Theodosius II was born to the eastern emperor Arcadius and the empress Aelia Eudoxia in April of 401.
Theodosius' foreign policies centered around three axes: relations with the Persians, the encroachment of the Hun confederation under Rua and later Attila, and the precarious balance of power in the Mediterranean.
Theodosius moved towards greater administrative control by reserving the issuance of grant deeds of imperial lands to the very highest of offices.
It was during the prolonged stay of Theodosius in the West that one of most remarkable episodes in the history of the Church took place; the public penance inflicted by the Bishop and submitted to by the Emperor.
Great was their horror, when, shortly after Theodosius, yielding to the suggestions of Rufinose and other courtiers, ordered an indiscriminate massacre of the citizens, in which seven thousand perished.
Theodosius did not long survive his triumph; he died at Milan a few months later (January 395) with Ambrose at his bedside and the name of Ambrose on his lips.
www.newadvent.org /cathen/01383c.htm (5197 words)
Theodosius I - HighBeam Encyclopedia(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-30)
THEODOSIUS I [Theodosius I] or Theodosius the Great, 346?-395, Roman emperor of the East (379-95) and emperor of the West (394-95), son of Theodosius, the general of Valentinian I. He became (375) military governor of Moesia, but following the execution (376) of his father he retired to Spain.
Theodosius, whom Gratian made co-augustus in 379, took up arms against the Visigoths, who were plundering the Balkan Peninsula.
In 383, Gratian was murdered; Theodosius was forced to recognize the usurper, Maximus, as emperor in the West outside Italy, where Gratian's brother and legal successor, Valentinian II, held authority.
It was of extreme advantage to himself and to the Church that he acquired a thorough mastery of the Greek language and literature, the lack of which is so painfully apparent in the intellectual equipment of St. Augustine and, in the succeeding age, of the great St. Leo.
The special character and value of the writings of St. Ambrose are at once tangible in the title of Doctor of the Church, which from time immemorial he has shared in the West with St.
Jerome (Ep.xli) "he was disciple of Origen, but after the modifications in that master's manner due to St. Hippolytus of Rome and St. Basil the Great".
Ancient Furniture - Chapter 1(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-30)
An early reference to Greek furniture is made by Homer, who describes coverlids of dyed wool, tapestries, carpets, and other accessories, which must therefore have formed part of the contents of a great man's residence centuries before the period which we recognise as the "meridian" of Greek art.
From that little village on the Palatine Hill, founded some 750 years B.C., Rome had spread and conquered in every direction, until in the time of Augustus she was mistress of the whole civilised world, herself the centre of wealth, civilisation, luxury, and power.
Antioch in the East and Alexandria in the South ranked next to her as great cities of the world.
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great ethnic complex of ancient Europe, a basic stock in the composition of the modern peoples of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, N Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, N and central France, Lowland Scotland, and England
