:
For the Greek grammarian, see Arcadius of Antioch.
:
For the Monothelite Cypriot patriarch, see Arkadios II.
Flavius Arcadius (
377/378–May 1, 408) was
Roman Emperor in the Eastern half of the
Roman Empire from
395 until his death.
Arcadius was the elder son of
Theodosius I and
Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of
Honorius, who would become a
Western Roman Emperor. His father declared him an
Augustus in January,
383. His younger brother was also declared an Augustus in
393.
As emperors, Honorius was under the control of the Romanized Vandal
magister militum Flavius Stilicho while Arcadius was dominated by one of his ministers,
Rufinus. Stilicho is alleged by some to have wanted control of both emperors, and is supposed to have had Rufinus assassinated by Gothic mercenaries in 395; though definite proof of Stilicho's involvement in the assassination is lacking, the intense competition and political jealousies engendered by the two figures compose the main thread of the first part of Arcadius' reign. Arcadius' new advisor, the eunuch
Eutropius, simply took Rufinus' place as the power behind the Eastern imperial throne. Arcadius was also dominated by his wife
Aelia Eudoxia, who convinced her husband to dismiss Eutropius, who was holding the consulate, at the height of his power, in
399. Eudoxia was strongly opposed by
John Chrysostom, the
Patriarch of Constantinople, who felt that she had used her family's wealth to gain control over the emperor. Eudoxia used her influence to have Chrysostom deposed in
404, but she died later that year.
Arcadius was dominated for the rest of his rule by
Anthemius, the
Praetorian Prefect, who made peace with Stilicho in the West. Arcadius himself was more concerned with appearing to be a pious
Christian than he was with political or military matters, and he died, only nominally in control of his empire, in 408.
In this reign of a weak emperor dominated by court politics, a major theme was the ambivalence felt by prominent individuals and the court parties that formed and regrouped round them towards
barbarians, which in Constantinople at this period meant
Goths. In the well-documented episode that revolved around
Gainas, a number of Gothic
foederati stationed in the capital were massacred, the survivors fleeing under the command of Gainas to
Thrace, where they were tracked down by imperial troops and slaughtered and Gainas dispatched. The episode has been traditionally interpreted as a paroxysm of anti-barbarian reaction that served to stabilise the East. The main source for the affair is a mythology
à clef by
Synesius of Cyrene,
Aegyptus sive de providentia, (400) an Egyptianising allegory that embodies a covert account of the events, the exact interpretation of which continues to baffle scholars. Synesius'
De regno, which claims to be addressed to Arcadius himself, contains a tirade against Goths.
A new forum was built in the name of Arcadius, on the seventh hill of Constantinople, the
Xērolophos, and a column erected which stood until the eighteenth century, when, weakened by earthquakes, it threatenmed to topple and was taken down; the base remains.
The
Pentelic marble portrait head of Arcadius (
illustration) was discovered in Istanbul close to the Forum Tauri, in June 1949, in exccavating foundations for new buildings of the University at
Beyazit. The neck was designed to be inserted in a torso, but no statue, base or inscription was found. The
diadem is a fillet with rows of pearls along its edges and a rectangular stone set about with pearls over the young emperor's forehead.
rss feed