Theodosius II’s (2nd) Sassanian War (440), [9/9]
On 15 February 438 Theodosius published the Codex Theodosianus, a compilation of the laws of the Roman Empire under the Christian emperors since 312. By agreement it went into force in both parts of the Empire on 1 January 439.
After the fall of Carthage, a Vandal navy in North Africa would pose a permanent threat to the Eastern Empire. In 440 Theodosius II sent an expedition, but when the imperial fleet carrying its military force sailed westwards for North Africa, the Sassanids attacked Theodosiopolis (=Erzurum) and Satala (=Sadak) in eastern Turkey.
The war was caused by Romans strengthening their defensive frontier with the Sassanids (a clear violation of the 422 treaty with Bahram V) and, having agreed to subsidise Sassanid defences in the northern Caucasus where the Huns had crossed into Roman and Sassanid territory in 395, Theodosius suddenly stopped the payments.
The expeditionary force bound for North Africa was withdrawn from Sicily and the Sassanid king Yazdegerd II (r.438-457), facing new threats along his borders with Central Asia, agreed a peace; but it was now clear that any move against the Vandals in North Africa in the West would encourage an invasion of the Empire by the Sassanids in the East.
Thus, in 442 a new treaty was made with the Vandals. In the terms agreed, Gaiseric was to keep the province of Africa Byzacena (=Tunisia; split off from Africa Proconsularis) and divide up Proconsularis among his followers, while returning the remaining regions of Roman North Africa to Rome. He was to continue to send a grain ‘tribute’ to Rome and to hand over as hostage to the Roman court his son Huneric (fl.442-484) who, in a break in Roman tradition, was betrothed to Eudocia (439-466/474?), the daughter of Valentinian III. After 442 the Vandals were not federates of Rome and Gaiseric was formally recognized as a client king of the Empire. In 446 the Britons sent a final pleading but disregarded letter, described by the monk Gildas (c.500-570) as the ‘Groans of the Britons’, to Aetius asking for help against the Saxons.
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