Aelia Eudoxia
Aelia Eudoxia (* around 380, † October 6, 404 ) was the wife of the Eastern Roman emperor Arcadius .
Life
Aelia Eudoxia was the daughter of Bauto , the Frankish Magister militum of the Western Roman emperors Gratian and Valentinian II. It is not known who her mother was. After the death of her father in 388 at the latest, she came to Constantinople in the household of the Magister militum of the Eastern Empire, Flavius Promotus, and was possibly brought up together with the sons of Emperor Theodosius I , Arcadius and Honorius . Her foster father fell victim to an intrigue by Rufinus in 392 .
On April 27, 395, only three months after Theodosius' death and before his burial, she married Arcadius. It is possible that this hasty marriage was arranged by Eutropios in order to curtail the influence of Rufinus, the guardian of the young emperor, who wanted to marry off his daughter to Arcadius. In nine years of marriage Eudoxia gave birth to seven children, five of whom were early , including Aelia Pulcheria (399–453), Arcadia (-444), Marina (-449) and the only son, the future Emperor Theodosius II (401–450) Survived childhood.
The few sources judge them very differently. Their influence at court cannot have been negligible. It is possible, but not certain, whether the fall of Eutropios 399 was influenced by it. In any case, she was elevated to Augusta on January 9, 400 . Her commitment to church affairs, on the other hand, has been handed down: she supported the Nicene Church through anti- Arian processions and the veneration of the relics of the martyrs . When the ascetic patriarch of Constantinople, John Chrysostom , denounced her immoral lifestyle and wastefulness, she allied herself with the patriarch Theophilos of Alexandria , who rejected Chrysostom for theological reasons. In 403 a synod was called, the so-called oak synod, which Chrysostom banished because of heresy. However, since the patriarch was very popular with the people, Eudoxia arranged for his recall and ensured a pompous reception. Chrysostom then praised her as the "mother of the church". But only a little later a statue of the empress in front of the Hagia Sophia aroused the anger of the patriarch again. He refused to dedicate the statue, but compared Eudoxia in his sermons to Herodias and Jezebel . As a result, on June 5, 404, he was dragged out of the church at gunpoint and sent into exile.
In 404, Aelia Eudoxia died at the age of only about 24 years after a miscarriage.
literature
- Anja Busch: The women of the Theodosian dynasty. Power and representation of imperial women in the 5th century (= Historia - individual writings. Volume 237). Steiner, Stuttgart 2015, ISBN 978-3-515-11044-0 , pp. 59–85 ( specialist review by H-Soz-Kult ).
- John Robert Martindale: Aelia Eudoxia 1. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 2, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1980, ISBN 0-521-20159-4 , p. 410.
- Alexios G. Savvides, Benjamin Hendrickx (Eds.): Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and Civilization. Vol. 2: Baanes-Eznik of Kolb. Brepols, Turnhout 2008, ISBN 978-2-503-52377-4 , p. 417.
- Otto Seeck : Eudoxia 1 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VI, 1, Stuttgart 1907, Col. 917-925.
Web links
- Wendy Mayer: Short biography (English) at De Imperatoribus Romanis (with references).
Individual evidence
- ^ Philostorgios , Church History 11.6
- ↑ Zosimos : Nova Historia 5.3.2
- ↑ Zosimos, 4:51
- ^ Sokrates Scholastikos : Church History 6.8 ( Memento from April 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ); Sozomenos : Church History 8.8
- ↑ Sozomenos : Church History 8.18 ( Memento of March 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (Eng.)
- ^ Philip Schaff (Ed.): A select library of the nicene and post-nicene fathers of the christian church , Chapter IX: "Saint Chrysostom".
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Eudoxia, Aelia |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Wife of the Eastern Roman Emperor Arcadius and daughter of the Franconian Bauto |
| DATE OF BIRTH | at 380 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 404 |