The Late Roman Empire. Barbarians. The struggle .

The Problem: The Roman state was in a crisis. Instability at the top, a punitive tax system, urban decline, barbarians at the gate. Diocletian (A.D. 284-305) and Constantine (306-337) restored peace and provided for some stability. The cost however was high and cities of the west never recovered their earlier prosperity or autonomy [note the rise of compulsory services and of regimentatin, RC §§ 115-8]. Their reigns represent an important attempt to regulate the life of a state through imperial edict and with totalitarian thoroughness.

1. Some general comments. During the Crisis of the 3rd Century...:
   1. The imperial title a dubious acquisition
   2. Traditional methods and old forms no longer worked. Old privileges swept away. End of cultural pluralism; unity the basis of patriotism.
   3. All resources devoted to survival of the empire in the face of internal and external threats. Militarization of all orders including the governing
   4. In the midst of such stress, the ancient Roman tradition was passionately asserted, but the contradiction between ideology and reality was also never greater. Nostalgia about the past.
2. Diocletian's system RC §§119-122 Note the implications of his long reign; it is not always easy to distinguish the reforms of Diocletian from those of Constantine. His palace model ; courtyard
   1. The Tetrarchy. a system of two senior and two junior emperors, creating for the first time institutional succession; rationalizing the need to have an emperor at each of the many pressure points of the empire. RC120
   2. Paradoxically, given the lack of stability, the imperial dignity raised to a new level. The use of elaborate rituals and ceremonies, the sacred (e.g. praepositus sacri cubiculi), halo/nimbus, radiant crown, oversize statues, e.g., Constantine. Emperor chosen by the gods, not by humans. Dominus et deus. The imperial court. RC119
   3. The army: comitatus (mobile/cavalry field armies stationed in the interior, ready to go wherever the emperor sent them) and limitani (low grade infantry; the old border troops, stationed permanently along the frontier).
   4. Formal separation of civil and military administration; diocese and vicarii; increase in provinces. As in the Principate, each province was made up of a number of cities, each administered by a council of leading citizens (curia, boule). Note RC 121 on increasing bureaucratic costs.
   5. Economic policy:
      1. Currency reform: the solidus
      2. capitatio/iugatio as a taxation scheme; assessing labor to produce a unit of goods. Taxation in kind (RC122)
      3. Controls: prices, wages, labor. RC §123; RC §128-130
3. Constantine:
   1. Events. On death of father (306) C. hastens to his army and is proclaimed emperor. Breakdown of tetrarchy
      1. In 311 attacks and defeats Maxentius at Milvian Bridge ChiRho
      2. Edict of Milan in 313: full toleration of Christianity and all religious; restoration of confiscated property.
      3. Conversion?? Sol Invictus
      4. Licinius ruled East until 324 when defeated. Constantine now supreme in empire.
      5. Byzantium/Constantinople, and its walls
      6. Uses sons to rule (he had enough)
   2. Christian heresy and unity
      1. The Donatists; Arius and heresy? Why were the parties so obdurate and violent on such a metaphysical issue?
      2. Council of Nicaea (325-7).
      3. Construction of churches; though pagan worship tolerated, he despoiled cults of wealth (for currency reform).
      4. Establishment of Christmas and Easter; of Sunday worship; prohibited gladiatorial.
      5. Constantine as agent of God.
4. Women and sexuality: Some observations on their status RC §91ff.
   1. There can be no doubt about the fact that the basic perception of women was that they were intellectually inferior, nonetheless, women of the elite, those with the advantages of education, were able to achieve considerable legal control over their lives.
   2. Roman literary and epigraphical evidence is consistent and emphatic that there were many genuinely successful marriages.
   3. Other less obvious methods of control: age difference at marriage, cultural values about work and childcare, status of woman before marriage.
   4. How to account for the secondary status of women?
   5. Sexuality: certainly more open. Priapus; act; act2