Theodosius: The Empire at Bay
Stephen Williams, Gerard Friell
Number of quotes: 133
Book ID: 282 Page: 13
Section: 3B1
The Tervingian Goths (later known as Visigoths),{1} under their chieftains Alavivus{2} and Fritigern,{3} were encamped en masse on the northern bank of the Danube, opposite the Roman diocese of Thrace (Bulgaria and European Turkey, map II), and respectfully begged the emperor to grant them lands to settle within the empire, on the customary conditions of submission to Roman rule and the supply of fighting men for the imperial armies.{4} They explained that they had been driven from their homelands, after very fierce fighting, by new and savage invaders, the Huns.
Quote ID: 7045
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 14
Section: 3C
Valens owed his throne entirely to his elder brother, the great and warlike Valentinian, who had been elected emperor by the army and, against sincere advice,{28} had chosen his brother to rule jointly with him in the collegial custom which the beleaguered empire had followed for nearly a century.{29}
Quote ID: 7046
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 14
Section: 3C
Valens in the East had been overshadowed and implicitly protected by the ferocious military prowess of his brother,{31} but a year earlier Valentinian had died suddenly, of a stroke, while angrily haranguing some barbarian envoys.{32} The Western throne had passed to his teenage son Gratian, who also lived in the shadow of the heroic dead emperor.
Quote ID: 7047
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 15
Section: 3C,3B1
As an earnest of the treaty{42} the two chieftains agreed to give a large number of hostages to the empire, and they were questioned on their adherence to the religion of the emperor, which was Arian Christianity.{43}Pastor John’s note - Valens Eastern 370’s
Quote ID: 7048
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 15
Section: 3C
Revolt might have broken out then had not Fritigern, a shrewd strategist, disguised his anger at the treatment of his people and, presenting a reasonable face to the Romans, persuaded the Visigoths to bide their time.{48}
Quote ID: 7049
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 15
Section: 3C
Valens, through the venality and incompetence of his officials, now had to face a war with the Visigoths well inside Roman territory, which proved to be inconclusive and destructive to the frontier provinces.
Quote ID: 7050
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 17/18/19
Section: 3C2
It is indicative of the scale of the defeat that no-one knew for certain where and how Valens was slain.….
The staggering scale of the disaster sent a shock of disbelief through the East.
….
The impossible, the unthinkable, had happened. The shock and fear arising from the disaster are reflected in contemporary sources, especially since the loss of the emperor himself in battle indicated the true scale of events....
….
The battle of Adrianople has repeatedly been seen since Ammianus as a turning point, both in the history of the Roman empire and in the history of warfare. Whilst it was certainly a great disaster for Rome, and completely changed the terms on which Romans and barbarians would deal in the future, it was not necessarily the ’beginning of the end’ for the empire, and we will return to this thesis later.
Pastor John’s note: For a lot of Barbarian officers in the Roman army in the 4th century (pgs. 196 -194 from Ramsay MacMullen see “Acknowledgments”)
Quote ID: 7051
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 20
Section: 3B
Ever since Diocletian and Maximian, political wisdom had dictated that the empire’s distances were too great, its frontiers too extensive, its enemies too many and strong for it to be ruled by one man for very long
Quote ID: 7052
Time Periods: 124
Book ID: 282 Page: 20/21
Section: 4B
It was not surprising that the imperial succession was the one question which it was strictly forbidden, on pain of death for high treason, to put to diviners, oracles, seers or mediums, whom so many people consulted on every other conceivable subject.
Quote ID: 7053
Time Periods: 234
Book ID: 282 Page: 21
Section: 3D
Every high official lived with the knowledge that careless talk, even ambivalent political signals or innocent remarks, could suddenly cost him his position, perhaps even his life.
Quote ID: 7054
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 21
Section: 3C
When, long before, Valentinian had been debating whom to choose as an imperial colleague, his trusted general and supporter, Dagalaif,{85} had given him very outspoken advice: if you are thinking of your family then appoint your brother, but if you are thinking of the empire then appoint someone else.
Quote ID: 7055
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 23
Section: 3C
Sapin was a region where Christianity had taken hold early and, unlike the older Italian senatorial families, they were firmly Christians of the Nicene creed and numbered bishops among their friends and connections.{2}
Quote ID: 7056
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 24
Section: 3D
There is another element in the story, which might also have added fuel to such a plot. Five years earlier the near-paranoid Valens had launched a series of savage trials for sorcery at Antioch. The accused had admitted under torture to seeking by divination the name of the man to succeed Valens as emperor. In this sad game a ring, suspended by a fine linen thread, moved randomly to various letters of the Greek alphabet and yielded the sequence (Greek letters) (THEOD...). As a result one Theodorus,{19} a notary, was executed together with many others at Antioch. (The prophecy of course was ultimately fulfilled, as prophecies in Roman histories usually are.)
Quote ID: 7057
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 26
Section: 3D
The constant invocation of a changeless, eternal Rome by the orators and historians, their effortless comparisons with the fabulous Catos and Scipios of the distant past, was more than just a natural reverence for tradition and continuity. It verged on a classical hypnotic fixation, which continued even up to the Enlightenment when Gibbon was writing. It presented Rome as a kind of inviolate essence, transcending all upheaval and change, and in doing so soothed and blunted the critical faculties of many contemporaries who had to grapple with a radically different world.
Quote ID: 7058
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 26
Section: 3B
In the half-century between 235 and 285 there were 15 ’legitimate’ emperors and many more brief usurpers. Nearly all had died violently, in civil war or simple assassination by their own soldiers and lieutenants.
Quote ID: 7059
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 282 Page: 26
Section: 1A,3C
By 330 the empire had been rebuilt, but in a new form. It was now more centralised, absolutist and organised on semi-military lines for an indefinite siege.
Quote ID: 7060
Time Periods: 14
Book ID: 282 Page: 27
Section: 3C
Rome itself had ceased to be the effective centre of the government of the empire.
Quote ID: 7061
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 27
Section: 3A1
The traditional gods that had guided a small city on the Tiber to world empire had been largely displaced by the radically new religion of Christianity, whose bishops now cooperated with the state and increasingly resembled government officials.
Quote ID: 7062
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 27
Section: 3B
The crippling civil wars for the throne had been largely surmounted by the new devices of dual emperors of East and West, the deliberate separation of civil and military chains of command in the elaborately graded bureaucracy, the subdivision of the provinces into smaller administrative units and the almost magical ceremonials of the elevated imperial cult.
Quote ID: 7063
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 282 Page: 27
Section: 3D
Despite the recovery of the empire in the later third century, and also through much of the fourth, the problem immediately facing Theodosius as Augustus of the East was nothing less than the simple survival of the state.
Quote ID: 7064
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 282 Page: 28
Section: 3D
They were very formidable as a concentrated force, but it was immensely difficult for Fritigern to keep them concentrated, or even impose on them a general direction and purpose. They had great problems feeding themselves and their families, and readily dispersed over large areas plundering and foraging, but neither storing nor planting, and making no adequate preparations for the next year.
Quote ID: 7065
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 30
Section: 3D
Conventional civilian opinion doubtless expected a crushing victory to avenge Adrianople, but Theodosius had no wish to risk everything on another great set-piece battle.
Quote ID: 7066
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 31
Section: 2A1
That winter, at Salonica, Theodosius fell gravely ill, to the point where in February 380 he seemed to be dying. Like his father he received the solemn sacrament of baptism, from bishop Acholius, which would purge him of all sin.
Quote ID: 7067
Time Periods: 24
Book ID: 282 Page: 31
Section: 3D
However, Theodosius made a full recovery by the spring, which he quite naturally attributed to the divine grace of baptism and the countless prayers and masses said on his behalf. Soon afterwards he was to throw his full imperial authority behind the Nicene bishops, and unify the doctrine and worship of the church by the force of law.
Quote ID: 7068
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 33
Section: 3D
Theodosius seized the opportunity and exploited it to the full. Athanaric and his band of followers were in no bargaining position: they were throwing themselves on Roman clemency. With great ostentation Theodosius and his imperial retinue met Athanaric several miles outside the city, and greeted him as an honoured royal guest. Here was a chance to demonstrate to the whole Gothic world the advantages of alliance and cooperation with Rome. Display, pomp and illusion were going to accomplish what could no longer be done by main military force. Nowhere was better equipped to do this than the fabulous capital of Constantinople.
Quote ID: 7069
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 33
Section: 3D
The city which was to dazzle the crusaders eight centuries later certainly had the desired effect on Athanaric, with its impression of quite limitless wealth which Rome had always presented to the Germanic imagination: ’I have now seen what I often had heard of, though I did not believe it’, declared Athanaric at the sight of the palaces, the great public squares, the hippodrome, the shimmering churches, the immaculately drilled guards, the harbour choked with shipping and the throng of peoples of all nations. ’Truly the emperor of Rome is a god on earth, and whoever lifts a hand against him is asking for death.’ This was just what Theodosius wanted all Goths to hear, and he took pains to ensure that they did.
Quote ID: 7070
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 34
Section: 3D
Unlike previous immigrants their tribal structure and identity remained intact. Though nominally subject to the empire they were, in effect, a foreign nation in arms established on Roman territory.
Quote ID: 7071
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 34
Section: 3D
Theodosius and Gratian clearly knew what they were doing. The change in policy between 378 and 382 is reflected in the altered tone of Themistius’ orations, stressing the clemency and goodwill of the emperor rather than his warlike prowess; and even more clearly by the reception of Athanaric in 381.
Quote ID: 7072
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 35
Section: 3D
By the end of the year it seems Theodosius had definitely regained the initiative, although the Visigoths were neither destroyed nor expelled from imperial territory, as conventional public opinion doubtless expected.
Quote ID: 7073
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 39
Section: 3C
At Milan, the court of Valentinian II was dominated by his mother Justina, widow of the great Valentinian, the old loyalist Praetorian Prefect, Petronius Probus, hastily called out of retirement, and the redoubtable bishop Ambrose.{29}
Quote ID: 7074
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 40
Section: 3C
Maximus made much of his Catholic orthodoxy, perhaps hoping to open and exploit divisions between the Arian court of Justina, the mother of Valentinian, and the fiercely Catholic Ambrose.
Quote ID: 7075
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 40
Section: 3C
Valentinian was reproved in patronising fashion by Maximus for tolerating Arianism within his territories, in contrast with the zeal with which Maximus himself had adopted and enforced Catholic Christianity.{37}
Quote ID: 7076
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 40
Section: 3A2A,3C
Maximus had been baptised soon after assuming the purple -- possibly immediately following the murder of Gratian in late 383 {38} -- and thenceforth pursued a rigorously orthodox religious policy, marked by the notorious execution of the bishop Priscillian, {39} the first execution for the radically new offence of heresy.....
Quote ID: 7077
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 41
Section: 3C
He now opened negotiations with the new Great King of Persia, Shapur III, with the aim of stabilising the Eastern frontier by treaty so that it would not need the presence of large forces in the near future.….
A renewal of peaceful coexistence was essential now that a new monarch was on the Persian throne.
Quote ID: 7078
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 41
Section: 3D
A Persian embassy to Constantinople in 384 was followed by a reciprocal embassy to Ctesiphon, led by one of Theodosius’ most trusted associates, the general Flavius Stilicho.{43} Of Vandal origin but, like his Germanic military colleagues, thoroughly Romanised, he had risen rapidly through the cavalry commands.
Quote ID: 7079
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 44
Section: 3D
At Alexandria there had already been popular demonstrations against Theodosius, but the resentment boiled over into a far more serious explosion at Antioch in the early spring of 387.
Quote ID: 7080
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 44/45
Section: 3D
Unable to break into the governor’s palace, the mob tore down the panel portraits of the emperor, and then the bronze statues of Theodosius, his father and members of the imperial family, breaking them up and dragging them with abuse through the streets. These images were the most sacred political icons of the empire, the holy objects in the universal cult of the godlike Augustus, whose sanctity Christianity had never succeeded in diminishing. They stood in every law court and public place as the witness to oaths, they preceded the armies on parade and in battle, and were the palpable focus of every expression of loyalty.….
Meanwhile, the actual or presumed leaders of the mob were tried and executed, some by burning alive, despite the custom of an amnesty on executions during Lent.
….
Heads continued to roll, men were imprisoned, estates confiscated. In the meantime the city had sent bishop Flavius and the senator Hilarius to plead humbly for mercy from Theodosius.
Quote ID: 7081
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 47
Section: 3C
When Constantine made his historic alliance between the Roman state and the Christian church, he had hoped, among other things, that this new, energetic and disciplined religion would buttress his unified empire with a unified faith.1
Quote ID: 7082
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 47
Section: 3A4C
Traditional paganism shared many elements with emerging Christianity, but the concept of heresy was something quite new. Precise formulation of doctrine had been unimportant to paganism: it was felt to be beside the point, in the manner of Hinduism then and now.
Quote ID: 7083
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 47/48
Section: 3A4C
Christianity could have absolutely none of this. Its roots were not Hellenic but Judaic. It had inherited the jealous, militant monotheism of Exodus, as well as the pre-eminent Judaic concern with the Law. All other gods were evil demons if they existed at all. Once and only once had the Divine assumed human form, in the supreme mystery of Christ’s incarnation. If the nature and message of Christ was allowed to be vague or disputable then the whole promise and authority of faith, church and priesthood rested on sand.
Quote ID: 7084
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 48
Section: 3A2A
With the concept of heresy gradually emerged its corollary: the dangerous idea that belief itself (as distinct from ritual conformity) is a kind of voluntary behaviour which can be changed by coercion. This attitude was to be prevalent in Christianity for over a thousand years.
Quote ID: 7085
Time Periods: 47
Book ID: 282 Page: 48
Section: 4A
It was, of course, important to define the nature of Christ (insofar as this was permitted to finite minds), and to settle the faithful in a clear and distinct doctrine, but it is unlikely that these hydra-like arguments did much to comfort the simple Christian. What they did was offer a field-day to the inveterate Greek love of philosophical dispute, which had its revenge on the shackles of Christian dogmatism by opening a Pandora’s box of chimerical and unedifying Christological disputes that racked the Church for centuries.
Quote ID: 7086
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 48
Section: 4A
As the famous visitor to Constantinople observed this is a city where every slave and artisan is a profound theologian. Ask one of them to change some silver and he explains instead how the Son differs from the Father. Ask another the price of a loaf of bread and he replies that the Son is inferior to the Father. Ask a third if your bath is ready and he tells you that the Son was created out of nothingness.{5}
Quote ID: 7087
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 49
Section: 3C1
The most far-reaching of all the fourth-century disputes concerned the heresy of Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria. He held that Christ, though sharing uniquely in the Divine nature, was created by the Father and is therefore of distinctly subordinate status, belonging to the created order. This was vigorously opposed by Alexander, Arius’ bishop, as tending towards two divinities (Ditheism).{6}
Quote ID: 7088
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 49
Section: 3C1
Arianism also seemed to invite doubts about the status of the clergy and Christ’s redemptive mission. If Christ was part of the created order, how far could the Divine quality he had exercised on earth be bequeathed undiminished into the future?
Quote ID: 7089
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 50
Section: 3C1
Constantine had no understanding of these subtleties and no patience with them. Indeed, he was little concerned with Christ at all.{8}He had opted for the God of the Christians against Sol Invictus because it had seemed to offer the best promise of divine favour for the Roman state, which it was the emperor’s duty to secure by the proper forms of worship. The church had been granted many special privileges by him, and in return he wanted unity in it, not continual quarrelling over hair-splitting matters.{9}….
As Pontifex Maximus the emperor had always regulated the state cults and religion in general, and Constantine quite naturally intervened in the Christian disputes. In 325 he called, for the first time, a general or oecumenical council of some 300 bishops from all over the empire, at Nicaea in Bithynia.{10}
….
By a large majority it condemned Arius, whom Constantine then banished. It also confirmed the superior ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the sees of Alexandria, Antioch and Rome over other cities, and endorsed a church organisation following the boundaries of the existing provinces.
Quote ID: 7090
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 51
Section: 4B
By Constantine’s death two camps were solidifying, the divisions very roughly following the Latin and Greek halves of the empire (except for Egypt).
Quote ID: 7091
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 51
Section: 3C1
The split turned into open schism at the council of Serdica.{12} The new emperor, Constantius, was pro-Arian and did much to undermine the Nicene party. Supported by the Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, he manipulated special councils at Arles, Mursa, and Constantinople, and finally had the Arian formula of ’like essence’ declared orthodoxy.{13}
Quote ID: 7092
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 51
Section: 3A2,3A4C
Many bishops positively welcomed the use of imperial authority against rivals and heretics, and only wished the emperors would go further. They seemed blind to the accompaniment, that the state was slowly turning the church into something like an arm of the imperial bureaucracy.
Quote ID: 7093
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 282 Page: 51/52
Section: 3C
Constantine had enjoined toleration, and did not object to the dedication of temples in his honour, provided only that ’superstitious’ rites - mainly sacrifice - were avoided.{15}
Quote ID: 7094
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 52
Section: 3C1
By the time of the battle of Adrianople the East was predominantly Arian under the patronage of Valens, but with a strong Nicene minority grouped around bishop Basil of Caesarea. The West was staunchly Nicene, under the patronage of Gratian and the leadership of Alexandria and Rome.
Quote ID: 7095
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 52
Section: 3A2,3C
The early Christian emperors were doubtless sincere in their faith, but they never forgot that they were Roman emperors first and foremost.….
They used the church to further their own ends, and constantly played one faction off against another or resorted to crude imperial authority to get their way.
Quote ID: 7096
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 52
Section: 3D
He Theodosius took the teachings of the church and the condition of his own soul very seriously indeed. Unlike Constantine he was a Nicean before he became emperor, and he had never followed any other doctrine, never weighed the pros and cons of rival gods.
Quote ID: 7097
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 52
Section: 3D
After assuming the purple he remained a faithful Son of the Holy Church, and in matters of religion he saw entirely through its eyes. He allowed the church a political influence that no previous emperor had done, and the church, principally in the person of bishop Ambrose of Milan, was duly appreciative:...a pious emperor, a merciful emperor, a faithful emperor, concerning whom the Scripture has spoken....What is more illustrious than the faith of an emperor whom sovereignty does not exalt, pride does not elevate, but piety bows down?{16}
Quote ID: 7098
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 52/53
Section: 3A1
In August Gratian, under the influence of Ambrose, took an important step towards legal persecution of heresies in the West, reversing his father’s more tolerant policies: all heresies were prohibited by law.Pastor John notes: John’s note: AD 379
Quote ID: 7099
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 53
Section: 3D1
Then, at Salonica in February 380, Theodosius issued a comprehensive edict defining and enforcing Nicene orthodoxy, one of the most significant documents in European history:It is Our will that all peoples ruled by the administration of Our Clemency shall practise that religion which the divine (sic) Peter the Apostle transmitted to the Romans ... this is the religion followed by Bishop Damasus (of Rome) and by Peter, bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic sanctity: that is, according to the apostolic discipline of the evangelical doctrine, we shall believe in the single Deity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost under the concept of equal majesty, and of the Holy Trinity.
We command that persons who follow this rule shall embrace the name of Catholic Christians. The rest, however, whom We judge demented and insane (dementes vesanosque), shall carry the infamy of heretical dogmas. Their meeting places shall not receive the name of churches, and they shall be smitten first by Divine vengeance, and secondly by the retribution of Our hostility, which We shall assume in accordance with the Divine judgement.{17}
Thus the unity among Christians, which Constantine had vainly sought, was to be imposed directly by law.
Quote ID: 7100
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 53
Section: 2A1
At that time it was the most solemn of sacraments, involving the remission of sins and the binding of the person to the community of the faithful. It was commonly received not at birth, but at some significant point in the soul’s pilgrimage - especially the nearness of death (as Theodosius’ father had been baptised before his execution).
Quote ID: 7101
Time Periods: 24
Book ID: 282 Page: 53
Section: 3D1
When he ? finally entered Constantinople in state in November 380 it was as a zealous son of the Catholic church, as well as a successful Roman emperor. Immediately a systematic purge of Arian clergy was launched, and measures prepared against other damnable heresies.{19}
Quote ID: 7102
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 53/54
Section: 3C1,3D1
The purge against Arianism was not an edifying affair, as even its supporters admitted. Demophilus, the principled Arian bishop of Constantinople, refused to subscribe to the Nicene creed and was deposed immediately. The Arian clergy were supported by popular demonstrations, and at Constantinople the new Nicene priests were installed in the churches only by armed force, though a number of Arian clergy converted and kept their posts. Theodosius received Gregory of Nazianzus graciously, and with a typical theatrical flair mounted an imposing ceremony for his enthronement as bishop, accompanying him in solemn procession to the Church of the Apostles. Even so, it required a stiff guard against the jeering crowds, and Gregory himself, a gentle man, related sadly that it was more like the entry of a hostile conqueror into a defeated city.
Quote ID: 7103
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 54
Section: 3D1
The Photinians were very close to the Sabellians in stressing the oneness of God; while the Eunomians, who seem to have aroused Theodosius’ special animosity, were a kind of ultra-Arians who dwelt on the fundamental differences between Father and Son.
Quote ID: 7104
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 54/55
Section: 3D1
In May 381, despite the needs of war, Theodosius summoned a new oecumenical council at Constantinople to heal the long-standing doctrinal schism between East and West on the basis of Nicean orthodoxy.….
The council was naturally dominated by the Greek bishops; Rome and Milan were not represented, and even Timothy of Alexandria arrived later and participated reluctantly, but it was to claim full oecumenical authority.{23}
….
The council then nominated the Miletian bishop Flavius for Antioch, and for Constantinople the unusual candidate Nectarius{25} - the distinguished Praetor of Constantinople, who had not yet even been baptised.
….
The council went on to define orthodoxy, including the mysterious Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost who, though equal to the Father, ’proceeded’ from Him, whereas the Son was ’begotten’ of Him. The principal role of the Holy Ghost seems to have been the spiritual vehicle whereby the divinity could be conceived by a mortal virgin woman. They also condemned the Apollonian and Macedonian heresies, clarified church jurisdictions according to the civil boundaries of dioceses, and ruled that Constantinople was second in precedence only to Rome, because Constantinople was the New Rome - a view stoutly rejected by Rome and Alexandria.{26}
Quote ID: 7105
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 55
Section: 3D1
In July 381 a new law of Theodosius formally expelled Arian clergy from their churches (the Arian clergy of Constantinople had already been ejected by Theodosius in 380), and stipulated, diocese by diocese, those Catholic bishops who were to be recognised, communion with whom would qualify lesser clergy to hold their churches: Nectarius of Constantinople, Amphilocius of Iconium, Helladius of Caesarea, and so on.{27}
Quote ID: 7106
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 55
Section: 3D1
Although the Western bishops still fought against several of these appointments they welcomed the council’s doctrinal rulings and sent thanks to Theodosius for his restoration of Catholics.{28}
Quote ID: 7107
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 55
Section: 2D1
This attitude was confirmed the following year AD 382 at a council in Rome under bishop Damasus, but it continued to condemn the ruling which ranked the see of Constantinople second to Rome, since this was based purely on the historic and political status of the two capitals. In response to this, Damasus promulgated for the first time a very different argument. The ecclesiastical primacy of the bishop of Rome, he declared, rested not on the City’s standing, nor the decisions of any synods or councils, but on the Roman martyrdoms of Peter and Paul, and the text of Matthew 16:18: ’Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church...’. Thus began a theory of Roman papacy, potent with future consequences.{29}
Quote ID: 7108
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 282 Page: 55
Section: 3D1
These differences did not prevent general communion of East and West being re-established after a schism of thirty years. The thorny questions, no longer doctrinal, were left to one side. The councils of 381 and 382, backed firmly by imperial law, succeeded at last in ratifying the unity of the organised Christian church, which had eluded Constantine.The last act of Arian resistance occurred in Milan, where Valentinian’s forceful mother Justina, herself an Arian, had not given up the struggle against Ambrose and his Catholic following. She persisted in her efforts at the imperial court to secure toleration for the remaining Arian minority, and actually succeeded in persuading her young son to issue a law in January 386 permitting Arian congregations to assemble and worship freely;....{30}
Quote ID: 7109
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 56
Section: 3D1
Dispossessed of its churches Arianism dwindled thereafter. Theodosius embarked on a long succession of anti-heresy laws over the following years, of varying clarity and severity but unmistakable in direction.{32}….
But taken together, they expressed the imperial will clearly enough and gave full license for zealous Catholics to hunt out heretical practices.
Quote ID: 7110
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 56
Section: 3D
Among the lay governing classes in the East Christian piety was far stronger than in Constantine’s day: they now endowed churches and monasteries, revered saints and relics, invested in the futures of their souls and those of their relatives and did not generally dispute the forcible reunification of the church.
Quote ID: 7111
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 56
Section: 3D
Arianism would have enforced its own orthodoxy if it could.Pastor John notes: John’s note: maybe not
Quote ID: 7112
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 282 Page: 56
Section: 3D
The earlier emperor’s comparative toleration of rival Christian factions and their refusal to criminalise heresy outright had often been a matter of practical politics, but it had been toleration nonetheless. The policies of Gratian and, especially, Theodosius brought it to an end. It was a far cry from Constantine’s emphatic rejection of coercion when he first adopted Christianity:No one should injure another in the name of a faith he himself has accepted from conviction. He who is quickest to understand the truth, let him try as he may to convince his neighbour. But if this is not possible, he must desist.{35}
Quote ID: 7113
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 57
Section: 3D
Theodosius had brought the law centrally into differences of the Christian faith, conflated false belief with criminal intent, and obedience to the church with obedience to the state. He had reunited the split churches, made them define orthodoxy, and then used the imperial power to recall deviants to the fold or else cut them off totally. It was thus Theodosius, as much as the Council of Nicaea, who can be considered as the historic founder of the established Catholic church.Pastor John notes: John’s note: you have these last four words crossed out - CHRISTIANITY!!
Quote ID: 7114
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 57
Section: 3D
As a devout Catholic, Theodosius disliked this state of affairs and hoped it would diminish, but as a responsible Roman emperor he needed the support of the partly pagan ruling classes no less than the Christians.{37}
Quote ID: 7115
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 57
Section: 3D
Theodosius reiterated the ban on sacrifice, but went no further. Incense, votive offerings, libations and similar rites were not illegal.{39} In one of his earliest enactments he protected a sacred grove at Daphne near Antioch against tree-felling. In 382 he expressly ordered a temple to be kept open since it had come to be a proper place for public assembly. The statues of pagan gods should not, he said, be considered offensive to Christians, since they may be valued as works of art, not idols. Nor did he curtail the traditional rites of the imperial cult, provided they did not include sacrifice.{40}
Quote ID: 7116
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 58
Section: 3D
He acknowledges that as a Christian the emperor would like to see pagans converted, but as a wise ruler he knows this cannot be done by force. Forcible conversions, he hastens to add, are valueless, and the Christian’s own law condemns such violence.{41}Pg, 58 -3D- In the East it was becoming common for fanatical mobs of monks to attack, destroy or loot temples.
….
The great temple of Edessa, near the Persian frontier, a monumental building with many fine works of art, was destroyed.{42} At Apamea the huge temple of Zeus was in effect besieged by armed troops led by the provincial governor, Deinias.{43}
Quote ID: 7117
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 58
Section: 3A2B
In the West, anti-pagan zeal was forcefully represented by Ambrose who, as bishop of the imperial capital, had dominated the religious beliefs of Gratian, and after him, of Valentinian II. Ambrose’s bold project was to attack paganism at its heart, in the elemental traditions and symbols of the Roman state. He intended to disestablish and if possible destroy the state cults, after a thousand years of veneration, and in the pious young emperor he had a pliable instrument.
Quote ID: 7118
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 59
Section: 3D
As Pontifex Maximus his revenues automatically went to support the colleges of priests - the Pontiffs, Augurs, Flamens, Vestals and others - whose ceremonies had protected the Eternal City since the days of the kings. In the Senate House at Rome stood the winged statue and Altar of Victory, placed there by Augustus after the battle of Actium, not so much to commemorate that victory as to epitomise the eternal triumph of the Spirit of Rome over all its adversaries.
Quote ID: 7119
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 59
Section: 3A1B
Now, in 382, under the urgings of bishop Ambrose, Gratian not only removed the altar but abolished the age-old subsidies to the priesthoods. The Senate sent the eloquent and highly esteemed Symmachus to plead respectfully against these measures. He was refused an audience. The following year Gratian completed the disestablishment by formally repudiating the robe and title of Pontifex Maximus, but later the same year he was murdered and the uneasy throne at Milan was occupied by Valentinian II, a boy of twelve.{47}
Quote ID: 7120
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 59
Section: 3A1B
The exchange with Ambrose is one of the most celebrated religious debates in the Roman world.Symmachus sincerely believes that the ending of the state cults will jeopardise divine protection of the empire, but he is naturally careful not to offend Christianity. So great a secret as the truth and meaning of existence, he suggests, eludes man’s puny reason and cannot be attained by any one particular route. What practical rites each of us follows is perhaps of secondary importance. But, just as each man on earth is given an individual soul, so each city and people is given a special guardian spirit or genius. Man’s knowledge of the divinity is obscure, but one acknowledged kind of evidence we can have is the consistent good fortune bestowed by the divine, whatever its ultimate essence. Rome has enjoyed this blessing down the many centuries when the rites were faithfully and correctly performed. Is this now a time to abandon them? Are we on such good terms with the barbarians that we can do without the Altar of Victory?
Quote ID: 7121
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 60
Section: 3A2A
Ambrose, in bullying tone, threatened Valentinian with excommunication if he gave way.
Quote ID: 7122
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 60
Section: 4B
It is not true that divinity can be approached by many routes. Christianity alone has received the truth from God, and is the only true doctrine and path to salvation. The polytheistic cults are simply deluded, and lead to eternal damnation.{49}Pastor John’s note: who said this? Ambrose?
Quote ID: 7123
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 60
Section: 4B
In these stark terms the Senate heard not just the rejection of its petition, but of all the background of Roman tradition which it had supposed still counted for something, even with Christian emperors.
Quote ID: 7124
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 62/63
Section: 3D
From Salonica Theodosius completed his war preparations and made other dispositions for a long absence, filling the important government posts with a group of thoroughly loyal officials. Tatianus, after a long and distinguished career under several emperors, became Praetorian Prefect of the Orient,{6} and his son, Proculus, Prefect of Constantinople.{7}….
Theodosius’ preparations may have been slow and methodical, but now he moved very fast indeed and succeeded in taking his opponent off balance.
….
Finally Theodosius’ army prevailed and Maximus’ remaining troops either surrendered or retreated south.
….
When Theodosius’ advance guard arrived at the city Maximus was handed over. The small Moorish bodyguard who had remained loyal to him were executed on capture; Maximus was taken to Theodosius’ camp three miles outside Aquileia, interrogated, and beheaded on 28 August. His head then went on a tour of the provinces.
….
The incorporation of Maximus’ remaining troops into Theodosius’ army was straightforward enough, but the wider political task of securing the loyalty of Italy and the West now required much more care.
Quote ID: 7125
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 63/64
Section: 3D
The inexperienced, ineffective Valentinian, now seventeen, could hardly constitute a credible successor in his own right: that would be running the risk of Gratian all over again, and it was a risk Theodosius was not prepared to take, whatever he may supposedly have promised his new wife Galla (now at Constantinople in the late stages of pregnancy).
Quote ID: 7126
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 64
Section: 3D
It was now that Theodosius made the acquaintance of bishop Ambrose of Milan; and thus began a complex, turbulent, but also deeply personal relationship between the two men, that was to have profoundly important consequences.
Quote ID: 7127
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 65
Section: 3D
But this was not nearly enough to satisfy Ambrose, who considered that Jews should no more be protected by the law than heretics.….
To the astonishment and dismay of Timasius and many others Theodosius climbed down.
….
Imperial duty and Theodosius’ Christian soul were painfully at odds and Ambrose, quicker intellect and dialectician, pushed his advantage relentlessly.
Quote ID: 7128
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 65
Section: 3D
Even more surprising - and surely offensive to pious Christian ears - he is referred to at many points as divine, a living god, and compared with Jupiter and Hercules. Far from being offended, Theodosius rewarded Pacatus with the proconsulship of Africa.{26}Christian or not, the cult of the divine emperor was one of the roles it was absolutely necessary for Theodosius to play.
Quote ID: 7129
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 67/68/69/70
Section: 3D
Even Ambrose seemed to have sensed for once that he was encroaching too far, but soon afterwards, in mid-390, an event occurred at the hippodrome at Salonica which shocked both religious and civil opinion in the empire, and eventually led to an extraordinary enhancement of Ambrose’s authority over Theodosius,and indeed a zenith in the influence of Church over State.….
Whatever the reason, the garrison was outnumbered and Butheric and several other officers brutally murdered and their corpses mutilated and dragged through the streets, to the greater glory of chariot racing (and perhaps, Greek vice against barbarian rectitude, for homosexuality in general was far more shocking to Germanic sensibilities than to Greek).
….
Not surprisingly the immediate reaction of Theodosius was of volcanic anger; but this time, unlike Antioch, in his choler he threw aside any inquiry or trial, and immediately sent secret orders to the new Gothic garrison at Salonica for a terrible, salutary bloodletting of the rebellious rabble.
….
Without pity, deaf to the screams and entreaties of the people (or even enflamed by them) the troops proceeded for several hours to butcher the spectators indiscriminately. According to Theoderet 7,000 people of both sexes and all ages were slaughtered.{30} Whatever the numbers, no Roman city had experienced anything like this in living memory;...
….
The moral shock throughout the empire was, if anything, accentuated by the general reputation Theodosius had for mercy and humanity.
….
Shortly afterwards, in August 390, he issued a law requiring all capital sentences to be delayed for thirty days before execution, to allow for possible review.{32}
….
There was nothing Theodosius could do to bring the dead to life, as he ruefully admitted, but he might still make his peace with God and save his imperiled soul.
….
Again Ambrose, in sorrow rather than anger, will not administer the holy eucharist unless the emperor either avoids the church - that is, excommunicates himself - or purges himself of his sin:....
….
Thus is was that an astonished people beheld an extraordinary spectacle as the Ever-Victorious, Sacred Eternal Augustus, Lord of the World put aside his gorgeous imperial regalia, and for several months wept and groaned as a humble, prostrate penitent in the cathedral of Milan. It was all the more extraordinary in its stark, public contrast between the despotic and universal power of the emperor, and the groveling abasement of that same power before the priests.
….
No earlier bishop, such as Eusebius, would have demanded public penitence from emperors such as Constantine and Constantius for their blatant fratricidal murders.
….
But what was most striking, and a portentous sign of the times, was that his pleading was in exclusively Judaeo-Christian terms.
….
The strongest weapon of persuasion was now the dreadful threat of excommunication from the mystical lifeline of the eucharist.
If it was a victory for humanity and decency, it was every bit as much a victory for the prestige of Church against State. However sincerely they deplored the massacre at Salonica many pagans must have been deeply dismayed by the public humiliation of an emperor before a bishop, the trampling of the office of their supreme magistrate in the mud, and the clear signal that in religious matters the church could now have its way.
Quote ID: 7130
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 70
Section: 2A1,3C
They may have recalled the tired old prejudice, that the main reason Constantine had embraced Christianity was that it was the only religion that was prepared to wash away his murders with a sprinkling of holy water.{35}
Quote ID: 7131
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 70
Section: 3D
The church was not slow to press its advantage. In February 391, barely a year since his successful rapprochement with the traditionalist senators at Rome, Theodosius obliged the church with a new and far sterner law against paganism. The ban on all sacrifice, public or private, was reiterated, and all access to temples now prohibited. It was followed by yet further laws with detailed prohibitions of purely private rituals. All this was taken by zealous monks as tacit permission for a new campaign of temple-smashing.{36}….
The face Theodosius now presented to the Western ruling classes was not the urbane ruler mixing easily with senate and people, but the persecuting fanatic, priest-ridden to the point of puppetry.
Quote ID: 7132
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 71
Section: 3D1
His Magister Militum and unofficial regent was Theodosius
Quote ID: 7133
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 71
Section: 3D1
Consistent with his pro-Germanic policy he now entrusted a Frankish warlord to rule the north-west through a puppet emperor - unintentionally creating what was to prove a dangerous precedent.….
But the fact remained that a Frankish leader could not command the same civil loyalties as a Roman one, and could not aspire to the purple himself.
Quote ID: 7134
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 72
Section: 3D
Theodosius was to be the last sole ruler of a unified empire of East and West. The crises that followed soon after his premature death were so momentous, that historians, ancient and modern, have naturally traced their causes back to the weaknesses of his state, and seen them as consequences of his policies - particularly the treaty of 382 and the general policy of conciliation with the barbarians.
Quote ID: 7135
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 91
Section: 3D1
The mechanisms of gradual assimilation extended, not without crises, first to Latium, then the whole of Italy (the so-called Social War of 91-89 BC, in which the Italian cities combined against Rome, was not at all a war of independence but, on the contrary, a struggle for full Roman citizenship rights: they wanted to opt in, not out).{4}
Quote ID: 7136
Time Periods: 14
Book ID: 282 Page: 119
Section: 3D
Yet, as early as February 391, Theodosius’ apparently successful modus vivendi with pagan traditionalism was abruptly ended by his radical new law, not only reiterating the ban on all sacrifice, public or private, but for the very first time forbidding all access to shrines and temples.{5} This was followed by three others, even more repressive and aimed at erasing every vestige of pagan ritual, custom or gesture. The face Theodosius now presented to the Italian pagan senatorial classes was no longer the tolerant, urbane ruler, but the fierce, religious bigot. The whole religious balance he had carefully constructed, he now seemed to upset at a single stroke.{6}
Quote ID: 7137
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 120
Section: 3D
This is not Theodosius the adroit diplomatic ruler, but Theodosius subject to some other imperative. King remarks: ’It is a measure of Theodosius’ greatness, laziness or duplicity that he was able to continue a policy which held together two mutually contradictory ideas’ - namely, the broad imperial toleration of Constantine and Valentinian I, and the root-and-branch persecution advocated by Ambrose, Cynegius and the marauding monks who were illegally destroying temples throughout the Eastern provinces.{13}
Quote ID: 7138
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 120
Section: 3D
However, after half a century of Christian dissension and schism Theodosius had already used legal coercion to suppress heresy (and Maximus had also taken this to extremes with the execution of the heretic Priscillian and some of his followers.{14}….
Only considerations of political pragmatism held him back and, after Salonica and Ambrose, these gave way to the Will of God and his own stern duty to impose Catholic Christianity on his subjects.
Quote ID: 7139
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 120
Section: 3D
The first law, Nemo se hostiis polluat, firmly prohibits all sacrifices, including - for the first time - the traditional state ceremonies still practised at Rome. It goes on to rule, ’No person shall approach the shrines, nor walk through the temples, nor revere the images formed of mortal hands.’ Men of higher rank who transgressed were to be fined fifteen pounds of gold.
Quote ID: 7140
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 120
Section: 3D
This is the state’s adoption of the stern Mosaic view of idolatry: that these images were fetishes being worshipped in and for themselves. Every educated person who moved among the shrines, including cultured Christians like Ausonius or Petronius Probus, knew that most pagans did not literally worship artifacts, but treated them as visible symbols of their gods.{15}
Quote ID: 7141
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 121
Section: 3D
The laws of 9 June expressly forbids apostasy (from Christian to pagan), which is to be punishable by loss of testamentary rights. The law of 16 June repeals the February law expressly for Egypt, where Alexandria, like Rome, had long enjoyed special privileges for its cults, including sacrificial ceremonies.{16}
Quote ID: 7142
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 121
Section: 3D
At Rome the official state sacrifices, which had ensured the safety of the City for a thousand years, now ceased (they would have dwindled in any case, following the ending of state finance for the cults and priesthoods).
Quote ID: 7143
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 121
Section: 3A1B,2E3,4B
Private houses increasingly became the locations of pagan worship, just as they had once been for Christian. Sincere pagans such as Symmachus and Libanius, after all, believed that the gods required incense, libations and other offerings, and would hardly abandon these rituals provided they could be enacted discreetly.{20}
Quote ID: 7144
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 282 Page: 121
Section: 3D
Nonetheless, it was a bitter blow to the aristocratic pagan circles in Italy, who so recently had experienced the seemingly tolerant urbanities of Theodosius, and who had, in their confidence, in the last two decades attempted a conscious revival of pagan thought and worship.
Quote ID: 7145
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 122/123
Section: 3A2A,3D
Its central target was the great temple of Serapis, the powerful Graeco-Egyptian sky god who combined the attributes of Zeus and Osiris, and on whose favour the Nile flood depended: until recently it had contained the ceremonial Nile Cubit, measuring the annual rise. The temple was generally recognised as one of the architectural wonders of the world, as Ammianus relates:...Feeble words can only belittle it, but it is adorned with such vast columned halls, statues so lifelike they almost breathe, and so many other works of art, that second only to the Capitol, by which Rome raises herself to eternity, the world contains nothing more magnificent.{25}
….
Reportedly the pagans were dejected and the Christians jubilant when the Nile rose again in the normal way.
….
The episode of the Serapaeum was rightly seen by both sides as an important milestone. After a decade of uneasy toleration, or at least truce, paganism was again in ragged retreat in the central regions of the empire.
….
Pagans.....were powerless against determined, organised mob vandalism by bishops and monks who knew they had the tacit approval of the emperor himself.
Quote ID: 7146
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 123/124
Section: 3D
The fourth law, of 8 November 392, was totally uncompromising.{31} In its assault on vernacular traditions it was as if today an authoritarian atheist regime were to criminalise Easter eggs, holly, Christmas cards, Halloween pumpkins, first-footings, and even such universal gestures as the drinking of toasts.The laws declared all sacrifice and divination, by whoever of whatever rank or order, for whatever purpose, punishable by death. Every other identifiable pagan symbol, item or expression was now prohibited. The house in which they occurred was to be confiscated; decurions were ordered to inform and governors ordered to investigate each case on pain of crushing fines. Altars, votive offerings, burning lamps, the simple domestic gods of the hearth and the kitchen, hanging wreaths or garlands, placing fillets on trees - all were now forbidden, anathematised as the filthy pollution of evil spirits, instead of the harmless social customs they very largely were. In this global ideological war of Light against Darkness there were no ’harmless’ practices. Ambrose, of course, exults in this extirpation, which he ranks among Theodosius’ great achievements:
....Theodosius who, after the example of Jacob, supplanted perfidious tyrants and banished the idols of the gentiles; who in his faith wiped out all worship of graven images, and trampled down their ceremonies.{32}
As Gibbon remarks, all this was the more ironical in view of the complacent ease with which, very soon, the bishops adopted and renamed local gods as saints, shrines as reliquaries, rustic festivals as feast-days, without too much painful soul-searching.{33}
Quote ID: 7147
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 125
Section: 3D
Membership of the body of Christ had counted more than Roman citizenship and status for most of the persecuted church, but to the still mainly pagan upper classes under the Theodosian screw there could be no such distinction: their social standing and family identity was inseparable from their religious tradition.
Quote ID: 7148
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 125
Section: 3D
Theodosius, however, was moving logically towards a position where for the great mass of the population (pagan upper classes gracefully excepted) membership of the Catholic Christian church was almost coextensive with Roman citizenship.
Quote ID: 7149
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 125
Section: 3D
However, the last anti-pagan law of 392, issued from Constantinople when there was already a grave crisis of a different kind in the West, precipitated an untypical, perhaps despairing reaction. It has been depicted and celebrated by many historians as the Last Stand of Roman Paganism, and even been cast in similar tragic mold to the noble death-throes of the Roman Republic.{35}
Quote ID: 7150
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 127
Section: 3D
From the throne Valentinian handed Arbogast a letter of his own dismissal, but the general retorted that Valentinian had not bestowed on him this command, and could not therefore deprive him of it.{42}
Quote ID: 7151
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 127
Section: 3D
Shortly afterward, on 15 May 392, he was found hanged in his quarters. Arbogast claimed it was suicide.{43}A great deal of modern argument has gone on around this event, which has become one of history’s murder mysteries.
Quote ID: 7152
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 129
Section: 3D
On 22 August 392, he had a new Western emperor, Flavius Eugenius, officially proclaimed at Lyons.{51} This was still not legally treason, for there was no Augustus in the West. Almost immediately Eugenius sent a peaceful and fraternal embassy to Theodosius.
Quote ID: 7153
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 130
Section: 3D
By spring 393 the breach between Trier and Constantinople was complete, and in April Arbogast and Eugenius at last moved into Italy without resistance.
Quote ID: 7154
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 130
Section: 3D
Aware that Arbogast was a pagan, they had nothing to lose from a regime which could not in any case be resisted militarily.
Quote ID: 7155
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 130
Section: 3D
Ever hopeful, the senatorial pagan party in 391 had yet again petitioned Valentinian II (unsuccessfully) for the restoration of their cherished Altar of Victory, and now they petitioned Eugenius. After two refusals he finally agreed to the restoration, and other concessions followed. Although he did not formally restore state support for the official cults he provided private funds to revive the ceremonies.{54}
Quote ID: 7156
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 130
Section: 3D
It was only with Eugenius’ reappointment of Nicomachus Flavianus as Praetorian Prefect of Italy, that this cautious toleration became a full-blooded pagan revival, which swept Eugenius along with it.
Quote ID: 7157
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 131
Section: 3D
Though not by nature militant, paganism was goaded into active defiance of Theodosius. It attached itself to the open political rebellion, whose emblems were now taken over by those of the old gods.{55}
Quote ID: 7158
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 131
Section: 3D
Under the vigorous leadership of Flavianus (and perhaps the embarrassment of Eugenius) temples were rapidly restored and rededicated, festivals punctually celebrated, sacrifices correctly performed and the mystery cults revived.
Quote ID: 7159
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 131
Section: 3D
His own son, Nicomachus the younger, became Prefect of Rome and rededicated a temple to Venus. At Ostia the temple of Hercules was rebuilt.
Quote ID: 7160
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 282 Page: 131
Section: 3D
It was many years since Rome had seen such religious spectacles.{56}
Quote ID: 7161
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 131
Section: 3D
Ambrose of course fled the whole horrid scene, and addressed reproachful letters to Eugenius from Faventia. His charge is not Eugenius’ political treason but his apostasy as a Christian, especially in the charged matter of the Altar of Victory.
Quote ID: 7162
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 132/133/134/135
Section: 3D
Since Eugenius’ open celebrations of paganism Theodosius had no difficulties (in contrast to the Maximus revolt) in seeing this as a Holy War, and enlisting the full armory of fasting, prayer and ceremonies of supplication, the Christian counterpart of Flavius’ festivals in Italy.….
As he had once before, he piously sought the prophetic advice of the holy hermit John of Lycopolis, who had dwelt fifty years in a remote mountain cell in Thebais.{60}
….
John’s prophecy was double-edged: that Theodosius would be victorious after great slaughter, but that he would die in Italy. Theodosius now received a more concrete blow to his spirits (whether or not seen as a sign) when on the very eve of the war his young wife Galla died in childbirth, together with the baby. For one as warmly emotional and devoted to his family as we know him to have been, the wound must have been cruel indeed, but we are told he followed the Homeric rule and allowed himself one day’s mourning, then marched off to the war.
….
Pagan morale was also raised by the publication of an oracle explaining the advent of the ’Great Year’ at the end of each mystical cycle of 365 years, when measured human destiny enters a new epoch. Calculating from AD 29 this brought matters neatly to 394, and clearly signaled an end to the term of Christianity.{61} As he traveled off Flavianus boasted that on his victorious return he would draft monks into the army and turn the holy churches of Ambrose into stables.{62}
….
The established organization of the Christian Church could not now be abolished, and even the most zealous pagan emperor would have been mad to try. Arbogast, who had many Christians in his army, was fighting to survive and rule - not to stable his cavalry in the nave of Milan cathedral.
….
Theodoret and others, have readily given the conflict more religious significance than perhaps deserved, seeing the war as the final, unarguable decision between the old gods and the new. Thus it is Christian accounts which depict the forces of the West as the last Roman army to march under the twin images of Jupiter with golden thunderbolts and his invincible son Hercules.
….
On the afternoon of 5 September 394 Theodosius launched a frontal assault, with the Visigothic troops in the vanguard. Yet, after the fiercest fighting in which very great numbers were killed - including the general Bacurius - they failed to break Arbogast’s lines; at nightfall they retreated, mauled, from the field. They left so many Gothic dead that it created a legacy of bitterness among the federate allies, who felt, not unreasonably, that their blood was more expendable than that of the Romans.{2}
Eugenius considered the battle all but won, and the mood spread among his troops. Arbogast detached a substantial force{3} to carry out a concealed movement across the passes to take Theodosius in the rear. In Theodosius’ camp, we are told, the mood was one of near-despair, and the emperor spent much of the night in prayer to the God who seemed to have deserted him. Theodoret claims he was visited by two heavenly riders all in white, Saint John and Saint Philip, who bade him take courage.{4} More materially, the force sent to outflank the Eastern army instead signaled their readiness to desert Arbogast for a large financial consideration, which was naturally agreed instantly. Next day, the assault was renewed.
Despite Theodosius’ new advantage the bitter fighting was indecisive, until the appearance of a quite unexpected natural phenomenon. In this region, there can arise an unusual pressure effect on the cold air coming from the mountains, which produces cyclonic winds of over 60 mph. Known as the ’Bora’, this wind now blew across the battlefield directly against Arbogast’s line, pressing against their shields, blowing dust into faces and deflecting missiles back against their own line; it forced their opponents on top of them, their formation was disrupted and finally they broke.
Their fortified camp was stormed, and Eugenius captured in person.
….
Arbogast realized the hopelessness of the situation, and slew himself in noble Roman fashion.5 On learning the news Nicomachus Flavianus, faced with the devastating failure of all his gods and his cause, did the same.
….
Eugenius’ policy - of religious toleration, but with a bias in favor of paganism - was cancelled, and all anti-pagan laws which had been promulgated were enforced in so far as this was possible in the West. However, despite the great blow to its prestige, paganism did not immediately collapse with a spate of mass conversions, as some of its opponents have claimed. Among the mass population of the countryside the church and state had a free hand to suppress (or re-christen) the local gods, ceremonies and temples, a process which took a generation or more.
….
Under the influence of John Chrysostom the destruction of temples in the countryside was ordered in 399, although the more important public temples were often converted into churches or other, secular buildings. Yet, as late as 435, we find emperors still reiterating the prohibition on sacrifice, and the instructions to destroy or convert pagan places of worship.
….
The only hint of anything approaching the fierce medieval attitude is in a chilling letter of Ambrose to his friend, Pisidinius Romulus, in which he justifies the massacre in Exodus in barely coded terms, to suggest that the extermination of all pagans would likewise be justified; but his was never an acceptable political opinion, and Ambrose knew this very well.
Quote ID: 7163
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 282 Page: 136
Section: 3D
....at this meeting he put to the senators the question: should the worship of Christ or Jupiter be the state religion? According to Prudentius they voted decisively for Christ:The luminaries of the world, the ancient and revered assembly of Catos, eagerly cast off their pontiff’s togas like the skin of the old serpent, and put on the white robe of baptismal innocence, humbling the consular fasces before the tombs of the martyrs.
Zosimus state, to the contrary, that:
Not one obeyed his summons, nor chose to abandon those ancestral rites handed down since the foundation of the City....By observing those rites they had possessed a City that was unconquered for nearly twelve hundred years, and they could not imagine what might befall it if they now changed their religion.
Quote ID: 7164
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 282 Page: 136
Section: 1A,3A1,2B2,3D
Apart from the ending of the state cults, the progress of Christianity among the senatorial nobility of Rome was not, and could not have been, the result of any legislation. It required gradual and subtle compromise between the spirit of Christianity and classical culture - in effect, the Gospels rendered into Virgilian hexameters. We see this compromise again and again in the monumental art of the aristocracy –– the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, or the mosaic art of Christ as a Helios figure in the Mausoleum of the Julii, or even the frescoes in the Via Latina where scenes from the Bible and from pagan mythology are mixed. Christianity was gradually accepted, provided that it was polite, polished and accommodating of the verities of Hellenic civilization.{9}….
Even so, the change took several generations. It was certainly helped by mixed marriages, which the church decided to tolerate, at least amongst the upper nobility.
Quote ID: 7165
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 282 Page: 136
Section: 4B
Male solidarity in paganism was matched by female solidarity in Christianity.{10}
Quote ID: 7166
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 136/137
Section: 3A1,4B
Equally, the conversion to polite Christianity did not alter the secular prestige and traditions of the nobility, which continued well after the end of the Western empire. When the leading pagan Praetextatus died, the court, although Christian, did not hesitate to erect public statues to him. A generation after the death of Frigidus, the court even erected a statue to the pagan rebel Flavianus, commemorating his learning and public service.
Quote ID: 7167
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 137
Section: 2A3
Thus the unscrupulous Prefect, Rufinus, a pious Catholic, brought relics of Peter and Paul from Rome and installed them in a gorgeous martyrium at his own palace, to which he added a monastery and a community of monks imported from Egypt.{11}
Quote ID: 7168
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 137
Section: 3D
Theodosius’ great victory was a glorious event for Christianity, but in other ways it had solved little.
Quote ID: 7169
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 137/138
Section: 3D
The court, army and its illustrious retinue of generals traveled again to Milan. In the winter Theodosius, who had been under severe strain, fell seriously ill with the vascular disease of hydropsy. Ever since his critical illness of 379-80 he had not enjoyed perfect health, and now his attendants and court were seriously alarmed. Urgent word was sent to Honorius at Constantinople to hasten to meet his father at Milan.{14}….
The two most powerful figures in the background were, in the East, the Praetorian Prefect, Rufinus (who had shared the consulship with Arcadius - a singular honor); and in the West Flavius Stilicho, adoptive son-in-law of Theodosius, who by 393 had reached the top military rank of Magister Utriusque Militiae.{15}
….
The meeting of Theodosius and Honorius was celebrated by the usual lavish public games, over which Theodosius managed to preside for some time, but by the afternoon his place had been taken by Honorius. The eternal roars of the crowd echoed on, while immediately behind the scenes was being enacted the most fateful transaction for centuries.
Theodosius died on 17 January 395, aged only forty-eight. But before he did, we are told, he appointed Stilicho guardian (parens) of both his imperial sons: Honorius in the West and Arcadius in the East.
Pastor John notes: John’s Note: In the book his death is stated as being the year 394, you have it marked out and 395 written over. (That is how I typed it.) Also, in the margin beside the sentence about his death, you have p. 134 written in.
….
It differed radically from the form of Roman imperial funerals for the previous four centuries. It was, instead, an uncompromising Judeo-Christian apotheosis, delivered pointedly forty days after the emperor’s death.
Quote ID: 7170
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 139
Section: 3D
None of this prevented conventional inscriptions from elevating Theodosius to the ranks of the gods (divus), nor the poet Claudian later placing him among the stars.
Quote ID: 7171
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 140
Section: 3D
It is difficult to overestimate the significance of the transitions of 395, when a new and unprecedented set of conditions suddenly appeared. Never before in imperial history had both East and West found themselves ruled by such youths, and youths without any inkling of military experience.
Quote ID: 7172
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 140
Section: 3D
Compared with a youth like Gratian, who had been brought up by his warlike father to lead troops at the age of fifteen, both Honorius and Arcadius were unintelligent and pusillanimous.
Quote ID: 7173
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 282 Page: 140
Section: 3D
Instead, power flowed into new, untried channels of indirect rule, and the fundamental loyalty that had always been assumed between the thrones of East and West crumbled away. (Indeed, popular history is prone to cite 395 as a formal separation of East and West, as if it were a constitutional divorce.)Pastor John notes: John’s Note: Death of Theodosius = separation of East and West
Quote ID: 7174
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 282 Page: 143
Section: 3D
Stilicho had some cause to regret the untimely death of his patron, for his own ambitions plans were by no means complete by January 395. His loyalty to the dynasty of Theodosius did not prevent him from planning a far more binding web of marriage alliances between his own children and the imperial family, which would further underpin his own unique position (to be publicly confirmed by Theodosius) as Commander-in-Chief, ’regent’, and protector of that family.{3} There is no reason to suppose that Stilicho himself aspired to the purple, but he may well have had this vicarious ambition for his own son Eucherius, whom Theodosius seems to have acknowledged as his grandson, born in the purple.{4}Pastor John notes: John’s Note: Stilicho = Barbarian = Christian = son-in-law of Theodosius
Quote ID: 7175
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 282 Page: 144/145/148/149/150/152/1
Section: 3D
The Story of AlaricThe first challenge came almost immediately, from the Visigothic foederati who had only just been managed by Theodosius, but now sensed a power vacuum. They had returned promptly from the civil war, having been dismissed by Stilicho, to their allotted territories in the eastern Danube provinces, with great resentments. As they saw it, they had served loyally in the civil war and suffered great losses.{10} It was believed that Theodosius had deliberately placed them in the vanguard at the Frigidus so that Gothic blood could be sacrificed rather than Roman. It was also felt to be straining the alliance that they should twice be used in the emperor’s internal quarrels against other Romans.{11} Most of all, their leader, Alaric, had wanted a top Roman command like Stilicho, Bauto, Arbogast, Gainas and other Germanic generals.{12} Theodosius had refused this,....
….
This was not just a revolt by a section of disgruntled Gothic warriors - which had happened before - but a national movement of major proportions.{17} Although its exact aims are unclear, Alaric wanted to put pressure on the Government to give him a top command, which would have enormously strengthened his position both within the Roman ruling strata and among his own followers.
….
Alaric and his followers spent much of 396 helping themselves to the wealth that they could extract from the Greek cities, plundering extensively in the Peloponnese with no opposition from the Eastern government or it army.
….
In Greece, Stilicho engaged Alaric and blockaded his army, even diverting the water courses to force him into submission. The tactics were the same as always against the Goths since 378, and no less successful in their results and saving of lives for that. The outcome, however, was disappointing. For whatever reasons Stilicho withdrew, and Alaric moved north into Epirus.
….
At about this time, Eutropius and the East took the extreme step of declaring Stilicho a public enemy. If this happened during the campaign, it would have directly challenged Stilicho’s authority in Greece.
The main outcome of 397 was the gravest public rift between the thrones of East and West, usually signaling the outbreak of civil war along with the overthrowing of imperial statues, but the two brothers Arcadius and Honorius were not going to fight.
….
But Eutropius, Stilicho’s equal in astuteness, took the logical but unpopular step of ridding the East of one major problem by finally giving Alaric what he had continually wanted: a full Roman command. He was officially appointed Magister Militum in eastern Illyricum, in theory responsible to Arcadius, but in practice to nobody. At the stroke of a stylus the barbarian plunderer of Greece was legitimized and promoted to be its supreme military commander and supposed defender.
The timing of this promotion is uncertain, but it seems plausible that Alaric broke out of Greece after the withdrawal of Stilicho and, in the absence of any restraint on the Goths, Eutropius had to come to terms with them. They were established in a new territory, in Macedonia, where their arbitrary depredations ceased and they began to be supplied quite legitimately with the produce of the Balkan provinces and the output of its arms factories. This was a good bargain for Alaric, which he exploited fully, and the new treaty held for four years.{38}
Although Alaric appears increasingly as a dangerous volatile force which will neither be satisfied nor controlled, at this stage his ambitions were at least rational.{39} A senior military command gave him the means to supply and settle his followers, to build up and re-arm his warriors, and to consolidate his position as king. Most importantly, it offered him a respected place in the decision-making circles of the empire, which might provide the secure political guarantees for the Visigothic nation within Roman territory which had eluded Fritigern and his successors; and which had allowed - as he saw it - betrayal and exploitation by perfidious Roman allies. From the Roman point of view, to the dismay of Stilicho, Alaric now had two horses to ride: he was both king of the Visigothic federates, and Roman military commander of one of the strategically pivotal areas of the empire. There is no doubt that this represented a crucial further step in the loss of Roman ascendancy and initiative - which is why Theodosius and Stilicho had opposed it so adamantly. Stilicho, who was secure enough in the West, was further that ever from realizing his claims in the East, while Alaric was even stronger, able to play East off against West. His forces, despite some inevitable losses, had benefitted from their habitual service with the Roman army, and were tactically a more formidable weapon than those commanded by Fritigern a generation earlier; they were also, of course, much better equipped and supplied.
There were thus three rival power centers: Stilicho, Alaric and Eutropius. Eutropius’ deal with Alaric freed him from the short-term Gothic menace, and provided a useful counterweight to Stilicho.
….
Eutropius’ blunder was compounded by the substantial unpopularity of the appointment of Alaric, which must have provoked even further the simmering anti-Gothic feeling in the East. That Alaric was now legitimate commander of the Greek cities of Illyricum was the latest in a series of affronts to civilized men, stretching back beyond Fritigern to the ravages of the third century.
….
....palace rivalries at Constantinople were compounded by a split into pro- and anti-Gothic factions, which erupted violently in 400. The empress Eudoxia, who had quarreled with Eutropius, now struggled with him for control of Arcadius: as his wife, and the mother of his children, Eudoxia was in a strong position.{44}
….
Against an idealized Hellenistic background, Synesius pronounces on the true nature of kingship. The emperor should not hide away in his palace, but should avoid the oppressive court ceremonial and palace intrigues and take the field with his army, as in the days of old. Above all, he should expel the treacherous German barbarians who cannot be trusted to defend the empire in the field or in the council chamber. Citizens alone should defend their country and win their own victories. Barbarians are born to slavery, and it is a disgrace that they should parade as army commanders. Let all fair-haired men be banished from positions of power. The policy of Theodosius was a mistake, made not out of weakness but his extreme clemency to a defeated foe (it would have been unwise to criticize Theodosius directly in front of his son!), but the barbarians do not understand clemency. They should never have been granted land - they should instead be forced to work the land for us, as the Spartans did with the Messenians.{47}
….
The attitudes of Synesius were widely echoed among the upper classes and the wider population, although those in power saw the realities of the situation more clearly. The Goths were barbarians, they were illiterate and untutored (although many soldiers would have learned some Latin), they were uncouth and wore strange or un-Roman dress, they were Arian heretics, they followed the traditions of their barbaric ancestors...they were an alien virus in the body of the empire. This attitude, untypically for the period, represents a surge of the kind of hostility to outsiders that we have witnessed in our own century. It was confirmed only a year later, in 401, when Alaric decided to invade Italy.
It was now, with the threat to Italy itself, that Stilicho began to face truly grave problems. His standing had been strengthened by the prompt suppression of the Gildonic revolt and the restoration of the grain supply to Italy, and he still controlled Honorius and enjoyed the undoubted support of the army. The senatorial aristocracy could never overlook his barbarian origins, but they generally acquiesced in his rule - that is, they did not lend comfort to his enemies - provided he protected the territory of the West and their own wealth.
….
Alaric marched from Illyricum, taking advantage of Stilicho’s absence, and was in Italy by late 401 without encountering any real resistance. Some smaller cities were taken, but Aquileia held out under siege and early in 401 Alaric moved to threaten the imperial capital, Milan.{48}
….
Alaric lost his camp and baggage to the Roman army under the leadership of the Alan general Saul (who proved his loyalty to the Roman cause by dying in battle for it!), and although the main part of their forces survived intact the Goths were driven to seek refuge in a fortified position in the mountains. Negotiations began again, and Stilicho held the upper hand: Alaric agreed to move out of Italy, and his forces marched north beyond the Po.
….
For some reason Alaric halted his retreat near Verona, perhaps threatened by Stilicho searching for a more convincing victory. The battle of Verona was a major defeat for Alaric: his losses were high, his mobility lost to Stilicho’s superior cavalry forces, and his prestige was in tatters. Many of his men deserted and joined Stilicho, including senior figures (Sarus, Ulfilas) with their retinues. Defeated and blockaded by Stilicho, Alaric had no choice: he left Italy and returned to eastern Illyricum, where he was limited to ravaging those provinces in an attempt to restore his strength. A letter referring to this period (403-4), from Honorius to his brother, laments the depredations in Eastern territory, and bemoans the lack of cooperation in dealing with it. Stilicho obviously still had his interests in the East, and must also have been concerned about the possibility of Alaric again representing a threat to Italy: certainly the East was making no move to deal with the situation.{50}
Pastor John notes: John’s Note: Alaric an Eastern agent!!
….
In these circumstances lie the reasons that Stilicho now concluded an alliance with Alaric to annexe the eastern parts of Illyricum to the West, and to force a resolution to the conflict with the court in Constantinople.{52}
Pastor John notes: John’s Note: Alaric a Western agent!!
….
Before any action could be taken to follow this through, however, the plans of both Stilicho and Alaric were disrupted by a massive invasion of Goths under Radagaisus, a charismatic war leader who had attracted a huge following among the pagan Goths outside the empire (his forces were said to number 400,000!).{53}
….
Stilicho took the field against Radagaisus....
….
Radagaisus was decisively defeated in early 406 at Faesulae, and he was executed in August of that year. His huge forces were cut to pieces by the Huns as they fled, and many were taken as slaves by both Huns and Romans - the Roman slave markets are said to have collapsed under the flood of captives for sale. {54}
….
The cost of Stilicho’s victory became clear as he was planning to resume his interrupted campaign with Alaric against the East.
….
From this point on, despite the prestige of having saved Italy on more than one occasion, Stilicho was struggling against forces too many, too powerful and too complex for him to manage. He had stuck to his policy of seeking authority in the East, even resorting to using Alaric to help him secure it. His neglect of the Gallic provinces, although understandable and even necessary in the circumstances, alienated those provinces and the aristocracies who owned much of them. A barbarian general, it was murmured, was more concerned to do deals with other barbarian invaders for his own purposes than to defend Roman provinces against them. This was why he had spared Alaric time and again, when he should and could have crushed him as he had Radagaisus. We cannot trust barbarians in uniform.
….
Stilicho’s commander, Sarus, had had limited success campaigning in Gaul against Constantine in 407, after Stilicho had Honorius declare him a public enemy. Now matters were complicated by Alaric, who marched on Italy and demanded a huge sum as payment for his - unused - services under the treaty of 405 with Stilicho.
….
In May 408 Arcadius died in Constantinople, leaving the seven-year-old Theodosius II to succeed him. Stilicho, despite the obvious crisis unfolding about him must have seen this as one last opportunity to seize the initiative again, and proposed that he should go to Constantinople in person to establish his authority over the East (on behalf of Honorius, the senior emperor, of course). Honorius would remain in Italy, with Alaric to protect him and face Constantine in Gaul. Even his wife, Serena, tried to warn Stilicho, but to no avail.{60}
….
Imperial orders were then issued for his arrest, and it became clear that Honorius was under the control of Stilicho’s opponents. He sought sanctuary in a church, faced with the ruin of all his ambitious, but largely unselfish hopes. Even at the end he remained loyal, and when he was assured that he was only to be arrested he gave himself up: even his Hunnic bodyguard was not to offer resistance. He was, of course, betrayed and he was executed on 22 August 408. His son was murdered, after briefly seeking refuge in Rome. His property was confiscated, his inscriptions erased, and his adherents arrested and tortured to secure evidence of his treasonable conspiracy. They died in silence.{62} The families of his loyal barbarian troops, including those recruited from Radagaisus’ army, were massacred and most of Stilicho’s surviving barbarian forces deserted en masse to their only hope of security: Alaric. He is said to have recruited 30,000 men from Stilicho’s forces, and within two years he would sack Rome with them, while Honorius and his advisors who had overthrown Stilicho sheltered behind the marshes in Ravenna.{63}
….
This is not a work of drama. History, among other things, is about doing justice to the dead.
….
His errors, which caused his destruction, were not those of greed or personal ambition, but (and this can still be said of these politically squalid times) of idealism.
….
The dismemberment of the West was no a cataclysmic event. The sack of Rome in AD 410, to take the most hackneyed example, was quite avoidable, and was - in any case - of psychological rather than strategic importance.
….
It is ironic, perhaps, that until very late in the century the Germanic kings did not want to destroy the empire - in the sense of supplanting it with states of their own - they had no such states. What they wanted was settlement land, power and prestige within an imperial framework. Some, such as Athaulf and Wallia, were (in their good moods) decidedly pro-Roman.
….
Alaric became a third power center with the empire: so most destructively.
Pastor John notes: John’s Note: Alaric was bought by East with a title, and no punishment for his troop’s plunder of Illyricum, Greece, Macedonia.
....
In 410, having sacked Rome and plundered throughout Italy, Alaric suddenly died and was succeeded by his brother-in-law, Athaulf; he proved to be a more rational ruler after initially continuing to ravage Italy, and eventually became pro-Roman through his marriage in January 414 to Theodosius’ formidable daughter, Galla Placidia.
Quote ID: 7176
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 282 Page: 171
Section: 3D
Had the West been able to do likewise it might well have held the ring, and provided the emerging Gothic and Frankish kingdoms with a confident imperial Roman framework of law, statecraft, administration and religion within which they could have prospered, struggled and grown with a richer culture than they in fact inherited. Whether this would have been a Good Thing, in whatever sense, is of course a matter for argument. But look at the Papacy, and at Charlemagne: the successful followers of the Roman empire still wanted to be what they perceived Caesar Augustus to have once been.{10}Theodosius has been called the Great, but principally in gratitude for his establishment of Unam Sanctam Catholicam Apostolicam Ecclesiam.
Quote ID: 7177
Time Periods: 45
End of quotes