; and from
which he had lately driven out the Sarmatians.

FINAL DIVISION OF ROMAN EMPIRE: THE DISRUPTIVE INTRIGUES

A.D. 395

J. B. BURY

When Theodosius I, surnamed "the Great," was elevated to power as
ruler of the East, that part of the empire was distracted in
consequence of wars with the Visigoths who, flying from the Huns,
had been granted a refuge in the Roman provinces of Moesia and
Thrace. Ill-treatment by the Romans drove the Visigoths to revolt,
and Valens, then Emperor of the East, set out with an army to
punish them. In the battle of Adrianople, August 9, 378, the Roman
army was defeated, and in the retreat Valens was killed. The
Visigoths pressed on, ravaging the country even to the foot of the
walls of Constantinople, and the doom of the empire seemed to be at
hand.

At this juncture Gratian--Emperor of the West, who also upon the
death of Valens succeeded him as ruler of the East--sent for
Theodosius, then a Roman general living in retirement in Spain,
made him his colleague in the East, and placed him, A.D., 379 at
the head of an army for the suppression of the Gothic outbreaks.
Theodosius enabled his soldiers to regain their lost confidence by
waging a successful _guerilla_ war with the marauding Goths; but
having thus shown his mastery over their straggling bands, he did
not undertake to drive them out from Roman territory, but weakened
them by causing them to quarrel among themselves; then, showing
himself as their friend, he gave them lands and settled them within
definite limits. To the Visigoths, or West Goths, he gave Thrace,
and to the Ostrogoths, or East Goths, who had also now poured into
the Roman provinces, he assigned Pannonia.

By this policy Theodosius established his authority in the East and
restored the empire to something of its earlier power. Except
during the last four months of his life, when he was sole Emperor,
his direct authority was confined to the East; but he exerted a
potent influence upon the affairs of the whole empire, both
temporal and spiritual. He warred steadily against paganism and
heresy. He took the side of Trinitarian orthodoxy against Arianism,
which had previously triumphed in the East, and restored religious
unity to the empire by making the Athanasian doctrine the faith of