Europe in the Roman age (1st–5th c.)Politics and state

Reign of Theodosius II

Proclaimed Augustus as a baby, Theodosius II ruled the East alone for 42 years after the death of his father Arcadius in 408. His reign gave Constantinople its great land walls, a public school of higher learning and the Theodosian Code, but it was also troubled by the disputes over the nature of Christ at the councils of Ephesus and by the tribute paid to Attila’s Huns.

Date: 1 May 408 – 28 July 450exact date · duration: ≈ 42 yearsDate in the Julian calendar
Place: Constantinopletoday: Istanbul, Turkey · Balkans and Anatolia
Participants: Theodosius II, Pulcheria, Anthemius (praetorian prefect), Byzantine Empire
Threads: Europe in the Roman age (1st–5th c.)
Also known as: Theodosius the Younger; Theodosius the Calligrapher; Феодосий Младший; Феодосий Каллиграф

Theodosius was proclaimed Augustus on 10 January 402, at the age of nine months, and became sole emperor of the East at seven, when Arcadius died on 1 May 408. At first the government was led by the praetorian prefect Anthemius, who built the new walls of Constantinople, strengthened the Danube fleet after the Hunnic king Uldin’s invasion and reorganised the grain supply of the capital. In 414 the emperor’s elder sister Pulcheria was proclaimed Augusta and became his guardian; she and her sisters vowed virginity, and the palace took on an almost monastic character. In 421 Theodosius married Athenaïs, the daughter of an Athenian teacher of rhetoric, who took the name Eudocia. A war with Persia in 421–422 ended in a peace that left the frontier unchanged, and after an eastern expedition against the usurper Joannes the boy Valentinian III was installed as western emperor in 425.

Theodosius, pious and fond of learning (later writers called him “the Calligrapher”), founded a public school of higher education in the capital in 425 and had the laws of the Christian emperors gathered in the Theodosian Code (438). Disputes over the nature of Christ divided his reign: the Council of Ephesus (431) deposed Nestorius, whom Theodosius himself had made archbishop of Constantinople, and the Second Council of Ephesus (449), backed by the emperor and the influential eunuch Chrysaphius, restored the monk Eutyches — Pope Leo I called it a “robber synod”. In the 440s Attila’s Huns devastated the Balkans and forced the empire to pay a yearly tribute of 2,100 pounds of gold.

Theodosius died on 28 July 450 after a fall from his horse. Pulcheria married the officer Marcian, the general Aspar’s candidate, and he became emperor; Chrysaphius was put to death, the tribute to the Huns was stopped and the Council of Chalcedon overturned the decisions of 449. Ancient writers and many modern historians portrayed Theodosius as a weak ruler dominated by his sister, his wife and his eunuchs; more recent studies argue that Theodosius was more in control of his government than the hostile sources suggest, or that it was run mainly by the high civil officials of his council rather than by Pulcheria or Eudocia.

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Connections

Includes

Imperial school in the Capitol of Constantinople27 February 425 · Balkans and Anatolia
Council of Ephesus22 June – 31 July 431 · Balkans and Anatolia
Theodosian Code15 February 438 · Balkans and Anatolia
Attila’s invasions of the Balkans441 – between 447 and 448 · Balkans and Anatolia

Related events

Division of the Roman Empire17 January 395 · Western and Central Europehis father Arcadius had received the eastern half of the empire in 395
Theodosian Walls of Constantinoplebetween 404 and 408 – 413 · Balkans and Anatoliabegun under Arcadius and completed during the minority of Theodosius II
Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon410 · Middle East and Egyptthe council was convened with the help of Marutha of Maypherqat, the envoy of Theodosius II
Murder of HypatiaMarch 415 · Middle East and Egyptin 416 a law of Theodosius II limited the number of the parabalani, the Alexandrian church attendants
Reign of Bahram V Gurbetween 420 and 421 – 438 · Middle East and EgyptBahram’s war with Theodosius II in 421–422 ended in a peace that left the frontier unchanged
Council of Chalcedon8 October – 1 November 451 · Balkans and Anatoliaa year after his death Chalcedon overturned the council of 449 that he had backed

Same place

Founding of Constantinople11 May 330 · Balkans and Anatolia
Corpus Juris Civilis7 April 529 – 16 November 534 · Balkans and Anatolia
Construction of Hagia Sophia23 February 532 – 27 December 537 · Balkans and Anatolia
Plague of Justinian541–549 · Balkans and Anatolia
Jordanes and Procopius describe the Sclaveni and the Antesbetween 550 and 554 · Balkans and Anatolia
Avar–Persian siege of Constantinople29 June – 7 August 626 · Balkans and Anatolia
First Arab siege of Constantinople674–678 · Balkans and Anatolia
Second Arab siege of Constantinoplebetween 15 July and 15 August 717 – 15 August 718 · Balkans and Anatolia
Byzantine Iconoclasmbetween 726 and 730 – 11 March 843 · Balkans and Anatolia
Rus’ attack on Constantinople18 June – 4 August 860 · Balkans and Anatolia
Oleg’s campaign against Constantinople907 · Balkans and Anatolia
Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 9112 September 911 · Balkans and Anatolia
Igor’s campaigns against Byzantium11 June 941 – 944 · Balkans and Anatolia
Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 944between 944 and 945 · Balkans and Anatolia
Olga’s visit to Constantinople and her baptism9 September – 18 October 957 · Balkans and Anatolia
Sack of Constantinople12–13 April 1204 · Balkans and Anatolia
Reconquest of Constantinople25 July 1261 · Balkans and Anatolia
Fall of Constantinople29 May 1453 · Balkans and Anatolia
Accession of Suleiman the Magnificent30 September 1520 · Balkans and Anatolia

Meanwhile in the world

Other regions, within a year of this event

+ 1 event

Africa

Vandal conquest of Roman AfricaMay 429 – 442
Augustine writes The City of Godbetween 412 and 413 – between 426 and 427
Martianus Capella’s Marriage of Philology and Mercurybetween 410 and 490
Donatist schismbetween 311 and 312 – 411

Central and Northern Asia

Emperor Taiwu’s great campaign against the Rouran429
Hunnic kings of Bactria: the Kidaritesbetween 360 and 370 – 467
The Ashina become ironworkers of the Rouran in the Altaibetween 439 and 460
The Rouran Khaganate dominates the steppe402–552

South Asia

Kumaragupta I and the founding of the Nalanda monasterybetween 415 and 455
Skandagupta repels the Hunasbetween 450 and 460
Reign of Chandragupta II Vikramadityabetween 375 and 381 – between 412 and 415

East Asia

Liu Yu founds the Liu Song dynasty10 July 420
Northern Wei takes Guzang and unites northern China18 October 439
King Jangsu raises the stele of Gwanggaeto the Great28 October 414
Kumārajīva translates the Buddhist scriptures in Chang’an8 February 402 – 28 May 413
Kofun period: the age of keyhole tombsbetween 250 and 300 – 538

+ 1 event

Southeast Asia and Oceania

The Liu Song expedition takes and sacks the capital of Linyi446
The yupa inscriptions of King Mulavarman at Kutaibetween 350 and 450
Gold pendant copying a coin of Antoninus Pius at Óc Eobetween 152 and 600
The inscriptions of Purnavarman, king of Taruma in western Javabetween 400 and 600
Óc Eo, the port of Funanbetween 1 and 100 – between 601 and 700

North America

Late Basketmaker II erac. 50 – c. 500
Hopewell traditionbetween 200 and 100 BC – c. 500

Latin America

The Tierra Blanca Joven eruption of Ilopangobetween 429 and 433
Kʼinich Yax Kʼukʼ Moʼ founds the royal dynasty of Copánbetween 3 September and 5 September 426 – between 6 February and 8 February 427
Burial of the Lady of Cao at El Brujobetween 400 and 500
Teotihuacan at its height: the largest city of the Americasc. 250 – c. 550
Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800

The same period

5th century

Sources

Wikipedia (English): Theodosius II
Wikipedia (English): Pulcheria
Wikipedia (English): Marcian
Wikipedia (English): Anthemius (praetorian prefect)
Wikipedia (Russian): Феодосий II
Wikipedia (Russian): Пульхерия
Holum K. G. Theodosian Empresses: Women and Imperial Dominion in Late Antiquity. — Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.
Kelly C. (ed.) Theodosius II: Rethinking the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
Bury J. B. History of the Later Roman Empire. Vol. 1. — London: Macmillan, 1923.