10 - Liar in winter: Themistius and Theodosius

Summary

While Jerome was busy inventing the Latin Christian Chronicle tradition, two huge political stories were breaking around him in Constantinople in 381. The first was less out of the ordinary. A new emperor was in town, letting loose all that scrambling for office, honour, and alliance, which, as John Matthews's work has done most to illuminate, marked out regime building, late Roman style. This particular scramble was a bit unusual since Theodosius had been in office since January 379, so this was hardly the first few hectic months of power broking. But the emperor had only entered his capital in November/December 380, so his regime was new there, the beating political heart of the eastern Mediterranean. It was also a regime which needed desperately to reinvent itself: because of the second of the stories. The Goths who had killed and defeated Theodosius's predecessor Valens at Hadrianople on 9 August 378 were still at large in the Balkans and entirely unsubdued. Theodosius came from a highly distinguished military family, and could boast his own decent military track record. He had been appointed to beat the Goths and given command of all the affected areas of the Balkans, contrary to normal late Roman political geography, to facilitate unified operations. But, unthinkably, he too had failed to beat the Goths. His army fell apart in the summer of 380, command of the war reverted to the western Emperor Gratian's generals, and Theodosius beat a hasty retreat to Constantinople, tail firmly between his legs.