Theodosian Civil Wars

Theodosius I faced two major western challenges after becoming emperor in the East. Magnus Maximus, proclaimed in Britain in 383, defeated Gratian and ruled much of the West before Theodosius defeated him in 388.

A second crisis followed the rise of Eugenius and Arbogast in the West. Theodosius defeated them at the Frigidus in 394, becoming the last emperor to rule both eastern and western halves of the empire before his death the following year.

Adam Lofthouse’s later Shadow of Rome novels place Victorinus, Felicius, Videricus and Stilicho inside this period of usurpation and military realignment. The setting is useful for fiction about divided armies, barbarian federates, religious politics, frontier loyalty and the weakening of western imperial stability.