a. and sb. [f. the name Theodosi-us: see -AN.]
A. adj. Of or pertaining to one named Theodosius; esp. of or pertaining to the Roman emperor Theodosius II. (A.D. 401–450).
Theodosian code, a collection of laws made by direction of Theodosius II., and published A.D. 438.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. Introd. iii. 81. Which Theodosian code was the only book of civil law received as authentic in the western part of Europe till many centuries after.
1802. Ranken, Hist. France, II. II. iii. § 2. 251. The Gothic gave way to the Theodosian code.
1833. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7), V. 713/2. In the novel which sanctions the Theodosian Code, the emperor evidently admits that the compilers whom he had employed were not mere copyists.
1864. Bryce, Rom. Emp., iii. (1889), 29. Revised editions of the Theodosian code were issued by the Visigothic and Burgundian princes.
B. sb. 1. A follower of Theodosius, a rhetorician of Alexandria, who became (A.D. 535) the leader of a division of the MONOPHYSITES.
1788. Gibbon, Decl. & F., F. xlvii. IV. 611, note. The Gaianites and Theodosians.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), I. 797/2. Theodosians … held that the persons of the Trinity are not the same; that none of them exists of himself, and of his own nature; but that there is a common god or deity existing in them all, and that each is God, by a participation of this deity.
1874. J. H. Blunt, Dict. Sects (1886), Theodosians, the Alexandrian section of the sect of the Phthartolatræ.
2. A member of a sect founded by Theodosius, a Russian monk: see quot. 1860.
1860. J. Gardner, Faiths World, Theodosians, a sect of dissenters from the Russo-Greek Church who separated some years since from the Pomoryans, partly because they neglected to purify by prayer … articles … purchased from unbelievers.
1874. in J. H. Blunt, Dict. Sects, etc.
