The Theodosian dynasty was a Roman imperial family that produced five Roman emperors during Late Antiquity, reigning over the Roman Empire from 379 to 457. The dynasty's patriarch was Theodosius the Elder, whose son Theodosius the Great was made Roman emperor in 379. Theodosius's two sons both became emperors, while his daughter married Constantius III, producing a daughter that became an empress and a son also became emperor. The dynasty of Theodosius married into, and reigned concurrently with, the ruling Valentinianic dynasty (r.364–455), and was succeeded by the Leonid dynasty (r.457–518) with the accession of Leo the Great.
Its founding father was Flavius Theodosius (often referred to as Count Theodosius), a great hispanic general who had saved Britannia from the Great Conspiracy. His son, Flavius Theodosius was made emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire in 379, and briefly reunited the Roman Empire 394–395 by defeating the usurper Eugenius. Theodosius I was succeeded by his sons Honorius in the West and Arcadius in the East. The House of Theodosius was related to the Valentinianic Dynasty by marriage, since Theodosius I had married Galla, a daughter of Valentinian I. Their daughter was Galla Placidia. The last emperor in the West belonging to the dynasty was Galla Placidia's son Valentinian III. The last emperor of the dynasty in the East was Theodosius II, the son of Arcadius. Later, both in the East and in the West, the dynasty briefly continued, but only through marriages: Marcian became emperor by marrying Pulcheria, the older sister of Theodosius II, after the death of the latter, Petronius Maximus was married to Licinia Eudoxia, the daughter of Theodosius II, and Olybrius was married to Placidia, the daughter of Valentinian III. Anthemius is also sometimes counted to the dynasty as he became a son-in-law of Marcian. Descendants of the dynasty continued to be part of the East Roman nobility at Constantinople until the end of the 6th century.
In 366, Theodosius the Elder attacked and defeated the Alamanni in Gaul; the defeated prisoners were resettled in the Po Valley.[2][3] In 367 Roman Britain was threatened by the Great Conspiracy, defeated 368–369 by the magister equitum Theodosius the Elder, accompanied by his son Theodosius.[2][3][1] At this time was the unsuccessful usurpation in Britain by Valentinus.[3] Theodosius the Elder was made magister equitum in 369, and retained the post until 375.[1] The magister equitum and his son Theodosius campaigned against the Alamanni 370.[1] The two Theodosi campaigned against Sarmatians in 372/373.[1] Valentinian's rule in Roman Africa was disrupted by the revolt of Firmus in 373.[2] Theodosius the Elder defeated the usurpation.[2]
In 373/374, Theodosius the magister equitum's son, was made dux of the province of Moesia Prima.[1] At the fall of his father, Theodosius the dux of Moesia Prima retired to his estates in the Iberian Peninsula, where he married Aelia Flaccilla in 376.[1] Their first child, Arcadius, was born around 377.[1]Pulcheria, their daughter, was born in 377 or 378.[1] Theodosius had returned to the Danube frontier by 378, when he was appointed magister equitum.[1]
After the death of his uncle Valens (r.364–378), Gratian, now the senior augustus, sought a candidate to nominate as Valens's successor. On 19 January 379, Theodosius I was made augustus over the eastern provinces at Sirmium.[1][4] His wife, Aelia Flaccilla, was accordingly raised to augusta.[1] The new augustus's territory spanned the Roman praetorian prefecture of the East, including the Roman diocese of Thrace, and the additional dioceses of Dacia and of Macedonia. Theodosius the Elder, who had died in 375, was then deified as: Divus Theodosius Pater, lit.'the Divine Father Theodosius'.[1] In October 379 the Council of Antioch was convened.[1] On 27 February 380 Theodosius issued the Edict of Thessalonica, making Nicene Christianity the state church of the Roman Empire.[1] In 380, Theodosius was made Roman consul for the first time and Gratian for the fifth; in September the augusti Gratian and Theodosius met, returning the Roman diocese of Dacia to Gratian's control and that of Macedonia to Valentinian II.[4][1] In autumn Theodosius fell ill, and was baptized.[1] According to the Consularia Constantinopolitana, Theodosius arrived at Constantinople and staged an adventus, a ritual entry to the capital, on 24 November 380.[1]
Theodosius issued a decree against Christians deemed heretics on 10 January 381.[1] According to the Consularia Constantinopolitana, on the 11 January, Athanaric, king of the Gothic Thervingi arrived in Constantinople; he died and was buried in Constantinople on 25 January.[1] On 8 May 381, Theodosius issued an edict against Manichaeism.[1] In mid-May, Theodosius convened the First Council of Constantinople, the second ecumenical council after Constantine's First Council of Nicaea in 325; the Constantinopolitan council ended on 9 July.[1] According to Zosimus, Theodosius won a victory over the Carpi and the Sciri in summer 381.[1] On 21 December, Theodosius decreed the prohibition of sacrifices with the intent of divining the future.[1] On 21 February 382, the body of Theodosius's father in law Valentinian the Great was finally laid to rest in the Church of the Holy Apostles.[1] Another Council of Constantinople was held in summer 382.[1] According to the Consularia Constantinopolitana, a treaty of foedus was reached with the Goths, and they were settled between the Danube and the Balkan Mountains.[1]
According to the Chronicon Paschale, Theodosius celebrated his quinquennalia on 19 January at Constantinople; on this occasion he raised his eldest son Arcadius to co-augustus.[1] Early 383 saw the acclamation of Magnus Maximus as augustus in Britain and the appointment of Themistius as praefectus urbi in Constantinople.[1] On 25 July, Theodosius issued a new edict against gatherings of Christians deemed heretics.[1] Sometime in 383, Gratian's wife Constantia died.[4] Gratian remarried, wedding Laeta, whose father was a consularis of Roman Syria.[5] On the 25 August 383, according to the Consularia Constantinopolitana, Gratian was killed at Lugdunum (Lyon) by Andragathius, the magister equitum of the rebel augustus during the rebellion of Magnus Maximus (r.383–388).[4] Constantia's body arrived in Constantinople on 12 September that year and was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles on 1 December.[4] Gratian was deified as Latin: Divus Gratianus, lit.'the Divine Gratian'.[4]
On 21 January 384 all those deemed heretics were expelled from Constantinople.[1] According to the Consularia Constantinopolitana, Theodosius received in Constantinople an embassy from the Sasanian Empire in 384.[1] In summer 384, Theodosius met his co-augustus Valentinian II in northern Italy.[6][1] Theodosius brokered a peace agreement between Valentinian and Magnus Maximus which endured for several years.[7]
Theodosius's second son Honorius was born on 9 December 384 and titled nobilissimus puer (or nobilissimus iuvenis).[1] Sometime before 386 died Aelia Flaccilla, Theodosius's first wife and the mother of Arcadius, Honorius, and Pulcheria.[1] She died at Scotumis in Thrace and was buried at Constantinople, her funeral oration delivered by Gregory of Nyssa.[1][8] A statue of her was dedicated in the Byzantine Senate.[8] In 384 or 385, Theodosius's niece Serena was married to the magister militum, Stilicho.[1] On 25 May 385, Theodosius reiterated the ban on sacrifices with questions concerning the future with new legislation.[1] In the beginning of 386, Theodosius's first wife Aelia Flaccilla and his daughter Pulcheria both died.[1] That summer the Goths were defeated, together with their settlement in Phrygia.[1] According to the Consularia Constantinopolitana, a Roman triumph over the Gothic Greuthungi was then celebrated at Constantinople.[1] The same year, work began on the great triumphal column in the Forum of Theodosius in Constantinople, the Column of Theodosius.[1] On 19 January 387, according to the Consularia Constantinopolitana, Arcadius celebrated his quinquennalia in Constantinople.[1] By the end of the month, there was an uprising or riot in Antioch, known as Riot of the Statues.[1] Also in 387, Armenia was divided between Rome and Persia by the peace treaty known as Peace of Acilisene.[1]
The peace with Magnus Maximus was broken in 387, and Valentinian escaped the west with Justina, reaching Thessalonica (Thessaloniki) in summer or autumn 387 and appealing to Theodosius for aid; Valentinian II's sister Galla was then married to the eastern augustus at Thessalonica in late autumn.[6][1] Theodosius may still have been in Thessalonica when he celebrated his decennalia on 19 January 388.[1] Theodosius was consul for the second time in 388.[1] Galla and Theodosius's first child, a son named Gratian, was born in 388 or 389.[1]
On 10 March 388, Christians deemed heretics were forbidden from residing in cities.[1] On 14 March, Theodosius banned the intermarriage of Jews and Christians.[1] In summer 388, Theodosius recovered Italy from Magnus Maximus for Valentinian, and in June, the meeting of Christians deemed heretics was banned by Valentinian.[6][1] Around July, Magnus Maximus was defeated by Theodosius at Siscia (Sisak) and at Poetovio (Ptuj), and on 28 August, Magnus Maximus was executed by Theodosius.[1] According to the Consularia Constantinopolitana, Arbogast killed Flavius Victor (r.384–388), Magnus Maximus's young son and co-augustus, in Gaul in August/September that year. Damnatio memoriae was pronounced against them, and inscriptions naming them were erased.[1]
Theodosius came into conflict with Ambrose, bishop of Mediolanum, in October 388 over the persecution of Jews at Callincium-on-the-Euphrates (Raqqa).[1] As mentioned in the Panegyrici Latini and in a panegyric of Claudian's on the sixth consulship of Honorius, Theodosius then received another embassy from the Persians in 389.[1] According to the Consularia Constantinopolitana, Theodosius staged an adventus on entering Rome on 13 June 389.[1] On 17 June, he issued a decree against Manichaeism.[1] Theodosius had left Valentinian under the protection of the magister militumArbogast, who then defeated the Franks in 389.[7][6]
In spring 390, possibly in April, the Massacre of Thessalonica was perpetrated by Theodosius's army, leading to a confrontation with Ambrose.[1] Ambrose demanded that the emperor do penance for the massacre.[1] According to the 5th-century church historianTheodoret, on 25 December 390 (Christmas), Ambrose received Theodosius back into the Christian Church in his bishopric of Mediolanum.[1] According to the Chronicon Paschale, on 18 February 391, the head of John the Baptist was translated to Constantinople.[1] On the 24 February, attendance at pagan sacrifices and temples was forbidden by law.[1] In early summer 391, an uprising in Alexandria was suppressed, and the Serapeum of Alexandria was destroyed.[1] On 16 June, pagan worship was prohibited by law.[1] In 391, a delegation from the Roman Senate was snubbed in Gaul because of the reappearance of the Altar of Victory in the Curia Julia.[6]
According to Zosimus, Theodosius then campaigned against marauding barbarian bandits in Macedonia in autumn 391.[1] Eventually, he came to Constantinople, where according to Socrates Scholasticus's Historia Ecclesiastica he held an adventus, entering the city on 10 November 391.[1]
On 15 May 392, Valentinian II died at Vienna in Gaul (Vienne), either by suicide or as part of a plot by Arbogast.[6] He was deified with the consecratio: Divae Memoriae Valentinianus, lit.'the Divine Memory of Valentinian'.[6] Theodosius was then sole adult emperor, reigning with his son Arcadius. On 22 August at the behest of the magister militum Arbogast, a magister scrinii and vir clarissimus, Eugenius, was acclaimed augustus at Lugdunum (Lyon).[1] On 8 November 392, all cult worship of the gods was forbidden by Theodosius.[1]
According to Polemius Silvius, Theodosius raised his second son Honorius to augustus on 23 January 393.[1] 393 was the year of Theodosius's third consulship.[1] On 29 September 393, Theodosius issued a decree for the protection of Jews.[1] According to Zosimus, at the end of April 394, Theodosius's wife Galla died.[1] On 1 August, a colossal statue of Theodosius was dedicated in Constantinople's Forum of Theodosius, an event recorded in the Chronicon Paschale.[1] According to Socrates Scholasticus, Theodosius defeated Eugenius at the Battle of the Frigidus on 6 September 394 and on 8 September, Arbogast killed himself.[1] According to Socrates, on 1 January 395, Honorius arrived in Mediolanum and a victory celebration was held there.[1]
According to the Consularia Constantinopolitana, Theodosius died in Mediolanum on 17 January 395.[1] His funeral was held there on 25 February, and his body transferred to Constantinople, where according to the Chronicon Paschale he was buried on 8 November 395 in the Church of the Holy Apostles.[1] He was deified as: Divus Theodosius, lit.'the Divine Theodosius'.[1]
The two surviving sons of Theodosius ruled the eastern and western halves of the empire after their father died.[1] Theodosius's second wife Galla, the daughter of Valentinian the Great by his second wife Justina, was Galla Placidia, born in 392 or 393.[1] Galla Placidia's brother Gratian, the son of Galla and Theodosius, died in 394.[1] Another son, John (Latin: Ioannes), may have been born in 394.[1] Galla Placidia married Athaulf, the King of the Visigoths in 414; he soon died and she married the patricius Constantius (later Constantius III) in 417.[1] Their children were Justa Grata Honoria and Valentinian III.[9] Constantius III was elevated to augustus in 421 by Honorius, who had no issue, and Galla Placidia was made augusta; Constantius died the same year and Galla Placidia fled to Constantinople.[9]
Third generation emperors: Theodosius II and Valentinian III
When Honorius died in 423, the primicerius notariorumJoannes (r.423–425) succeeded as augustus in the west; thereafter Theodosius II (r.402–450) – son and successor of Arcadius as augustus in the east – moved to install Galla Placidia's son Valentinian as emperor in the west instead, appointing him caesar on 23 October 424.[9] After the fall of Joannes, Valentinian III was made augustus on the first anniversary of his investiture as caesar; he ruled the western provinces until his death on the 16 March 455, though Galla Placidia was regent during his youth. Galla Placidia died on 25 November 450.[1]
Valentinian coins
Solidus of Valentinian II with Theodosius I on the reverse, each holding a mappa
Solidus of Valentinian III celebrating an imperial marriage[lower-alpha 10]
Imperial members
In italics are members of the Valentinianic dynasty, descended from Theodosius I's second marriage to Galla, daughter of Valentinian the Great (r.364–375).
Arcadius was Roman emperor from 383 to his death in 408. He was the eldest son of the Augustus Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and the brother of Honorius. Arcadius ruled the eastern half of the empire from 395, when their father died, while Honorius ruled the west. A weak ruler, his reign was dominated by a series of powerful ministers and by his wife, Aelia Eudoxia.
Honorius was Roman emperor from 393 to 423. He was the younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla. After the death of Theodosius in 395, Honorius, under the regency of Stilicho, ruled the western half of the empire while his brother Arcadius ruled the eastern half. His reign over the Western Roman Empire was notably precarious and chaotic. In 410, Rome was sacked for the first time since the Battle of the Allia almost 800 years prior.
Galla Placidia, daughter of the Roman emperor Theodosius I, was a mother, tutor, and advisor to emperor Valentinian III. She was queen consort to Ataulf, King of the Visigoths from 414 until his death in 415, briefly empress consort to Constantius III in 421, and managed the government administration as a regent during the early reign of Valentinian III until her death.
Theodosius I, also known as Theodosius the Great, was a Roman emperor from 379 to 395. He won two civil wars and was instrumental in establishing the Nicene Creed as the orthodox doctrine for Nicene Christianity. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule the entire Roman Empire before its administration was permanently split between the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. He successfully ended the Gothic War (376–382) with terms advantageous to the empire, with the Goths remaining in Roman territory but as subject allies.
The 400s decade ran from January 1, 400, to December 31, 409.
The 380s decade ran from January 1, 380, to December 31, 389.
The 420s decade ran from January 1, 420, to December 31, 429.
Anicius Olybrius was Roman emperor from July 472 until his death later that same year; his rule as augustus in the western Roman Empire was not recognised as legitimate by the ruling augustus in the eastern Roman Empire, Leo I. He was in reality a puppet ruler raised to power by Ricimer, the magister militum of Germanic descent, and was mainly interested in religion, while the actual power was held by Ricimer and his nephew Gundobad.
Theodosius II was Roman emperor from 408 to 450. He was proclaimed Augustus as an infant and ruled as the Eastern Empire's sole emperor after the death of his father, Arcadius, in 408. His reign was marked by the promulgation of the Theodosian law code and the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople. He also presided over the outbreak of two great Christological controversies, Nestorianism and Eutychianism.
Valentinian III was Roman emperor in the West from 425 to 455. Starting in childhood, his reign over the Roman Empire was one of the longest, but was dominated by civil wars among powerful generals and the invasions of late antiquity's Migration Period.
Gratian was emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 367 to 383. The eldest son of Valentinian I, Gratian was raised to the rank of Augustus as a child and inherited the West after his father's death in 375. He nominally shared the government with his infant half-brother Valentinian II, who was also acclaimed emperor in Pannonia on Valentinian's death. The East was ruled by his uncle Valens, who was later succeeded by Theodosius I.
Valentinian II was a Roman emperor in the western part of the Roman empire between AD 375 and 392. He was at first junior co-ruler of his half-brother, then was sidelined by a usurper, and finally became sole ruler after 388, albeit with limited de facto powers.
Aelia Eudoxia was a Roman empress consort by marriage to the Roman emperor Arcadius. The marriage was the source of some controversy, as it was arranged by Eutropius, one of the eunuch court officials, who was attempting to expand his influence. As Empress, she came into conflict with John Chrysostom, the Patriarch of Constantinople, who was popular among the common folk for his denunciations of imperial and clerical excess. She had five children, four of whom survived to adulthood, including her only son and future emperor Theodosius II, but she had two additional pregnancies that ended in either miscarriages or stillbirths and she died as a result of the latter one.
The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia is a Late Antique Roman building in Ravenna, Italy, built between 425 and 450. It was added to the World Heritage List together with seven other structures in Ravenna in 1996. Despite its common name, the empress Galla Placidia was not buried in the building, a misconception dating from the thirteenth century; she died in Rome and was buried there, probably alongside Honorius in the Mausoleum of Honorius at Old Saint Peter's Basilica.
Placidia was a daughter of Valentinian III, Roman emperor of the West from 425 to 455, and from 454/455 the wife of Olybrius, who became western Roman emperor in 472. She was one of the last imperial spouses in the Roman west, during the Fall of the Western Roman Empire during Late Antiquity.
Licinia Eudoxia was a Roman Empress, daughter of Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II. Her husbands included the Western Roman Emperors Valentinian III and Petronius Maximus.
Aelia Flavia Flaccilla was a Roman empress and first wife of the Roman Emperor Theodosius I. She was of Hispanian Roman descent. During her marriage to Theodosius, she gave birth to two sons – future Emperors Arcadius and Honorius – and a daughter, Aelia Pulcheria.
The Valentinian dynasty was a ruling house of five generations of dynasts, including five Roman emperors during late antiquity, lasting nearly a hundred years from the mid fourth to the mid fifth century. They succeeded the Constantinian dynasty and reigned over the Roman Empire from 364 to 392 and from 425 to 455, with an interregnum (392–423), during which the Theodosian dynasty ruled and eventually succeeded them. The Theodosians, who intermarried into the Valentinian house, ruled concurrently in the east after 379.
Galla was a Roman empress as the second wife of Theodosius I. She was the daughter of Valentinian I and his second wife Justina.
The Eastern Roman Empire was ruled by the Theodosian dynasty from 379, the accession of Theodosius I, to 457, the death of Marcian. The rule of the Theodosian dynasty saw the final East-West division of the Roman Empire, between Arcadius and Honorius in 395. Whilst divisions of the Roman Empire had occurred before, the Empire would never again be fully reunited. The reign of the sons of Theodosius I contributed heavily to the crisis that under the fifth century eventually resulted in the complete collapse of the western Roman court.
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