Flavius Arcadius was born in 377 and was the eldest son of Theodosius I and the brother of Honorius. In 383 Theodosius elevated his son to the position of Augustus and 10 years later Honorius was declared Augustus as well.

Being so young, Arcadius and the Eastern empire was under the control of Rufinus, one of his ministers. Following the death of Rufinus, Arcadius’s new advisor Eutropius took his place and was a heavy influence on any decisions made. It also seems that Arcadius’s wife was also very powerful and in 399 convinced her husband to dispose of Eutropius as his advisor, records show she passed away 5 years later.

For the remainder of his rule he was influenced by the praetorian prefect Anthemius but it seemed that throughout all this time he never put up much of a struggle as he was not so interested in his imperial career as that of maintaining a constant Christian image. He died in 408.