Tragedy of Empire
Subtitle: From Constantine to the Destruction of Roman Italy
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2019
Language: eng
Number of pages: 424
ISBN-13: 9780674660137
Subjects: Rome, history, empire, 30 b.c.-476 a.d.; Rome, history, germanic invasions, 3rd-6th centuries; Kings and rulers
Description: "The Tragedy of Empire begins in the late fourth century with the reign of Julian, the last non-Christian Roman emperor, and takes readers to the final years of the Western Roman Empire at the end of the sixth century. One hundred years before Julian's rule, Emperor Diocletian had resolved that an empire stretching from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, and from the Rhine and Tyne to the Sahara, could not effectively be governed by one man. He had devised a system of governance, called the tetrarchy by modern scholars, to respond to the vastness of the empire, its new rivals, and the changing face of its citizenry. Powerful enemies like the barbarian coalitions of the Franks and the Alamanni threatened the imperial frontiers. The new Sasanian dynasty had come into power in Persia. This was the political climate of the Roman world that Julian inherited"--