Diocletian, Constantine and the End of the Roman Empire

1
Diocletian, Constantine and the End of the Roman
Empire

• Capitoline Museums
• Palazzo dei Conservatori Museum Courtyard
• Colossal statue of Constantine headMarble, cm
  260 ( 8 6)inv. MC0757313-324 AD

2
Sources for the End of the Roman Empire 4th-5th
c.

• Apologists
• Proponents of paganism
• Christian fathers
• 4th-6th c. law codes (Justinian, 528-534)
• Archaeological evidence fragmentary and
  unrevealing graffiti disappears, coins focus on
  the emperors

3
Diocletian, 284-305

• Divides empire into two tetrarchy
• Diocletian (Augustus), Galerius (Caesar) East
• Maximian (Augustus), Constantius (Caesar) West
• Able administrator
• Rome not caput mundi (head of world)
• Retires, along with Maximian
• Caesars succeed

4
Impact of Diocletians rule

• All sovereignty ? emperor
• Titles Imperator, Caesar, Augustus tribunicia
  potestas Dominus noster (our Lord)
• Adore the purple
• Asian court
• Jovius (Diocletian) Herculius (Maximian)

5
Impact of Diocletians rule

• Division of empire
• Prefectures Gaul, Italy, Illyricum, Oriens.
  Governed by praetorian prefect
• 12 dioceses (3/prefecture). Governed by vicars
• 120 provinces (10/diocese)
• Equestrian bureaucracy oversaw arsenals, taxes,
  mail, spying, palace, largess, imperial
  landholdings

6
Impact of Diocletians rule

• Separation military from civilian authority
• Army doubled in size under duces (dukes)
• Taxes reorganized payment in kind
• Price edict
• Extortion, bribery, espionage undermined
  integrity of empire
• Emphasis on mos maiorum (ancestral tradition)
• Persecution of Christians in 303

7
Constantine, 306-337

• Son of Caesar Constantius, acclaimed as emperor
  by troops in 306
• By 310, five Augusti by 312, down to two
• Constantine vs. Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge
• XP (chi-rho) vision in the sky
• By 324, entire empire under Constantine
• Persecutions of Christians ceased
• Strengthened the military, government
• Founded Constantinople in 324 at Byzantium

8
Constantine, 306-337

• Constantinople city of Constantine
  resembled Rome
• Rome becomes a minor city
• Constantine embraced Christianity but remained
  pagan (pontifex maximus worship of sun god
  syncretism)
• Restored empires prestige, peace, dynasty, and
  was baptized on deathbed
• Transformed Rome to a Christian state

9
Decline and fall

• Rome sacked by Alaric, Goths in 410 last pagan
  emperor Romulus Augustulus 476
• Why did Roman civilization end?
• Natural causes
• Social causes
• Economic causes
• Political causes
• Military causes
• Moral causes