Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/277

Rh January 395), leaving the empire to be divided between his two sons Honorius and Arcadius, Honorius becoming emperor of Rome and the West, Arcadius of Constantinople and the East.

Important, however, as the reign of Theodosius was from the political point of view, it is perhaps still more important from the theological According to Sozomen, his parents were both orthodox Christians, according to the creed sanctioned by the council of Nicsea. It was not, however, till his illness at Thessalonica that the emperor received baptism at the hands of Bishop Ascholius, whereupon, says the same historian, he issued a decree (February 380) in favour of the faith of St Peter and Pope Damasus of Rome. This was to be the true catholic faith; the adherents of other creeds were to be reckoned as heretics and punished. The great council of Constantinople, consisting of 150 orthodox and 36 Macedonian bishops, met in the following year, confirmed the Nicene faith, ordered the affairs of the various sees, and declared the bishop of Constantinople to rank next to the bishop of Rome. The emperor cannot be acquitted of the intolerance which marks edicts such as that depriving apostatizing Christians of the right of bequest. It was not till 389 or 390 that he issued orders for the destruction of the great idol of Serapis at Alexandria. Other edicts of an earlier or later date forbade the unorthodox to hold assemblies in the towns, enjoined the surrender of all churches to the catholic bishops, and overthrew the heathen temples "throughout the whole world." During the reign of Theodosius Gregory of Nazianzus was made bishop of Constantinople an appointment which he did not long retain. In 383 Theodosius called a new council for the discussion of the true faith. The orthodox, the Arians, the Eunomians, and the Macedonians all sent champions to maintain their special tenets before the emperor, who finally decided in favour of the orthodox party. He seems to have suffered the Novatians to hold assemblies in the city. Perhaps the most remarkable incident in the life of Theodosius from a personal point of view is the incident of his submission to the reprimands of Ambrose, who dared to rebuke him and refuse to admit him to the Lord's Supper till he had done public penance for suffering his Gothic auxiliaries to murder the townsmen of Thessalonica (390). Equally praiseworthy is the generous pardon that the emperor, after much intercession, granted to the seditious people of Antioch, who, out of anger at the growing imposts, had beaten down the imperial statues of their city (387). When the Christians in the eastern part of the empire destroyed a Jewish synagogue and a church belonging to the Valentinians, Theodosius gave orders for the offenders to make reparation. Such impartial conduct drew forth a remonstrance from Ambrose, who, where the interests of his creed was concerned, could forget the common principles of justice. In a sermon preached before Theodosius he introduced the Deity Himself holding an argument against Theodosius on the subject of his remissness, and the imperial penitent yielded to the eloquent bishop. So pliant a disposition rendered him very dear to the saint, who availed himself of his influence to counteract the efforts of Symmachus and the Roman senate for the restoration of the pagan rites at the altar of victory. "I loved the man," says St Ambrose, "who, putting off his kingly robes, mourned publicly in the church a sin to which the guile of others had exposed him, an emperor who thought it no shame to do an act of public penance that even private people would have blushed to perform." The inspired vision of the saint saw the deceased emperor received into heaven by his old colleague Gratian; while Maximus and Eugenius down in hell were already experiencing how grievous a sin it is to take up arms against lawful princes (Ambrose, De Obitu Theod. ). Theodosius was twice married (1) to ^Elia Flacilla, the mother of Arcadius (377-408) and Honorius (384-423); (2) to Galla (d. 394), the daughter of Valentinian I.

The chief authorities for the age of Theodosins are Ammianus Marcellinus, Zosimus, Eimapius, and the ecclesiastical historians (Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret). Much information may also be gleaned from the writings of St Ambrose, St Gregory of Nazianzus, Isidore of Seville, and the orators Pacatus, Libanius, Themistius. Of modern authorities Tillemont supplies an unrivalled collection of facts drily collected from all contemporary or nearly contemporary sources; he is specially useful for his synopses of the Theodosian laws. Clinton's Fasti are the best guide for the chronology of the period. It is hardly necessary to mention the brilliant account given by Gibbon, or, in later years, from the stand point of Italian history by Mr Hodgkin.

 THEODOSIUS II. (401-450) succeeded his father Arcadius as emperor of the East in 408. During his minority the empire was ruled by the praetorian prefect Anthemius and Pulcheria, who became her brother's guardian in 414. Under his sister's care the young emperor was brought up rather as a virtuoso than a prince. The chief events of Theodosius's reign are the wars with Persia in 421 and 441, the council of Ephesus (434), and the invasion of the Huns under Attila (441-448). In 450 Theodoeius was thrown from his horse while hunting, and received injuries from which he died. He married Athenais, who on being baptized took the name of Eudocia. It was during his reign that the Codex Theodosianus, or collection of the constitutions of the Roman emperors, was formed. The idea took birth as early as 425, but was only put into execution between 435 and 438; in the latter year the Code was published.  THEODOSIUS III. was the last of three emperors whose short reigns filled the interval between the death of Justinian II. and the accession of Leo the Isaurian. The emperor Anastasius had sent a fleet to frustrate the in tended expedition of the Saracens from Alexandria against Constantinople. On reaching Rhodes the troops rose against their leader, John the Deacon, slew him, and, starting for Constantinople, landed at Adramyttium, where they made a collector of the taxes emperor by the title of Theodosius III. The new emperor besieged Constantinople for six months before he took it; Anastasius resigned, and retired to a monastery, leaving his place to be filled by Theodosius III., who likewise resigned next year (717) in favour of Leo III. The closing years of Theodosius's life were spent in a monastery.  THEODOSIUS, of Tripolis, a Greek geometer and astronomer, three of whose works were contained in the collection of lesser writings named O /UK/SOS da-rpovo/iov/xevos (sc. TOTTOS), or O puxpos dorpoVo/xos. Pappus of Alexandria, at the commencement of the sixth book of his 2wayo&amp;gt;y17, speaks of this collection, the study of which is indispensable to any one who would master the science of astronomy (rov aa-Tpovofj.ovp.fvov TOTTOV). These writings, which were highly esteemed in the school of Alexandria, were intermediate between the Elements of Euclid and the Almagest of Ptolemy, for the understanding of which, indeed, they formed an indispensable introduction. Of the life of Theodosius nothing is known. As to the time when he lived different opinions have been held, he being placed by some in the first century before and by others in the second century after the Christian era. The latter opinion is founded on an error of (s.v.), who on the one hand identifies the author of the three works referred to above with a sceptical philosopher of the same name who lived at the time of Trajan or later, and on the other hand distinguishes him from a native of Tripolis who wrote a poem on spring. It is now generally admitted that the subject of this article is the same as Theodosius the mathematician, who is mentioned by Strabo amongst the natives of Bithynia distinguished for their learning, and whose sons were also mathematicians, the same, too, as the inventor of a universal sun-dial (horologium irpos irav /cAi/io.) of that name who is praised by Vitruvius (De Architectures, ix. 9). His date, therefore, could not have been later than the 1st century ; he may, however, have lived in the preceding century, inasmuch as the names mentioned by Strabo in the passage referred to above are, as far as we know, arranged chronologically, and Theodosius immediately follows Hipparchus, who made astronomical observations between 161 and 126, and precedes Asclepiades the physician, who lived at Rome at the beginning of the 1st century

The statement that he was "of Tripolis" is made, not on the authority of Suidas, as has been erroneously said, but because he is so described in the title of his principal work. It is probable, therefore, that he was a native of