Aelia Eudoxia

Aelia Eudoxia (died 6 October 404) was the Empress consort of the Byzantine Emperor Arcadius.

Family

She was a daughter of Flavius Bauto, a Romanised Frank who served as magister militum in the Western Roman army during the 380s. The identity of her father is mentioned by Philostorgius. The fragmentary chronicle of John of Antioch, a 7th-century monk formerly identified with John of the Sedre, Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch considers Bauto to have also fathered Arbogast. The relation is not accepted by modern historians. The History of the Later Roman Empire from the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian (1923) by J. B. Bury and the historical study Theodosian Empresses. Women and Imperial Dominion in Late Antiquity (1982) by Kenneth Holum consider her mother to be Roman and Eudoxia to be a "semibarbara", half-barbarian. However the primary sources are silent on her maternal ancestry.

Early life

Aelia Eudoxia's father was last mentioned as Roman Consul with Arcadius in 385 and was already deceased by 388. According to Zosimus, Eudoxia started her life in Constantinople as a household member of Promotus, magister militum of the Eastern Roman Empire. She is presumed to have been orphaned at the time of her arrival Her entry into the household of Promotus may indicate a friendship of the two magisters or a political alliance.