See also: Théodose

Théodose II , born on April 10th 401 and dead the July 28th 450, is an Roman Emperor of the East (408 - 450).

Wire of Arcadius, which it succeeds, grandson of Théodose Ier, it is only seven years old when he becomes emperor and reign initially under the regency of the Préfet of the court Anthémius (408/414) then under that of his older sister Pulchérie, high with the row of Augusta. Weak prince, like his father, Théodose II always remains under the influence of his entourage. Of 414 with 421 it is Pulchérie which exerts a role dominating transforming the court into quasi-monastery because of its devout character. In 421 it makes marry with her brother the girl of a Rhéteur of Athens named Léontias, Aelia Eudocia. Théodose is also under the influence of Flavius Taurus Seleucus Cyrus, Égyptien originating in Panopolis. It takes the ascending one on the emperor when the cubicularius Antiochus is drawn aside and occupies the prefecture of the court from 439 to 441; that, also, of Nomus, Master of the Offices from 443 to 446; that, finally, of his/her friend the Eunuque Chrysaphius.

Of 421 with 433 the influence of Eudoxie (not to be confused with the mother of Théodose II) eclipse that of Pulchérie until false charges of inaccuracies involve its exile with Jerusalem. Pulchery takes again its place at the court then but to note that the principal influence henceforth is between the hands of eunuques imperial, in particular Chrysaphius.

Its reign is agitated by the religious quarrels of the Nestorianisme opponent Cyrille of Alexandria to the Patriarche of Constantinople Nestorius. To regulate these problems Théodose convenes Council of Éphèse in 431 which condemns Nestorianisme, then Synod of Constantinople in 448 which condemns Eutychès and its doctrines of the Monophysisme and a new council with Éphèse in 449 or Eutychès, which has supports in the entourage of the emperor in spite of the hostility of Pulchérie, carry it not hesitating to use violence against its adversaries (of or the name of “Brigandage of Éphèse”).

Théodose makes write in 426 the Loi of the quotations and in 438 the Code of Théodose ( Codex Theodosianus ), which contains all the imperial Constitutions promulgated since 312.

The reign of Théodose II is marked outside by a double victory against the Perses in 421 and 441 but especially by its complex relationships to the empire hunnic of Ruga, Bleda then Attila. If Ruga dies in a forwarding against the Byzantine Empire its nephew and Bleda successor (jointly with his brother Attila) triumph, more diplomatically than militarily besides, and of 435 with 440 sees Théodose II pouring an important tribute and promising to be combined more to the hostile Germanic people with the Huns. In 440, benefitting from the Persian attack on the Arménie, over which the empire triumphs in 441, Bleda tackles again the Byzantine Empire seizing important spoils. In 445 - 446 Attila, which has just assassinated his/her brother, becoming thus the only king of Huns, seizes the south of the Pannonia. In order to maintain the fiction of the Roman presence Théodose names it “main of the militia”.

Benefitting from the earthquake which destroys part of the walls of Constantinople, the January 27th 447, it again tackles the Byzantine Empire but great result if not which to see the empire ceasing paying its tribute. Negotiations open and in 449, Théodose sends an embassy, directed by Priscos and Maximin, which agrees to pay a tribute again. It is in this context that Théodose dies of the continuations of an accident of horse in 450. Pulchérie succeeds to him, initially only, then with her husband Marcien, until its death in 453. She refuses all new payment of a tribute with Attila.

If the Christian authors are delighted by the devotion and the piety by “softer of all the men” as Socrate of Constantinople at the end of the panegyric qualifies it which it draws up of the emperor in his ecclesiastical Histoire (VII, 42), the modern historians estimate that which accepted the nickname of “Calligrapher” was far from having qualities of a Head of State and rather see it confined in a representative function; Ernest Stein regards it as “débonnaire and unimportant”; at the 18th century, the English historian Edward Gibbon traced of him a not very flattering portrait, describing it under the features of a perpetual child, “surrounded by a servile troop women and the eunuques ones”; and it continued: “of futile recreations and the useless studies the hours of idleness replaced which its distance of all left him that had report/ratio with the essential duties of the sovereign”.

See too

Sources

• Michel Mourre, historical encyclopedic Dictionary , Bordered, 1996.
• Encyclopædia Universalis, Thesaurus index R-Z , 1990.

Internal bonds

• late Antiquity