The reign of Constantine the Great
As has been said, the system of the tetrarchy was designed to resolve the problem of succession by putting an end to the flood of pretenders - one of the chief causes of the anarchy and civil war that dogged the empire in the third century.
However, this arrangement did not last very long. Shortly after Diocletian's abdication in 305 AD the system of the tetrarchy broke down in hopeless confusion and a new round of civil wars began between the claimants to the throne. In 312 AD, after six years of war, Constantine, the son of Constantius Chlorus, defeated his chief opponent, Maxentius, thereby becoming the sole emperor of the West. In the following year Licinius became emperor of the East. But in 323 AD war broke out between the two Augusti. In 324 AD Licinius was finally defeated and Constantine made himself ruler of the whole empire. The new emperor restored the unity of the state and completed the work of Diocletian giving the organisation of the empire the basic form which it retained until the fall of the empire in the West and its transition to the Byzantine empire in the East.Administratively and militarily, the measures of Constantine, like those of Diocletian, were calculated to facilitate internal control and to strengthen the empire's defences. The greatly enlarged bureaucratic apparatus was further centralised in the imperial consistory, made up of the highest financial and administrative officials of the imperial court. The notion that the emperor was the chief magistrate of the Roman people was abandoned once and for all and, with the introduction of the principle of hereditary succession to the throne, the transformation of the imperial government into an absolute monarchy was now complete. Constantine made full use of his autocratic power to develop further the totalitarian regime whose foundations had been laid by Diocletian and earlier emperors.
He regimented the occupations of practically all classes of the population and continued Diocletian's work aimed at stabilising the monetary system. At the same time he gave special attention to the administration of justice and sought to secure greater protection for the members of the lower classes. The army remained an important basis of imperial power but its influence was limited as a result of Constantine's military reforms.[1080] Among the most important events of Constantine's reign were the recognition of Christianity and the transference of the imperial capital from Rome to Constantinople.[1081]color=black face="Times New Roman">The rise of Christianity
During the Principate period Christians were largely tolerated and by the early third century they had become an accepted part of the imperial society. There were times at which Christians were persecuted, but these persecutions never took the form of a large and organised attempt to stamp out the Christian religion.[1082] These measures were directed not so much against Christian religion as such, but against practices which manifested a disregard for the established institutions of the Roman state. As strict monotheists, Christians refused to worship the empire's gods, and especially the emperor, as the state demanded. In the eyes of many Romans this amounted to opposition to the national worship and the Christians appeared to be members of a secret society which was plotting against the integrity of the state. The hostility towards the Christians escalated as a result of the crisis of the third century and the first systematic persecutions of Christians were carried out during the reign of Decius (249-251 AD). Further measures were taken by Valerian (257 AD), including large-scale confiscations of Church property. These measures were justified on the grounds that the Christians posed a threat to the old pagan culture upon which the unity of the state depended.
In the years that followed the death of Valerian state persecution of Christians ceased but a new round of persecutions began during the reign of Diocletian. Diocletian felt that the unity of the empire could not be realised without unity in religion and that this necessitated the eradication of Christianity and a return to the old religious practices. Thus between 302 and 305 AD he issued four edicts which revived the state's persecution of the Christian Church. Under these laws all Christian officials were to lose their positions, Christian churches and sacred books were to be destroyed, the members of the clergy were to be imprisoned and Christians who refused to make offerings to the Roman gods were to be put to death as enemies of the state. But the persecution of Christians initiated by Diocletian did not produce the desired effect and, as citizens and officials alike connived to protect their Christian neighbours from arrest and punishment, the relevant laws gradually fell into abeyance and persecutions slackened or ceased. Finally, in 311 AD, Galerius, the Augustus of the East, issued an edict granting the Christians the right to worship their God and to rebuild their churches, provided that they did not offend public order.In 313 AD Constantine and Licinius issued the famous Edict of Milan by which Christians were granted unrestricted freedom of worship and confiscated Church properties were restored.[1083] Constantine himself did not immediately convert to Christianity (he was baptised Christian only at the end of his life) but Christians of his day were so pleased with the new turn of events that they did not object to the pagan practices which the emperor continued. Although under Constantine Christianity did not become the exclusive religion of the state, it enjoyed imperial preference and the emperor became a lavish patron of the Church, supporting it with generous gifts and privileges.[1084] It remains unclear whether Constantine's attitude towards Christianity was the result of genuine religious conviction or political calculation.
Whatever the emperor's motives may have been, it is doubtful whether Christianity ever would have triumphed as the dominant religion of the empire if it had not had some imperial patron, such as Constantine, to enhance its popularity and power. Convinced that the unity of the Church was a condition for the survival of the empire, Constantine used his imperial prestige and power to settle the theological disputes which were now arising among the Church leaders. Thus, in 325 AD he called a meeting of bishops and Church officials from all parts of the empire at the city of Nicea in Asia Minor to deal with the Arian controversy.[1085] The Council of Nicea and others that followed in the fourth century confirmed the position of the emperor as the head of the Christian Church.[1086] At the same time the Church found in these councils a means of reaching agreement on disputed points of religious doctrine.[1087] Finally, in 380 AD Emperor Theodosius I issued the Edict of Thessalonica by which Christianity was recognised as the official religion of the state.[1088] With the spreading of Christianity and its recognition as state religion Christian doctrine began to exercise a strong influence on the development of Roman law. At the same time the first disputes began to emerge between secular and Church authorities as to the bounds of their respective jurisdictions.[1089]In the period following the council of Nicea the Church appeared as a unified society embracing all Christian congregations of the empire, and Church and state became increasingly intertwined. At the same time the Church found in the political organisation of the Roman state, as it existed after the reforms of Diocletian and Constantine, a model upon which to fashion its own system of administration. The first Christian churches had been established in some of the major cities of the empire, such as Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, Carthage and Corinth.
From these centres branch churches were sent out to other towns. The faithful in each town chose from among themselves a bishop, or overseer, who was then consecrated by the bishops of the larger cities in the province. The latter, because of the size of their congregations, assumed a position of supremacy over the bishops of the smaller towns and thus a hierarchy was developed within the Church which corresponded in its general divisions to the administrative hierarchy of the Roman state. At the top of this hierarchy was the emperor who was represented, in the West, by the bishops of Rome and Carthage and, in the East, by those of Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria. Below them were the bishops of the provincial capitals under whose authority came the bishops of the smaller towns in their provinces and the lower clergy.[1090] But as the power and influence of the Church increased, rivalries began to emerge between certain episcopal sees within the Church structure, especially between those of Rome and Constantinople.[1091] Despite attempts at reconciliation, concord was not established and the divisions within the Church organisation persisted throughout the later imperial period and in the centuries that followed.The founding of Constantinople
Shortly after his victory over Licinius, Constantine decided to establish a new capital city on the old site of Byzantium in the East. The choice of Byzantium as the location for the new city indicates that the empire's political centre of gravity had shifted to the East. It was also probably motivated by Constantine's desire to break with the pagan past and to centre the empire in a new Christian foundation. Construction of the new city, called Constantine's city or Constantinople, began in 324 AD and was completed in 336 AD. The city was strategically located midway between the important Danubian and eastern frontiers on the crossroads between Europe and Asia Minor, and had a much better commercial situation than
Rome. This location not only provided Constantinople with immense economic vitality, but also made it an effective political and administrative centre. In time Constantinople came to be regarded as a second Rome. It was given all the privileges of Rome, such as the ius italicum,70 and had its own senate[1092] [1093] which was presided over by the praefectus urbi. Rome kept its rank as a capital city, although the emperors seldom resided there during this period.[1094]
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