theodosius i at constantinople and rome

In 390 Constantinople’s urban prefect Proculus erected an Egyptian obelisk on the central spine of the city’s hippodrome to celebrate the recent victory of the reigning emperor Theodosius I over the western usurper Magnus Maximus. The granite monolith was supported by a marble plinth decorated with reliefs showing Theodosius with his court presiding, appropriately enough, over circus spectacles. On the west face (see fig. 7.1) Theodosius, together with his fellow emperors Valentinian II, Arcadius and Honorius, is seated in the imperial box and flanked by guardsmen and court officials. Below them approach, crouching in attitudes of supplication, two groups of barbarian envoys, each distinguished by stereotypical clothing, Persians on the left, western foes on the right. The relief is a potent statement of imperial ideology, the effortless dominance of the imperium Romanum over its neighbours: the emperors sit calm and majestic, while their enemies, by contrast, cower in subjugation.

Proculus was not the only loyal servant of the emperor to connect celebration of the victory over Maximus with the Empire’s superiority over its barbarian neighbours. Around the same time Theodosius himself, on a visit to Rome, listened to the panegyrist Pacatus celebrate this victory and restoration of unity to the empire; Pacatus also reflected on Theodosius’ dealings with the barbarians. When Theodosius had been appointed to the throne, Pacatus observed, ‘the state was lying grievously afflicated, or, should I say, rendered lifeless, by innumerable ills, and barbarian peoples had flowed over Roman territory like a flood’.