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Theodosius II ( ; 10 April 401 – 28 July 450), called " the Calligraphy", was Roman emperor from 402 to 450. He was proclaimed Augustus as an infant and ruled as the Eastern Empire's sole emperor after the death of his father Arcadius in 408. His reign was marked by the promulgation of the Theodosian law code and the construction of the Theodosian walls of Constantinople. He also presided over the outbreak of two great Christological controversies, Nestorianism and Eutychianism.
According to the sixth-century historian Procopius and eight-century chronicler Theophanes the Confessor, the Sasanian Empire king Yazdegerd I (399–420) was appointed by Arcadius as the guardian of Theodosius, whom Yazdegerd treated as his own child, sending a tutor to raise him and warning that enmity toward him would be taken as enmity toward Persia.Alireza Shapour Shahbazi, "Byzantine-Iranian relations", Encyclopaedia Iranica, 15 December 1990. Though this story is assumed to be inconclusive, Antiochus, a eunuch of Persian origin, became a tutor and an influence on Theodosius. He also became praepositus sacri cubiculi later but Theodosius dismissed him when he reached his adulthood.
In 414, Theodosius's older sister Pulcheria vowed perpetual virginity along with her sisters. She was proclaimed augusta, and acted as a guardian of her brother. The guardianship ended when he reached his majority, but it is assumed that his sister continued to exert some influence during his reign. In June 421, Theodosius married Aelia Eudocia, a woman of Athens origin. The two had a daughter named Licinia Eudoxia, another named Flaccilla, and possibly a son called Arcadius.
In 423, the Western Emperor Honorius, Theodosius's uncle, died and the primicerius notariorum Joannes was proclaimed emperor. Honorius's sister Galla Placidia and her young son Valentinian III, who had earlier fled to Constantinople to escape Honorius's hostility, sought Eastern assistance to claim the throne for Valentinian, and after some deliberation in 424 Theodosius opened the war against Joannes. On 23 October 425, Valentinian III was installed as emperor of the West with the assistance of the magister officiorum Helion, with his mother taking an influential role. To strengthen the ties between the two parts of the empire, Theodosius's daughter Licinia Eudoxia was betrothed to Valentinian. She married Valentinian III later on 29 October 437, and became empress of the western portion of the empire.
In 429, Theodosius appointed a commission to collect all of the laws since the reign of Constantine I, and create a fully formalized system of law. This plan was left unfinished, but the work of a second commission that met in Constantinople, assigned to collect all of the general legislations and bring them up to date, was completed; their collection was published as the Codex Theodosianus in 438. The law code of Theodosius II, summarizing edicts promulgated since Constantine, formed a basis for the law code of Emperor Justinian I, the Corpus Juris Civilis, in the following century.
The sixth-century historian John Malalas explains Eudocia's departure in a legend involving a certain apple. Malalas wrote in his Chronicle that one day, the emperor was on his way to church when a man presented the emperor with an "apple huge beyond any exaggeration." The emperor thanked the man with 150 solidi, and promptly sent the apple to his wife as a present. Eudocia decided to give the apple to Paulinus, a friend of both her and the emperor. Paulinus, unknowing of where Eudocia had gotten the apple, thought it was fit for only the emperor, and gave it to him. Theodosius was suspicious, and asked Eudocia what she had done with the apple. "I ate it," she replied, and then Theodosius asked her to confirm her answer with an oath, which she did. Theodosius then presented her with the enormous apple. The emperor was enraged and suspected an affair between Eudocia and Paulinus; he had his lifelong friend Paulinus executed, and Eudocia asked to be exiled to Jerusalem.
But the contemporary historian Priscus and a sixth-century chronicler Marcellinus Comes relate a different story. In this version, Eudocia murdered the comes domesticorum Saturninus for killing her close associates on Theodosius' orders. In response, the emperor stripped her of her attendants and she went on to settle in Jerusalem.
The Eastern Empire was plagued by raids by the Huns. Early in Theodosius II's reign Romans used internal Hun discord to overcome Uldin's invasion of the Balkans. The Romans strengthened their fortifications and in 424 agreed to pay 350 pounds of gold to encourage the Huns to remain at peace with the Romans. In 439 with the rise of Attila and Bleda to unify the Huns, the payment was doubled to 700 pounds.; , however, dates this treaty to 433.
Theodosius became engaged with the affairs of the West after installing Valentinian III as his Western counterpart. When Roman Africa fell to the Vandals in 439, Theodosius sent forces to Sicily, intending to launch an attack on the Vandals at Carthage. In 441 seeing the borders without significant forces, the Huns attacked the Balkans, pushing as far as Naissus (Niš) and Serdica (Sofia) and sacking nearly all the major cities on the middle Danube. This led to the expeditionary force in Sicily being recalled in 442. In 447 Huns defeated the Roman armies in Utus and Gallipoli, and went through the Balkans, destroying among others the city of Serdica and reaching Athyra (Büyükçekmece) on the outskirts of Constantinople. In 443 or 447, Anatolius negotiated a peace agreement; the Huns withdrew in exchange for humiliating concessions, including an annual tribute of 2,100 Roman pounds (c. 687 kg) of gold and an additional payment of 6,000 pounds., dates the treaty to 443; , however, puts it to 447; has two separate treaties in 442/3 and 447. In 449, an Eastern Roman attempt to assassinate Attila failed, however the relations between the two did not deteriorate further.
Constantinopolitan abbot Eutyches reignited the theological dispute almost twenty years later by asserting the miaphysite view that Christ's divine and human nature were one. Eutyches was condemned by Archbishop Flavian of Constantinople for refusing to confess two natures after the union, but supported by the powerful Dioscurus of Alexandria, Cyril's successor. The Second Council of Ephesus in 449 restored Eutyches and deposed Flavian. The Chalcedonians opposed the decision, with Pope Leo I calling the council the "robber synod". Theodosius supported the outcome, but it was reversed by the Council of Chalcedon which was held a year after his death in 450.
Like Constantine I and several of his successors, he was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles, in a porphyry sarcophagus that was described in the 10th century by Constantine VII in the De Ceremoniis.
However, these views of Theodosius have been challenged in modern scholarship. Some historians argue that contrary to hostile ancient sources, Theodosius was more in control of his government. Others view that the government was controlled mostly by the high ranking civilian officials of the consistorium, and not by Pulcheria or Eudocia. Historian Christopher Kelly notes that the modern dismissal of Theodosius has origins in the Enlightenment disapproval, and argues that "the reign of Theodosius II should not be too quickly dismissed, simplified or partitioned."
Among ancient and medieval writers, Monophysites had a favorable opinion of Theodosius. Theodosius was also a very learned emperor, with a great aptitude for maths, history, astronomy and writing, hence his nickname "the Calligrapher" by some later historians. Theodosius has been described by Kenneth Holum as "a man of intelligence and sincerity but little backbone."
Saint Right-Believing Theodosius II the Younger is commemorated in Eastern Orthodox Church on 29 July. He is also venerated as a saint in the Oriental Orthodox Church for his support during the post-Chalcedonian controversy.
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