Theodosius I - A.D. 388-392 - AE Follis - SALVS REIPVBLICAE - RIC IX 26b

Theodosius I - (January 11 347- January 17 395), aka Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. He is best known for making Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire & great architecture projects in Constantinople. After a military career & a governorship under his father Theodosius the Elder, a comes rei militaris, he became magister equitum & was then elevated to the imperial rank of augustus by the emperor

Gratian (367-383). He replaced the latter's uncle & senior augustus Valens (364-378) who had been killed in the Battle of Adrianople. He was the 1 emperor of the Theodosian dynasty (379-457) & married into the ruling Valentinianic dynasty (364–455). On accepting his elevation, he campaigned with limited success against Goths & other barbarians who had invaded the Empire. He was not able to destroy them or drive them out, as had been Roman policy for centuries in dealing with invaders. The Gothic War ended with the Goths established as autonomous allies of the Empire, within the Empire's borders, south of the Danube. They were given lands & allowed to remain under their own leaders, not assimilated as had been normal Roman practice. He issued decrees that effectively made Nicene Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire, including the Edict of Thessalonica. He dissolved the order of the Vestal Virgins in Rome's Temple of Vesta. In 393, he banned the pagan rituals of the Olympic Games. His decrees made Nicene Christianity the state church of the Roman Empire & punished Roman paganism,

Hellenistic religion & Arianism. He neither prevented  nor punished the destruction of prominent Hellenistic temples of classical antiquity, including the Temple of Apollo in Delphi & the Serapeum in Alexandria. At his capital Constantinople he commissioned the honorific Column of Theodosius, the Theodosian Walls & the Golden Gate, among the greatest surviving works of ancient Roman architecture. His management of the empire was marked by heavy tax exactions & by a court in which "everything was for sale".

Theodosius married Gratian's half-sister Galla, daughter of Valentinian the Great (364-375) & defeated the rebellion of Magnus Maximus (383-388) on behalf of his new brother-in-law, Valentinian II (375-392). This victory came at heavy cost to the strength of the Empire. When Valentinian II died, Theodosius became the senior emperor, having already made his eldest son Arcadius his co-augustus. Theodosius then defeated the usurper Eugenius (392-394) in another destructive civil war. He died a few months later without having consolidated control of his armies or of his Gothic allies. After his death Theodosius's young & incapable sons were the 2 augusti. Arcadius (383-408) inherited the eastern empire & reigned from Constantinople & Honorius (393-423) the western empire. The 2 courts spent much of their effort in attacking each other or in vicious internal power struggles. The administrative division endured until the fall of the western Roman empire in the late 5  century. Theodosius is considered a saint by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox & Oriental Orthodox churches & his feast day is on January 17.