Christian Roman Empire

The transition to the **Christian Roman Empire** lasted from about 305 AD until 363 AD. It began with the abdication of Emperor Diocletian, wearied by twenty years in office, and hoping to set a precedent for the future imperial successions. It then ended with the death of Julian, the last *emperor* of the Constantinian line.

The *Roman Empire* shaped the history of the Christian Church for both good and ill. Official religious tolerance contributed to the spread of the faith, and, by the third century, Christian communities could be found in most cities, especially in the eastern parts of the *empire*. By that time, clerical hierarchy had stabilized, with the bishops emerging as the paramount local leaders. The Christians were technically illegal, due to their alleged disloyalty to the state, but, despite the familiar story. they was only sporadically persecuted; at least until the mid third century. A drastic change came with Emperor Decius' edict of 249, compelling Christians, like others, to make sacrifices to the Roman gods. Many did sacrifice; some did not and died. Thereafter, persecution ebbed, and the *Church* resumed its shadowy existence just below the horizon of official toleration. Then in 303, Diocletian launched the last great Roman persecution. In spite of extreme violence, this failed to halt the rise of Christianity, but rather caused the faith of the martyrs to blaze forth. But before this, it had been cut across by the complicated politics of Constantine the Great.

Diocletian divided the *empire* between east and west, each ruled by a separate *emperor*, and assisted by a junior colleague and designated successor; the *Tetrarchy*. Confident that he fixed the problems which had plagued Rome, he abdicated, and his orderly system soon collapsed. A troubled period of nearly two decades followed, and only ended in 324, when Constantine reunited the empire under one ruler.  By this time, he had already addressed himself vigorously and effectively to its problems, though with more success as a soldier than as an administrator. He disbanded the *Praetorian Guard* and created a new, more trustworthy bodyguard. He also restored a stable gold currency, paving the way for the restoration of a money economy; with mixed results. None of these things, however, struck contemporaries as much as his attitude to Christianity. He granted the Church the toleration that other religions enjoyed. His personal relationship to Christianity was complicated, but he was, in the end, undoubtedly a convinced believer. Constantine also came to believe that the *emperor* owed to God more than freedom to his Church, or even an endowment. His conception of his role evolved towards that of the imposer of the Church unity. His greatest act in the ordering of religion came in 325, with the first ecumenical council of the Church, at Nicaea, which produced the statement of Christian orthodoxy, the Nicene Creed; still in use today. Constantine thus played a more important part in shaping its future than any other layman. Ultimately, unwittingly, he founded Christian Europe.

One of his decisions only slightly less enduring in its effects was his foundation of a city to rival Rome on the site of the old Greek colony of Byzantium. It was dedicated in 330 as Constantinople (now Istanbul). Constantine was again shaping the future. For a thousand years Constantinople would be a Christian capital, unsullied by pagan rites. It is still the largest city in Europe today. For all the new religion and the new capital, the empire seemed little changed. A period of anarchy followed Constantine’s death. Between purges, civil war, and usurpers, the last surviving male member of the Constantinian family ascended to the throne only 24 years later. This was Julian “the Apostate”, who was, in one of history's great ironies, the last non-Christian ruler of the *Roman Empire*. His popularity among the people and the army during his brief reign, suggest that he might have brought paganism back to the fore of Roman life, had he not been killed fighting the Persians in 363.

## History

### Rise of Christianity (1st-3rd century)

For two centuries, after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Christianity is hard to pin down. It certainly did not spread “like wildfire” as early Church writers tended to suggest. The best estimate is that, by 200, there were around 200,000 Christians in the Roman Empire, of between 50 and 60 million people. However, they may have been more visible than that figure suggests, as they were overwhelmingly concentrated in cities. By the end of the first century, the *Church* had already evolved a hierarchy of officers to regulate their affairs; *bishop*, *presbyter* (*priest*), and *deacons.* But there was no central authority, such as the *papacy*, to pare down a whole variety of views about the nature of Jesus, and about the basic tenets of Christian faith. *Bishops* communicated with each other, and their letters demonstrate often rancorous debates. "*Did Jesus die or not at the crucifixion?*" many wondered; not unreasonably. The response of the Roman authorities to the rise of a new sect was largely predictable; its governing principle was that new cults were tolerated unless they awoke disobedience or overt disrespect to the *empire*. Despite Christian tradition, there was no general or systematic persecution in this period. Whenever there was a crisis (famine, war, plague), Christians might be scapegoats for angering the gods; or when Nero decided to shift the blame for the *Great Fire* of Rome in 64 AD onto them. Yet the Roman attitude was that although Christianity was not legal, it should not be the subject of general punishment; there was no sign of that until the mid third century. Christians emerge more clearly in the administrative records in the second century, because of their refusal to sacrifice to the traditional gods or for the well-being of the *emperor*. This was their distinction. Jews had a right to refuse; they possessed an ancient cult that the Romans respected. If Christians were behaving peacefully, they were left in peace. If, on the other hand, breaches of the law were alleged, then the refusal to sacrifice might be added to their crimes. The hostility of the Roman authorities was probably less dangerous than that of their Roman neighbours. As the 2nd century passed, there is more evidence of pogroms and popular attacks; Lyons in 177, or Carthage in 203. Christians were not protected by the authorities since they followed an illegal religion. Its sources and extent are complex and still disputed, but, in part, it derived from an irreconcilable clash between traditional Roman values and Christianity. Roman religion was not only polytheistic, but tolerant of foreign gods. Christianity was an exclusive monotheism, which even rejected the gods who for centuries had guaranteed the success of Rome. It was prescient of "pagans" to sense danger in such views.

The *Roman Empire* shaped the *Church* for both good and ill. The classical world presented huge possibilities for diffusion and expansion. Its teachers could move freely, and talk and write to one another in Greek. Christianity also had the good fortune of emerging in a religious age. All over the Roman world could be found examples of the "mystery cults", whose common theme was the secret knowledge associated with those initiated through rites of passage. The sacrificial cult of *Mithras*, a minor Zoroastrian deity especially favoured by soldiers, was one of the most notable. There were from time to time controversies about them; the priests of the Egyptian goddess *Isis* found themselves expelled from Rome on more than one occasion. Such cults cloaked deep longings for a psychological satisfaction no longer offered by traditional orthodoxy, and never really possessed by the imperial cult. Yet this promising setting was also a challenge to Christianity; the early *Church* has to be seen in the context of thriving competitors. At the beginning of the third century, the faith had spread in the eastern parts of the *empire* especially; in the west it was at first relatively limited, but significant communities emerged in Rome and Carthage. An interplay with classical culture was an important aspect of the process by which Christianity took root. Perhaps St. Paul, the Jew who could talk to Athenians in terms they understood, had launched this. Later, in the second century, Justin Martyr, a Judean Greek, strove to integrate Greek philosophy with Christianity, and argued that (though he was martyred himself in 165) he could be a good citizen; Christians could offer their own form of prayer for the *emperor*. Others were to follow similar lines, notably Tertullian, Origen, and Clement of Alexandria. When coupled to its promise of a salvation after death, and the fact that the Christian life could be lived in a purposeful and optimistic way, the Christian movement began to grow at an alarming rate.

By the year 300, Christians may have made up about a tenth of the population of the *empire*. There had even been signs of official favour. Bishops were increasingly prominent in local affairs in the Eastern and African provinces; they were men with whom officials expected to do business. One emperor, Philip the Arab, had included Jesus among the gods honoured privately in his household. Such favour was much less striking than the persecutions so prominent in the story of early Christianity. There were two great outbreaks. That of emperor Decius (249-251) sought to restore to the crumbling *Roman Empire* something of its earlier confidence, through a return to traditional Roman virtue and values. The Christians, like others, must sacrifice to the Roman gods, said Decius. And many did, to judge by the certificates issued; some did not, and died. Decius' edicts were renewed under Valerian (253-260) on the same grounds, though he targeted leading members of the clergy, rather than the mass of believers. Thereafter, persecution ebbed, and the *Church* resumed its shadowy existence just below the horizon of official toleration. Christians noted with some satisfaction that their persecutors did not prosper; the Goths slew Decius, and the Persians made a captive of Valerian. In 303, emperor Diocletian (284-305) launched the last great Roman persecution. It was not at first harsh. The main targets were the clergy, books, and buildings of the Church. For some time, there was no death penalty for refusing to sacrifice; many Christians nonetheless did sacrifice, the bishop of Rome among them. The policy varied in intensity across the empire; Diocletian, and his eastern colleague Galerius, felt strongly about it, whereas his western colleague Constantius was unenthusiastic. This meant that persecution was worst in the Eastern provinces, where it was kept up a few years longer. But before this, it had been cut across by the complicated politics of Constantine the Great.

### Demise of the Tetrarchy (305-324 AD)

Diocletian had instituted a new system of imperial government, the *Tetrarchy* ("Rule of Four"), in which two *emperors* ruled over a half of the *Roman Empire*, assisted by their junior colleagues and designated successors. In 305, wearied by twenty years in office, and hoping to set a precedent for the future imperial successions, Diocletian abdicated and retired. He compelled his co-*emperor* Maximian to do the same. Thus, Constantius (305-306) and Galerius (305-311) were elevated as the two new *emperors* (*Augustus*). They in turn appointed two junior colleagues (*Caesars*); Severus (305- 307) in the west under Constantius; and Maximinus Daia (305-313) in the east under Galerius. Briefly, this worked. In establishing his orderly system, Diocletian had adapted two pre-existing notions; that of sharing imperial power, and that of succession to the throne by adoption. He seems to have consciously avoided, the conflicting notion of hereditary claim by birth, which was to reappear repeatedly. The architects of the ***Civil Wars of the Tetrarchy*** (306-324) were two young princes - Constantius' son, Constantine (d. 337), and Maximian’s son, Maxentius (d. 312) - who felt themselves overlooked.

Almost as soon as he was appointed *Augustus*, Constantius crossed to Britain to face incursions by the Picts. There he died of a sudden illness at York (*Eburacum*) in July 306, only a year after his accession. This opened the first crack in the political edifice of the *Tetrarchy*. Rather than accepting the elevation of Severus from junior to senior *emperor*, the army acclaimed Constantine as his father's successor. Constantine had been groomed for high office. He was well-educated in Latin literature and Greek philosophy; had served with distinction at Diocletian court (initially as something of a hostage to his father's good behaviour); and campaigned under Galerius against the Persians and Danube *barbarians*, before joining his father's campaign in Britain. Constantine sent official notice of Constantius' death to the sole senior *emperor* Galerius, passing off his unlawful elevation as "forced on him" by the soldiers. Galerius flew into a rage at the message, but was calmed by his advisers, who argued that to deny Constantine would mean certain civil war. So, making the best of a bad situation, Galerius accepted Constantine as the new *Caesar*, and elevated Severus to the vacant place of *Augustus*. This motivated another son of a former *emperor*, Maxentius, to reach for the purple too. One of the more subtle changes brought about by the *Crisis of the 3rd Century* had been the downgrading of Rome from its status as centre of the *empire*. It was increasingly seen to be too distant a residence for the *emperor*, when troubles could erupt along any of the borders. Milan (*Mediolanum*) was often preferred, with good access through the alpine passes to the Rhine and Danube provinces, and well-positioned to guard against incursions into Italy. Moreover, Italy, which had long been exempt from any form of tax, was increasingly being treated like any other province. The home peninsula began to murmur against this indignity, and Maxentius used this sentiment to declare himself *emperor* at Rome in October 306. Galerius, by now furious, ordered Severus to deal with the usurper. He marched from Milan towards Rome, at the head of an army which had fought under Maxentius' father for years. With the connivance of Maximian, who had never wanted to retire in the first place, the majority of the army defected to the usurper. Severus fled to Ravenna, a virtually impregnable fortress. However, Maxentius convinced him to surrender, with false promises to spare his life; Severus was soon put to death under clouded circumstances. The now joint rule of Maxentius and Maximian in Italy was tested further when Galerius himself invaded Italy with an even larger army in the summer of 307; Constantine had refused to become embroiled in the civil war. Galerius' attempt to besiege Rome proved abortive; due to the presence and abilities of Maximian, he found every place in Italy hostile, fortified, and inaccessible. Galerius reached as far as Narni, about sixty miles from the city, but was forced to withdraw, when Maxentius tried to repeat what he did to Severus; offering Galerius' soldiers large bribes and his father's authority to defect to him. Then in April 308, Maximian attempted to depose his son in a failed plot, forcing him to flee to Constantine's court in Gaul, to try and win his son-in-law over to his side. When this plan failed, he attempted to win over Diocletian, The result was a conference at *Carnuntum* (now Petronell-Carnuntum in Austria) in October, to try to stabilize the tottering *Tetrarchy.* In attendance were Diocletian, Galerius, and Maximian. Here it was agreed that Maximian would permanently step-down from power; a newcomer, Licinius (308-324), trusted by Galerius, would become *Augustus* in the west; Constantine was confirmed as his junior colleague; and Maxentius was once again declared a usurper in Italy. These decisions, however, did not please Maxentius, for obvious reasons. nor Constantine, who had expected a promotion. Licinius made no effort to move against Maxentius, though. During Galerius' failed invasion of Italy, he had been entrusted with a campaign on the Danube against the Sarmatians; a horse-based nomadic peoples, who dominated the steppe north of the Black Sea, the old lands of the Scythians. There he remained, perhaps wisely, until the fatal crack in the political edifice of the *Tetrarchy*; the death of Galerius in 311, after a protected illness. Licinius soon met with Maximinus Daia on a boat in the middle of the Bosphorus, and concluded a treaty sharing the eastern provinces between them. Now the *empire* was in a more complicated mess than ever before; Maximinus Daia controlling the Eastern provinces from Anatolia to Egypt; Licinius in Greece and the Balkans; Constantine in Gaul, Britain, and Spain; and Maxentius in Italy and nominally North Africa. Maxentius was far from secure, however. Without the revenues of *empire*, he was forced to tax the Italians heavily to support his army, and his efforts to fortify northern Italy against potential invasions; by 312, Maxentius was barely tolerated, Meanwhile in Gaul, his father attempted to seize the purple once again. After the frustrating *Carnuntum* conference, Maximian had returned to Constantine's court. His opportunity came in the summer of 310, when Constantine led a campaign against the Franks. Maximian announced that Constantine had dead, and proclaimed himself *emperor* again. Although he offered bribes to all who would support him, most of Constantine's army remained loyal, and Maximian was compelled to flee. He was captured at Marseille (*Massilia*), and soon died in unclear circumstances. According to Constantine's story, he granted Maximian clemency, but, unable to endure the humiliation, he committed suicide. Despite the earlier rupture in their relations, Maxentius declared war on Constantine, vowing to avenge his father's "murder". To prevent Maxentius from forming an alliance against him with Licinius, Constantine forged his own alliance with him over the winter of 311–312; Licinius later married Constantine's sister. In response, Maxentius formed an alliance with Maximinus Daia. With two hostile alliances lined up against one another, the *empire* prepared for war.

By this time, Constantine had built up a powerful field army of 40,000 men, distinct from the frontier legions; *barbarians* were an important source of recruits. Early in the spring of 312, he crossed the Alps into Italy. He fought two major battles to secure northern Italy; the first near Turin, the second at Verona. When Constantine approached Rome in October, it was expected that Maxentius would remain within the city and sit-out a siege; he still controlled the *Praetorian Guard*, was well-stocked with African grain, and was surrounded by the seemingly impregnable *Aurelian Walls*. For somewhat uncertain reasons, he abandoned the plan, marching his army out of the city to make his stand at the famous **Battle of the Milvian Bridge** (312 AD), just outside the walls of Rome. Constantine's army arrived on the field bearing an unfamiliar symbol on their standards and shields. According to the well known story, on the night before the battle, Constantine had a vision which led him to fight under the protection of the "God of the Christians"; the details of the vision differ between the sources. According to Lactantius, who was tutor to Constantine's children and gives the most convincing account, "*Constantine was directed in a dream to cause the heavenly sign to be delineated on the shields of his soldiers, and so to proceed to battle. He did as he had been commanded, and he marked on their shields the letter Χ, with a perpendicular line drawn through it and turned round thus at the top, being the cipher of Christ*"; the *Chi-Rho*, representing the first two letters of the Greek word for "Christ". It has often been supposed that Constantine's profession of Christianity was a matter of political expediency more than of religious conviction. Constantine didn't put the Christian symbol on his banner out of an attempt to gain the loyalty of Christians. As one historian pointed out, it would have been ridiculous to build a political strategy on “*one-tenth of the population which at that time was taking little part in political affairs*”. But he saw in Christianity a new and fascinating model of what Roman citizens might be. The *Roman Empire* had demanded submission first to an *emperor*, and then to some ideal rooted in the city of Rome itself; but the *empire* had grown more and more ragged and contentious. Christianity had done what Rome had never managed: it had spread out from its narrow beginnings as a Jewish sect, and become an identity which had drawn Jews, Gentiles, Thracians, Greeks, Syrians, and Italians into a single fold. In allying himself with the Christian God, Constantine was staking his future on the gamble that Christianity could unify the splintering *empire* in the name of Christ, a name that might succeed where the names of *Caesar* and *Augustus* had failed. It would be a mistake to interpret this as a lack of sincerity; he committed himself to the Christian faith from that day on, even if his understanding of the Christianity was at this time quite superficial. The actual Battle of the Milvian Bridge was brief. Maxentius' troops were broken before the first charge, and pushed back towards the Tiber. The bridge was too narrow to hold their retreat, so many were drowned by the mass of fleeing soldiers. Among the victims was Maxentius himself, pulled down by the weight of his armour. The next morning, Constantine walked through the gates of Rome at the front of his army; he was forty years old. Maxentius' body was fished out of the Tiber, and his disembodied head was sent to Carthage; North Africa offered no further resistance. The victory gave Constantine undisputed control of the western half of the Roman Empire. In the east, Maximinus Daza was disturbed by this course of events. Deciding to take the initiative, he left Syria with 70,000 troops, traversed Anatolia, and crossed the Bosporus. In April 313, he went to Byzantium, garrisoned by Licinius' troops; when the city refused to surrender, he took it after an eleven day siege. The news reached Licinius at Adrianople, while Daza was besieging Heraclea, barely 20 miles away. With scant time to prepare, he met Daza at the Battle of Tzirallum (April 313) with fewer than 30,000 men; outnumbered two-to-one. But Licinius’s army, like Constantine’s, marched under the banner of the Christian God; it was a useful rallying point. Licinius’s smaller army outfought Maximinus’. He fled in disguise, but Licinius followed him across Anatolia. A last stand at the Cilician Gates failed, and he fled again, this time to the city of Tarsus. Seeing no escape, Maximinus Daia swallowed poison, though, according to the historian Lactantius, he took four days to die. Subsequently, Licinius took over the eastern provinces without a struggle.

With the removal of their rivals, the two remaining men met in Milan, and agreed to divide the Roman world between them. The *Tetrarchy* was replaced by a system of two *emperors*; Constantine became *Augustus* of the west, while his brother-in-law, Licinius, became *Augustus* of the east. They also formulated a common religious policy, the **Edict of Milan** (313), officially granting full tolerance to Christianity, and all religions in the *empire*. The uneasy alliance between Constantine and Licinius resembled nothing more than that of Augustus and Marc Anthony; both arrangements were born out of necessity, not mutual good will; both lasted an unexpectedly long time; and both partners sought any excuse to attack the other. Relations between the two *emperors* deteriorated in 315, when a son was born to Licinius; which Constantine saw as a threat to his own long-term dynastic ambitions. He suddenly proposed resurrecting the old *Tetrarchy*, with the elevation of two new *Caesars*; Licinius's colleague would be Constantine's own son-in-law. Licinius rejected the proposal (needless to say), and Constantine marched against him, prevailing at the Battle of Cibalae (316 AD). It proved a *Pyrrhic victory*, though. Both *emperors* had been involved in exhausting military campaigns in the previous years, and their manpower reserves were stretched to the limit; both retreated to their own territory to lick their wounds. Hostilities resumed the next year, with Licinius beaten again at the Battle of Mardia (317 AD). Constantine, thinking that Licinius would retreat to his Syrian base, headed towards Byzantium, only to find Licinius between himself and his supply-lines. It seemed that his aggression had turned against him, but Licinius had good reason to come to terms; Constantine had now soundly defeated him twice. A new settlement left Licinius in his position as *Augustus*, but required him to cede to his brother-in-law all of his European provinces, except for Thrace. But his days were numbered. By 320, the two *emperors* were openly bickering, and once again religion was at the centre of imperial division. Unlike Constantine, Licinius did not commit himself personally to Christianity. Constantine alleged that even his commitment to toleration eventually gave way to renewed persecution. This characterization of Licinius as anti-Christian is somewhat doubtful; he seems to have seen the Church, perhaps rightly, as having mixed loyalties. Temperatures rose in 321, when Constantine "accidentally" pursued some Sarmatians into Licinius' territory with a very large army. When, in 323, he repeated this with another group of *barbarians*, this time Goths, Licinius complained that Constantine had broken the treaty between them. Constantine immediately seized on the excuse to get rid of his rival. The two men met twice; the first time at the Battle of Adrianople (July 324), near the site of Licinius’s own victory against Maximinus Daia; and the final time at the Battle of Chrysopolis (September 324 AD), where Licinius was so thoroughly defeated that he agreed to surrender. In victory, Constantine made a great show of sparing his life, but, before too long, ordered Licinius' execution, breaking his solemn oath; even his nine-year-old son was killed. Constantine was now the sole and undisputed master of the Roman world.

### Emperor Constantine (324-337 AD)

**Constantine** (306-337) came to power full of confidence, full of energy, and full of ideas. Although he tolerated all religions, and his coins continued to honour pagan gods (notably *Sol Invictus)*, he openly favoured the Christian faith from the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312. He was in the end undoubtedly a convinced believer; it was not then unusual for Christians to do as he did and postpone baptism until their deathbed. Constantine gave the church all sorts of advantages. He recognized Christian clergy as equal to priests of the Roman religion, and exempted them from taxes and from state responsibilities that might interfere with their religious duties. He supported the Church financially, making considerable gifts of property, restoring their property confiscated during the *Great Persecution*, and building splendid churches and basilicas. His most famous building projects included the *Church Of The Holy Sepulchre* in Jerusalem, on the site of Jesus' empty tomb, and the *Old St. Peter's Basilica* in Rome, on the burial site of St. Peter. He did not cease to tolerate the old cults, nor adopt a policy of forced conversion, but he did favoured Christians for high office, which had almost the same effect. Constantine's profession of Christianity was not an unmixed blessing to the Church. He used the Church as an instrument of imperial policy, and thus deprived it of much of the independence which it had previously enjoyed. Among his first acts as sole *emperor* was to guarantee the unity of Christian belief. Christianity would not be much help to him if it split apart into battling factions, which it was in danger of doing. For some years, Christian leaders in various parts of the *empire* had been arguing with increasing rancour over the exact nature of Jesus; both human and divine. Christians had wrestled with this paradox from the very beginning of their history. As early as 316, Constantine himself tried to settle a controversy in North Africa known as the Donatist sect, after the Berber bishop Donatus; giving them the unhappy distinction of being the first *heresy* to be persecuted by a Christian government. While he and Licinius were fighting over the throne, a Alexandrian priest named Arius had begun to teach that, since God the Father was unique, the Son of God must be a created being; He was different from other created beings, perhaps, but he did not share the essence of God. His idea essentially created a pantheon of divinities, with God the Father at the top and God the Son a little lower in the heavenly hierarchy. Arius had been gathering followers and vexing his bishop. Constantine, learning of the split, sent a letter to Egypt strongly suggesting that the two men work out their differences; but neither the bishop nor Arius was willing to yield. In desperation, Constantine called together a council of church leaders from across the *empire* to settle the question; the ***Council of Nicaea***. It met for the first time in 325, nearly 300 bishops being present, and Constantine presided over it. Settling theological questions by way of *ecumenical council* was a new development for the Church. Directed by their leading bishops and by the *emperor* himself, the assembly at Nicaea not only a condemned Arius’s theology, but came up with a formulation of mainstream Christian orthodoxy, still used by the Church today; the *Nicene Creed*. If Constantine had hoped that the council would settle the *Arianism* issue forever, he must have been bitterly disappointed. The quarrel remained unsettled when Arius died. Yet Arianism was not to prosper in the *empire*; its opponents, led by the formidable bishop Athanasius of Alexandria. were relentless. Its last success were won by *Arian* missionaries to the Germanic tribes; borne by these barbarian nations, *Arianism* was to survive until the seventh century. But this was less important than that Constantine had presided over the council at this crucial juncture; the notion that secular rulers had supreme authority in religious matters was to vex Europe for the next thousand years. How much of the Church’s rise was in the end inevitable it is hardly profitable to consider. Yet someone had to begin. Constantine was the man who took the crucial steps which linked the Church and *empire*, for so long as the *empire* should last. Ultimately, unwittingly, he founded Christian Europe.

One of his decisions, only slightly less enduring in its effects, was his foundation of a new capital city to rival Rome, on the site of the old Greek colony of Byzantium (now Istanbul). Diocletian had chosen to rule over the richer cities of the East during the *Tetrarchy*, not the still under-developed West. Constantine recognized the gravitational shift in the empire, and the military imperative of protecting the Balkan provinces from barbarian incursions and Asian provinces from a hostile Persia. Byzantium was strategically located on the European side of the Bosporus Strait, at the crossroads between the Asia and Europe, and controlling sea traffic to and from the Black Sea. It also provided an excellent harbour (the *Golden Horn*), and, therefore, could be easily defended. Constantine was re-creating Rome as he thought it should be, under the shadow of the cross. It was built on seven hills, it had a *Senate*, and its people received subsidized grain. The palace which he built for himself afforded direct access to the city's vast *Hippodrome* for chariot-races. Unlike the old Rome, which was filled with pagan monuments and institutions, the emblem of *Daniel in the Lion’s Den* decorated the fountains in the public squares; a picture of *Christ’s Passion*, in gold and jewels, was embossed on the very centre of the palace roof. Notably absent was an amphitheatre for gladiatorial games, which were associated with pagan rituals. Disregarding the protests, Constantine brought old statues and relics from the great cities of the *empire* - Rome, Athens, Alexandria, Antioch, Ephesus - and installed them among the new churches and streets. He ordered Roman “men of rank” to move to his new city, complete with their households and possessions. The dedication of Constantinople in 330 confirmed the divorce, which had been in the making for more than a century, between the *emperors* and Rome. Rome had long been unsuited to the strategic needs of the *empire*. It was now to be left in splendid isolation, as a wealthy and prestigious city - still the emotional focus of the *empire* - but of limited political importance. Constantine was again shaping the future. For more than a thousand year, Constantinople would be a capital of the *Roman Empire*; later referred to as the *Eastern Roman Empire* (or *Byzantine Empire*). For most of that time, it was also the largest and wealthiest city in Europe.

Despite the new religion and the new capital, the prevailing character of Constantine's **government** was one of conservatism. He retained and completed most the arrangements made by Diocletian, especially in provincial administration and army organization. So, despite the failure of the *Tetrarchy*, Diocletian's policies wound up defining the *empire* for the next few centuries. One notable change pertained to the Roman currency; Constantine introduced a new gold coin, the *solidus*, struck from almost pure gold. The coin won wide acceptance, and remained essentially unchanged for centuries to come. He forsook any attempts at restoring the silver and bronze ooinage, preferring instead to mint large quantities of the gold *solidus*. His monetary reform was closely associated with his religious policies; increased minting was achieved with the confiscation of all gold, silver, and bronze statues from pagan temples, which were declared to be imperial property. Modern historians tend to argue that Constantine's policy helped widen the rift between the classes; the rich benefited from the stability in purchasing power of the gold piece, while everyone else had to cope with ever-degrading silver pieces. Wealth was diverted from the merchants and small landowners into the hands of the rich; and, as the tax-based dwindled, the rich became increasingly resistant to paying taxes. The roots of medieval feudalism, with its lords and serfs, in not too difficult to detect. Constantine did not neglect the security of the borders. He campaigned successfully in 306-308, 314-15, and 328 on the Rhine frontier against the Franks and Alemanni, in 332 on the Danube against the Goths, in 334 against the Sarmatians, and in 336 attempted to reconquer Dacia. Constantine, canny politician in life, made quite unsatisfactory arrangements for his own succession; it was almost as though he expected to live forever. In 326, he ordered the execution of his oldest son Crispus, who had been his heir-apparent (*Caesar*) for almost decade, A few weeks later, he also put to death his second wife Fausta, the mother of his other three sons. Few ancient sources were willing to discuss possible motives behind the family tragedy, but a connection between the two deaths is likely. Some involvement of Constantine's mother Helena cannot be excluded. Shortly afterwards, she undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, perhaps as an act of contrition. In the course of her journey, Helena played a role in the building of the *Church of the Nativity* at Bethlehem, on the site that was traditionally considered to be the birthplace of Jesus. A tradition, more cherished than trustworthy, credits her with the discovery of the *True Cross*. By 335, Constantine had no less than four *Caesars*; his sons, Constantine II, Constantius II, and Constans; and his nephew, Flavius Dalmatius. It was by no way clear which of these should take precedence upon his death. In 337, Constantine was preparing for a campaign against Sassanid Persia, but this campaign would be a *Crusade*; his justification was that the Christians of Persia needed his help against persecution. He planned to take with him a portable tabernacle in which bishops would lead regular worship for the army, and he announced that he would be baptized in the river Jordan, as soon as he reached it. It was the first time that a ruler had planned to *wield the cross* against a pagan enemy. But before he could depart, Constantine fell ill at Helenopolis. When treatment failed, he made to return to Constantinople but was forced to take to his bed at Nicomedia. There, Constantine was baptized by the bishop of the city - Eusebius, the Arian sympathizer - and died a few weeks later in May 337. He was 65 years-old, and had been an *emperor* for over 30 years. His body was escorted to Constantinople, and buried in the *Church of the Holy Apostles*, in a sarcophagus surrounded by the engraved steles of the twelve *Apostles*, making him, symbolically, the thirteenth. Later historians called this an act of massive hubris, but the burial had its own logic; Constantine, like the *Apostles*, was a founder of the faith.

### Emperor Constantine's Sons (337-361 AD)

Constantine was not the only monarch to embrace the Christian faith; nor the first. The king of Armenia, Tiridates III (298-330), had been baptized by a monk named Gregory back in 303. At this time, Armenia remained an independent buffer-state between the two large and expanding empires, but tended towards friendship with the Romans. When Constantine made Christianity the favoured religion of the empire, Armenia’s ties with its western neighbour grew even stronger. Converting to Christianity had now gained all sorts of fraught political implications. In Persian eyes, Christians were increasingly likely to be double agents working for Rome. As soon as the news of Constantine’s death spread eastward, the Sassanid king, Shapur II (309 – 379), invaded Armenia, forcing its Christian king to run for his life towards the Roman border. Shapur installed a Persian puppet in his place, and the buffer-state was his; at least temporarily. The Roman response was not immediate, because Constantine’s sons were busy trying to kill each other.

Constantine left behind three sons and a nephew, who had all been given the title of *Caesar*, and who could all claim the right to the throne. No ancient historian records exactly what happened in the weeks after Constantine's death, but by the time the bloodshed ceased, the nephew, two uncles, six cousins, and a handful of high court officials had been murdered. Constantine's three sons - Constantine II (337–340), Constantius II (337-361), and Constans (337–350) - had come to some sort of family agreement that left them alive, and all possible competitors or naysayers dead, The only male family members who survived were two young cousins, Gallus and his younger brother Julian, who were both now orphans. Shortly after, Constantine's three sons had themselves acclaimed as *co-emperors* in Constantinople. The empire was again divided, this time into three parts; Constantine II took most of the West; Constans took Italy and North Africa; and Constantius took the entire East, which meant that he got Constantinople. Almost at once, Constantius re-invaded Armenia and put its Christian king back on his throne. For the following decade, the costly and inconclusive Roman-Persian War (337-361) took most of Constantius' time and attention. In the meantime, his 14 year-old brother Constans was showing that, despite his age, he was not to be trifled with. Almost immediately after his accession, he had to deal with a Sarmatian invasion, in which he won a resounding victory. Then in 340, his eldest brother Constantine II invaded Italy, in an attempt to seize part of his brother's realm. Constans, at that time on the Danube, immediately dispatched a detachment of his best troops to keep Constantine busy, until he could extract himself safely from his own campaign. But his presence proved unnecessary. Constantine was campaigning near Aquileia, when he was caught in an ambush and killed. Now the *empire* was again divided into two; Constans in the west and Constantius in the east. Constans began his reign in an energetic fashion. He spent 341-342 campaigning successfully against the Franks, and, in 343, he visited Britain, presumably as part of a military campaign. Beyond the standard imperial war-making, like his father, Constans was a staunch supporter of the Church. And yet, even the Christian historians, normally fulsome about any pious emperor, disliked him. In what may be a trope, ancient sources suggest that the first part of Constans' reign was moderate, but, in later years, he developed a reputation for cruelty and misrule. Dominated by favourites and openly preferring his select bodyguard, he lost the support of the army. In January 305, the Rhine legions proclaimed a new *emperor*; their general Magnus Magnentius (d. 353). Learning of the revolt and lacking any support, Constans was forced to flee for his life; he was captured near *Helena* (now Elne in southern France). Once Constans was put to death, Magnentius quickly consolidated his control of the western half of the *empire*. In order to avenge his brother's murder, Constantius appointed his cousin Gallus as his *Caesar*, to handle problems in the east. Magnentius, in his preparations for the war, stripped the Rhine frontier of its legions, and sought aid from allied Germanic tribes. Although he was able to successfully ambush Constantius' forces near Adrana in the spring, when the two sides met at the Battle of Mursa (September 351), Magnentius was defeated. The battle, one of the bloodiest in Roman history, left 55,000 casualties and proved a *Pyrrhic victory*. Magnentius fled into Italy to regroup, while Constantius chose not to pursue him, instead spending the next ten months recruiting new troops. When he did invaded Italy, Magnentius eluded him, returning to Gaul. He made a final stand at the Battle of Mons Seleucus (July 353), after which he fled to Lyon (*Lugdunum*). There, Magnentius committed suicide rather than fall into Constantius’ hands. Constantius, like his father, was ruler of the entire *empire*.

The sweetness of Constantius' victory turned sour almost immediately. The civil war had been a chaotic affair, with both side pulling legions from the northern frontier with reckless abandon. Constantius spent the next two years campaigning on the Rhine against the Alemanni. In the meantime, he received disturbing reports from the east, regarding the actions of his cousin Gallus. Ultimately, he had him executed, and appointed his younger brother Julian as *Caesar* instead. Constantius preferred to reside in Constantinople, so, in 355, put Julian in charge of affairs on the western side of the *empire*. Julian, now 23 years old, had spent his life squirrelled away in Anatolia, being carefully trained in Christianity by his tutor Mardonius. He had no military experience, but, to everyone’s surprise, he threw himself into military life wholeheartedly. Despite meagre resources, he staged a series of punitive expeditions all along the Rhine, often small detachment of lightly armed soldiers, conducting guerilla strikes deep into what is today Germany. He followed up with a bout of diplomacy, negotiating peace with various barbarian leaders. As a result, by 359, he had forced the submission of all but a handful of the Frankish and Alemanni leaders. Of course, Julian did more than act as a general during his time as *Caesar*. He sought to win over the support of the civilian population, which was necessary for his operations in Gaul. For this reason, he prevented a tax increase by one local governor, and personally took over as governor in another province. While Julian’s popularity grew, Constantius’ waned. Like his father and brother, he was a staunch supporter of the Church; unlike them, he was supportive of *Arianism*, now officially a heresy. In the same year that he appointed Julian as his *Caesar*, Constantius wielded his imperial authority to get rid of the anti-Arian bishop of Rome, and appointed a replacement of his own choosing; Felix II, who is now regarded by the Catholic Church as an *antipope*. This was a serious matter, as the bishops of Rome considered themselves the spiritual heirs of St. Peter. For some decades already, they had claimed the right to make decisions that were binding on the bishops of other cities. This privilege was far from unchallenged; the bishops of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, all cities that could boast a Christian community as old as Rome's. Nevertheless, all of the bishops were displeased with Constantius' high-handedness; to appoint and remove any bishop at will. Then in early 360, Constantius, driven by jealousy of Julian's success, ordered him to transfer half his troops to the east, ostensibly needed for his upcoming campaign against the Persians. One of the legions ordered east, stationed at Lutetia, did not want to leave Gaul, since most of the soldiers were from the region. Instead, they mutinied and proclaimed Julian as *Augustus*. According to Julian, he refused this acclamation, but the soldiers would have none of his denial. On account of the immediate Sassanid threat, Constantius was unable to directly respond to his cousin's usurpation, other than by exchanging missives in which he tried to convince Julian to resign and Julian tried to justify his action. This uneasy peace held until the summer of 361, when Constantius gathered his forces and set off west to meet Julian. However, the empire was saved from another bloody civil war, when, in October 361, Constantius died from a fever at the town of Mopsucrenae in Cilicia. To give him some credit, Constantius is said to have confirmed Julian as his rightful successor, to avoid a succession crisis.

### Emperor Julian (361-363 AD)

**Julian** (361-363) was a man of unusually complex character. Until his elevation to *Caesar* in 355, he had been squirrelled away on an imperial estate in Anatolia, effectively a prisoner of Constantius II. His only escape was books. Although brought up a Christian, Julian became enamoured with Greek literature and philosophy, and the traditional religion of old. He carried on a long correspondence with Libanius and Maximus, both famous philosophers and rhetoricians, who exposed him to the *Neo-Platonism* which would become such a prominent part of his life. “*You know well,*” Libanius had written to him, “*that if anyone extinguishes our literature, we are put on a level with the barbarians*”. To have no literature was to be a *barbarian*. As far as Julian was concerned, Christians had no literature; most work by early Christian writers was so substandard that very little has survived. After gaining the *purple*, Julian openly announced himself as a *pagan*. His baptism, he said, was a “nightmare” that he wished to forget. His attempt to revive traditional Roman polytheism caused him to be vilified in Christian tradition as *Julian the Apostate*. His aim was not to destroy Christianity but to limit its role in the social and political life of the *Roman Empire*. In February 362, he promulgated an edict proclaiming that the *empire* had to return to its original religious eclecticism, in which all the religions were equal before the law. Julian realized that the old Roman religion would need more if it was to compete with the unifying power of the Christianity. So he pursued three strategies. First, he decreed that no Christian could teach *pagan* literature; since a Roman education was required for all government officials, this would eventually drive the religion out of the ruling elite. It also meant that the Christians might become chronically uneducated, if they refused to send their children to school to be "indoctrinated" in the old Roman ways. Second, he stole the most useful elements of the Christian Church for the Roman religion. He studied the hierarchy of the Church, which had proved relatively good at holding far-flung congregations together, and reorganized the Roman priesthood in the same way. He also ordered Roman priests to model the worship on the popular Christian services, importing sermons and singing into their rituals. His third strategy was more subtle. He allowed all of the Arian and Donatist churchmen, who had been banished at various times for being on the wrong side of Nicene orthodoxy to return. He knew they were incapable of getting along; and sure enough, serious theological arguments were soon breaking out. It was the flip-side of Constantine’s methods; Julian was capitalizing on Christianity’s power to divide, not its power to unify. Ironically, at the same time that Julian was restoring the old ideas of Romanness, he was allowing *barbarian* tribes to settle within the empire. Unable to fight the ongoing Persian war in the east and invading Germans to the north, he had no choice but to allow a group of Franks to remain in northern Gaul, west of the Lower Rhine, as *foederati*; Roman allies with many benefits, in exchange for military assistance. With the threat of the Franks averted, Julian launched a Persian campaign. In 363, he marched east with 85,000 men. He also brought traditional soothsayers and Greek philosophers with him, in place of the bishops and tabernacle Constantine had planned to use. The two groups complicated the enterprise by falling out with each other; the soothsayers insisting that the omens were bad, to which the philosophers countered that such superstitions were irrational. At the Persian border, Julian divided his forces, sending 30,000 men down the Tigris, while he himself led the rest down the Euphrates. The idea was that they would perform a pincer move on Ctesiphon, the Persian capital. Shapur II, alarmed by the size of the approaching army, left the city as a precaution, so when Julian arrived he found the king gone. Undeterred, the Roman armies laid siege to Ctesiphon. As the siege dragged on and on, Shapur was gathering a large Sassanid force from the far corners of his empire. Julian was eventually forced to retreat back up the Tigris, fighting the whole way, and struggling to keep his men alive; the Persians had burned all of the food in their path. One June day, the army’s rearguard came under heavy attack near Samarra. Not even pausing to put on his armour, Julian plunged into the fray, and was struck by a Persian spear, that lodged in his lower abdomen. He was carried back to camp, where he slowly bled to death: one of only three Roman *emperors* to fall in battle against a foreign enemy. The contemporary historian Ammianus Marcellinus, who was with the army, described a beautifully classical death: Julian, resigned to his fate, carrying on a calm discussion about the “nobility of the soul” with two philosophers until he died. The Christian historian Theodoret insists that Julian died in agony, recognizing too late the power of Christ. Of these two equally unlikely accounts, the Christian version comes closest. Julian’s army was starving, wounded, and constantly harassed by the Persians. in need of leadership, the officers proclaimed one of their generals, Jovian, as the new *emperor*. Jovian, a dignified and kindly man, was a Christian. From this point on, Christian *emperors* would rule the *Roman Empire*, and Julian was relegated to one of the great "what ifs" of world history; if he had reigned as long as Constantine, he might have destroyed the Christian Church, not by persecution, but by allowing heresies and schisms to flourish. Not that Julian's death brought an end to the troubles; it simply meant that the battle between past and the present, the old Rome and the new, was over.