Theodosius II  408-450  A.D.

By clicking on the pictures you'll be linked to a more complete description of the coin. At the bottom of this page there is a more elaborate biography of the emperor.

	Obverse: DN THEODOSIVS PF AVG
	Reverse: GLORIA ROMANORVM
	Fieldmarks: a * in the left field of the obverse
	Exergue: ?A

Theodosius II  408-450  A.D.

      Flavius Theodosius was born in 401 AD as the son of emperor Arcadius and his wife Aelia Eudoxia. He was baptized and crowned co-Augustus in January of the following year. Theodosius II had three older sisters of whom the eldest, Pulcheria, would play a very important role in his life. In May of 408 AD Arcadius died in the palace of Constantinople of unknown causes and Theodosius II succeeded him without any controversy or problems. With Theodosius II still only seven years old, the regency of Constantinople fell to the praetorian prefect Anthemius who had also effectively ruled during the last years of Arcadius' reign.

      Anthemius immediately set about making Constantinople more defensible because as recently as 408 AD, the city had been threatened by a group of Huns under the leadership of Uldin. He had been defeated, but combined with the recent sacking of Rome, inspired this building project. The so-called Wall of Theodosius gave a new protection to a city which had long outgrown the original Wall of Constantine. In 447/48 AD earthquakes destroyed large parts of this new city wall, but the damage was repaired within months. And thereafter a new wall with ninety two towers was added between the repaired wall and the outer moat, thereby creating the famous triple defense which would successfully repel all invaders for more then a thousand years until the Ottoman Turks finally breached the walls in 1453 AD After Stillicho's assassination Anthemius also started to strengthen the bonds between the eastern and western halves of the empire. Theodosius II shared a consulship with his uncle Honorius (the new emperor of the west) and when he was under threat by raiding Visigoths Anthemius send an army of 4000 men to aid him. After 414 AD Anthemius disappears from the political stage whether he died, was killed or simply dismissed is not known.

      His place at the head of government was taken by Theodosius II's eldest sister Aelia Pulcheria who was proclaimed Augusta. Pulcheria was a devout Christian and she had consecrated herself to a live of chastity, it was a vow she would not break during her lifetime. This gave her an enormous moral authority to oversee the upbringing and education of the young emperor. Theodosius II was educated by her in ways of the court and raised with high Christian morals. In 416 AD Theodosius II, at fifteen years of age, was declared ruler of Constantinople in his own right. However like his father he remained mostly invisible during his reign and Pulcheria continued to administer the government on his behalf for his entire reign. Theodosius II got married in June of 421 AD to a girl called Athenaïs who converted to Christianity and took the name Aelia Eudocia. She was picked by Pulcheria to marry Theodosius but later on they got in a power struggle over Theodosius' favor, a struggle Aelia Eudocia eventually lost, she was accused of adultery and banished by Pulcheria.

      Pulcheria's influence was mostly felt in the religious arena of politics, she issued (in her brothers name of course) several strict laws against Jews, pagans and heretics. For the first time, pagans were officially banned from holding public office and serving in the military. Her movements against Jews ordered an end to the building of synagogues and the destruction of several existing synagogues. It was also under Pulcheria that the murder of the popular pagan philosopher, Hypatia, took place in Alexandria at the hands of Christians. Pulcheria's most visible influence on state policy came during the ecumenical council held at Ephesus in the summer of 431 AD Which was set up to settle once and for all issues surrounding the nature of God. The council condemned Nestorianism, which had presumed that Christ had two separate personas one human, one divine. In the end the original edict of the Council of Nicaea (lead by Constantine I) was upheld and Nestorius was deposed and exiled, and Nestorianism was declared heresy. Pulcheria had used all her influence to get rid of Nestorius (the patriarch of Constantinople at the time) to gain control of the religious debate in the capital and the entire eastern Empire.

      In military and administrative affairs Pulcheria left things to other more capable experts but her influence was always felt. In 421 AD hostilities broke out with the new Persian king Vararanes V who had embarked upon a campaign against Rome's eastern territories. He was very quickly defeated by Theodosius' very able generals. Having been soundly defeated the Persians and Romans signed the One-Hundred-Year Peace, and except for several minor infractions this peace held till the beginning of the sixth century. A much bigger threat however was formed by the constant incursions of the Huns into the Balkan provinces first under the command of Rua and later under his more famous nephew, Atilla the Hun. Seeing that most military attempts to stop this tide failed, the government decided to deal with them in a much more direct manner by simply buying them off. At first a settlement of 350 pounds of gold annually was reached, however after another humiliating defeat in 443 AD the annual tribute went up to 2100 pounds of gold. All these prices where met and at the end of Theodosius II's reign Constantinoples treasury coffers were almost empty. In the mean time his cousin Valentinian III who had succeeded Honorius on the western throne didn't fair as well, the African provinces of Mauretania and Numidia where lost to the Vandals under the leadership of king Gaeseric opening up the Mediterranean sea for raids against Sicily and the south of Italy.

      Although not much is heard of Theodosius II himself, his one and greatest accomplishment arrived in 438 AD with the Codex Theodosianus. All the Roman laws and imperial edicts from the time of Constantine I up until that day were reviewed and published in one all comprising manuscript consisting of sixteen books. It had been compiled, edited and improved over a period of eight years and Theodosius II himself had played a major role in this great accomplishment.

      Then, in 450 AD, Theodosius II while riding near the river Lycus was thrown from his horse he suffered severe injuries to his spine and died a few days later of the consequences. Before he died, Theodosius II named Marcian, a former aide de camp to the powerful general Aspar as his successor. Theodosius II had been Augustus for forty nine years and had been the sole ruler of the eastern empire for forty two years. Although it was the longest reign in Roman history he had left the governing of his empire to others. Despite the great turmoil which took place outside the borders of the eastern empire there was a time of relative great stability and prosperity within its borders which formed the base for the Byzantine empire which would last another thousand years. This in contrast to the western half of the empire which slowly crumbled away into history.

For this biography I've used the texts from the following websites:
http://www.imperiumromanum.com/
http://www.roman-emperors.org/
http://www.roman-empire.net/
And from: Gibbon's Decline and fall of the Roman empire.