A.D. 381 heretics, pagans, and the dawn of the monotheistic state ( PDFDrive )

of the major cities of the east. As it was, they advanced in some confusion,
finally reaching the walls of Constantinople and looting its suburbs but unable to
take the city itself. They could not destroy the empire but they had humiliated it.
They had disrupted much of the administrative framework of the Balkans, and
made its shortage of manpower even more acute, not least because the local
Roman magister militum of the eastern provinces, one Julius, picked out the
Goths serving in the Roman armies and had them all killed.
The focus was now on Gratian. He was still only nineteen, but rather than
being overwhelmed by the situation, he and his leading commanders kept their
heads. He had, at last, arrived in the Balkans and established his base on the
Danube at Sirmium, an important imperial command centre. It was there that the
remnants of Valens’ shattered armies, together with displaced officials, made
their way. It was essential that a strong man be found, one who, unlike Valens,
was a hardened soldier, to take control and regroup them.
Gratian’s choice was a tough Spanish general, Flavius Theodosius.
Theodosius was the son of Valentinian I’s Master of Cavalry, another
Theodosius, who had played a crucial role in bringing the rebellions in Britain
and Africa to an end. The elder Theodosius had taken his son on campaign with
him, so Flavius Theodosius had spent his early life on the march. He had learnt
fast, and already, at the age of twenty-seven, he had been made dux, military
commander, of the frontier province of Moesia. Here he inflicted a defeat on the
Sarmatians, one of the many tribes threatening the empire. All was going well in
his career when Valentinian died, but in the turmoil of intrigue that swirled
around the young Gratian, the elder Theodosius was arrested and executed. His
son realised that he would be better off out of the limelight and retired to the
family’s estates in Spain. He married one Aelia Flaccilla and the couple soon had
two children, a daughter, Pulcheria, and a son, Arcadius. (Another son,
Honorius, was born in 384.) By now, most of the Spanish aristocracy had
converted to Christianity, and although Theodosius had not yet been baptised, he
seems to have been a devout Christian. When his family’s supporters regained
the upper hand after a fresh bout of factional infighting at court, they petitioned
Gratian that Theodosius deserved a new command. When Theodosius had
proved his worth with another defeat of the Sarmatians, Gratian appointed him,
in January 379, fellow emperor to replace Valens in the east. To strengthen his
position he was also given responsibility for the strategically important area of
Illyricum, which covered what is now Croatia northwards to the Danube border,
for the duration of the Gothic wars. Theodosius was at thirty-three the oldest of