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The crisis of the third century began to develop in the late second century with the increased barbarian activity in the north and the centripetal cultural forces fragmenting the Empire within. It came to the point of most almost fatal intensity in the middle years of the third century with its most turbulent period between 235 and 290. The turning point toward recovery began with Emperor Gallienus, 259-268, and continued unevenly thereafter. Reorganization and reconstitution of the state began with Diocletian who is considered the "founder" of the Late Roman Empire. Reconstruction continued at a somewhat reduced pace during the early fourth century especially under Constantine I, d. 337. The causes of the crisis are interactive and cumulative.
The militarization of the imperial government (the Principate) put the imperial throne within reach of any victorious general. The result was political fragmentation and ineptitude, coupled with military corruption, incompetence and civil war. This left the Roman people vulnerable to invasion and at the mercy of the rival military forces within the Empire. These developments will be examined more closely below in the section on Imperial Personalities.
Economic collapse was the product of commercial break down, severe shortages and starvation, epidemics and a government policy of deliberate debasement of the coinage. The coins that had been minted in silver during most of the second century were only about forty percent silver by AD 215. By 255 so- called silver coins were made of base metals with a "wash" of silver on them. Regular issues of gold coins had continued steadily until the late second century but almost ceased by AD 275. When the huge state tax levies produced only worthless coinage the government adopted a policy of confiscation and spoiliation.
Cultural disintegration fissured the vast empire into competitive ethnic regions each jealous of its own culture. Already during the last half of the second century this process had begun with the appearance of a growing body of literature in Syriac, Coptic and other local dialects. Another ethnic expression was seen in religious developments (see below). By the middle of the third century whole sections of the Empire were happy to secede from and ignore other parts of the Empire.
The internal weakness of the Empire was an open door to its curious and greedy neighbors. The new Sassanid power in Persia almost succeeded in taking and holding the entire Roman Orient, i.e. Syria, Palestine, and northern Egypt, together with central and eastern Turkey. Invasions from the south--from Ethiopia threatened to annex southern Egypt, while raids from across the Sahara desert harassed the settlements along the north African coast. But the most significant threat to Roman security were the curious, land hungry adventurers from Germany and eastern Europe. These barbarian peoples living beyond the Empire's frontier, east of the Rhine River and north of the Danube River, had been evolving over a period of many centuries. The Romans had dealt with them since before the days of Julius Caesar.
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Since before the first century BC the barbarian population had been growing and the cultural level of the barbarian population had been advancing, at least in the region adjacent to the Roman frontier. These expanding peoples were in transition from dependence on nomadic hunting in the open range to settled village farming. The result of this combination of developments was the increasing pressure of the barbarian population to expand into the Roman territory. Roman merchants also increasingly exploited the new settled barbarian villages as a market, further stimulating their rapid cultural advance.
Hundreds of thousands of barbarian people had been systematically and unobtrusively absorbed into the population of the Empire over the centuries before the third century crisis. For centuries an increasing percentage of Roman slaves were being drawn from the barbarian area. The slaves were quick to adopt the advanced culture and, when they were freed they made excellent, hardworking subjects, even good Roman citizens. Because most barbarians entering the Empire in the earlier centuries had taken Latin or Greek names as freedmen and were widely and thinly scattered their presence in substantial numbers is virtually invisible. There was little or no identifiable segregation based on barbarian ethnicity.
The growing numbers and the cultural advancement of the barbarians beyond the Rhine and Danube frontiers worried the Roman administration. The one thing that seemed to reduce the barbarian pressure on the frontier was their constant preoccupation with intertribal violence and bloodshed; war was a condition of life among the barbarians. The Romans early adopted a policy of enhancing this process. Informal diplomatic means were used to stir up suspicions, poison intertribal relationships and keep the tribes at war. Savage Roman military sorties into the more populous, prosperous and peaceful barbarian regions further decimated the population by slaughter and/or enslavement. However, the long term results were contrary and disappointing to Rome's purpose. The barbarian tribes soon saw the wisdom of preserving peace and cultivating unity among themselves in order better to withstand the strikes from their common enemy.
By the middle of the third century the barbarians were more culturally advanced and challenging the frontier in larger more cohesive groups. A number of the more civilized groups were recruited for service in the Roman military and allowed to settle with their families on vacant lands within the Empire as allies during and immediately after the crisis. These barbarian settlers were incidentally segregated and congregated by this practice; hence, they only partially assimilated the culture of the Empire and they were much more likely to retain their barbarian names than earlier immigrants.
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With the death of Commodus in 192 the imperial office fell to Publius Helvius Pertinax, as a favor of the Praetorian Prefect. He was an old general and former governor of Britain. He is the first of the so-called "barracks emperors". He determined to clean up the mistakes and corruption caused by Commodus with the result that the Praetorian Guard revolted, broke into his apartments and murdered him after he served a few days less than three month in office. The Praetorian Guards then sold the office at auction to the highest bidder, Didius Salvius Julianus, an old Senator, but the Roman armies in the provinces had other ideas. The armies on the Rhine chose Clodius Albinus, an easygoing commander who loved to eat. The army of Syria put forward Pescennius Niger. The battle-hardened troops along the Danube championed their commander, the African born Septimius Severus. All three asserted their imperial status and made plans to conquer Didius Julianus at Rome. Septimius got there first and the Senate voted death for Didius Julianus, having reigned a few days more than three months. After replacing the Praetorian Guard with 5000 of his own seasoned troops, Septimius made plans to remove his enemies. Pescennius Niger was defeated and killed on the Syrian frontier in 194 while Albinus was allowed to enjoy himself in Gaul until 197 when he was likewise defeated and killed.
Hence, as a result of this civil war, the victorious Roman general, Lucius Septimius Severus, gained the upper hand by AD 193 and survived to establish his dynasty before his death in AD 211.
Septimius Severus was a no-nonsense Emperor with little concern for the customary formalities that had become characteristic of the Principate. He organized and ran the imperial household and the administration like military units. He broke a century long freeze on soldiers' pay and adjusted it upward to the current level of inflation. Further he allowed veterans to claim the social status as honestiores, "the more honorable" while the non-veterans came to be classed as humiliores, "the more lowly". Punishment for the same crime differed. A number of minor offenses brought flogging to the humiliores while the honestiores might simply pay a minuscle fine. A humiliores could be sent to hard labor in the mines for the rest of his life for a crime that would cost the honestiores only a few months of forced exile. Army commanders were now comites, "companions [of the Emperor]"
Caracalla succeeded his father in AD 211, eliminated his brother Geta and survived until AD 217. Caracalla granted citizenship to almost all the remaining subject peoples of the Empire in AD 212. Perhaps his motive was to broaden the attention given to the traditional Roman gods. If this is true, there may have been some connection between this action and the work of the great Roman jurist of the period, Ulpian, who is reported to have grouped all laws dealing with Christians under the heading of laws of high treason (leges maiestatis).
After the brief reign of a usurper, Macrinus, in AD 217-218, the family successfully put forward the grand nephew of Septimius' wife, Julia Domna. Although he took office under the familiar named Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, he is known as Elagabalus. Alexander Severus, who reigned from AD 222 until 235, was also Julia Domna's nephew and Elagabalus' adopted heir.
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Like their recent predecessors the Severi dynasty continued to emphasize public dependence on a wide variety of ethnic deities only partially syncretized with the traditional Roman gods such as Jupiter Dolichenus from Commagene and Juno Caelestis from North Africa. Several of his coinage issues depict him as a solar deity, but there is one where his son Geta is presented as the solar deity bowing down to his father, Septimius, who is flanked by Hercules and Dionysius. His patronage of the cults of Mithras and Isis as well as the Syrian sun god worshipped at Heliopolis is well known. Julia Domna his Syrian wife was the daughter of a sun god priest from Emesa. She is depicted on coins as Magna Mater, Juno Caelestis, and as the moon. Since both Septiumis and Julia Domna had divine horoscopes, their children, Caracalla and Geta, were represented as having divine parentage. Hence, the entire family was worshiped as the domus divina, the divine household, along with the divi imperatores in the army camps.
Septimius Severus seems to have understood the differences between Christianity and Judaism well enough to stipulate in his legislation that neither Jews or Christians were to recruit new converts to their numbers.
Since Elagabalus was the priest of the solar deity of Emesa he brought the worship of the Syrian sun-god to Rome. Interestingly, one report from a very unreliable source, the so-called Augustan History, tells that he planned to include a chapel dedicated to Christ in his planned Palatine temple to the sun- god. His reign ended in 222 before his plans could be carried out.
The highly dubious source, the Augustan History, also reports that Alexander Severus had a statue of Christ in his private chapel! In addition he had statues of Apollonius of Tyana, Alexander the Great, Orpheus and Abraham. The Augustan History also reports that he entertained thoughts of building a Roman temple to Christ and making him one of the official deities of the state. This surprising and questionable account continues reporting that the official Roman priesthoods admonished Alexander that such actions would result in everybody becoming Christians and abandoning the other shrines. At least he did rule in the Christian's favor in a court dispute between the Christian congregation at Rome and the tavern-keepers organization regarding the ownership of a piece of property.
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This is the rubric often used for some of the more powerful--or more fortunate--soldier emperors who paraded through the imperial office during the middle of the third century. This period from AD 235 to 285 has also been labeled the Age of the Thirty Tyrants. These rulers seldom gained control over the whole Empire in spite of their claims. Personal ambition and opportunism seemed to be the motivating factors. Each one was forcefully advanced by a particular part of the army and most were just as quickly and violently removed by another part of the army advancing their candidate. While these civil struggles sapped the army's strength, the Empire's external enemies rushed in to take advantage of the relaxed frontiers. We note a few of the more notorious rulers here in the following discussion.
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Maximus Thrax banished several Christian leaders and Christians in high places in the imperial government --an action which has led to the conclusion that Alexander's favorable relations with Christianity were viewed as politically dangerous. We hear virtually nothing about the religious intentions of his successor, Gordian III who ruled from 238 to 244.
Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History 6.34-41) provides a very curious mixture of reports on this period. On the one hand you have the Emperor Philip the Arab (244-249) whose attitude toward Christianity is reportedly positive, followed by Decius Trajan (From c. September-October, 249 to c. June, 251) who, because of his alleged hatred of Philip, determined to persecute the Christians.
Very little evidence of any kind in non-Christian sources survives from these two reigns. The anonymous Augustan History, however, reports that Philip the Arab was the first Christian Emperor. Lacking other sources it is difficult to assess the bias of this report. No other independent evidence survives of any positive contribution by Philip the Arab to the cause of Christianity. Neither is their independent evidence of Decius' deliberate persecution of Christianity. The independent evidence from Decius' reign that does survive seems to demand a more balanced explanation, as noted in the next section.
What we can infer from our Christian sources involves our reading of the events involving the Church at Rome. Bishop Fabian of Rome was elected in 236 during Maximus Thrax's reign as Emperor. Maximux Thrax had exiled to Sardinia two prominent leaders of the Roman Church when he first came to Rome as Emperor. Bishop Pontian and the theologian Hippolytus who may have been bishop of a schismatic congregation both died as a result of their exile. It is reported he may also have removed some Christians from positions in the Imperial court. Bishop Fabian served under not only Maximus Thrax, but also under Gordian III (238-244) and Philip the Arab (244-249). At some point in his career as Bishop Fabian managed to get imperial approval for bringing the bodies of Hippolytus and Pontian back to Rome and honoring them with honorable burial. Fabian's 14 year tenure and his other accomplishments has been taken as an indication that the government at Rome in this period was not very hostile to Christianity. The alleged hostility of Decius Trajan does appear in sharp contrast.
However, the source quoted by Eusebius (Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria) tells us a different story regarding Alexandria in the period before 249. A persecution against the Christians not initiated by the government, had been going on there "for a whole year" (Ecclesiastical History 6.41) in Alexandria before Decius Trajan became Emperor.
It is important to note the localized ideology behind this persecution so that we do not read this as a universal occurrence. Yet, the increasing numbers of Christians made even their assemblies (at night? and at first light?) seem secretive and all the more potentially dangerous. The details of the persecution are convincingly dramatic including the lull in persecution produced by a factious division among the persecutors just before Decius' accession was announced. When Decius' edict finally arrived the authorities in Alexandria seem to have employed it to legitimize and amplify the persecution. Dionysius names several martyrdoms occurring before the edict and several more afterwards.
The actual texts of Decius Trajan' edicts have not survived, but scholars understand that his earliest edicts must have been issued soon after he came to power in 249. What we do know about its features indicates that it is an innovation in imperial religious policy. Perhaps its real purpose was to test the loyalty and obedience of all Roman citizens and to make it easy to identify those who were disobedient and disloyal. It is also important to note that this was the first aggressive religious coercion directly initiated, and centrally coordinated, by the imperial administration. The imperial government attempted here to force a particular religious practice uniformly on the entire population--albeit, for clearly political reasons rather than religious ones. Notice that this policy was also a first step in limiting the religious freedom of the polytheists. Although Christian tradition remembers the Decian action as aimed solely at Christians, the extent and condition of our sources do not allow us to rule out the possibility that Christians may have been only one of several groups targeted. Also keep in mind that modern scholarship now understands the Christian movement in this period to be fragmented across a wide spectrum. Orthodox Christianity is only one part of the several movements that might call themselves Christian.
Decius decreed that every Roman citizen must worship the Roman gods (including the deified Emperors) in one of only two approved ways during the month of the Emperor's birthday. Local officers (probably local priests) were authorized to issue libelli, affidavits of compliance, to everyone who obeyed the Emperor's order. These affidavits, a number of which have survived, were sometimes personal testimonies written out by the literate worshippers and signed by the officiating officer. Those for the illiterate were evidently prepared by local scribes and were very generic. This whole operation was rather clumsy but it did have the potential of being a loyalty test; for, if you were discovered with no signed affidavit in your possession you would be imprisoned on suspicion of treason or dragged into court and ordered to sacrifice.
Although Decius' edict seems not to have targeted Christians exclusively by design, it did apply to Roman citizens whether Christians or polytheists. Refusing to worship when commanded to do so was the test first applied by Pliny on those accused of being Christians. This edict ordered all citizens to worship the gods of Rome. This is reducing the religious freedom of some ninety percent plus of the total population of the Empire in order to target a group that must have consisted of less than ten percent, if that was his intent. It may also be noteworthy that none of the surviving affidavits actually includes a denial of Christianity if the whole purpose was actually to identify Christians.
The edict first brought Christians into jeopardy in Rome early in 250. Bishop Fabian and probably others were incarcerated before the end of January. Fabian did not survive the month.
Christian citizens who refused to comply with the mandated religious exercises became liable for punishment if detected. These policies reached wide implementation by the end of Decius' reign, probably in June of 251. The majority of Christians were never apprehended, however a number Christians across the Empire were put in prison (e.g., Origen), only to be released when Decius was killed in battle against the barbarians. We have no way of knowing precisely who may have been jailed as a result of this action, but we should assume that some Christians of all varieties were arrested. Surely the Jews were also offended the order to commit such a sacrilege, but I know of no clear evidence that any were arrested. They may have been excluded, but that seems unlikely.
We do hear that some Christians forged affidavits or purchased them from enterprising officials. Moreover, a small number of Christians, both clergy and laity, under the intense pressure went through the motions of sacrificing as commanded. Some, including the bishop of Smyrna, allegedly became once again practicing pagans. Many of these "lapsed" Christians subsequently repented and came back to their churches asking forgiveness. The Churches were now seriously divided over whether to allow those who had obeyed the Emperor's order in weakness, lied about it, or purchased fake credentials, back in the Churches ever again. (See the controversies around the doctrine of penance in Lecture/Essay Eleven.)
The successor to Decius Trajan, Emperor Trebonius Gallus (251-253), was too busy with the collapsing Empire to enforce his predecessor's ideological programs. The Church at Rome had already re-established its bishopric with Dionysius as the new Bishop a few months before Decius' death. Even though the church was now divided over the lapsed members, Bishop Dionysius reported an elaborate clerical organization of some 108 deacons and lesser clergy.
Emperor Valerian, who ruled from 254-259, experimented with yet another measure intended to guarantee the loyalty of the rank and file citizens. He ordered the executive officers of all organizations to represent the membership of their organizations in the public worship of the Roman gods as an expression of loyalty. Subsequently, in 257, all leaders of organizations and associations were sent into exile to separate them from their organizations, and any assembly of the organization's membership was prohibited. This was an attempt to separate the leadership from the followers and thus diffuse any potential mass movement. That many of the targeted organizations were churches may have been coincidental; for there were many other organizations, synagogues, brotherhoods, fraternities and polytheistic religious organizations that were effected. It was certainly a limitation on Rome's longstanding policy of personal and religious freedom.
The interesting point here is that, so far as our sources know, it was the Christian groups that rebelled and would not obey. Even before the second edict some Christian bishops may certainly have aroused suspicion because they would not worship the Roman gods as commanded. The second decree now directly targeted those leaders that had defied the imperial order to exile themselves. These were now declared guilty of treason, and groups who assembled for whatever reason were likewise guilty. If those targeted including some rulers of Jewish synagogues and Manichaean leaders or leaders of other types of groups, no such reports have survived. Bishop Xystus (Sixtus) II and all (7) the deacons of the Roman Church were executed in August 258. He had after all defied the order to go into exile and had gathered his congregation under cover of darkness in a private cemetery. The Emperor's guards found them and promptly executed Xystus and several of his deacons on the spot.
However, we never find out what Valerian's original intentions were in dealing with the majority of these people he had in detention, because the invasion of the Persians distracted him. At that point in 255 the Persian threat to the Empire in the East had reached disastrous proportions and Valerian faced it with the realization that his government was on the brink of bankruptcy. His need for funds led directly to his next action. Confiscation was the standard policy, but whose wealth to confiscate--Valerian decided to confiscate the wealth and properties of the churches and of the wealthy Christian families to fund his military enterprise. He did order church properties confiscated and liquidated for the war chest. Whether this included some property of the Manichaeans we do not hear.
Valerian's polytheistic understanding may have led him to the conclusion that the neglected gods of the state may have been expressing their displeasure through the threats of the barbarian and Sassanid hordes.
Condemning the individuals and banishing them to the mines as state slaves facilitated the property confiscation. All imperial civil servants in the government who were "Christians" had their possessions confiscated and, together with their families, were sold into slavery. Numerous wealthy Christian individuals were also arrested and their property likewise dedicated to the war. These wealthy individuals and the several bishops in prison were given one last chance to obediently worship Jupiter on pain of execution. Some did sacrifice and were released. It is estimated that at least 1000 well known Christians including the bishops of Rome and Carthage were executed. We have no way of estimating how many lackluster Christians may have been in jeopardy. Nevertheless, Christians remained remarkably positive in their support of the Empire.
When Valerian was taken prisoner-of-war by the Sassanid enemy, the Christians rejoiced at God's providence, just as they had when Decius Trajan was killed in battle. Nevertheless the Valerian persecution added new tensions to the fabric of the Church already lacerated by the fall out from the Decian persecution.
The co-emperor, Valerian's son Gallienus (AD 253-268), who had been ruling the west stepped into the wider role when Valerian was taken out of circulation. He did not favor the repressive policies of his predecessor. As a Hellenist he favored the old Roman policy of religious freedom. He abolished Valerian's laws oppressing organized bodies, freed the survivors among those who had been enslaved and restored the confiscated properties to the Churches and perhaps even to the families of martyrs. Ruined families were apparently not always reimbursed for their loses but at least they were no longer enslaved in the mines. The hard-hit Roman congregation did not re-establish its bishopric until some time in 260 (after a little more than two years).
Gallienus' relatively long reign (he was assassinated AD 268) saw the restoration of some stability across the Empire. From Gallienus' day Churches were officially recognized as legitimate property-holding corporations.
Emperor Aurelian, 270-275 AD, is remembered for his religious innovations. He established the cult of deus sol invictus as the official state religion in Rome and apparently the supreme god of the Empire. Actually his predecessor, Emperor Claudius II Gothicus, had made public his personal preference for the solar deity and paved the way for Aurelian to establish a state priesthood as well as two special calendar events at Rome in honor of sol. One was the celebration of official games and entertainment evidently in honor of Sol's invincibility while the other was a celebration of his birthday --December 25, the day then calculated as the winter solstice. Aurelian identified himself with deus sol whom he considered the all-powerful protector of the Roman Empire and the Roman gods. This syncretistic view gathered all religious sentiment and expression into a single focus. Meanwhile he neither actively suppressed nor patronized the other cults of emperor worship or the ancient gods of the state.
Emperor Aurelian did rule in a dispute between the heretical former bishop of Syrian Antioch, Paul of Samosata, and the current bishop of Antioch over the control of a piece of church-owned property. The Emperor ruled that the contending party who was recognized by the Bishop of Rome should have the property. This reveals that prominent Christian officials could appeal court cases all the way to the Emperor.
Probus, 276-281 AD, was the first Emperor since Domitian to openly publicize his claims to be a god (deus). Although almost all of the impotent little warlords who occupied the imperial throne before him demanded worship from the soldiers as a divus, a divine being, it obviously was not doing much political good. Perhaps being a real god would help. Since the details of the ideology Probus was using have not survived, perhaps we are entitled to speculate that Probus' claim to be "god" may somehow be a twist of the old ideology of the divi imperatores, the deified emperors, comparable to the precident Emperor Gaius "Caligula" and later, Emperor Domitian, attempted to set in the first century. On the other hand, in the light of the emerging attitudes of Hellenism and his immediate imperial predecessors it may have been the image of Emperor Nero as Sol Invictus that he was hoping to resurrect. (See the discussion of Gaius' and Nero's notorious excesses in religious policy in Appendix II.) (On Domitian see the discussion in Appendix VI.)
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The Late Roman Empire is the period from AD 284 to 611. It displayed a radically new social, economic and governmental character. The crisis of the third century constitutes a transition between the Early Empire and the Late Empire. This new government, known as the Dominate, has been characterized as an "Oriental Despotism". What scholars mean by this term is that the form of imperial government that emerged from the third century crisis was structured more like the kinds of government historically demonstrated in the Near East by the ancient Assyrians, Egyptians, Chaldeans, Persians, and Macedonians, than like anything the Romans had developed so far.
The administrative hub of the government had shifted from Italy toward the east where the heaviest population was concentrated. In 330 Constantine established a new capital calling it "the New Rome". It was located on the strait that connects the Black Sea with the Aegean Sea, separating the European continent from Turkey. The old Greek city on the European side at that location was named Byzantium. Constantine's "New Rome" title didn't stick. For centuries it was known as "Constantine's city", i.e. Constantinople. (Today it is Istanbul, Turkey.)
By 363 it had become customary to refer to the Emperor as the Dominus, i.e. Lord, rather than as the Princeps. The divinity of the Emperor was now emphasized by referring to many things associated with the Emperor's person as "sacred", e.g. "the sacred palace," "the sacred wardrobe," "the sacred secretarial pool!" etc. The Latin word sacer, sacred, means "holy", "consecrated", "set apart".
This is a totally centralized government with all authority in the hands of one man, the Emperor. A civil bureaucracy appointed by the Emperor and responsible through the chain of command directly to the Emperor was responsible for civil and judicial matters at all levels. The military administration was totally separate from civil administration; its chains of command run parallel to those of the civil bureaucracy. The only official having both civil and military authority was the Emperor. These rationally designed hierarchies of officials were responsible for progressively smaller geographic regions as you descend the chain of command. The handpicked officials closest to the Emperor had the largest regions and greatest authority. The foundations were also laid for making both the military and the civil service bureaucracy virtually closed classes. Neither of these groups paid any taxes, but both were salaried and provisioned by the government.
Vast geographic area was a problem that could only be pragmatically solved by a reasonable geographic division. Diocletian, the founder of the system had managed three junior colleagues with him in the office of Emperor thus dividing the total imperial geography into four coordinated political units each with its own Emperor. This principle of geographic subdivision was refined and implemented repeatedly during the next two hundred years.
As a result of the financial collapse that accompanied the third century crisis, the government took steps to regiment society and economic activity. Farmers (whose livelihood was earned by physical labor) and all their children were legally defined as a closed class and legally bound to the soil. The purpose of these legal impediments on the colonate, i.e. the cultivators, was to enable the tax collectors to track them down and prevent them from just abandoning the land and seeking other livelihood. This was also an attempt to guarantee an adequate and cheap food supply and to control the rising food prices (really caused by progressively worthless coinage). Similarly, craftsmen and tradesmen were forced into government controlled organizations to regulate quality, prices and provide cut-rate government contracts (The latter amounted to a means of taxing them.). Membership in these guild organizations was both mandatory and hereditary. It was not until Constantine issued new gold and silver coins that the economic crisis began to abate. Even though his coinage ultimately provided a durable monetary standard for over 1000 years, the peak of the inflation in prices based on tons of worthless copper coinage still in circulation came under Constantine's sons.
Well-to-do landowners whose lifestyle did not include actual farm labor were legally fenced into still another closed class. This class, sometimes called the curiales, had for a long time been held responsible for collecting and paying the taxes of the local city region, an honor that had decimated their ranks continually and continued to put unbearable economic pressures on this class. Its future was not bright; its numbers were constantly diminishing.
The wealthiest class of landowners with the largest holdings had gained recognition as a kind of privileged imperial aristocracy. These so-called Senatorial class land owners were expected to serve the empire at the highest level as administrators, governors, and military commanders. Farmers on Senatorial owned estates were exempt from imperial tax collection, but owed various amounts of support to the Senator himself.
The religious policy of the Late Roman empire in the period down to 363 swung from one extreme to the opposite. The last ditch attempt at advancing the mandatory practice of classic Roman state polytheism on all the empire's inhabitants by legally and militarily suppressing all of the non-cooperating religious groups such as the Christians ultimately failed. When that policy failed the long-honored Roman policy of religious freedom for all religious groups including Christianity was revived, albeit in a form reflecting the prevailing attitudes of the polytheistic ideology of Hellenism.
After the barbarian raids of the middle of the third century were stopped the government's response to the continued threat was to close and fortify the Rhine and the Danube frontiers more securely than ever before. It served a double purpose of preventing barbarian infiltration, and also preventing lower class Romans from emigrating to barbarian territory to escape Roman taxation. The strengthening of the frontier militarily also stimulated the economic development of the region adjacent to the frontier. Not all the barbarian raiders had been driven back beyond the frontier. Large numbers had been allowed to settle on Roman lands in whole communities segregated from the rest of the population. This was done to make their manpower available for military service, but it allowed them to retain their barbarian culture and resist being absorbed into Roman society. The intermarriage between barbarian and Roman had never been a problem when the barbarian was culturally assimilated into Roman society. Now it was beginning to be a problem because of perceived cultural "otherness". A number of barbarians had risen through the ranks of the military to middle command positions by the middle of the fourth century.
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Diocletian, 284-305 AD, established his administrative headquarters at Nicomedia in northwestern Asia Minor. He held the Empire together by making concessions to each potential opponent that appeared. Soon he found himself with three collegues one of whom he gave equal status with himself and the other two he ranked as junior emperors. Maximian ruled Italy and Spain, AD 286-305; Galerius ruled the western Balkans, AD 293-305; and Constantius ruled Gaul and Britain, A.D. 293-305. He is also remembered for the Great Persecution of Christians.
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During the first decade and a half of his reign Diocletian was far too busy with the problems of survival to take any steps to restore Roman religion. However when he did finally attempt to revive the worship of Jupiter as the supreme god of the Empire the local responses to the Emperor's attempts were not enthusiastic.. He discovered that many of the provincial and city priesthoods of the Roman gods were disorganized, depleted in numbers and inactive if they existed at all. This widespread indifference toward the Roman gods was blamed on the recent advances made by Manichaeism and Christianity. Actions initiated against quasi-Christian Manichaeism in 302 seem to have been viewed as successful in their intended purpose. The next year he launched similar measures against all Christians in general.
This most extensive and long term effort of the central imperial government to eliminate Christianity from society is known as the Great Persecution. When Diocletian had success in suppressing Manichaeans in 302, Galerius his co-emperor encouraged him to extend the repression to Christianity. A series of edicts were aimed at demoralizing and disenfranchising the Christians. These edicts were, however, not uniformly enforced; the administrations of the western regions were especially lax. In the east the enforcement in some communities ruined the economy and overwhelmed governmental agents. Christians not only refused to comply but actively sought prosecution against themselves almost en masse. The clergy were the objects of the government officials' concerted efforts. They released some announcing they had sacrificed, and they publicly tortured others in the hope to break them and thus ruin their leadership reputations. The Imperial government was, however, distracted from its prosecution, severely weakened and fragmented by the civil wars among the successors of Diocletian after 305. No reliable counting of martyrs from the whole empire survives; but W.H.C. Frend conjectures that between 3000 and 3500 lives were lost over the first nine years. The actual persecution threat stretched in some areas twenty-two years before the new day dawned.
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After Diocletian retired to private life in AD 305 civil wars broke out among his former colleagues and successors and continued intermittently from AD 305 until 324. During the civil war Constantine I, son of Constantius, defeated all his western rivals by 312 and became undisputed emperor in the western section of the Empire. Constantine I, the Great, was unable to unite the entire Empire until 324 when he conquered the Eastern half of the Empire from Emperor Licinius. During his last years he assigned his three sons each a division of the Empire and allowed them to share in the rule and succeed him after his death in AD 337.
Constantine choose the Greek city of Byzantium on the west bank of the Bosporus, renamed it "New Rome", beautified and fortified it, and dedicated it as the capital of the Roman Empire in AD 330. The name he gave the city didn't survive, but the city remained the capital of the Roman Empire except for a few years in the thirteenth century until the conquest in AD 1453 by the Ottomans! Until early modern times the city went under the name of Constantinople, i.e., Constantine's City. Today it is called Istanbul.
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Constantine the Great is typically lionized in the popular fictions that circulate under the guise of historical knowledge. He is not only touted as the first Christian emperor but also the man who single-handedly ended the Great persecution and who established Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire. Unfortunately, Constantine was not that great! He was truly the first Emperor whose actions have convinced posterity that he was likely a Christian; however, the other two assertions are erroneous. While he contributed to these very important developments he was not the initiator nor soul leader responsible. He ended the persecution only in his part of the Empire, but not before it had been ended in other parts of the Empire by his Hellenist polytheistic contemporaries.
Emperor Galerius who ruled the areas of the lower Balkans and most of Turkey and had claimed the highest rank among the contending Emperors since 305 issued the first decree ending the persecution in 311 AD The old Roman policy of religious freedom was restored at least in his area. There is evidence that has been interpreted to show that Maxentius the ruler of Africa and south and central Italy acted to favor Christianity at Rome perhaps even earlier than Galerius in the effort to get Christian support in his struggle against Galerius and Constantine. Constantine who was the recognized ruler of Spain, Gaul, Britain and portions of northern Italy conquered Maxentius in October 312 making himself master of the whole west. The following year (313) Constantine issued the famous joint decree at Milan with Emperor Licinius who had ruled the upper Danube provinces since 308 and had succeeded to Galerius' place after the latter's death in 311. The Edict of Milan (313) re-established the traditional Roman policy of religious freedom specifically extending it to include the Christians.
Meanwhile, Maximin Daia, the ruler of eastern Turkey, Syria, Palestine and Egypt, ignored Galerius' decree and continued the persecution in his area until his death in 313. Licinius then ruled the whole East. But Licinius who was never a Christian reinstated persecution in the early 320's in his half of the Empire when it became obvious that he and Constantine would oppose each other. In that event the Christians in Licinius' realm were potential subversives who might support his enemy. Licinius was finally defeated in 324 leaving Constantine the ruler of the entire Empire.
It should be remembered that all the power-brokers involved here, Galerius, Maxentius, Licinius, Maximan Daia and Constantine, had come to their stations in life as practicing polytheists. By 313 Constantine was only beginning the process of identifying himself with Christianity. It was not an all-powerful Christian emperor who ended the Great Persecution and extended Roman religious freedom to Christians; it was rather another victory for the innovative, new-style polytheistic attitudes called Hellenism in its competition with opposing more or less nostalgic religious attitudes.
During the latter part of the third century for the first time in Roman history various emperors-- Decius Trajan, Valerian, and Diocletian --had taken steps to dictate, control and coerce citizens' religious behavior in support of the traditional cults native to the city of Rome and the early Empire. Hellenism's reassertion of a degree of religious freedom was only temporary; for by the end of the fourth century the government of the Late Empire will have come round once again to a policy of dictating, coercing and controlling the citizens' religious behavior in support of a single cult.
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The young Constantine had claimed the Emperor's rank off and on since 306 when his father, Emperor Constantius, died at York in England and the father's troops acclaimed the son. There were so few Christians scattered in those western areas that Constantine ruled that from the first he was very lax about enforcing the persecution decrees. Some have seen Constantine's "conversion" as a calculated opportunistic choice taken to gain the political support of the numerous Christians in Italy; yet, by the best estimates Christians numbered only about one-tenth of the imperial population with the preponderance of those in the East. Others try to see it as a sincere religious commitment. Regardless of the point of view taken, Constantine's actions were those of an enlightened-polytheist and proponent of Hellenism. His turning to Christianity as a private religion for himself and his behavior subsequent to this "conversion" must all be seen against the backdrop of popular Hellenism. Constantine's personal interest in Christianity should not to be understood as official "state" policy even though the state's resources were employed.
As a young man aspiring to the highest position of worldly power, Constantine was motivated to seek the aid of the highest, most powerful god. At the beginning of his reign in 306 AD he publicly removed himself from the religious tradition of Diocletian and placed himself in the tradition of Emperors Claudius II and Aurelian and his own father, Constantius, by favoring the various cults of the sun god. His participation in and patronage of the various sun god cults in the western region continued until he became convinced that the sun god had instructed him to do otherwise. This realization came in AD 312 apparently prior to his conquest of Italy as a result of a series of events which, unfortunately, are known only through reports given by his admirers. The following reconstruction is an interpretation and synthesis of the surviving reports.
Somewhere in southern France or northern Italy Constantine was worshiping at a shrine of the sun god. Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea (in Palestine) and biographer of the Emperor, reports that Constantine prayed to the sun asking for a sign to indicate his true divine identity. Thus it would be easier for the Emperor to choose the proper cult through which to channel the proper worship. It was probably a shrine of Apollo, since archaeological remains of such shrines include several examples of what has been described as the symbol of the universe carved in stone in the form of a wheel with four spokes. Indeed, this symbol may appear so frequently in southern France because it commemorates the experience of the Emperor. The report is that Constantine and the whole army escorting him saw a phenomenon in connection with the sun just after midday. He described it as a cross of light in the heavens above(?) the sun, by which he may have meant superimposed upon the sun--like four spokes of light radiating from the sun. Meteorologists agree that this type of phenomenon, while rare, is seen when the rays of the sun are observed through ice crystals in the atmosphere. Scholars argue whether Constantine actually saw words (in hoc signo vinces) in the sky or merely read that verbal meaning into the sign; at any rate it was reported that he saw the Latin words saying, "conquer by this sign!" His first conclusion was, evidently, that the sun god, presumably Apollo, had given him this sign with which to conquer his enemies.
That night Constantine experienced a dream where an awesome individual in white robes appeared to him and instructed him to construct his battle standard in the form of a cross. His advisors agreed that it was probably Apollo in the dream. Nevertheless the famous labarum--constructed by adding a cross member to the the typical straight shaft battle standard--was originated. Dissatisfied, Constantine also called for some Christians to learn from them what he could about the God who used the cross for a symbol. They identified the person in his dream as Christ. Constantine then understood that his prayer had been answered! Now he knew which was the proper cult for his personal worship! In point of fact, however, there is little tangible evidence that Christians at that time or in that area were using the cross as a symbol although it does seem plausible.
Lactantius reports that Constantine received other orders in a dream the night before the 27 October 312 battle of Milvian Bridge against Maxentius. As a result Constantine put "the heavenly sign" on the shields of his troops. Lactantius described it as a cross-shaped letter with the top bent over. This is the first mention of the so-called "Chi-Rho monogram" that later appeared in various versions on top of the labarum and on the Emperor's helmet. The symbol as described by Eusebius was set within a circular wreath of gold mounted on top the labarum standard above the cross piece, while the symbol on the shields and on the Emperor's helmet did not have the circle or wreath around it. The Greek letter chi, the first Greek letter in "Christ" (ch), is formed like a large X written so that the bottom 1/3 hangs below the line. The rho, the second letter in the Greek word "Christ", is formed somewhat like a lower case p but with a longer tail dangling below the line. Sometimes the rho is superimposed over the chi, and sometimes the tail of the rho serves as one of the elements of the chi. (To see various depictions of these symbols search Google Images for "chi rho" or "labarum".)
Constantine's public actions in the years following his "conversion" to Christianity are best understood, I think, as the result of the strong influence of Hellenism in his thinking. The assumptions of Hellenism allowed Constantine consistently to interpret traditional Roman policy in the following ways, most of which pleased both the Hellenists and the Christians.
Constantine suppressed the rural shrines where immorality was practiced, abolished the laws prohibiting celibacy, increased the penalties for sexual offenses, and abolished gladiatorial games.
The Emperor curtailed the private sacrifice of animals on the grounds that those engaged in such private practices surely had treasonous intent against society or the state, but public official sacrifices were continued without interruption. Constantine continued to act as the Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of the state, just as every emperor before him did.
Constantine did grant to Christian religious leaders (i.e., bishops) the same civil privileges and responsibilities previously granted to pagan priests alone. In other words Christian bishops now had the same status as all the official priests of polytheism.
He made private grants of public funds and property both to rebuild, enlarge and endow Christian worship buildings and to authorize other structures such as a temple dedicated to his family genius and statues honoring the sun god. In such gifts Constantine was merely following the precedent established by his predecessors as they had subsidized the building of pagan shrines and temples in a wide variety of cases.
Finally, Constantine decreed that the second day of the seven-day planetary week, the day of the sun, an official religious holiday honoring the sun-god. Judges, craftsmen, and the city population in general were prohibited from doing business as usual on that day. Rural populations were specifically excluded from this rule, and manumission of slaves was specifically allowed.
Although he intruded often in the affairs of the Church and considered himself a Christian--in spite of the fact that he, as his predecessors, personally condemned many people including his own son to death without hearing or appeal. Constantine was finally baptized only a short time before his death.
When Constantine died the Roman Senate rather routinely declared him a divinity (divus), but his body was buried in a tomb in Constantinople that he had designed for himself as a memorial to the Twelve Apostles--taking his place as the thirteenth apostle!
Also note the number of his actions that clearly restricted some kinds of religious freedom, particularly the freedoms of the "pagans", those not supporting the henotheism and morality of Hellenism. Notice that such restrictions of religious freedom even extended to schismatics and heretics those who claimed they were Christians but did not conform with the orthodox catholic Church's teachings and practices.
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Constantine's three sons survived him, but faced growing unrest. Constantine II ruled in Gaul, Britain and Spain; he was eliminated in 340. Constans, who ruled in Africa, Italy and Illyricum, was killed in 350, and Constantius II, who ruled in the East to begin with, survived till 361, ruling the entire Empire from 353 on. Constantine's sons generally exhibited a more open favoritism for Christianity than their father by confiscating the endowments of several pagan temples and ending the traditional gift subsidies to others. Sacrificing of animals was further curtailed to the satisfaction of both the Hellenists and the Christians. While the government did not openly encourage it, the occasional cases of mob violence--the mob possibly including both Hellenists and Christians--resulting in the destruction of images or the spoiling of shrines went unpunished.
Julian ("the Apostate"), the last of the Constantinian dynasty (361-363). He restored government subsidies and endowments to pagan shrines and reduced the gifts to Churches to comparable size. All restrictions on sacrificing were swept away and the Emperor himself participated publicly and frequently. He ordered pagan priests organized in every city and province under a local high priest, and admonished them to responsible behavior--stay away from the theater and games and don't drink in excess. He planned a publicly funded give away program to imitate Christian charity work.
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By the middle of the fourth century the Empire was developing a new attitude toward the barbarians resident inside its frontiers. They were more and more segregated and isolated from the lower and middle classes of Roman citizens as the majority of the barbarian families continued to raise their young men on Roman soil for Roman military service. A number of barbarians had risen to the higher ranks in military command where they had begun to adopt a more Roman lifestyle and earn the acceptance of the Roman upper classes.
The incidence of intermarriage between Roman and barbarian had never raised questions as long as the barbarians were of the same culture as the Romans. The segregation and isolation of the barbarians in the Empire allowed them to preserve their native barbarian culture and resist acculturation. In 370 the government acted to prohibit intermarriage between Roman and barbarian on the penalty of death.
Outside the Empire's frontiers barbarian conditions had continued to evolve. Those barbarian peoples beside the Roman frontiers continued to advance culturally even more rapidly than they had in the past. Trapped behind the frontiers they were forced to innovate and expand their agricultural and craft activities. As they became more numerous along the frontier they also become more peace loving and cooperative among themselves in the enjoyment of their prosperity.
An unsettling and irrational fear swept through the more peaceful and prosperous barbarian regions beyond the frontiers about 375. It focused on the savage ferocity of some of their fellow barbarians about 500 miles to the east in the southwest Russian area who were much less advanced than they. The Huns, whose origin is very obscure, but who apparently had been settled east of the Crimea for over a century (The notion that they were just arriving from central Asia is now seriously questioned.), had suddenly irrupted in violent attacks against their immediate neighbors on the Don River. Flight from this potential danger was the obvious choice of thousands of the relatively peaceful barbarian tribesmen. But the fortified Roman frontier was blocking their escape to the south and west.
A Visigothic prince from the area that is Romania today petitioned the Eastern Emperor Valens for permission to migrate into the Empire for protection. Valens agreed, but took the Visigoths prisoners instead of settling them on vacant lands as they had asked. The refugees escaped their prison camp and began to look for suitable lands. Valens marched against them, but they called in reinforcements from north of the Danube River. Valens, Eastern Roman Emperor, died in the slaughter of his army in 378 in the historic battle of Adrianople between the Eastern Roman army under Valens' personal command and a disorganized horde of poorly equipped, poorly armed, barbarians called to the aid of a group of Visigothic refugees.
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An old general, Jovian, ruled for the year 363-364, paving the way for his chosen successor, Valentinian I, who ruled the west from 364-375. To begin with Valentinian I chose his brother Valens to rule the East, 364-378. Gratian and his brother Valentinian II, the sons of Valentinian I, would succeed their father in 376 and rule the Western Empire. Each of these men were recognized as Christians. While Gratian gave primary attention to Gaul, Valentinian II remained in Italy. At the time of Valens' death Gratian named the next Eastern Emperor, the Spanish Roman general Theodosius I, who ruled 378-395. Emperor Theodosius settled the Visigoths and their allies in the Balkans and used their military manpower extensively in campaigns all along the Danube frontier and clear into France.
In 383 a pagan named Magnus Maximus killed Gratian and ruled as Roman Emperor at Trier in Gaul, 383-390. Valentinian II, with the help of Theodosius I, defeated and killed Magnus Maximus in 390. Valentinian II then reigned over the entire western Empire with his capital at Trier until he was murdered in 392 by the commanding general of the western Roman imperial army, the Frankish chieftain, Arbogast. It has been argued that Arbogast was reacting to Emperor Theodosius I's decrees restricting polytheism in 391 AD. Arbogast named still another pagan, Eugenius, as Emperor in Gaul, 392-394. Theodosius avenged Valentinian II's death in 394 by invading Gaul, defeating and executing both Arbogast and Eugenius.
Theodosius I ruled the entire Empire during the last year of his reign. Because of the pagan revolts in the west, it probably seemed appropriate to the Emperor to issue edicts condemning and prohibiting pagan organization and worship as subversive to the state. See "Terminating the Ancient Luxury of Religious Freedom" in lecture / essay 14 for a discussion of the long range impact of Theodosius's actions. He also elevated his two sons as his colleagues in the imperial power. Arcadius in Constantinople assisted him the East and Honorius at Milan assisted him in the west.
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During the reign of Theodosius I the Huns continued to subdue the barbarians north of the Black Sea. Enrolling their conquered allies as troops they began ravaging the barbarian tribes all along the lower Danube which served as the Roman frontier.
After Theodosius' death in 395 the Huns prepared to push northwestward into what is now Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The tribes in that area bolted southward across the upper Danube frontier, invading northern Italy in 400-401. Some of the Huns' more eastern barbarian subjects took the opportunity to revolt and fled, crashing uninvited the middle Danube frontier and moving into northern Italy in 406 looking for security.
The Roman response in both cases was to block their immigration militarily and expel them as soon as possible, or, in several cases settle them in isolated communities in sparsely settled regions along the inside of the Roman frontier with the obligation to help Rome defend it from further trespass. Rome was not altogether successful and ended up settling far more barbarians within the Empire than she could muster the strength to expel. Moreover, the consolidation of Roman military forces to defend northern Italy and the upper Danube provinces left the upper and middle Rhine frontier unguarded. Several modest sized hordes of barbarians promptly began trekking across the frontier unopposed making their way through France and into Spain.
Roman authorities in this period were unable to maintain control of some areas so the size of the Empire diminished. The older boundaries were maintained in most areas except north of the Mediterranean, especially in the Balkans and western Europe. Even there, Roman administration hung on, sometimes in fragmentary and even token fashion long after the effective power had passed to other hands.
For example, after Roman troops abandoned Roman England c. AD 400, the commercial activity across the channel to Roman England was totally broken off as the result of the activities of Saxon pirates from northwest Germany. Unable to get the Empire to aid them the orphaned Roman cities in England organized their own defenses by recruiting bands of the same barbarians to defend their shores from random pillage. Nevertheless, hostile barbarian invasion and settlements began about 442 to appear along the southeast coast of England.
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Theodosian Emperors ruling the Eastern Empire from 395 to 457 A.D. are more successful in maintaining their power and sovereignty in their part of the Empire than the Theodosian Emperors in the West whom we will discuss later.
Emperor Arcadius, 395-408, was the son of Theodosius I. The barbarian presence in the eastern Roman army is evidenced by two of his commanding generals, Gaļnus and Fravitta, both of whom were barbarian. Large contingents of the Roman army were now of barbarian blood. The eastern armies had their hands full during this time. They had to expel a barbarian invasion across the Caucasus that penetrated all the way to northern Palestine, and curtail the pillaging raids of the Gothic barbarians who had been settled in eastern Central Turkey since 386 and by the native Isaurians who lived in the Taurus Mountains in what is now southern Turkey.
Theodosius II, 408-450, the son of Arcadius, was only 7 years old when his father died. His father's chief administrator ran the government until his death in 414. Then his sister, Pulcheria, who was 16 years old acted as regent for nearly two years. He personally began to reign in 416, but Pulcheria remained very influential. She eventually married Marcian whom Theodosius II designed as his successor. Theodosius II's contributions to Roman culture included the founding of the University of Constantinople and the publication of an updated collection Imperial edicts known as the Theodosian Code. Two of Theodosius II's most powerful commanding generals in the eastern army were the barbarians, Ardaburius and Aspar.
The chief activity of the Huns in the period between 425 and 450 was trying to keep the barbarians they had subjugated from fleeing across the lower Danube frontier. They did not hesitate repeatedly to invade Roman territory along the lower Danube to round up their escaped subjects. Theodosius II's armies were so fully employed elsewhere he was forced again and again to pay the Huns huge sums of money to relinquish claim to the Roman territory where the Huns' fleeing subjects had settled.
Marcian, 450-457, was son in law of Arcadius, and brother in law of Theodosius I. Aspar was still the most powerful general. Marcian's flat refusal to pay still more money to the Huns forced Attila to move his extortion operation to the western Empire. Marcian was technically the sole emperor for about six months in 456-457 after the Western Emperor, Avitas, was deposed.
Leo I, 457-474. He was nominated by and a puppet of the barbarian general, Aspar, until 469, when Leo made a marriage alliance with another barbarian named Tarasicodissa. Tarasicodissa took the name Zeno and his wife, Leo I's daughter, bore him a son, Leo II.
The sickly infant, Leo II, and his barbarian father, Zeno, were named joint emperors in 474, but the child died. Basiliscus, Leo I's brother-in-law, usurped the throne for two years, but Zeno reclaimed the throne and ruled from 476-491.
Anastasius who was an important financial official from the court of Zeno was emperor from 491 to 518.
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The legitimate Theodosian Emperors in the western Empire had much more difficulty maintaining their power and sovereignty. Honorius, 395-423, son of Theodosius I, began his reign at Milan in Italy, but it was not long before the barbarian immigrations so threatened that area that in 402 he moved his capital to Ravenna, south of the Po River. The loyal commanding general of the western Roman army was the barbarian, Stilicho. He managed to stabilize the upper Danube frontier by 407. However, all the Roman troops of Britain rebelled from Honorius in 406 and acclaimed their general, Constantine, as Emperor. Constantine led these troops to evacuate England in an unsuccessful attempt to defend Gaul and Spain from the onslaught of migrating barbarians. A palace conspiracy succeeded in eliminating Stilicho in 408 when he was needed most. Honorius' inept negotiations with the rebellious barbarian allies, the Visigoths, led to their sack of Rome in 410 and the kidnapping of Honorius' sister, Galla Placidia. Although she married the barbarian chieftain, Stilicho's successor Flavius Constantius, rescued her and married her in 418. To this union was born Valentinian III. When Flavius Constantius died in 422 Honorius banished his sister and her son to Constantinople.
When Honorius died, a usurper named Johannes, 423-425, was installed by the Roman semi-barbarian army (including a large contingent of Huns) led by the Roman general, Aėtius. The forces of the Eastern Emperor Theodosius II came to Italy and installed Emperor Valentinian III, 424-455, the nephew of Honorius. Powerful generals in the west were the Romans Felix and Aėtius. Aėtius retained his influence because he had 60,000 barbarian troops under Hun commanders backing him. He employed this force to subdue and settle the other barbarians rampaging in Gaul (modern France).
The barbarians outside the empire were subjugated by the Hun rulers in a huge empire. After 434 the Hun leader was Attila. In 450 Attila's army of subject barbarians invaded the west fought to a draw with Aėtius' army of Roman barbarian allies in central eastern France. In 451 Attila invaded northern Italy and took many captives in what was most probably a failed attempt to extort big money from the Western Empire as he had the Eastern. There was, however, the matter of Emperor Valentinian III's sister, Honoria. When she failed in a plot to have her brother assassinated she sent word to Attila in early 450 offering to become his wife if he would come to Italy and help her claim her half of the western Empire. Attila's army held northern Italy several months but made no attempt to take Ravenna or march on Rome. Valentinian had given Honoria in marriage to a loyal Roman senator and we hear no more of her. Attila withdrew from north Italy after several months of pillaging because his army was weakened by sickness and Eastern Emperor Marcian was marching westward to cut off his retreat. When Attila died in his sleep in 453 the Hun Empire was soon overthrown by its rebellious subjects. The fleeing Huns took temporary refuge in Roman lands only to stage futile attempts to recover their empire. Eventually a few hundred abandoned the quest to recover their former glory and opted to settle in Roman lands.
With Attila dead and other barbarian threats more or less successfully stabilized Valentinian III conspired strengthen his independent position by having Aėtius assassinated in 454. Then a wealthy Roman businessman, Petronius Maximus, purchased the imperial office from the corrupt palace guard 8 months later and had Valentinian III killed. Maximus was soon killed in a riot in the streets of Rome as the Vandal barbarians arrived from Africa to defend Valentinian III's daughter who was engaged to marry the Vandal prince. The Vandals sacked Rome in 455. Avitas, a native of Gaul and a long time colleague of Aėtius who succeeded to the command of Aėtius' army in Gaul and was supported by the Visigothic barbarians of Gaul, was recognized as western Emperor, 455- 456. Avitas named a barbarian warrior, Ricimer, as his commanding general. Ricimer, however, conspired with another high Roman official, Majorian, to depose Avitas and get him elected as Bishop of Milan in October, 456. Majorian became the Emperor, 457-461.
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Emperor Majorian, 457-461, conspired with the commanding general, Ricimer, to remove the former emperor and take his place. Whether Ricimer was then responsible for Majorian's death is debated. In any case Ricimer selected Libius Severus to be the next emperor and tried to get him recognized in 461. Severus was not recognized by all the other generals nor the Emperor Leo I at Constantinople. Vandal Barbarians under Geiseric attacked south Italy in support of Valentinian III's son-in-law, Anicius Olybrius. Severus died under very uncertain circumstances. Meanwhile Emperor Leo I sent the general Procopius Anthemius to be Emperor in the west, but Ricimer would not accept him until Anthemius offered him his daughter in marriage. Anthemius ruled 467 to 472. Ricimer did not like him and would not cooperate with him. Emperor Leo I then sent Anicius Olybrius as a messenger to carry sealed secret orders to Anthemius, orders directing Anthemius to execute Olybrius! Ricimer intercepted the orders and hailed Olybrius Emperor in Anthemius' place and launched an attack defeating and executing Anthemius. Ricimer, however, died from wounds and was succeeded by his nephew, Gondebaud. When Olybrius died after a few months Gondebaud named Glycerius as Emperor in March but Emperor Leo of Constantinople meantime chose the husband of his wife's niece instead. Julius Nepos arrived in June, 474, and deposed Glycerius making him bishop of Salonae. Gondebaud removed himself from the post of commanding general in order to succeed his father as King of the Burgundians and governor of the Roman provinces in eastern France.
Emperor Julius Nepos first named the son of the former Emperor Avitus as his commanding general, but when he was killed he named the Roman, Orestes, who had served as an aid to Aėtius and as ambassador of good will to the court of Attila the Hun. Orestes' personal ambitions led him to drive Julius Nepos across the Adriatic and elevate his own son, Romulus Augustulus, to be Emperor in 475. Orestes was executed by mutinous barbarian soldiers in Roman service led by the barbarian, Flavius Odovacar. Young Romulus was deposed (but not executed) and the imperial regalia was sent back to Constantinople in 476 by Odovacar. Julius Nepos was still recognized by some in Constantinople as Emperor of the west until his death in 480. Thus ended the line or Emperors in the western regions.
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The Emperor Leo I at Constantinople grudgingly recognized Odovacar as Protector of Rome and defacto king of Italy only because there was no better candidate at the moment. Soon the Emperor asked Theodoric, the new king of the Ostrogoths, to lead his people from Upper Pannonia (between Budapest and Vienna) to invade Italy and eliminate Odovacar.
The Ostrogoths who settled in Upper Pannonia after the collapse of the Hun kingdom were evangelized by 472 by Romanized Gothic missionaries, perhaps from Constantinople, who were nevertheless also Arians. Theodoric led his people into Italy and eliminated Odovacar in 493. He ruled Italy and surrounding territory as his kingdom. Under Ostrogothic rule Italy began to show signs of stable growth and economic prosperity for the first time in centuries. While the Ostrogoths were Arian, the Italo-Romans were of course orthodox catholic Christians. There was, however, very little ill feelings over religion between the heretical Ostrogoths and the orthodox population in Italy. While each group worshipped with their own kind, they succeded in cooperating in many every day cultural matters.
The Vandals were evangelized in Spain by Arian missionaries between 409 and 417 A.D. The Vandals established their kingdom of northwest Africa around Carthage and become independent of the Imperial government by about 430 under the leadership of King Geiseric. He and his successors maintained their independence until Roman troops restored Imperial power there in 533 A.D. As Arian Christians the Vandals actively persecuted the orthodox catholic Christians because of their alleged disloyalty during the repeated attacks on the Vandals by imperial forces. Fulgentius, Bishop of Ruspe (d.533), a disciple of Augustine of Hippo was the spokesman for the orthodox catholic Christians under Vandal rule.
The Frankish Kingdom, 457-534, was consolidated under the control of the Merovingian dynasty. They ruled northern France and western Germany. In c. 496, Clovis, the pagan Merovingian ruler of the Franks was baptized directly into catholic orthodoxy without having first known Arian Christianity. The conversion of the Frankish people generally from paganism would require centuries. Yet, because the Franks had nominally orthodox leaders the Gaulo-Roman bishops favored them over the other barbarians in Gaul who at the time were associated with Arianism. Caesar, Bishop of Arles, 502-542, was the most important orthodox catholic churchman in that area in his day.
The Visigoths who were settled in the province of Lower Moesia in 382 by Emperor Theodosius I seem to have been evangelized by 395 when most of them departed for the west. However, they received the Arian doctrine which was deeply entrenched in the Romanized Gothic population of that province as a result of the career of their Gothic bishop and Bible translator, Ulfilas (341-c.380). The Visigothic tribal kings and their people were occupying southwestern Gaul (France) by c. 412. By about 466 had claimed all but the northwest of Spain. Although driven out of southwestern France by the advancing Franks about 507, they remained secure in Spain.
The Burgundian peoples were converted by Arian missionaries (probably Goths from Moesia or Constantinople) between 412 and 436 while they were resident along the west bank of the upper Rhine River in the province of Upper Germania. The Burgundian kings had ruled southeastern Gaul (France) from about 437 until the Franks captured the area from them in 534. Avitus, Bishop of Vienne (d. 518) was the orthodox catholic leader who was largely responsible for the conversion of the Burgundians to catholic orthodoxy about 516.
The Gepids who were under Hun domination until c. 454 lived in the Thiess Valley outside the Empire. However, Arian missionaries evangelized them sometime between 440 and 472 A.D.
Arian missionaries worked successfully among the Rugians on upper Danube after 481. The evangelized Rugians seem to have carried the Arian message to the pagan Lombards who had moved into Upper Pannonia when the Ostrogoths moved to Italy.
Many British tribal kingdoms of various sizes and strengths had emerged by 450 in the absence of Roman power: Gododdin, Clyde, Reged, Elmet, York, Gwynedd, Wreocensaeton, Powys, Dyfed, Magonsaeton, Gwent, Hwicce and Dumnonia, among others. The Britons were able to hold their own until about 450 when the Anglo-Saxons began to enjoy a series of victories that drove the Britons into Cornwall, Devonshire, Wales, northern Lancashire, Westmorland, Cumberland and southwestern Scotland. The legend of Arthur and the Battle of Mt. Badon seems to have developed from some actual historical events in the struggle between the Britons and the advancing Anglo-Saxon presence.
Arthur was a north British warrior who successfully organized and led the British kings to resist unsuccessfully the Anglo-Saxon advance toward the north and west, c. 470's. He apparently organized the resistance of the Britons in Lincolnshire territory against the Angles, c. 510. Arthur also led the Britons to victory over a coalition of Saxons at the battle of Mons Badonicus/Mount Badon, c. 516, but he is reported to have lost his life at the battle of Camlann, perhaps the Roman fort of Camboglanna on Hadrian's Wall in Cumberlandshire, c. 537.
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The dense population concentration and economic prosperity so visible a century before along the Roman side of the Rhine-Danube frontier was thoroughly decimated and scattered between 375 and 450. The survivors of the urban population of that belt, economically isolated and physically threatened by the continuing migrations of the barbarian peoples, fled to urban trade centers along the Mediterranean coast or those further west in the interior. The once prosperous rural population of both land owners and lower class farmers surrounding these now depopulated urban centers of the Rhine and Danube frontier was likewise scattered and decimated.
By 425 the waves of immigration subsided and Rome must now attempt to settle and stabilize the new barbarian inhabitants, no small or simple task. The numbers of barbarians were too large to follow the established pattern of isolated and segregated settlements. Also the government had become too dependent on the barbarians for military service to encourage the breakdown of ethnic identity and tribal loyalty to their chiefs. Consequently, barbarian leaders were often given high-ranking civil and military posts with delegated authority over the surviving masses of Roman citizens.
By the middle of the century there were several cases where the barbarian leader whose warriors were settled in a particular area would himself be appointed as Roman governor over that area. While he ruled over his warriors according to barbarian tradition he was expected to rule over the Roman inhabitants in accord with Roman law. Sometime during the fifth century the Roman government upgraded the rank of governors in the city regions without barbarian settlements in them. This new official was given the military title of comes, count, and like the barbarian leader/Roman governor in other cities, combined command of a military detachment together with responsibility for enforcing the tax collection and maintaining law and order.
Often in whole city regions, sometimes in whole provinces of what is now Spain, France, The Netherlands, and northern Italy the land-owning class was more heavily impacted than the actual farmers were. The barbarians were more often incorporated into Roman society as privileged class landowners than as lower class farmers. The Roman government authorized the barbarian warriors to confiscate for themselves a certain fraction of the lands belonging to any and every Roman landowner in the region designated for barbarian settlement. The Roman citizen farmers who actually farmed the lands so confiscated simply had new barbarian landlords. This transfer of the ownership tended to weaken the native land owning class that was responsible for local city government and tax collection, so those areas of government were correspondingly weakened. Barbarian landowners collected taxes from their farmers on their lands but kept it themselves because the barbarian's military service was given in lieu of taxes. The native landowners were expected to collect from their remaining farmers and use it to pay the city's annual tax levy to the imperial government, which was not reduced. The landowners had to make up any shortfall out of their own pockets.
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Culturally the impact of barbarian concentrations in the Balkans and western Europe overpowered the ability of the Roman Civilization to maintain itself. The disruption of this period provides the foundation for the gradual emergence of a unique western European culture over the next five centuries. The policies and practices noted above totally destroyed the traditions of society in a large part of western Europe. Even though the barbarian rulers theoretically exercised Roman authority and power over the citizens it is not hard to understand why Roman civilization in western Europe suffered irreparable damage not only from the initial violence but from the determination of the Roman government to perpetuate this settlement. This is the development usually labeled "The Fall of Rome".
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Return to the Lecture/Essay Table of Contents for Part I.
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