Later Roman Empire
[1] The rise of Christianity, legalized by Constantine the Great in 313 CE, profoundly changed the religious landscape, becoming a central force in Roman life.
Only three church historians' works survived from the 6th century: Zacharias Rhetor, John of Ephesus and Evagrius Scholasticus focus on theological debates.
Although collective ovations for dignitaries were still regularly commemorated in public places, in this period they were made mainly in honor of imperial officials instead of local leaders as it had been common in the previous centuries.
Cassius' words obviously reflect the Roman senators' aversion to the Severan emperors, because other written sources and archaeological evidence indicate that the empire recovered during their reign between 193 and 235.
[27] In 212, Emperor Caracalla granted full Roman citizenship to his all free subjects except for the dediticii, that is aliens who had been forced into submission or admitted to the empire.
[38] Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, after whom the plague is named, attributed the calamities to the "old age of the world", but the pagans blamed the Christians' reluctance to worship the ancient gods.
Located at the intersection of overland routes connecting the empire's eastern and western part, these provinces were a principal venue of military operations and recruitment.
[44] He recognized that he could not rule the vast empire alone and made his former comrade-in-arms the Pannonian Maximian his co-ruler, first, in 285, as Caesar (or junior emperor), a year later, as Augustus.
New border fortresses were built along the Danube and a selective settlement program was introduced, allowing some Carpians to move from their north-Danubian homeland to Pannonia and Moesia.
In September 337, the three brothers assumed the title of Augustus and divided the empire at a meeting in Pannonia: Constantine received the western, Constans the central and Constantius the eastern regions.
[60] Constantius persuaded the Armenian king Arshak II to accept Roman protection, but he mainly refrained from offensive actions against Persia.
[65] Julian's successor, a Christian military commander Jovian abandoned Roman territories in Mesopotamia and acknowledged Persian protectorate over Armenia in return for a thirty-year peace.
[67] Unable to resist attacks by the nomadic Huns from the east, masses of Goths—reportedly 100,000 men, women and children—gathered at the Lower Danube and sought asylum from Valens in the summer of 376.
Two years later Western Armenia was incorporated into the Roman Empire, but Theodosius appointed local Armenian aristocrats to rule the new provinces as hereditary governors.
[78] Likely the Eastern Romans' hostility to the Goths persuaded Alaric to search a new homeland in northern Italy, but Stilicho routed him at Pollentia on Easter Day 402.
[97][98] In response to a persecution of Persian Christians, Theodosius declared war on Persia, but a Hunnic invasion of the Balkans forced him to renew the peace with the Sassanian Empire.
[102][103] To counterbalance Aetius' power, Galla Placidia recalled Bonifatius from Africa and made him the supreme commander of the Western Roman army.
They were mainly staying along the borders and their absence from Rome gave rise to the development of new imperial centers, including Nicomedia, Serdica, Thessalonica and Trier, each provided with a palace, a hippodrome and warehouses.
The head of the large Diocese of the East bore the title of Comes Orientis, while the provinces Africa and Asia remained under the rule of proconsuls who reported directly to the emperors.
They paid taxes and raised troops in return for protection against the "howling people" surrounding the Roman Empire, but the emperors were not always able to meet their expectations.
Civil wars could ruin the defense system, talented barbarian chieftains could launch successful invasions deep into the empire, and catastrophic events could cause mass migrations towards the borderlands.
[124] A late source with access to official records, John the Lydian asserts that during Diocletian's reign 389,704 troops served in the field army and 45,562 sailors in the navy.
Examples include his ban on sacred prostitution and the demolition of pagan altars and sculptures near the Oak of Mamre where God had appeared to Abraham according to Biblical tradition.
After his death, the city's pagan prefect Quintus Aurelius Symmachus could not persuade Valentinian II to allow the restoration of the Altar of Victory in the Senate House.
[154] Lactantius blames the haruspices—pagan priests practicing divination—for arousing Diocletian's anger against the Christians, and Galerius and his fanatically pagan mother for convincing him to take drastic measures.
The anti-Christian edits were not carried out consistently: in the west, Maximian and Constantius were mainly reluctant to implement them, and Constantine put an end to the purge in 306; in the east, Christians were imprisoned, tortured or executed, and the persecution lasted until Maximinus' fall in 312.
[172][173] Julian allowed the bishops who had been exiled during Constantius II's reign to return to their original position, allegedly because he wanted to create instability in the Christian church.
Empress Justina was unable to convince the powerful bishop of Milan, Ambrose, to make available a church to the Gothic guards of his son, Valentinian II in the early 380s.
After imperial troops massacred 7,000 townspeople in Thessaloniki in retaliation for the murder of the Arian German commander of their garrison, Ambrose forced Theodosius to do public penance.
Ascetics of aristocratic background could cede their own houses and estates to monastic communities, like Melania the Younger who convinced her husband Valerius Pinianus to establish a monastery in the Holy Land.
