Theodosius II (AD 408–450) was the longest reigning Roman emperor. Ever since Edward Gibbon, he has been dismissed as mediocre and ineffectual. Yet Theodosius ruled an empire which retained its integrity while the West was broken up by barbarian invasions. This book explores Theodosius' challenges and successes. Ten essays by leading scholars of late antiquity provide important new insights into the court at Constantinople, the literary and cultural vitality of the reign, and the presentation of imperial piety and power. Much attention has been directed towards the changes promoted by Constantine at the beginning of the fourth century; much less to their crystallisation under Theodosius II. This volume explores the working out of new conceptions of the Roman Empire - its history, its rulers and its God. A substantial introduction offers a new framework for thinking afresh about the long transition from the classical world to Byzantium.

"This masterful study will have its place on every ancient historian's bookshelf."—Claudia Rapp, author of Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity: The Nature of Christian Leadership in an Age of Transition

A fresh look at the vitality and integrity of the eastern Roman Empire under its longest reigning emperor.

Theodosius II (AD 408-450) was the longest reigning Roman emperor. Ever since Edward Gibbon, he has been dismissed as mediocre and ineffectual. Yet Theodosius ruled an empire which retained its integrity while the West was broken up by barbarian invasions. This book explores Theodosius' challenges and successes. Ten essays by leading scholars of late antiquity provide important new insights into the court at Constantinople, the literary and cultural vitality of the reign, and the presentation of imperial piety and power. Much attention has been directed towards the changes promoted by Constantine at the beginning of the fourth century; much less to their crystallisation under Theodosius II. This volume explores the working out of new conceptions of the Roman Empire - its history, its rulers and its God. A substantial introduction offers a new framework for thinking afresh about the long transition from the classical world to Byzantium.

Publisher Description

Theodosian Empresses sets a series of compelling women on the stage of history and offers new insights into the eastern court in the fifth century.

This collection of legal documents affecting the Christian Church in the Roman Empire is the first its kind in any language. In time the monuments here translated cover the period from the foundation of the Church to the deposition of Romulus Augustulus, the last emperor in the West (476), and to the publication of the second (and only extant) edition of the Code of Justinian I, the most conspicuous champion of Caesaropapism in the East (534)—each terminus ad quem being an arbitrary, but a natural, limit. The character of the originals, which are mostly in either Greek or Latin, is strictly secular, that is, the documents emanate from the State’s officials, ordinarily the emperors, and thus expose the State’s attitude toward the Church. —From the Introduction