Historical Context and Reign
Theodosius came to the throne as a child, and during his minority the empire was governed first by the praetorian prefect Anthemius and then under the guardianship of his sister Pulcheria. Born before him, Pulcheria took vows of perpetual virginity in 414 and was proclaimed Augusta on 4 July 414, at age fifteen. She provided the instruction thought necessary for a successful emperor — in deportment, speech, horsemanship, and dress — and set the devout tone of the court, where she and her sisters attended the house of prayer assiduously, showed great charity toward strangers and the poor, and observed fasting twice weekly.
In June 421 Theodosius married Aelia Eudocia, of Athenian origin. The couple had three children: daughters Licinia Eudoxia and Flaccilla, and possibly a son named Arcadius. On 29 October 437 his daughter Licinia Eudoxia married the Western Emperor Valentinian III, strengthening the ties between the eastern and western halves of the empire.
Contributions and Legacy
During Theodosius's early reign the praetorian prefect Anthemius oversaw construction of the famous Theodosian Walls that protected Constantinople, begun in 413; these defenses long guarded the imperial capital. In 425 Theodosius founded the University of Constantinople, endowed with thirty-one chairs — fifteen in Latin and sixteen in Greek — covering law, philosophy, medicine, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, and rhetoric.
His most enduring legislative achievement was the Codex Theodosianus, completed in 438, which gathered all imperial legislation since Constantine I into a single collection and later formed a basis for the law code of Emperor Justinian I.
Theodosius earned the epithet 'the Calligrapher' for his aptitude in mathematics, history, astronomy, and writing. A surviving papyrus preserves his handwriting — described as the only extant handwriting of a Roman emperor before 476.
The Council of Ephesus and the Doctrinal Controversies
Theodosius was a devoted Nicene Christian who engaged closely in the doctrinal controversies of his age over the nature of Christ. Having met the monk Nestorius during a visit to Syria, he appointed him Archbishop of Constantinople in 428. Nestorius proposed the compromise title 'Christotokos' to resolve debates over whether Mary could be called 'Theotokos,' the birth-giver of God; his position was rejected as heretical and was opposed by Archbishop Cyril of Alexandria and by Pulcheria.
At Nestorius's own urging, Theodosius summoned a general council, setting Pentecost (7 June 431) as its opening date and choosing Ephesus — a place long associated with the veneration of the Theotokos — as its location. He appointed Count Candidian to represent imperial interests and keep order, instructing him to remain neutral in the theological proceedings. The First Council of Ephesus in 431, reckoned as the Third Ecumenical Council, affirmed the title Theotokos and condemned Nestorius, who was exiled to Egypt. Theodosius had at first firmly supported Nestorius, but after communications from Cyril's faction he ratified the depositions decreed by Cyril's council and ultimately accepted it as legitimate, allowing it to declare Mary as Theotokos and to condemn Nestorianism as heresy.
Nearly twenty years later the abbot Eutyches advanced the miaphysite view that Christ's natures were unified as one. Condemned by Archbishop Flavian of Constantinople but supported by Dioscorus of Alexandria, Eutyches was restored at the Second Council of Ephesus in 449, where Flavian was deposed — an assembly Pope Leo I denounced as the 'robber synod.' Theodosius supported this outcome, influenced by the eunuch Chrysaphius, who in 441 had brought about Pulcheria's dismissal from court. The decisions of 449 were reversed by the Council of Chalcedon in 451, after Theodosius's death.
Death and Burial
Theodosius died on 28 July 450, aged forty-nine, after falling from his horse while crossing the River Lycus and severely injuring his spine. He was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople in a porphyry sarcophagus. His sister Pulcheria then married the military official Marcian, who succeeded him as emperor and convened the Council of Chalcedon.
The Oriental Orthodox Church also honors Theodosius, particularly among those who regarded him favorably for his support of Eutyches; this veneration lies outside the scope of Eastern Orthodox commemoration.
