Arcadius was the eldest son of the Emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla. Arcadius was made co-emperor with his father in 383, and became sole emperor of the Eastern Empire on Theodosius's death in 395, Arcadius's younger brother Honorius ruling in the Western Roman Empire. Perhaps by unfavourable comparison with his father and son, Theodosiuses I and II, Arcadius was not well looked upon by historians such as Zosimus and Philostorgios, and thereby later writers. He was portrayed as weak and easily led. Arcadius maintained unusually cordial relations with the Sasanian Shahanshah Yazdgird I in the East, and according to a later story from the sixth century, even asked Yazdgird I to adopt his son, Theodosius II. Though the story is likely false, that it was written and copied is testament to other later Roman attitudes towards Arcadius as a peaceful ruler.

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