Theodosius I

Theodosius I (347–395) was Roman emperor from 379 to 395 and the last emperor to rule both the eastern and western halves of the empire. Born at Coca in Hispania, he was the son of a senior general and was appointed eastern emperor by Gratian after the disaster at Adrianople in 378. He made peace with the Goths in 382, defeated the usurper Magnus Maximus in 388, and in 394 defeated Eugenius at the Frigidus, briefly reuniting the empire. A devout Nicene Christian, he made Christianity the official religion, banned pagan sacrifices, and did penance after the massacre at Thessalonica in 390. At his death in Milan in 395, the empire was divided between his sons Arcadius in the East and Honorius in the West, a division that proved permanent. His reign thus marks the end of a single imperial court and the beginning of the medieval separation of East and West.