1/25/2012
L1: Roots of Byzantine Society: Constantine the Great
HIST 302
Spring 2012
Roman Chronology
509-31 BCE
31 BCE- 235 CE
235- 284
284-395
– 324
Roman Republic
Principate (Empire)
3rd Century Crisis
Dominate
Constantine starts Constantinople
395-610
Byzantine Revival
– 610
Heraclius adopts Greek as official language
610-867
867-1204
1204-1258
1258-1453
Middle Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Commonwealth
Empire in Exile
Palaeologan Dynasty
Pluralism in the High Empire
1
1/25/2012
3 primary means to gain
cooperation of gods
1) prayer
2) divination
3) sacrifice
haruspex
Pax Deorum: Central to the
smooth functioning of the State
Imperial Cult
• Upon death Emperors were worshipped as
gods
deus
– apotheosis
– deus (god)
– divus (son makes divine)
– numen (divine power)
divus
numen
• practice of sacrificing to the emperors
becomes part of citizen’s patriotic duty
Crisis of the Third Century
Empire fractures temporarily
Numerous waves of invasions
–
–
–
–
–
Quadi
Macromanni
Sarmatians
Persia
Aspirants to the Throne
3
Economic turmoil
• piracy
• debasement of coinage (inflation)
• low taxation revenues
2
1/25/2012
Germanic Invasion of the mid-3rd century
Emperor Diocletian
r. 284-305 CE
• Improves Military Authority
– successful on the battlefield
• Improves Economy
– stabilized exchange rate
– firms up coinage
– Edict of Maximum Prices
• Improves Political Authority
– Tetrarchy
• Great Persecutions
3
1/25/2012
•
•
•
•
Military expansion
Administrative
Fiscal reform
“Restoration” of
Roman religious
traditions
• Persecution of
alien religions
an absolutist approach
Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs, Saint Mark’s, Venice (porphyry)
The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer, Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883)
Flavius Valerius
Constantinus
• born 27 Feb 272 in
the Moesian military
city of Naissus
(modern-day Niš,
Serbia), Illyricum
• Son of Constantius I
Caesar of Brittania
and Gaul
• On death of his
father, he inherits
military command
Bust in Musei Capitolini, Rome
4
1/25/2012
Battle of the
Milvian Bridge
(312 CE)
Constantine
defeats Maxentius
Described by
church historian
Eusebius of
Caesarea
Pieter Lastman, Schlacht bei der Milvischen Brücke, 1613.
Municipal Art Collection, Augsburg, Germany
Chi-Rho
5
1/25/2012
Basilica of Constantine
Arch of Constantine
Constantine finished this impressive basilica (used for legal affairs)
stands at the eastern edge of the Roman Forum.
6
1/25/2012
Basilica of Maxentius
finished by Constantine
Constantine Reunites the Empire
Religious Reform
313 Edict of Milan
• officially marks end of persecution
• restoration of Church properties
325 Council of Nicaea
Political and Economic Reform
324-330
Relocates Capital to Byzantium
• mints the gold solidus
Military Reform
• Uses Tetrarchy prefectures for military command
• Creates magister peditum and magister equitum
7
1/25/2012
Religious Reform along Christian Lines
• Constantine sought to
regularize Christianity
– uses Bishops to assist
with administration
– called a “ecumenical”
council in 325
• Council of Nicaea
– Nicene Creed
– condemns Arianism
Constantine burning Arian books,
illustration from a compendium of
canon law, ca. 825
Arianism
idea rooted in Neoplatonism
• God the Father is of pure Substance
– (pre-Creation)
• Jesus the Son, who is mutable (being
represented in the Gospels as subject to
growth and change) is of a different substance
• The Son, therefore, must be deemed a
separate (inferior) creature
– called into existence and has had a beginning
8
1/25/2012
Arian Schism Diagram
Arian Trinity
Nicene or “Catholic” Trinity
Father
Father
Son
Son
Spirit
homoiousia
“similar essence”
Spirit
homoousia
“identical essence”
Missionaries outside of Rome
• Ulfilas (311-383)
– Missionary of Gothic lands
– Preached Arian Christianity
– Receptive by the Ostrogoths
– Gothic Bible only written
record of Early Germanic
Council of Nicaea 325 CE
Byzantine fresco monastery of Sumela in NE Turkey
9
1/25/2012
mother Helena, who reportedly
discovered the True Cross on which
Christ was said to be crucified
Constantine is revered as a saint, together with his mother Helena
10