THEODOSIUS II (Flavius Theodosius, the Younger), EMPEROR OF THE EAST. — Born in 401, crowned Augustus on 10 January 402, succeeded his father Arcadius on 1 May 408. Given the Emperor’s youth, the regency was exercised by Anthemius, who carried out extensive and fruitful activity, seeking to suppress the fiscal independence aspirations of the large landowners (Cod. Theod., 9, 22, 4: a. 409), promoting grain imports from Egypt, settling relations with Persia peacefully, reorganizing the army and especially the Danube fleet and the defense of Illyricum, and also initiating (443) the construction of the walls of Constantinople for protection from the landward side.
Moreover, after subduing the Libyans and Isaurians, he achieved a decisive victory over the Huns, who had crossed the Danube, as early as 409. Upon Anthemius’ death (414), the patrician Aurelian succeeded him as praetorian prefect, but the regency of the thirteen-year-old Theodosius was assumed by his sister Pulcheria, elevated to the dignity of Augusta on 4 July 414. Under Pulcheria’s influence, the court of Constantinople became the center of a severe religious rigorism; measures against heretics were intensified, pagans were excluded from public offices (Cod. Theod., 16, 5-57 ff.; 16, 10, 21), and the construction of new synagogues was forbidden (ibid., 16, 8, 22). Yet other problems pressed, such as the situation of large estates in Egypt, the unrest in Palestine, the frequent revolts of troops in the East, and the conflict with Persia. The latter culminated in a war (421-22), which ended in a Byzantine success and was followed by a peace treaty intended to last a hundred years.
In the year 421, at Pulcheria’s suggestion, Theodosius married Athenais (daughter of an Athenian rhetoric teacher), who was then baptized as Aelia Eudocia. After the birth of Licinia Eudoxia, she obtained the dignity of Augusta and began to exercise a strong influence over her husband, particularly in religious matters; it was probably on her advice that the reorganization of the school of Constantinople was carried out (27 February 425: Cod. Theod., 14, 9, 3; 15, 1, 53). Meanwhile, in the West, after the death of Honorius and the accession of the child Valentinian, profound disorders were stirred up especially by the usurper John, and the East found itself compelled to intervene: Galla Placidia was recognized as Augusta, and Valentinian, after his betrothal to Licinia Eudoxia, became Caesar in 424 and, after defeating John, Augustus in 425.
In the East, renewed Hunnic invasions (441) had to be contained through the cession of territories south of the Danube, while religious controversies stirred by the Nestorian (v. NESTORIUS) and Monophysite (v.) heresies raged. The Emperor’s ill-considered intervention in these disputes marred the final years of his life, and he died in 450. The name of Theodosius is linked to a monumental legislative work, namely his Code (v. CODEX THEODOSIANUS), which constitutes the first official collection of imperial constitutions and served as a model for Justinian’s. The Emperor (Cod. Theod., 1, 1, 5: a. 429) had initially conceived a broader plan: in addition to collecting the *constitutiones generales* (including the abrogated ones) from Constantine to his own time, he had planned a compilation combining constitutions (*leges*) and fragments of jurists’ writings (*iura*), intended for practical use. This second part of the program could not be carried out, so that in 435 (Cod. Theod., 1, 1, 6) Theodosius reduced it to the first collection, completed in 438 and then sent to the West, where it was published on 25 December 438 after a solemn session of the Roman Senate, of which the minutes survive.