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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Magnus Maximus, post: 2427672, member: 73473&quot;]Flavius Arcadius Augustus was born to Flavius Theodosius and Aelia Flaccilla in the province of Hispania circa 377 CE.</p><p>Theodosius I raised him to the rank of Augustus in 383 in response to the usurpation and&nbsp; execution of Gratian by yours truly&lt;Magnus Maximus.<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p>Arcadius really didn&#039;t do much then as he is rarely mentioned during the 380&#039;s by historians. Not much will change for the young lad in the future.</p><p><br /></p><p>When Theodosius finally kicked the bucket in 395 CE he left the Empire in a sorry state; the tattered West was to be governed by the incompetent Honorius, who was ten at the time. While the East was to be governed by the inexpeirenced eighteen year old Arcadius. It would appear that Theodosius I gave very little though to educating his oldest son in governance and law. Thus when Arcadius became Emperor he was immediately overshadowed by a cabal of ministers. In a scene that looked like it came straight out of House of Cards, the court of Arcadius was exceptionally corrupt, ineffective, and violent.</p><p>In one particular incident the Emperor and a gothic general were inspecting the army in Constantinople when a contingent of soldiers walked up to the goth and hacked him to death in plain sight of the Emperor.</p><p>After a series of corrupt ministers in the 390&#039;s, the Emperor&#039;s sister seems to have taken the reigns of power and was running the day to day activities in the Empire. She ran the Empire decently until her death in 404. Afterwards the Magister Militium Anthemius ran the government smoothy for the remainder of Arcadius&#039;s life. Side note, it was Anthems who supervised and ordered the construction of the Theodosian walls that still stand around Constantinople to this day. So he is indirectly and directly responsible for the survival of the Roman Empire into the &quot;byzantine&quot; age.</p><p><br /></p><p>As for Arcadius, well he was a sorry excuse for an Emperor only matched by his brother in ineptitude and stupidity.</p><p>Unlike most Late Roman Emperor&#039;s we actually do have a physical description of what Arcadius looked like: &quot;The emperor was supposedly short, thin and dark-complected. A more kindly correspondent described him as good-natured and temperate.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is a soon to be acquired Siliqua of Arcadius struck under his brother from 395-402 CE at Trier.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]504026[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]504027[/ATTACH]</p><p>Silver, 1.75 grams, 18.08 mm. Trier. 395-402 AD. Obverse: DN ARCADI-VS PF AVG, pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right. Reverse: VRBS-ROMA, Roma seated left on cuirass, holding Victory on globe and inverted spear. Mintmark TRPS in exergue. RIC IX Trier 95c; RSC 25</p><p><br /></p><p><font size="5">I would like to </font><font size="4">return to coin talk, if you guys would have me that is.</font></p><p><font size="4">Love you guys, even though you drive me up a fV#$*^&amp; wall sometimes------&gt; Looking at you Steve. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></font>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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