Arcadius Roman AE2 (AD 383-408) NGC

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Flavius Arcadius was the elder son of Emperor Theodosius I and Aelia Flaccilla. Like many children of Roman Emperors, he was vain and weak, spoiled by growing up in luxury. Arcadius, who was eighteen, was easily manipulated by a conniving Roman officer called Rufinus, and by his daughter, Pulcheria, who was instrumental in legitimizing and promoting the cult of the Virgin Mary. Rufinus is believed to have invited the Goths to come out of their settlements on the Danube and invade Greece, where, being Arian Christians, they destroyed all the remaining statues and temples of the old pagans. Arcadius died in 408 in his palace at Constantinople.

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Arcadius (Ancient Greek: Ἀρκάδιος Arkadios; c. 377 – 1 May 408) was Roman emperor from 383 to his death in 408. He was the eldest son of the Augustus Theodosius I (r. 379–395) and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and the brother of Honorius (r. 393–423). Arcadius ruled the eastern half of the empire from 395, when their father died, while Honorius ruled the west. In his time, he was seen as a weak ruler dominated by a series of powerful ministers and by his wife, Aelia Eudoxia.^[4]

Arcadius was born in 377 in Hispania, the eldest son of Theodosius I and Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of Honorius. On 19 January 383,^[6]^[7] his father declared the five-year-old Arcadius an Augustus and co-ruler for the eastern half of the Empire. Ten years later a corresponding declaration made Honorius the Augustus of the western half. Arcadius passed his early years under the tutelage of the rhetorician Themistius and Arsenius Zonaras, a monk.^[6]