Aelia Eudocia

Theodosius II, a weak emperor more interested in scholarly pursuits, allows others, such as his older sister Pulcheria, and his wife, Eudocia, to influence state decisions.

Olympiodorus of Thebes is sent on an embassy by Emperor Honorius, and sails in stormy weather around Greece up the Black Sea to meet the Huns, who are located on the middle Danube (modern Bulgaria).

The remarkable Aelia Galla Placidia, shadow ruler of the West, constructs of a number of churches in the western capital of Ravenna, including the small chapel usually—though wrongly—known as the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, which contains some of the finest examples of early Byzantine mosaics.

The Basilica Eudoxiana is constructed in Rome with money from the empress Eudoxia for the veneration of the chains of St. Peter's Jerusalem imprisonment.

His Roman chain, added later, become famous after they are mentioned at the Council of Ephesus (431); construction on the basilica began the following year.

The first great church of Mary in Rome, Santa Maria Maggiore, is founded in 432, just after the Council of Ephesus, which raises the Virgin above all created things.

The earliest extant example of the baptistery, that of the Lateran palace in Rome, is built by Sixtus III, pope from 432.

Eastern Roman society on the whole is an educated one.

Primary education is widely available, sometimes even at village level and uniquely in this society for both sexes.

Female participation in culture is high.

At this time, various economic schools, colleges, polytechnics, libraries and fine arts academies are also open in the city.

Scholarship is fostered not only in Constantinople but also in institutions operated in such major cities as Antioch and Alexandria.

At the urging of his wife Aelia Eudocia, Theodosius in 425 establishes an institute of higher education in Constantinople, under the name of Pandidakterion; it is the nucleus of the later University of Constantinople, endowing thirty-one chairs—fifteen in Latin and sixteen in Greek—for law, philosophy, medicine, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, rhetoric and other subjects.

The main content of higher education for most students is rhetoric, philosophy and law with the aim of producing competent, learned personnel to staff the bureaucratic postings of state and church.

In this sense, the university is the secular equivalent of the Theological Schools.

The university will maintain an active philosophical tradition of Platonism and Aristotelianism, with the former being the longest unbroken Platonic school, running for close to two millennia until the fifteenth century.

Peter the Iberian, or Peter of Iberia, had been born around 411 as Murvan (alternatively, Nabarnugios), prince of Iberia, to King Bosmarios, who had invited a noted philosopher, Mithridates, from Lazica to take part in Murvan’s education.

The prince had been sent in 423 as a political hostage to Constantinople, where he had received a brilliant education under the personal patronage of the Roman empress Aelia Eudocia, wife of Emperor Theodosius II.

The young prince, together with his mentor Mithridates, eventually left the palace and escaped to make a pilgrimage to Palestine where he had become a monk at Jerusalem under the name of Peter.

He founds his own monastery in 430 at Bethlehem (later known as the Georgian Monastery of Bethlehem).

Construction begins also on Rome’s Basilica Eudoxiana (now S. Pietro in Vincoli, or St. Peter in Chains), built with money from the empress Eudoxia for the veneration of the chains of St. Peter's Jerusalem imprisonment.

His Roman chains, later added, had become famous after receiving mention at last year’s Council of Ephesus.

Aetius is again consul in 437.

Valentinian III, Emperor in the West, marries Licinia Eudoxia, the daughter of Eastern Emperor Theodosius II and Eudocia, on October 29, of this year.

This marks the reunion of two branches of the House of Theodosius.

Valentinian’s mother Galla Placidia ends her regency, but will continue to exercise political influence until her death in 450.

Aelia Eudocia, wife of Theodosius II, goes on a pilgrimage in 438 to Jerusalem, bringing back with her holy relics to prove her faith.

She arranges to remove the ban on Jews' praying at the Temple site, and the heads of the Jewish Community in Galilee issue a call “to the great and mighty people of the Jews” which begins, “Know that the end of the exile of our people has come!”