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History and Evolution:
By William E. Steinman:
Part 36, Finale:
December 1,2003:
In all of this rule of the descendants of Constantine I the empire was under constant attack from the Persians in the East and barbarians everywhere. Large parts of the empire were lost or abandon. There was a great deal of attention to religious matters and some neglect of secular affairs. In addition, the generals were not up to the task of securing the borders. With Julian the religious focus took an unexpected twist.
Julian who was spared the family massacre because of his age had been raised to be a priest. Somehow, that didn't work out. By the time he became emperor he had been converted to a mixed paganism. He restored some of the pagan temples and to mess up the church, he freed a bunch of heretic bishops that Constantine had imprisoned. He also began to purge the army and government of Christians. He created a pagan religious hierarchy and named himself as chief pontiff. The Christians had a different take. They named him the Antichrist.
Julian's rule only lasted 18 months. He wanted to restore some of the empire and for that he needed to wage war against Persia. Although he had some initial success, his army was not up to the task. He was forced to retreat and was finally killed in a battle in June of 363. That was the end of the second Flavian dynasty.
Upon Julina's death, the army selected the Christian Jovian to be emperor. His first act was to negotiate a peace with Persia. To do that he had to surrender a lot of territory. A short while later in February of 364 he died in an accident. Following the death of Jovian, the army elected another Christian Valentinian to the post of Augustus but they insisted that the empire be divided between East and West. Valentinian took the West and assigned the East to his brother Valens. At this point the empire finally became two separate empires. It was truly the beginning of end for the Roman Empire.
Valentinian was an able leader with a sound foreign policy, but he was also capable of extreme cruelty. He found excellent generals in Jovinus and Theodisius the Elder and they acted to protect Britain from the Saxons, Picts, and Scots. In Gaul and Pannonia the defense was against the Germanic barbarian tribes. Valentiniam proclaimed tolerance to bring religious peace to the West, but he was not so generous with other citizens. Beginning in 369 he terrorized the Senate of Rome. He died of a stroke in 375 while defending Pannonia. he was succeeded by Gratian,
Being somewhat inept, Valens was not as successful with the East. Persecutions caused considerable religious unrest. In addition he allowed barbarian Goths to enter Thrace. They were not treated well by the local population so they began to rampage and plunder. When they began to threaten Constantinople Valens took the field to engage them. That foray ended in 378 in what is called the Adrianople disaster. The Roman infantry was completely destroyed by the Goth cavalry. About 40,000 Roman soldiers were lost and Valens was also killed. Gratian arrived too late to be of help. At that time he appointed Theodosius I as emperor of the East. Theodosius was forced to make peace with the Goths. Thereafter the Goths agreed to help defend the empire in exchange for subsidies. Gratian made the same kind of accommodation with the Salian Franks in Germany. Can you see it starting to unravel?
This compromise with the Goths and Franks with its resultant loss of homogeny was the harbinger of final decline of Rome. Although Theodosius has some military successes they were only possible through the heavy use of Goth troops instead or Roman regulars. Gratian had his own problems in the West. He had to spend most of his time in Gaul repelling barbarian tribes. In 383 he moved to engage the usurper Magnus Maximus who had been proclaimed emperor in Britain. However, his troops deserted him and he was murdered as a result.
Gratian did make some significant concession to the Christian church. Under the influence of the Bishop of Milan, St. Ambrose, he dropped the name pontifex maximus ("supreme priest") from his title. He also had the pagan statue of Victory removed from the Senate in Rome. He also took subsidies and privileges away from the pagan priests. Some angry senators tried, but could not convince him to change his mind. The Roman Pope at this time was Damasus I. He was active in suppressing what were called heresies. He also gave vigorous support to Ambrose.
Both Theodosius and Gratian were very involved in religious affairs. Much was happening with the church at this time. There was an ongoing schism between the Arians who were considered heretics and the Nicaeans who were considered to be orthodox. Both of these emperors supported orthodoxy and the Arians got the short stick. They were hounded and persecuted along with the pagans. At this time, the Eastern church and the Western church became separate entities, never to reunite.
In 383, the usurper Maximus went against Theodosius and was killed for his effort. Theodosius then ruled both the East and the West. He sent his son Arcadius to rule in the East as co-emperor. The pagans continued to struggle to recoup their status and caused some problems for Theodosius with insurrections. He finally had enough and in 394 he defeated them in Eastern Italy for good.
In 395 Theodosius died unexpectedly and the empire began to come unglued. The East and the West became estranged and the West began it's final decline. After some invasions, struggles, and intrigues the separation of the two empires became permanent in 408. The Goths and other barbarians could no longer be stopped. In 410, Rome itself was sacked and that was the end of the once mighty Roman Empire. The empire broke up. It was divided amongst the various invading tribes and the dark ages descended.
The Eastern empire continued for another thousand years, but
it could hardly qualify as a Roman empire. In fact, it became
know as the Byzantine Empire. At any rate, after the separation,
the Eastern empire does not figure into this study of history
and evolution. In no way do I say the study of the Byzantine empire
is not fascinating and important. It is simply outside the scope
of this study. Their contributions to Western civilization and
the evolution of democracy were nil.
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