Constantinople, consisting of 150 orthodox and 36 Macedonian
bishops, met in the following year, confirmed the Niccne faith,
ordered the affairs of the various sees, and declared the bishop of
Constantinople to rank next to the bishop of Rome. The emperor
cannot be acquitted of the intolerance which marks edicts such as
that depriving apostatizing Christians of the right of bequest. It
was not till 389 or 390 that he issued orders for the destruction
of the great image of Serapis at Alexandria. Other edicts of an
earlier or later date forbade the unorthodox to hold assemblies in
the towns, enjoined the surrender of all churches to the catholic
bishops, and overthrew the heathen temples “throughout the
whole world.” During the reign of Theodosius Gregory of Nazianzus
was made bishop of Constantinople. In 383 Theodosius called a
new council for the discussion of the true faith. The orthodox,
the Arians, the Eunomians and the Macedonians all sent champions
to maintain their special tenets before the emperor, who finally
decided in favour of the orthodox party. He seems to have suffered
the Novatians to hold assemblies in the city. Perhaps the most
remarkable incident in the life of Theodosius from a personal point
of view is the incident of his submission to the reprimands of
Ambrose, who dared to rebuke him and refuse to admit him to
the Eucharist till he had done public penance for punishing a riot
in Thessalonica by a wholesale massacre of the populace. Equally
praiseworthy is the generous pardon that the emperor, after much
intercession, granted to the seditious people of Antioch, who, out
of anger at the growing imposts, had beaten down the imperial
statues of their city (387). When the Christians in the eastern
part of the empire destroyed a Jewish synagogue and a church
belonging to the Valentinians, Theodosius gave orders for the
offenders to make reparation. Such impartial conduct drew forth
a remonstrance from Ambrose, who, where the interests of his
creed were concerned, could forget the common principles of justice.
Theodosius was twice married—(1) to Aelia Flacilla, the mother of Arcadius (377-408) and Honorius (384-423); (2) to Galla (d. 394), the daughter of Valentinian I.
The chief authorities for the age of Theodosius are Ammianus Marcellinus, Zosimus, Eunapius and the ecclesiastical historians (Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret). Much information may also be gleaned from the writings of St Ambrose, St Gregory of Nazianzus, Isidore of Seville, and the orators Pacatus, Libanius, Themistius. Among modern authorities see: E. Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (ed. Bury, London, 1896), chaps. 25 and 27; T. Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders (Oxford, 1892), chaps. 5, 6, 8-11; A. Güldenpenning and J. Ifland, Der Kaiser Theodosius der Grosse (Halle, 1878); G. R. Sievers, Studien zur Geschichte der römischen Kaiser (Berlin, 1870), pp. 283-333.
Theodosius II. (401-450) succeeded his father Arcadius as emperor of the East in 408. During his minority the empire was ably ruled by the praetorian prefect Anthemius and Pulcheria, who became her brother's guardian in 414. Under his sister's care the young emperor was trained in divers accomplishments which won him the name of Calligraphēs (“the Penman”), but grew up into a weak though amiable character. Through his generals Ardoburius and Aspar he waged two fairly successful wars against the Persians (421 and 441), and after the failure of one expedition (431) by means of a gigantic fleet put an end to the piracies of the Vandal Genseric. A Hunnish invasion in 408 was skilfully repelled, but from 441 the Balkan country was repeatedly overrun by the armies of Attila, whose incursions Theodosius feebly attempted to buy off with ever-increasing payments of tribute. His internal administration, though not sufficiently rigorous to check abuses, was upright and thoughtful. Among its chief events may be mentioned the endowment of the university of Constantinople (425), the conciliatory council of Ephesus (434) and the publication of the Codex Theodosianus (438), a collection of imperial constitutions for the benefit of pubh'c officials, which is our chief source of information about, the government of the empire in the 5th century. In 450 Theodosius died of injuries sustained through a fall from his horse.
See E. Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (ed. Bury, London, 1896), iii. pp. 381-444; A. Güldenpenning, Geschichte des oströmischen Reiches unter den Kaisern Arkadius und Theodosius II. (Halle, 1885), pp. 172 sqq.; T. Mommsen and P. Meyer, Theodosii libri XVI. (Berlin, 1904-5).
Theodosius III., emperor of the East (716-717), was a financial officer whom a Byzantine army rebelling against Anastasius III. unexpectedly proclaimed monarch in his stead. He captured Constantinople after a six months' siege and deposed Anastasius, but in the following year was himself forced to resign by a new usurper, Leo III. (q.v.). Theodosius ended his life in a monastery.
See G. Finlay, History of Greece (ed. 1877, Oxford), i. p. 396).
THEODOSIUS OF TRIPOLIS, Greek geometer and astronomer, three of whose works were contained in the collection of lesser writings named ὁ μικρὸς ἀστρονομούμενος (sc. τόπος), or ὁ μικρὸς ἀστρονόμος.[1] Suldas erroneously identifies him with a sceptical philosopher of the same name who lived in the second half of the 2nd century A.D. or later, but, on the other hand, distinguishes him from a native of Tripolis who wrote a poem on spring. He is doubtless the same as Theodosius the mathematician, who is mentioned by Strabo amongst the natives of Bithynia distinguished for their learning, and whose sons were also mathematicians, the same, too, as the inventor of a universal sun-dial (horologium πρὸς πᾶν κλίμα) of that name who is praised by Vitruvius (De Architectura, ix. 9). His date, therefore, could not have been later than the 1st century B.C.; he may, however, have lived in the preceding century, inasmuch as the names mentioned by Strabo in the passage referred to above are, as far as we know, arranged chronologically, and Theodosius immediately follows Hipparchus, who made astronomical observations between 161 and 126 B.C., and precedes Asclepiades the physician, who lived at Rome at the beginning of the 1st century B.C.
His chief work—σφαιρικά, in three books—is a tolerably complete treatise on the pure geometry of the surface of a sphere, and was still the classical book on the subject in Pappus's time. It does not contain (except for a faint suggestion in iii. 11-12) any trace of spherical trigonometry, which, on the other hand, was the special subject of the work having the same title, and included in the same collection, of Menelaus of Alexandria, who lived at the end of the 1st century.
A. Nokk (Ueber die Sphärik des Theodosius; Karlsruhe, 1847), Heiberg (Litterargeschichtliche Studien über Euklid, pp. 43 seq.; Leipzig, 1882), and Hultsch (Jahrbücher für classische Philologie, 1883, pp. 415-420, and Autolycus; Leipzig, 1885) have proved that as early as the middle of the 4th century B.C. there existed a Greek text-book on Spherics which, in its essential contents, scarcely deviated from the three books of Theodosius. He must therefore be regarded as merely the editor, or at most the elaborator and expounder, of a doctrine which existed some centuries before him. A careful analysis of Theodosius' work, from this point of view, will be found in A. A. Björnbo's Studien über Menelaos Sphärik (Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der mathematischen Wissenschaften, xiv.; Teubner, 1902).
The Spherics of Theodosius was translated into Arabic at the beginning of the 10th century, and from the Arabic into Latin in the 12th century by Plato of Tivoli (Tiburtinus). This translation was published in 1518 at Venice, but was found so faulty by J. Voegelinus that he published a new Latin version, together with additions from the Arabian commentators (Vienna, 1529, 4to); other Latin translations were published by F. Maurolycus (Messina, 1558, fol.); by C. Clavius (Rome, 1586, 4to); and by Barrow under the title, Theodosii Sphaerica, Methodo Nova Illustrata et Succincte Demonstrata (London, 1675, 4to). The Greek text was first published, and with it a Latin translation, by J. Pena (Paris, 1558, 4to); it has been edited since by Joseph Hunt (Oxford, 1707), and by E. Nizze (Berlin, 1852), but these two editions are founded on that of Pena. There is also a German translation by Nizze (Stralsund, 1826). His two editions are accompanied with valuable notes and an appendix containing additions from Voegelinus and others.
The two other works of Theodosius which have come down to us have not as yet been published in the original. The propositions, without demonstrations, in the work περὶ ἡμερῶν καὶ νυκτῶν (On Days and Nights), in two books, were given by Dasypodius, in Greek and Latin, in his Sphaericae Doctrinae Propotitiones (Strasburg, 1572, 8vo). A Latin version of the complete work, with ancient scholia and figures, was given by Joseph Auria (Rome, 1591, 4to). Pappus has given a pretty full commentary on the
- ↑ This collection contained, according to Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca, ed. Harles, iv. p. 16, the following books:—“Theodosii Tripolitae, Sphaericorum, libri iii.; Euclidis, Data, Optica, Catoptrica, ac Phaenomena; Theodosii Tripolitae, De Hobitationibus et Noctibus ac Diebus, libri ii.; Autolyci Pitanaei, De Sphaera Mota, et libri ii. De Ortu atque Occasu Slellarum Inerrantium; Aristarchi Samii, De Magnitudinibus ac Distantiis Solis ac Lunae; Hypsiclis Alexandrini, Ἀναφορικὸς sive De Ascensionibus; Menelai, Sphaericorum, libri iii.” Euclid's Data is, however, wrongly included, for Pappus, vii., makes it part of analysis (ὁ ἀναλυόμενος τόπος).
