Lyceum & Book Club - Week 12 - Lecture Notes on the Roman Empire & Emperors

The apex of the Roman Empire was 117 AD. The western half of the Roman Empire collapse started in 395AD and was finalized in 476AD.

Constantine ruled from 306 - 337AD.

That is our brackets.

As you can see from the dates, the issues that precipitated the dismantling of the Roman Empire were already in play by the time Constantine came on the scene.

So, let us start with this video of the Roman Empire’s rise and slide and then look at the political competition within the Roman Empire between who (and their family line after them) would be the rulers.

Barbarians Rising: Rise and Fall of an Empire - History- 4:30 min

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ITVUBXVyR8

The late second century was one of constant political turmoil in the Roman Empire with families competing for power, complete with assassinations that at one point produced five different emperors within one calendar year, leading into the Crisis of the Third Century. Reminder that 117AD is given as the date of Rome at the height of her territorial expansion and power. And yet, her foundations were already cracking by the same elements that enabled her to rise and expand.

From 235 on, rivals for the imperial throne bid for support by either favoring Christians or persecuting them. We even see the same leaders switch back and forth from pushing policies that court Christian favor or policies that court established pagan favor, depending upon which way the political pendulum and their careers were swinging at any particular time period in their reign.No where is this more evident in the struggles between competing emperors/ junior emperors than from Diocletian to Constantine the Great. Especially in the person of Galerius. But even he came to realize that the energy and rising power dynamic was with Christianity. Rome had tied her fate too closely to the ancient gods and the gods had failed them (or the leaders had failed and so the power source they claimed gave them power must have also failed). A younger God (and his favored sector) was emerging to displace/ replace the power the previous established figures, and their anointing gods, held. A new god would now anoint a new power center just as the old had previously.

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Let’s look at each of the figures who occupied, legitimately or otherwise, the position of Emperor in this cycle.

From wiki:

Though the Empire had seen periods with more than one emperor ruling jointly before, the view that it was impossible for a single emperor to govern the entire Empire was institutionalized to reforms to Roman law by emperor Diocletian following the disastrous civil wars and disintegrations of the Crisis of the Third Century.

He introduced the system of the tetrarchy in 286, with two senior emperors titled Augustus, one in the East and one in the West, each with an appointed Caesar (junior emperor and designated successor).

Though the tetrarchic system would collapse in a matter of years, the East–West administrative division would endure in one form or another over the coming centuries.

Roman Emperors:

Diocletian - 242 - 311 (east, 284 - 305; divided the empire into east and west)

Diocletian was Roman emperor from 284 to 305. Born to a family of low status in Dalmatia, originally named Diocles, Diocletian rose through the ranks of the military to become a cavalry commander of the Emperor Carus's army.

Under his system of Tetrarchy, He was the senior Emperor Augustus and Maximian was co-emperor (in the lesser power position) with Galerius as Caesar under Diocletian and Constantius as Caesar under Maximian.

Diocletian’s daughter was married to Galerius.

Note, even after he abdicated, Diocletian still advised Galerius.

Maximian - 250 - 310 (west, 286 - 305)

Was a fellow soldier with Diocletian and was made co-emperor of the east by Diocletian in 285.

Maximian, nicknamed Herculius, was Roman emperor from 286 to 305. He was Caesar from 285 to 286, then Augustus from 286 to 305. He shared the latter title with his co-emperor and superior, Diocletian, whose political brain complemented Maximian's military brawn.

Maximian spent most of his time on campaign.

Maximian enjoyed the privileges that came with being Emperor. After completing his campaign in 298, Maximian decided to leave the military work to his Caesar, Constantinus, and just enjoy being emperor. It was not his idea to retire in 305, but Diocletian still held enough senior power that Maximian reluctantly went along with it, thinking his son, Maxentius, would be given a pathway to succeed Galerius. Instead, Galerius made his nephew, Maxminus Daza, his successor as Caesar.

He grew increasingly sour on the choice he had made.

A year later in 306, when Constantinus died and Severus was elevated to Augustus in the west and Constantine to Caesar, Maximian’s son, Maxentius, rebelled.

Maximian supported his son against the new regime. When his son decided he needed the weight of his father as co-emperor (in title, but in reality, Maximian would be at a lower rank and power), Maximian accepted.

Once Constantine had what he wanted and had been raised to Caesar in the west, he stayed out of the conflict between Maxentius and Galerius, leaving it to Galerius to deal with Maxentius and Maxminus. He spent the year of 307 traveling on campaign in Britain or sending his troops on campaign along the Rhine where Germanic tribes had made in roads, while he toured his lands making sure to support the arts, supporting the economy and generally glad handing in another kind of campaign. Anywhere but near Italy. And the people on those lands were grateful to him for not dragging them into a war that would devastate their lands, livelihoods and lives.

In late 307 while Maxentius was defending his position in Rome against first Severus, the new Emperor in the West, and then against troops Galerius sent, Maximian went to Gaul to negotiate with Constantine and get him on their side against Galerius and Maxminus Daza. It was at this time, that as part of their deal, Constantine put aside his first wife or she may have just been someone he was involved with casually ( or she may have died by this time), with whom he had his eldest son, Crispus and married Maximian’s youngest daughter, Fausta and Maxminus declared Constantine as Augustus, along with himself and his son. In return Constantine would support Maxentius’ cause in Italy “politically”, but would remain neutral in Maxentius’ war with Galerius.

Maximian returned to Rome, but at some point, during that winter of 307/308, he and Maxentius fell out. When Maximian made an open bid for sole emperorship to the troops, expecting his old regiment to fall in with him, they sided with his son and Maximian was forced to leave Italy in disgrace. Maximian still styled himself as Augustus, but more like an emperor looking for a throne.

The next winter in 308/309, Galerius asked Diocletian to come out of retirement and throw his weight behind Galerius, who was getting nowhere. Galerius, Diocletian and Maximian met and Maximian was forced to abdicate as emperor - again. It was decided that Constantine would retain the title Caesar in the west (in effect, he was demoted since Maximian’s decision was now cancelled), Maximinus Daza would remained Caesar in the East and Licinius, a longtime military comrade to Galerius would be Augustus of the West. And Maxentius was still cut out of any position.

No royal court would accept Maximian now that he was in disgrace, except for Constantine in Gaul. So that is where he went, early in 309. Constantine now refused to go back to being just a Caesar in waiting as such a move weakened any future position as emperor, so in early 310, Constantine was again pronounced Augustus and there were now four people with the title Augustus.

That year, Constantine went on a campaign against the Franks, while Maximian was sent to defend against attacks by Maxentius in southern Gaul.

When Maximian got there, he announced that Constantine was dead and he was now the emperor. But none of Constantine’s army would accept the bribes he offered and remained loyal to Constantine. Maximian was forced to leave.

As soon as Constantine received word of what Maximian did, he left the campaign against the Franks and confronted Maximian, stripping him, once again of his title of Augustus. Constantine suggested to Maximian he take the honorable way out by way of suicide, which Maximian did by hanging himself.

Constantine put out several stories to explain the circumstance of Maximian’s suicide, always with an eye to how any scenario would aid in his agenda. First he said, the suicide was just a family tragedy, then he put out the story that even though Constantine had pardoned Maximian, he was plotting to have Constantine assassinated, but Constantine’s wife, Fausta (Maximian’s daughter) told Constantine of the plot and he was able to thwart Maximian’s objective and Maximian killed himself when confronted.

It appears this new narrative was in response to Maxentius’ campaign framing his father as a loyal partner to himself who was unjustly murdered by Constantine; vowing to seek revenge on his father’s behalf.

Were either of these latest versions by either camp true and did it matter if it accomplished what the opposing leaders wanted in public opinion?

At any rate, Constantine had all inscriptions mentioning Maximian destroyed and eliminating his image on any public works, essentially erasing his existence.

After he defeated Maxentius, Constantine then started a campaign to rehabilitate the image of Maximian. After all, this was the grandfather to three of his sons. You would prefer to have the story be that the future emperors came from good stock on both sides of the family to double your legitimacy and credentials. He had Maximian’s wife swear that her son, Maxentius, was not fathered by Maximian. That cut the bad apple out of the family blood line and Constantine reversed his previous order and Mazimian was defied as a god (which is what emperors were elevated to after death), along with Constantinus and Claudius Gothicus, who Constantine now declared all three were his forbears.

From wiki:

The death of Maximian required a shift in Constantine's public image. He could no longer rely on his connection to the elder Emperor Maximian, and needed a new source of legitimacy.

In a speech delivered in Gaul on 25 July AD 310, the anonymous orator reveals a previously unknown dynastic connection to Claudius II, a 3rd-century emperor famed for defeating the Goths and restoring order to the empire. Breaking away from tetrarchic models, the speech emphasizes Constantine's ancestral prerogative to rule, rather than principles of imperial equality. The new ideology expressed in the speech made Galerius and Maximian irrelevant to Constantine's right to rule.

Indeed, the orator emphasizes ancestry to the exclusion of all other factors: "No chance agreement of men, nor some unexpected consequence of favor, made you emperor," the orator declares to Constantine.

The oration also moves away from the religious ideology of the Tetrarchy, with its focus on twin dynasties of Jupiter and Hercules. Instead, the orator proclaims that Constantine experienced a divine vision of Apollo and Victory granting him laurel wreaths of health and a long reign.

In the likeness of Apollo, Constantine recognized himself as the saving figure to whom would be granted "rule of the whole world", as the poet Virgil had once foretold. The oration's religious shift is paralleled by a similar shift in Constantine's coinage. In his early reign, the coinage of Constantine advertised Mars as his patron. From AD 310 on, Mars was replaced by Sol Invictus, a god conventionally identified with Apollo.

There is little reason to believe that either the dynastic connection or the divine vision are anything other than fiction, but their proclamation strengthened Constantine's claims to legitimacy and increased his popularity among the citizens of Gaul.

From The Arch of Constantine:Inspired by the Divine:

In the context of the time Constantine’s “conversion” is not altogether surprising. In moving to destroy the Tetrachic system and patiently waiting for his opportunity to seize sole control of the empire, Constantine had demonstrated a singular drive and vision that valued pragmatism and expediency over compromise.

The Christian community in Rome by this time constituted no more or less than a state within a state, with Christians being overtly prominent in public affairs, as senators and military and political officials, and in the social and economic life of the city.

This pattern is repeated across the empire, though in varying degrees of intensity. What better way for Constantine to distance himself from Diocletian and the Tetrarchy , than by embracing or at least co-opting that faith into the structure of the governance of the Roman Empire.

Galerius - 250 - 311 (east,305 - 311)

Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus was Roman emperor from 305 to 311.

Christians had lived pleasantly during most of the rule of Diocletian. The persecutions that began with an edict of February 24, 303, were credited by Christians to Galerius' work, as he was a fierce advocate of the old ways and old gods. Christian houses of assembly were destroyed, for fear of sedition in secret gatherings.

Diocletian was not anti-Christian during the first part of his reign, and historians have claimed that Galerius decided to prod him into persecuting them by secretly burning the Imperial Palace and blaming it on Christian saboteurs. Regardless of who was at fault for the fire, Diocletian's rage was aroused and he began one of the last and greatest Christian persecutions in the history of the Roman Empire.

It was at the insistence of Galerius that the last edicts of persecution against the Christians were published, beginning on February 24, 303, and this policy of repression was maintained by him until the appearance of the general edict of toleration, issued from Nicomedia in April 311, apparently during his last bout of illness (said from intestinal cancer)

Galerius's last request was that Christians should pray for him as he suffered with a painful and fatal illness; he died six days later.

Initially one of the leading figures in the persecutions, Galerius later admitted that the policy of trying to eradicate Christianity had failed, saying: "wherefore, for this our indulgence, they ought to pray to their God for our safety, for that of the republic, and for their own, that the republic may continue uninjured on every side, and that they may be able to live securely in their homes." This marked the end of official persecution of Christians. Christianity was officially legalized in the Roman Empire two years later in 313 by Constantine and Licinius in the Edict of Milan.

It was Galerius’ machinations that caused much of the turmoil during this time period.

Constantinus I - 250 - 306 (west, 305 - 306)

Flavius Valerius Constantius "Chlorus", also called Constantius I, was a Roman emperor as one of the four original members of the "Tetrarchy" established by Diocletian in 293. He was a junior-ranking emperor, or Caesar, from 293 to 305, and senior emperor, Augustus, from 305 to 306.

Of humble origin, Constantius had a distinguished military career and rose to the top ranks of the army.

By 288 Constantius had been made Praetorian Prefect in the west under Maximian. Throughout 287 and into 288, Constantius, under the command of Maximian, was involved in a war against the Alamanni, carrying out attacks on the territory of the barbarian tribes across the Rhine and Danube rivers.

To consolidate the ties between himself and Emperor Maximian, around 289, Constantius divorced his concubine Helena (Constantine the Great’s mother)and married Emperor Maximian's daughter, Theodora, and in 293 was added to the imperial college by Maximian's colleague, Diocletian.

By 293, Diocletian, conscious of the ambitions of his co-emperor for his new son-in-law, allowed Maximian to promote Constantius in a new power sharing arrangement known as the Tetrarchy. The eastern and western provinces would each be ruled by an Augustus, supported by a Caesar. Both Caesars had the right of succession once the ruling Augustus died.

Between 303 and 305, Galerius began maneuvering to ensure that he would be in a position to take power from Constantius after the death of Diocletian.

In 304, Maximian met with Galerius, probably to discuss the succession issue and Constantius either was not invited or could not make it due to the situation on the Rhine. Although prior to 303 there appeared to be tacit agreement among the Tetrarchs that Constantius's son Constantine and Maximian's son Maxentius were to be promoted to the rank of Caesar once Diocletian and Maximian had resigned the purple, by the end of 304 Galerius had convinced Diocletian (who in turn convinced Maximian) to appoint Galerius's nominees Severus and Maximinus as Caesars.

When the Diocletianic Persecution was announced in 303, Constantius ordered the demolition of churches but did not actively hunt down Christians in his domain.

As he was dying, Constantius recommended his son to the army as his successor; consequently Constantine was declared emperor by the legions at York.

This act contributed to the collapse of the Diocletianic tetrarchy, sparking a series of civil wars which only ended when Constantine finally united the whole Roman Empire under his rule in 324.

Severus - ? - 307 (west, 306-307)

He rose to become a senior officer in the Roman army, and as an old friend of Galerius, that emperor nominated Severus as Caesar of the Western Roman Empire.

According to Lactantius, Diocletian objected to Galerius's suggestion, saying in response, "What! That dancer, that habitual drunkard who turns night into day and day into night?" Galerius persisted, saying that Severus has served faithfully as paymaster and purveyor of the army. Diocletian acquiesced and Severus succeeded to the post of Caesar on 1 May 305.

He thus served as junior emperor to Constantius I (Constantius Chlorus), Augustus of the western half of empire.

On the death of Constantius I in Britain in the summer of 306, Severus was promoted to Augustus by Galerius. This was done as a reaction to the acclamation of Constantine I (Constantius' son) by his own soldiers at York as Augustus.

Lactantius reports that Galerius had done this to promote the older man to the higher office, while bestowing upon Constantine I the rank of Caesar.

When Maxentius, the son of the retired emperor Maximian, revolted at Rome, Galerius sent Severus to suppress the rebellion. Severus moved towards Rome from his capital, Mediolanum, at the head of an army previously commanded by Maximian.

Fearing the arrival of Severus, Maxentius offered Maximian the co-rule of the empire. Maximian accepted, and when Severus arrived under the walls of Rome and besieged it, his men deserted to Maximian, their old commander.

Severus fled to Ravenna, an impregnable position. Maximian offered to spare his life and treat him humanely if he surrendered peaceably, which he did in March or April 307. Despite Maximian's assurance, Severus was nonetheless displayed as a captive and later imprisoned at Tres Tabernae.

One belief is that when Galerius himself invaded Italy to suppress Maxentius and Maximian, the former ordered Severus's death, and that he was executed on September 307.

Maxentius - 283 - 312 (west, 306 - 312)

Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius was a Roman emperor, who reigned from 306 until his death in 312. Despite ruling in Italy and North Africa, and having the recognition of the Senate in Rome, he was not recognized as a legitimate emperor by his fellow emperors.

Constantine I - 272 - 337 (west, 306 - 337; reunited the empire)

Constantine I, also known as Constantine the Great or just Constantine, was Roman emperor reigning from 306 to 337. Born in Naissus, Dacia Mediterranea, he was the son of Flavius Constantius.

His mother, Helena, was Greek and of low birth. He remained close to his mother his entire life.

He maintained a policy of tolerance for all religions in his territory, most probably done purposefully to draw a sharp contrast between himself and Galerius. In the end, Galerius was probably the one emperor (aside from Diocletian who had retire in 305 due to ill health) who could match Constantine in political and military ability, up until Galerius’ last bout with colon cancer.

Constantine emerged victorious in the civil wars against emperors Maxentius and Licinius to become the sole ruler of the Roman Empire by 324.

Galerius Valerius Maxminus, aka Maxminus Daza or just Daza - 270 - 313 (east, 310 - 313)

In 305, his maternal uncle Galerius became the eastern Augustus and adopted Maximinus, raising him to the rank of caesar (that is, the junior eastern Emperor), and granting him the government of Syria and Egypt.

On the death of Galerius in 311, Maximinus divided the Eastern Empire between Licinius and himself.

When Licinius and Constantine began to make common cause, Maximinus Daza entered into a secret alliance with the usurper Caesar Maxentius, who controlled Italy.

He came to an open rupture with Licinius in 313; he summoned an army of 70,000 men but sustained a crushing defeat by Licinius. He fled, first to Nicomedia and afterwards to Tarsus, where he died the following August.

A committed pagan, he engaged in one of the last persecutions of Christians, before issuing an edict of tolerance near his death.

Licinius - 265 - 325 (east, 308 - 324)

Licinius accompanied his close childhood friend, the future emperor Galerius, on the Persian expedition in 298. He was trusted enough by Galerius that in 307 he was sent as an envoy to Maxentius in Italy to attempt to reach some agreement about the latter's illegitimate political position. Galerius then trusted the eastern provinces to Licinius when he went to deal with Maxentius personally after the death of Severus.

Upon his return to the east Galerius elevated Licinius to the rank of Augustus in the West on 11 November 308, and under his immediate command were the Balkan provinces of Illyricum, Thrace and Pannonia.

Licinius entered into an agreement with Maximinus Daza to share the eastern provinces between them. By this point, not only was Licinius the official Augustus of the west but he also possessed part of the eastern provinces as well, as the Hellespont and the Bosporus became the dividing line, with Licinius taking the European provinces and Maximinus Daza taking the Asian.

An alliance between Maximinus Daza and Maxentius forced the two remaining emperors to enter into a formal agreement with each other. So in March 313 Licinius married Flavia Julia Constantia, half-sister of Constantine I, at Mediolanum (now Milan); they had a son, Licinius the Younger, in 315.

Their marriage was the occasion for the jointly-issued "Edict of Milan" that reissued Galerius' previous edict allowing Christianity (and any religion one might choose) to be professed in the Empire, with additional dispositions that restored confiscated properties to Christian congregations and exempted Christian clergy from municipal civic duties.

After defeating Daza in 313, Licinius had put to death Flavius Severianus, the son of the emperor Severus, as well as Candidianus, the son of Galerius. He also ordered the execution of the wife and daughter of the Emperor Diocletian, who had fled from the court of Licinius before being discovered at Thessalonica.

Given that Constantine had already crushed his rival Maxentius in 312, the two men decided to divide the Roman world between them. As a result of this settlement, the Tetrarchy was replaced by a system of two emperors, called Augusti: Licinius became Augustus of the East, while his brother-in-law, Constantine, became Augustus of the West.

In 314, a civil war erupted between Licinius and Constantine, in which Constantine used the pretext that Licinius was harbouring Senecio, whom Constantine accused of plotting to overthrow him. Although the situation was temporarily settled, with both men sharing the consulship in 315, it was but a lull in the storm.

The next year a new war erupted, when Licinius named Valerius Valens co-emperor, only for Licinius to suffer a humiliating defeat on the plains in the Battle of Mardia in Thrace. The emperors were reconciled after these two battles and Licinius had his co-emperor Valens killed.

Over the next ten years, the two imperial colleagues maintained an uneasy truce, but temperatures rose again in 321 when Constantine pursued some Sarmatians, who had been ravaging some territory in his realm, across the Danube into what was technically Licinius's territory.

When he repeated this with another invasion, this time by the Goths who were pillaging Thrace under their leader Rausimod, Licinius complained that Constantine had broken the treaty between them.

Constantine wasted no time going on the offensive.

In 324, Constantine again declared war against Licinius. Due to the intervention of Flavia Julia Constantia, Constantine's sister and also Licinius' wife, Licinius was initially spared.

After his defeat, Licinius attempted to regain power with Gothic support, but his plans were exposed, and he was sentenced to death. While attempting to flee to the Goths, Licinius was apprehended at Thessalonica. Constantine had him hanged, accusing him of conspiring to raise troops among the barbarians.

As part of Constantine's attempts to decrease Licinius's popularity, he actively portrayed his brother-in-law as a pagan supporter. This may not have been the case; contemporary evidence tends to suggest that he was at least a committed supporter of Christians at one point. He co-authored the Edict of Milan which ended the Great Persecution, and re-affirmed the rights of Christians in his half of the empire. He also added the Christian symbol to his armies, and attempted to regulate the affairs of the Church hierarchy just as Constantine and his successors were to do. His wife was a devout Christian (Constantine’s step-sister). It is even a possibility that he converted.

It has been theorized that he originally supported Christians along with Constantine, but later in his life turned against them and to paganism.

Finally, on Licinius's death, his memory was branded with infamy; his statues were thrown down; and by edict, all his laws and judicial proceedings during his reign were abolished.