Orthodox Christianity becomes the State Religion
Theodosius was raised in a Catholic (to be understood not in the modern sense, but in the non-Arian, "universal" sense) family. He was baptized in 380 during a severe illness, as was common in the early Christian world. In February of the same year, he and Gratian published an edict that all their subjects should profess the faith of the Bishops of Rome and Alexandria (Theodosian Code, XVI, I, 2). The law recognized both the primacy of those two sees and the problematic theology of many of the patriarchs of Constantinople, who, because they were under the direct eye of the emperors, were sometimes deposed and replaced by more theologically pliable successors. The bishop of Constantinople in 380 was an Arian.
Theodosius ended the subsidies that had still trickled to some remnants of Greco-Roman civic paganism and closed temples. Taking the auspices and practicing witchcraft were to be punished. Pagan members of the Senate in Rome appealed to him to restore the Altar of Victory in the Senate House; he refused.
Theodosius had two notable disagreements with Ambrose, bishop of Milan.
- the synagogue
- Thessaloniki -- where he order the slaughter of 7,000 non Christians citizens in the Hippodrome and which led to his excommunication
the Theodosian women--
- Galla Placidia
- Justa Grata Honoria
- Serena
- Pulcheria