THEODO'SIUS, the name of three later Roman emperors.—TnEoroostus I., surnamed THE GREAT, and THE ELDER, to distinguish him from his grandson, was of Spanish descent, and was born either at Italica (as Gibbon and those who wish to make him of kin with Trajan maintain), or more probably at Cauca, near Segovia, about 346 A.D, His father, also named Theodosius, was the great general of the Roman empire, who, after freeing South Britain from the savage Caledonians, who roamed over it at their pleasure, and annihilating the formidable rebellion of the Moor Firmus, which threatened to divorce the African provinces from the empire, was conspired against by his many malicious enemies at court, and summarily beheaded at Carthage in 376. Theodosius, who had accompanied his father in his British campaigns, and afterward, by routing the Sarmatians, saved Mcesia from devastatation, retired from active service after his father's murder, and occupied himself with the care of his patrimonial lands in Spain. But his many virtues and talents were not forgotten at court; and on the defeat and death of Valens (q.v.), his colleague, Gratianus (q.v.), feeling his inability to sustain alone the cares of empire, summoned Theodosius from his retirement, invested him with the imperial purple, and confided to him, Jan. 19, 379, the administration of Thrace, Dada, Macedonia, Egypt, and the east, and especially the protection of the empire against the Goths. This last charge called for the full exercise of the new emperor's abilities, for the army at his command dared not face the Goths in the open field; and even when, after the death of their able leader, Fritigern, the Ostrogoths and Tisigoths separated, each breaking up into several bands, Theodosius found it most prudent to sow jealousy and dissension among them by promises and bribes, and after a four years' so-called campaign, succeeded in pacifying the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths retreating toward Scythia. The latter returned in 386, their ranks swelled by Scythians, but were totally routed in attempting to pass the Danube, and the survivors were transported to Phrygia and Lydia. In 387, Theodosius undertook to restore to the throne of the western empire Valentinian II. (whose sister, Galla, he married), the brother of Gratian, who had been expelled by Maximus; and after a uniformly successful contest, the usurper was captured and put to death at Aquileia. In 392, the suspicious death of Valentinian, and
the elevation of the puppet Eugenius by Arbogastes, the real ruler of the west, again summoned Theodosius to interfere; and after two years of preparation, his motley army of Byzantines, Goths, Alans, and Huns, aided by the treachery of some of Eugenius's generals, gained a complete victory over the Gauls and Germans, who chiefly consti tuted the army of the west; and the two portions of the Roman empire were again united under one ruler. The union, however, lasted only four months, owing to the death of Theodosius, Jan. 17, 395. Theodosius, though a professor of the orthodox Christian faith, was not baptized till 380, and his behavior after that period stamps him as one of the most cruel and vindictive persecutors who ever wore the purple. His arbitrary establishment of the Nicene faith over the whole empire, the deprivation of civil rights of all apostates from Christianity and of the Eunomiaus, the sentence of death on the Manicheans and Quarto-decimans (q.v.), all prove this; though the want of evidence for the direct execution of these severe laws, somewhat modifies the unfavorable impression they produce, and inclines us to believe, that, like the massacre at Thessalonica, they were the result of a sudden access of savage passion, carefully fanned by his interested 'ecclesiastical advisers. His humiliation before St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, for the massacre at Thessalouica, was regarded by the church as one of its greatest victories over the temporal power. See A3IBROSE.-THEODOSIUS II., surnamed 'rn YouNoita, the only son and successor of Arcadius (q.v.), was born 401 A.D., succeeded his father when eight years old, and occupied the throne of the east for 42 years. The chief events of his reign were the invasion of the empire by the Huns under Attila, a war with Persia, renewed efforts to extirpate paganism, and the compilation of the Codex _Theo dosianus (see CouE). The emperor himself was the feeblest of rulers, and was much better adapted for the cowl than for the scepter and sword.