Mary and the Creation of Christian Constantinople (London: Routledge, 1994) has a significant section about Theodosius II and his sister Pulcheria.
- Hugh Elton, "Imperial politics at the court of Theodosius II," in Andrew Cain (ed), The Power of Religion in Late Antiquity: The Power of Religion in Late Antiquity (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2009), 133-142.
[edit] External links
Media related to Theodosius II at Wikimedia Commons
- Reign of Theodosius II (chapter of J. B. Bury's History of the Later Roman Empire)
- Theodosian Code: Sections concerning religious observances (English)
- George Long, "Codex Theodosianus"
- Nathan, Geoffrey, "Theodosius II (408–450 A.D.)", De Imperatoribus Romanis
- This list of Roman laws of the fourth century shows laws passed by Theodosius II relating to Christianity.
