694 THEODOSIUS I. it to its allegiance. At the head of a small body of men, he advanced into the heart of an unknown and hostile country, driving his ene- my before him, until at last the usurper fled to Igmazen, king of the Isaflenses. The latter being threatened with destruction for harbor- ing him, Firmus strangled himself. Theodo- sius recovered Africa, but for some unassigned reason, probably because his name and ser- vices were too great for a subject, he was put to death. From him descended a line of Ro- man emperors. THEODOSIIIS I., the Great, a Roman emperor, son of the preceding, born in Italica or Cauca, Spain, about A. D. 346, died in Milan, Jan. 17, 895. He learned the art of war under his father, was early given a separate command and appointed duke of Mcesia, and in 374 gained a victory over the Sarmatians. After the exe- cution of his father he retired to Spain, where he led a private life until the emperor Gratian summoned him to take the supreme command, declared him Augustus, Jan. 19, 379, and as- signed to him the administration of Thrace, Asia, and Egypt, with Dacia and Macedonia. Fixing his headquarters at Thessalonica, Theo- dosius carried on the war against the Goths during four campaigns (379-382). The Goths, divided by dissensions and jealousies after the death of their leader Fritigern, were again united under Athanaric, who made peace and visited Constantinople, where he died ; and the magnificent funeral honors paid him by Theodosius so won over his followers that they enlisted in the Roman army. In 383 Gratian, the emperor of the West, was dethroned and put to death by Maximus, and Theodosius en- tered into a treaty with the usurper, by which he recognized him as emperor of the countries north of the Alps, Valentinian, the brother of Gratian, being secured the possession of Italy, Africa, and western Illyricum. Theodosius now devoted his attention to the affairs of the church. Fixing his residence at Constantinople, the stronghold of Arianism, he determined to do away with that creed, and gave to the arch- bishop Demophilus the alternative of subscri- bing to the Nicene creed or instantly resigning. Demophilus resigned, and Gregory Nazianzen was installed in his place. Six weeks after- ward Theodosius commissioned his lieutenant Sapor to expel all the Arian clergy from the churches in his dominions, and gave him a military force sufficient to carry out the decree. In May, 381, he assembled the first council of Constantinople, to confirm and complete the Nicene creed ; and during 15 years he issued at least 15 edicts against all heretics, especially against those disbelieving the doctrine of the Trinity. In the mean time Maximus had en- tered Italy, and dethroned Valentinian II. Theodosius, who had married a sister of Va- lentinian, marched against Maximus, then en- camped at the Pannonian city of Siscia (now Sissek) on the Save, defeated him, and pursued him to Aquileia, where Maximus was given up THEOLOGY by his own troops and put to death. Theodo- sius entered Rome in triumph, June 13, 389. The people of Thessalonica having for a slight cause murdered Botheric and the other princi- pal officers of the little garrison, the emperor sent thither an army of barbarians, who, when the inhabitants were assembled by invitation at the circus, massacred them to the number of many thousands. For this St. Ambrose for- bade him to enter a church in Milan until he had done public penance. He remained in Italy three years. When Valentinian was strangled in 392 by his general Arbogastes, who had se- cured for himself all the real power of the government, and now set up as emperor the rhetorician Eugenius, Theodosius undertook again the conquest of the West. After a se- vere and long uncertain contest he defeated Arbogastes near the passes of the Julian Alps. Theodosius was now master of the whole Ro- man world. Honorius, his younger son, Avas called to Milan to receive the sceptre of the West, and here Theodosius died immediately after his arrival. In the eastern empire he was succeeded- by his elder son Arcadius. THEOGMS, a Greek elegiac poet, who flour- ished about 540 B.'O. He was a citizen of Megara ; and as in the contests between the aristocratic and democratic parties he belonged to the former, he shared in their defeat, and went into exile at Thebes. He visited Sicily, Euboaa, and Sparta, and survived the Persian war of 490. He is the author of numerous ele- gies, originally comprising 2,800 verses, of which 1,389 are extant. They discuss oligarchical edu- cation and the humanities. The best editions are Welcker's (Frankfort, 1826) and Bergk's in Poetce Lyrici Greed (3d ed., Leipsic, 1866). THEOLOGY (Gr. 0e<5f, God, and Uyoq, dis- course), the science which treats of God and divine things. The name theologos was given by the Greeks to the authors of theogonies (as Orpheus and Hesiod), and to those who wrote poems (as Empedocles) or philosophical treatises (as Pherecydes) on divine things and the origin of things through the gods. A dis- tinction was early made, as by Varro, between " mythical theology," a knowledge of the myths and legends concerning the deities in the classic poets ; " physical theology," the in- vestigations of philosophers on the origin of the world; and "civil theology," a knowledge of public worship. The ecclesiastical writers of the 3d and 4th centuries used the word, but applied it only to doctrinal treatises on the na- ture of the Godhead, or on the Trinity. Some- what later the term was used by Theodoret, Maximus, and others, of the aggregate doc- trines of the Bible, but its most common sig- nification remained the doctrine of God. Ab6- lard was the first to apply the term to the en- tire science of the Christian religion, which signification it has since retained. With regard to the sources from which theology derives its contents, it is common to divide it into natural or philosophical theology, which confines itself
