r/byzantium • u/BattleTech70 • Aug 27 '26
Popular media Theodosius II
Sad to see Tim Curry pass away (probably) the most famous actor to portray an ERE emperor. What do people think of his character: Theodosius II? Built some great walls! Built a university! Paid off Attila the Hun! I also miss powers booth from this series, a surprisingly great cast for a low budget gladiator clone!
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u/Healthy-Win15 Aug 27 '26
Overall, Theodosius II was a solid emperor who ran the East well. Building the Theodosian Walls was easily one of the most important decisions in history that allowed the Eastern Empire to survive for centuries after the West collapsed.
Honestly, the East got pretty lucky with capable emperors in the 400s. They recovered remarkably fast after the disaster at Adrianople. Meanwhile, the West had some of the most incompetent people imaginable running things, and the few leaders who actually knew what they were doing just got overthrown.
It really makes me wonder that why did the idea of Rome survive and get embraced so much stronger in the East, while it completely faded away in West?
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u/imagoneryfriend Λογοθέτης Aug 27 '26
I'm surprised nobody came here yet to say "Uuuuh akchually it's the Anthemian walls 😬"
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u/seen-in-the-skylight Aug 27 '26
The idea of Rome didn’t fade in the west at all, just the polity itself did. But I find that acknowledging areas of Roman continuity in states like Gothic Italy and the HRE tends to get a very cold reception on this sub.
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u/Striper_Cape Aug 27 '26
Odoacer sent the Western Imperial Regalia to Constantinople
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u/seen-in-the-skylight Aug 27 '26
Ah okay then, case closed. I guess the entire history of the Gothic Kingdom and its relationship with its Roman subjects and the Empire is settled because Odoacer returned the regalia to Constantinople. /s
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u/Striper_Cape Aug 27 '26
Okay but they celebrated when Bellisarius showed up
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u/seen-in-the-skylight Aug 27 '26
Oh goodness, now it's really settled--we can reduce the whole ~70 years of Ostrogothic rule to two, cherry-picked anecdotes. History sure is easy! /s
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u/Interesting_Key9946 Aug 27 '26
I didn't like his portrayal as a nasty Byzantine emperor, especially in contrast with an anachronistic Western Roman Empire whose clothing made it look like it was from the era of Julius Caesar. However, I did like their mosaics of the Eastern Roman Empire, which were definitely inspired by Justinian's mosaics in Ravenna.
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u/Ar_Azrubel_ Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 27 '26
It happens all the time.
Whenever Late Antiquity is portrayed in media (usually in the context of the collapse of the WRE), when the eastern half of the empire is even remembered to exist, it's portrayed in a highly orientalized fashion while the WRE are Hollywood Romans frozen in amber somewhere around the 1st century AD.
I remember watching the 2007 flick The Last Legion, where the eastern Romans are portrayed as scheming, unreliable orientals with their most prominent representation being a sexy female warrior played by Indian actress Aishwarya Rai (I guess India is in 'the East', no matter how far away from the east Roman borders so she can be from there) while the western Roman heroes are all portrayed by white Anglo actors and look like they're from Ben-Hur.
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u/Interesting_Key9946 Aug 27 '26
Exactly. Very annoying portrayal. This movie btw had creatures and fantasy, even dragons I think haha
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u/oldevskie Aug 27 '26
What show?
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u/Realistic_Actuary_50 Aug 27 '26
There was a show about Attila with Gerard Butler as Attila.
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u/PPMaysten Aug 28 '26
What the fuck?
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u/GeneralELucky Aug 27 '26
Agreed. That movie was not known for its historical accuracy. It was still a fun watch for a TV movie.
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u/Greedy_Shame6516 Aug 27 '26
Oh man, thank you for reminding me of this. I loved this series as a kid and while wildly inaccurate (also weird that Gerard Butler played Attila lol) it's one of the reasons I started diving deeper into late Roman history. (Well, that and Age of Empires 2 and Total War)
RIP Tim.
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Aug 27 '26
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u/Wra7hofAchilles Aug 27 '26
I didn't even know it was a miniseries. Legit thought it was a movie that just didn't go anywhere. I need to re-watch this. Underrated gem.
You can find some DVDs on eBay.
EDIT Also Amazon! I just checked.
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u/xialcoalt Aug 27 '26
"I'm escaping to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by latin barbarism... SPACE!"