Theodosius (347 - 395). Theodosius I, also called Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he faced and overcame a war against the Goths and two civil wars, and was key in establishing the creed of Nicaea as the orthodoxy for Christianity. Theodosius was also the last emperor to rule the entire Roman Empire before its administration was permanently split between two separate courts, one western, the other eastern. Born in Hispania, Theodosius was the son of a high-ranking general, under whose guidance he rose through the ranks of the army. In 374 Theodosius held an independent command in Moesia, where he had some success against invading Sarmatians. Not long afterwards, he was forced into retirement and his father was executed under obscure circumstances, but Theodosius soon regained his position following some intrigues and executions at the emperor Gratian's court. In 379, after the eastern Roman emperor Valens perished at the Battle of Adrianople against the Goths, Gratian appointed Theodosius to succeed him and take charge of the military emergency. The new emperor's resources and depleted armies were not sufficient to drive the invaders out, and, in 382, the Goths were allowed to settle south of the Danube as autonomous allies of the Empire. In 386, Theodosius signed a treaty with the Sasanian Empire, which partitioned the long-disputed Kingdom of Armenia and secured a durable peace between the two powers. Theodosius was a strong adherent of the Christian doctrine of consubstantiality and an opponent of Arianism. He convened a council of bishops at Constantinople in 381 which confirmed the former as orthodoxy and the latter as a heresy. Although Theodosius interfered little in the functioning of traditional pagan cults and appointed non-Christians to high offices, he failed to prevent or punish the damaging of several Hellenistic temples of classical antiquity, such as the Serapeum of Alexandria, by Christian zealots. During his earlier reign, Theodosius ruled the eastern provinces, while the west was overseen by the emperors Gratian and Valentinian II, whose sister he married. Theodosius sponsored several measures to improve his capital and main residence, Constantinople, most notably his expansion of the Forum Tauri, which became the biggest public square known in antiquity. Theodosius marched west twice, in 388 and 394, after both Gratian and Valentinian had been killed, to defeat the two pretenders, Magnus Maximus and Eugenius, that rose to replace them. Theodosius's final victory in September 394 made him master of the Empire; he died a few months later and was succeeded by his two sons, Arcadius in the eastern half of the empire and Honorius in the west. Theodosius was said to have been a diligent administrator, austere in his habits, merciful, and a devout Christian. For centuries after his death, Theodosius was regarded as a champion of Christian orthodoxy who decisively stamped out paganism. Modern scholars tend to see this as an interpretation of history by Christian writers more than an accurate representation of actual history. He is fairly credited with presiding over a revival in classical art that some historians have termed a Theodosian renaissance. Although his pacification of the Goths secured peace for the Empire during his lifetime, their status as an autonomous entity within Roman borders caused problems for succeeding emperors. Theodosius has also received criticism for defending his own dynastic interests at the cost of two civil wars. His two sons proved weak and incapable rulers, and they presided over a period of foreign invasions and court intrigues which heavily weakened the Empire. The descendants of Theodosius ruled the Roman world for the next six decades, and the east-west division endured until the fall of the Western Empire in the late 5th century. Flavius Theodosius was born in Hispania on 11 January, probably in the year 347. His father, also called Theodosius, was a successful and high-ranking general under the western Roman emperor Valentinian I, and his mother was called Thermantia. The family appear to have been minor landed aristocrats in Hispania, although it is not clear if this social status went back several generations or if Theodosius the Elder was simply awarded land there for his military service. Their roots to Hispania were nevertheless probably long-standing, since various relatives of the future emperor Theodosius are likewise attested as Spanish, and Theodosius himself was ubiquitously associated in the ancient literary sources and panegyrics with the image of fellow Spanish-born emperor Trajan-though he never again visited the peninsula after becoming emperor.