carried on. Theodosia has gained much of the trade of Sevastopol since that town was made a military port in 1894, and the value of its exports (112–212 millions sterling annually), principally grain and oil-seeds, is increasing year by year. A bronze statue of Alexander III. was put up on the sea-front in 1896.
The ancient Theodosia, the native name of which was Ardabda, was a colony founded from Miletus. Archaic terracottas show it to have been inhabited in the 6th century B.C., but it is first heard of in history as resisting the attacks of Satyrus, ruler of the Cimmerian Bosporus, c. 390 B.C. His successor Leucon took it and made it a great port for shipping wheat to Greece, especially to Athens. This export of wheat continued until the days of Mithradates VI. of Pontus, against whom the city revolted. Later it became a special part of the Bosporan kingdom with its own governor. In the 3rd century A.D. it was still inhabited, but seems to have been deserted not long afterwards. Besides the terra-cottas and pottery very beautiful Greek jewelry has been found near Theodosia. It coined silver and copper during the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. The name Kaffa (Genoese Capha, Turkish Kefe) first occurs in a writer of the 9th century. The Genoese established themselves on the site shortly after 1266, and the settlement flourished exceedingly, being the depot of a trade route reaching to China. It became the head of the Genoese establishments in Gazaria, the see of a bishop, and the chief port on the northern shore of the Black Sea, far surpassing the Venetian Tana. Its population is said to have reached 80,000 souls of many creeds and nationalities. There was a citadel (still remaining) and magnificent walls. These were rendered necessary by the occasional hostility of the Tatar khans. When the Turks took Constantinople the colony was almost cut off from the mother city, which handed it over to the enterprising bank of St George; but it could not be saved and fell in 1475 to the Turks, who sometimes called it Kuchuk-Stambul (Little Stambul or Constantinople) or Krym-Stambul (Stambul of Crimea). Its new masters kept it under their own direct rule and its prosperity was not entirely destroyed. In 1771 it was taken by the Russians, and in 1783 annexed by them, whereupon the greater part of its population deserted it. Its prosperity did not return until about 1894, when new harbour works made it a convenient port for grain ships coming light out of the Sea of Azov and wishing to complete their cargoes.
See E. von Stern, Theodosia (German and Russian, Odessa, 1906); E. H. Minns, Scythians and Greeks (Cambridge, 1909); for the history of Kaffa see Heyd, Histoire du commerce du Levant au moyen âge (Paris, 1886), vol. ii. (E. H. M.)
THEODOSIUS, the name of three Roman emperors of the East.
Theodosius I., “the Great,” son of Theodosius, Valentinian’s great general, who in 368–69 drove back the Picts and Scots from the Roman territories in Britain and suppressed the revolt of Firmus in Mauretania (372), Shortly after (376), the elder Theodosius was put to death by order of Valens, probably through fear lest he should be the Theodosius or Theodore whom a magician had indicated as the future emperor. The younger Theodosius was born about the year 346. He was a native of Spain, but the exact place of his birth is uncertain (Cauca in Galicia according to Idatius and Zosimus, Italica according to Marcellinus). He accompanied his father into Britain (368), and a little later distinguished himself by defeating the Sarmatians who had invaded Moesia (374), On his father’s death he retired to his native place, where he lived quietly till after the great battle of Adrianople (August 9, 378), when Gratian summoned him to share the empire. After gaining some fresh victories over the Sarmatians, Theodosius was made Augustus at Sirmium on the 19th of January 379, and was assigned all the eastern provinces, including part of Illyricum. It was a time of great peril for the Roman state. While the Visigoths were carrying their raids up to the walls of Constantinople, bands of Ostrogoths, Taifali, Huns and Alans joined them in overrunning the Balkan countries. In 379 Theodosius, after reorganizing the army at Thessalonica, carried on a successful campaign of skirmishes along the Danube and induced numerous Gothic bands to give in their allegiance; his lieutenant Modares, a Gothic refugee, defeated the invaders severely in Thrace. At the end of the year Theodosius went to Constantinople to be crowned. Returning to Thessalonica in 380 he was kept out of the field for some time by a serious illness. In this year or the next he was called upon to meet two armies of invaders. He conducted in person the war against the Visigoths under Fritigern (in Macedonia and Epirus), and on one occasion was nearly betrayed into the enemy’s hands; this campaign, in which Gratian’s general Arbogast eventually lent help, was ended by Fritigern’s death. The defence of the Danube against the Ostrogoths under Alatheus and Safrax was entrusted to the general Promotus, who severely defeated the enemy in an attempt to cross the river. Theodosius attained even greater successes by his diplomacy. He persuaded the fugitive Visigoth king Athanaric to enter his service, and enlisted 40,000 of his former enemies as foederati, providing them with settlements in various parts of the realm. Though this kindness towards the Germanic tribes was resented by the Romans, and in some cases ill requited, yet it may be said that it not only averted a great danger to the empire, but considerably strengthened Theodosius' army. In 382 the pacification of the Balkans was complete. In 386 Promotus checked a new attempt at invasion on the Danube.
In 383 Theodosius created his eldest son Arcadius Augustus. The same year saw the revolt of Maximus in Britain and the murder of Gratian. For five years Theodosius consented to accept the usurper as his colleague; but when Maximus attempted a few years later to make himself master of Italy Theodosius advanced against the invader and overthrew him near Aquileia (July 28, 388). This victory was followed by the murder of Maximus and his son Victor, after whose death Theodosius conferred upon Valentinian II. all that part of the empire which his father had held. After celebrating a triumph in Rome (389) he stayed to arrange the government of Italy for another two years. If we may trust the evidence of Zosimus, from the end of the year 388 Theodosius resigned himself to gluttony and voluptuous living, from which he was only roused by the news that in the Western empire Arbogast had slain the young Emperor Valentinian and set up the grammarian Eugenius in his stead (May 15, 392).
Theodosius made extensive levies and with a force partly composed of barbarian auxiliaries marched out against Eugenius. The armies met near the river Frigidus, some thirty-six miles distant from Aquileia. On the first day Theodosius' barbarians, engaging with those of the hostile army, were almost destroyed, and the victory seemed to be with Eugenius. After a night of prayer, towards cockcrow the emperor was cheered by a vision of St Philip and St John, who, mounted on white steeds, promised him success. On the second day the issue was doubtful till, if we may trust the concurrent testimony of all the contemporary church historians, a sudden gust of wind blew back the enemy’s arrows on themselves. This was the turning-point of the battle: Eugenius was slain by the soldiers; and two days later Arbogast committed suicide (September 5–9, 394). From the north-eastern parts of Italy Theodosius passed to Rome, where he had his son Honorius proclaimed emperor under the guardianship of Stilicho. Thence he retired to Milan, where he died of dropsy (January 17, 395), leaving the empire to be divided between his two sons Honorius and Arcadius.
Important as the reign of Theodosius was from the political point of view, it is perhaps still more so from the theological. According to Sozomen, his parents were both orthodox Christians, according, to the creed sanctioned by the council of Nicaea. It was not, however, till his illness at Thessalonica that the emperor received baptism at the hands of Bishop Ascholius, whereupon, says the same historian, he issued a decree (February 380) in favour of the faith of St Peter and Pope Damasus of Rome. This was to be the true Catholic faith; the adherents of other creeds were to be reckoned as heretics and punished. The great council of
