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History and Evolution:
By William E. Steinman:
Part 35, The Constantine's:
November 24, 2003:
It is no fault of Diocletian that his reforms did not last.
Perhaps he simply put to many expectations on his associates and
his many protege. He expected them to be as superior as he was.
Of course, they were not. They did not even try to be. It turned
out that their motives were to power and nothing else. What undid
much of his work in the ensuing years was the trashing of his
plan of orderly succession. It went against the old tradition
of hereditary succession. It also excluded the army from the political
scene. Thus the plan was not acceptable to anyone who sought power.
With the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian, Galerius and Constantinus
became co-emperors with Severus and Maximinus as Caesars. While
the first tetrarchy had lasted about 20 years, the second did
not do nearly as well. For starters Constantius died in Briton
at Eboracum in 306. Immediately the armies, proclaim Constantine,
the young son of Constantius, as Augustus. They simply ignored
Diocletian's rules of succession. Not to be outdone, Maxentius,
the son of Maximian had himself proclaimed Augustus in Rome. Then
he called his father back and got rid of Severus. In fact, Severus
was executed by Maximian after he surrendered on condition of
clemency. Of course, that kind of treachery was common in the
Roman political games.
That gives us seven emperors pretending to the title of Augustus. These were Maximian, Galerius, Constantine, Maxentius, Maximinus Daia, Licinius (who had been promoted Augustus by Galerius against Constantine). There was also a pretender in Africa, one Domitius Alexander. As always in Roman politics this all shook out through a series of intrigues and murders.
In 313 there were only three left, these being Maximinus Daia, Constantine, and Licinius. Constantine and Licinius manage to attract the support of the Christians with the Edict of Milan which guaranteed religious tolerance. In 312 Constantine had attacked and defeated Maxentius. At the same time, he declared himself a Christian. Go figure! Then Licinius attacked Maximinus Daia's army and Maximinus died. Thus, there were just two leaders who were also brothers-in-law remaining. Constantine was to rule the Western Empire and Licinius was to rule in the East.
That arrangement did not last long. Constantine and Licinius continued to squabble in the normal fashion of Roman leaders. Constantine favored the Christians and Licinius preferred to persecute them. The whole thing ended in 324 when Constantine attacked and routed the army of Licinius in the East. Licinius and his son were executed and Constantine proclaimed himself emperor of the East and the West. Of course he attributed his success to his religious conversion. Right!
After proclaiming himself emperor Constantine I, or Constantine the Great as he was called, appointed his third son also named Constantine as Caesar. Thus began the second Flavian dynasty. Recall that Constantine the Great was the son of Flavius Constantinus (Chlorus) who was co emperor with Diocletian. I know, it's hard to tell the players without a scorecard. Normally Constantine the great is called Constantine I. His separate rule of the entire empire begins in 324 with the defeat of Licinius. Constantine the son later became Constantinus II.
Constantine I was the first emperor to claim Christianity as his chosen religion. Thus began the creation of a Christian culture and the evolution of the empire to a Christian state. He did get carried away with it, ascribing all of his victories and successes to the help and protection of God. He considered himself to be God's chosen agent whose task was to suppress impropriety and bring peace to the land. He had divine power on his side.
He supported the church vigorously with grants of property and money. He built churches in Rome and Constantinople and he relived clergy from many duties. Citizen conversion to Christianity was another matter. In the Eastern Empire, where the people embraced it, it went rapidly. No doubt this was in part due to Constantine's support of the religion. Politically conversion was a good move. However, in the west and in the army it was still a minority religion. Even so, after years of persecution, the Christian church was being favored and Constantine began to persecute the so called pagan churches. The shoe was on the other foot.
The church was suffering growing pains of its own with schisms and heresies of one sort or another. Even the concept of the trinity was in question. Constantine was unable to do much to resolve those though he did make attempts. He was not really well versed in the intricacies of theological nitpicking. It did not help that he vacillated on some issues.
In spite of his mucking around with religious leaders and their theological arguments he managed to continue with some of the reforms of Diocletian. He kept the military our of politics by separated the military careers from civil careers. He also increased the size of the bureaucracy, a move which may have been of questionable merit. He was able to stabilize the financial condition of the state by plundering pagan temples and increasing taxes on several groups.
Probably, his most significant act was the establishment of his new Roman capital at Constantinople in 324 when he took power. It became the administrative center of the empire. He created a new senate and proconsul for this New Rome with a resultant increase in bureaucracy. One of the later unplanned fallouts of this separation of the capital from Italy was the final schism between the church at Rome and the church at Constantinople.
Unlike many of his predecessors, Constantine was not assassinated. He simply died of illness in May of 337. He was buried at his Church of the Apostles in Constantinople. After a bit of a struggle, he was succeeded by his three sons. These were Constantine II, Constans, and Constantinus. About the names, who knows? This gets even more confusing because Constantinus was also called Constantine II giving us two rulers with the same name. You really need a scorecard. There was a fourth son Crispus who had been previously executed for some reason. Perhaps his name did not fit the image.
These guys were real beauts. First they divided the empire up between themselves. Constantine II reigned in the West, Constantinus took the East and Constans took the middle which consisted of Italy, Africa, and Illyricum. Their first act of power was to have all the remaining members of their immediate families killed excepting a couple of very young children. That took care of any immediate competition for the purple.
The sharing did not last long. In 340 Constantine II moved against his younger brother Constans but got himself killed instead. The other two brothers managed to get along a bit better for ten years. In 350 Constans was killed in some kind of revolt by a fellow named Magnentius. He had Africa, Gaul, and Italy to support him. With that, Constantinus got a bit angry. He took after Magnentius and finally bested him in the battle of Mursa. It was a costly victory with the slaughter tolling more that 50,000 men on both sides. Magnentius pulled his own cork two years later committing suicide.
Following the battle of Mursa, the new Constantine II ruled
unopposed until 361. Then there probably would have been a civil
war because Constantine's cousin Julian got himself proclaimed
Augustus. Constantine had previously made Julian a Caesar and
set him up in Gaul. The war did not happen because Constantine
II died in 361. That left Julian in charge.
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