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| Background | |||||||||||||||||||||
Theodosius was born in Cauca, in Hispania (modern day Coca, Spain), to a professional christian military family under Roman General Theodosius the Elder and his wife Thermantia. |
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| While the character and exploits of General Theodosius the Elder, who was later promoted to the position of Count, have been filtered, contemporary historian Ammianus considered General Theodosius the Elder to be an unyielding tyrant who relished brutal military discipline. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| On the ascension of Valentinian I as sole Emperor in 364, General Theodosius (the Elder) was appointed as the magister equitum praesentalis (Master of the Horse), at the court of Emperor Valentinian. With such an appointment came lavish new quarters and it is almost certain he brought across his family to Rome, including his brother Damasus. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| In 366, the uncle of Theodosius (the younger) was appointed Presbyter of Rome, after the supporters of the Liberius dynasty rioted and were put down by Valentinian, presumably with some help from Theodosius (the Elder). | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Theodosius (the younger) accompanied his father to Britannia to help quell the Great Conspiracy in 368. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| In 373, Theodosius was made commander of the expedition to suppress the rebellion of Firmus in Mauretania, but following his victory over Firmus, Theodosius was arrested, taken to Carthage, and executed in early 375. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| At about the same time as the sudden disgrace and execution of his father, Theodosius retired to Cauca. The reason for his retirement, and the relationship (if any) between it and his father's death is unclear. It is possible that he was dismissed from his command by the emperor Valentinian I after the loss of two of Theodosius' legions to the Sarmatians in late 374. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The death of Valentinian I in 375 created political pandemonium. Fearing further persecution on account of his family ties, Theodosius abruptly retired to his family estates where he adapted to the life of a provincial aristocrat. | |||||||||||||||||||||
From 364 to 375, the Roman Empire was governed by two co-emperors, the brothers Valentinian I and Valens; when Valentinian died in 375, his sons, Valentinian II and Gratian, succeeded him as rulers of the Western Roman Empire. |
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| In 378, after Valens was killed in the Battle of Adrianople, Gratian appointed Theodosius to replace the fallen emperor as co-augustus for the East. Gratian was killed in a rebellion in 383. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| After the death in 392 of Valentinian II, whom Theodosius had supported against a variety of usurpations, Theodosius ruled as sole emperor, defeating the usurper Eugenius on September 6, 394, at the Battle of the Frigidus (Vipava river, modern Slovenia). | |||||||||||||||||||||
By his first wife, Aelia Flaccilla, he had two sons, Arcadius and Honorius and a daughter, Aelia Pulcheria; Arcadius was his heir in the east and Honorius in the west. Both Pulcheria and Aelia Flaccilla died in 385. |
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His second wife was Galla, daughter of the emperor Valentinian I. Theodosius and Galla had three children who were a son, Gratian born in 388 who died young and a daughter Aelia Galla Placidia (392–450). Placidia was the only child who survived to adulthood and later become an Empress and the third child (a son), John died with his mother in childbirth in 394. |
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