Theodosius (III.)

Semi-siliqua of Theodosius.

Theodosios ( ancient Greek Θεοδόσιος , Latin Theodosius ; * August 4, 583 in Constantinople , † after November 27, 602 in Chalcedon ?) Was the eldest son of the Eastern Roman emperor Maurikios and his wife Constantina .

Life

As early as 587 Caesar , Theodosios was raised to co-emperor ( Augustus ) on March 26, 590, presumably together with his younger brother Tiberios . In 597 Maurikios decreed that Theodosios should become Augustus of the East and Tiberios that of the West after his death . But that never happened. The army of the magister militum per Thracias , which revolted during Maurikios' Balkan campaigns in 602, initially demanded that Maurikios abdicate in order to clear the way for Theodosios. He would have been the first emperor to be born in purple since Theodosius II . But Theodosios remained loyal to his father. Instead, the troops elevated Phocas to emperor, who had Theodosius, who was initially able to leave for Asia Minor, probably executed shortly after his brothers and his father in the autumn of 602. Among the five severed heads that Phocas had on display on the Hebdomon in front of Constantinople, that of Theodosius was missing, which is why, according to Theophanes, the rumor spread that he had escaped.

The Persian great king Chosrau II , who had maintained good relations with Maurikios, who had once supported him against a usurper, and who had perhaps even been adopted by him, took advantage of the new emperor's lack of legitimation and declared war on the Eastern Roman Empire. He claimed that Theodosios had fled to his court and that he would now be brought back to the throne with Persian help. According to (pseudo-) Sebeos , the pretender was proclaimed emperor in Edessa by the troops of the rebellious magister militum per Orientem Narses and then handed over to Chosraus. That Theodosios actually managed to escape the massacre, as James Howard-Johnston assumes, cannot be ruled out, but it is unlikely; more plausible is the assumption that Chosrau passed off a person as Theodosios. In 608 the alleged son of Maurikios accompanied a Persian army to Armenia and confirmed his claim to the throne when the city of Theodosiopolis (Karin) was handed over . Even after the fall of Phocas, Chosrau officially adhered to his intention to appoint Theodosius as the legitimate Roman emperor to an embassy of his successor Herakleios . After 611, however, his trace is lost, apparently because the Persian king changed his strategy due to the success of his troops, dropped the pretender and now strived to conquer the Roman Orient.

Coins

Theodosios is missing from the regular minting of Maurikios, with two exceptions: the copper numeral of the Chersonese mint , which shows him together with his parents, and a siliqua issue of the mint in Carthage , which apparently struck in 591/592 on the occasion of his proclamation as co-emperor has been.

Written sources

• Chronicon Paschale 284-628. Translated by Mary and Michael Whitby . Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 1989, ISBN 0-85323-096-X .
• The Armenian History Attributed to Sebeos . Translated by Robert W. Thomson and annotated by James Howard-Johnston . 2 volumes, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 1999, ISBN 0-85323-564-3 (with new chapter counting).
• The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor. Byzantine and Near Eastern history AD 284-813. Translated and commented by Cyril Mango and Roger Scott. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1997, ISBN 0-19-822568-7 .

literature

• John Robert Martindale: Theodosius 13. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 3B, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1992, ISBN 0-521-20160-8 , pp. 531-532.

Web links

• Sebeos 21-24 (English, different chapter counting than Thomson)

Remarks

1. ↑ Chronicon Paschale, p. 143 [694]
2. ^ Theophanes Confessor AM 6095.
3. ↑ Cf. Thomson / Howard-Johnston, The Armenian History Attributed to Sebeos, p. 197 f.