Arcadius

Arcadius (c. 377–408), eldest son of Theodosius I, was proclaimed augustus in 383 and inherited the eastern empire in 395, his brother Honorius taking the west. A passive ruler, he was dominated in turn by the prefect Rufinus, the eunuch Eutropius, and his wife Aelia Eudoxia, whom he married in 395.

Alaric's Goths ravaged Greece, Eutropius fell in 399, and in 400 the Gothic general Gainas lost his followers in a massacre at Constantinople and was killed after fleeing. Eudoxia died in 404 after securing the exile of John Chrysostom, and Arcadius himself died on 1 May 408, leaving the throne to his seven-year-old son, Theodosius II.