Download WEEK 1

ANTH 489
Romans, Arabs and Vikings.
Seafaring in the Mediterranean during the Early Christian Era.
Class 4: The Mediterranean Sea. Late Antiquity and the East-West
split: from Diocletian to Theodosius (284-395 AD).
The term Byzantine Empire was introduced in western Europe in 1557, inspired from the city
of Byzantium by a German historian named Hieronymus Wolf.
Migrations AD 200 – AD 400
After AD 250, with the invasion of Greece by the Goths, a series of migrations from the East
started pressing the Roman Empire.
The Goths:
TIMELINE
284-305: Diocletian (286-305: Maximian)
305-306: Galerius and Constantius Chlorus (augustus), and Severus and Maximinus
(caesars);
306-313: Turmoil; Constantine I succeeds his father (Constancius Chlorus),
313-324: Constantine I and Licinius
312: Constantine I converts to Christianity
324-337: Constantine I
325: Council of Nicea
330: Constantine declares Constantinople capital of the Christian Empire
Diocletian (AD 284-305)
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In AD 286 Diocletian divided the empire, ruling in the East (AD 286-305). The West
was ruled by Maximian (AD 286-305).
The first phase (sometimes referred to as the Diarchy, 'the rule of two') involved the
designation of the general Maximian as co-emperor - firstly as 'Caesar' (junior
emperor) in 285, followed by his promotion to 'Augustus' in 286.
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Diocletian took care of matters in the Eastern regions of the Empire while Maximian
similarly took charge of the Western regions.
In 293, feeling more focus was needed on both civic and military problems,
Diocletian (with Maximian's consent) expanded the imperial college by appointing
two Caesares (one responsible to each Augustus) - Galerius and Constantius Chlorus.
The two Caesares were intended as the future successors to the two Augusti, which
should be abdicated after 20-years term of rule. The first Tetrarchy was therefore
created.
Each half of the empire was divided into Prefectures (two), these were divided into
Dioceses, and these into Provinces.
Military affairs were ruled at the prefecture and diocese levels. Military chiefs were
the Dux, who had jurisdiction over the army in one or several provinces.
Map of the Roman Empire ca. 395, showing the dioceses and praetorian prefectures of Gaul,
Italy, Illyricum and Oriens (east), roughly analogous to the four Tetrarchs' zones of influence
after Diocletian's reforms.
Constantine I (AD 311-337)
 Following a short period of turmoil – Constantine I (AD 272-337) re-united the
empire, transferred the capital to Byzantium (AD 324), which he renamed
Constantinople.
 Edict of Milan in 313, which fully legalized Christianity in the Empire.
 Council of Nicaea in 325.
 Although the Tetrarchic system only lasted until c. 313 many of its aspects survived.
The four-fold regional division of the empire continued in the form of Praetorian
prefectures, each of which was overseen by a praetorian prefect and subdivided into
administrative dioceses.
Byzantine Empire
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Crisis in the 3rd century determined the emergence of a new social order.
Population decline lead to lack of labor in the fields, a decline in commerce, and a
decay in city life.
Followed an economic crisis, which put stress on the administrative structure.
The loss of power of the public administration brought stress in the social structure:
the first effect was the destruction of both the urban middle class and the small owners
in the country.
Commerce decayed and the Mediterranean Sea became dangerous, threatened by
piracy and the destruction of the extensive trust-based merchant network that fueled
commerce during the Roman empire.
The result was a series of political and social upheavals.
The dissolution of the imperial power was accompanied by a growth of the great
estates.
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Compounded with the rise of a centralized religious bureaucracy (from AD 394
onwards), the rise of a local landed aristocracy brought the end of the Roman social
order.
Followed a period known as the Middle Ages. The emperor was no longer the first of
a system of magistrates but an absolute ruler in control of a centralized bureaucracy.
Christianity provided spiritual unity and moral support of absolutism throughout the
empire.
But the Church never stopped to grow as a bureaucratic entity and never stopped
corroding the power of the emperor.
The emperor’s power eroded during the following centuries, until the rise of the
modern state, in the 15th century, the princes eventually lost the two most important
state monopolies: justice and taxation (Feudalism: the lord of this castle ruled
unchallenged over his territory. Even if he swore allegiance to his king)
TIMELINE
337-361: Constantius II (son of Constantine)
361-363: Julian (son of a half brother of Constantine)
363-364: Jovian (soldier)
364: Valentinian (son of Jovian, chose to rule the West leaving the Eastern Empire to his
brother Valens)
364-378: Valens (brother of Valentinian, killed by the Visigoths at Adripole)
378-379: Gratian
379-395 – Theodosius I
Although claiming to rule over the Roman empire, Byzantines had to cope with a series of
new states, which emerged from the collapsing empire.
Byzantines never looked upon these new states as equals. There was a complex hierarchy
within a new order, best described as a Christian ecumenical jurisdiction.
In AD 364 emperor Valentinian (AD 364-375) divided the empire between himself (West)
and his brother, the Eastern Emperor Valens (AD 364-378).
The Western Empire entered a period of decadence, and in AD 410 the Visigoths sacked
Rome.
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After several invasions (by the Vandals, Ostrogoths, and Huns) Romulus Augustulus, the last
Roman emperor in the West, was deposed in AD 476.
TIMELINE
378-395: Theodosius I the Great
395-408: Arcadius
408-450: Theodosius II (son of Arcadius)
450: Pulcheria (sister of Theodosius II)
450-457: Marcian (soldier; married Pulcheria after Theodosius's death)
In the East emperor Theodosius I (378-395) had made Christianity the official religion of the
empire in AD 394, and outlawed all the other religions.
Theodosius I (AD 378-395)
During his reign the Goths were granted the right to settle large amounts of land along the
Danube frontier in the diocese of Thrace and enjoyed an unusual degree of autonomy.
The East remained relatively quiet under Theodosius. The Saracens rejected their previous
treaty of AD 377 with the Romans and resumed their raids once more along the frontier from
Arabia to Syria (around AD 383).
The Persians maintained good relations with the Romans. Armenia remained a potential
source of conflict between the two powers until they reached agreement upon the division of
this country in 387.
In AD 529 emperor Justinian (AD 483-565) will forbid the teaching of Classical philosophy,
replaced by Christian theology.
A new social structure and a new economic structure evolved in the Eastern Roman Empire
and brought a new political and administrative system, which came to be known as the
Byzantine Empire.
The Byzantine Empire is a time of heavy trials and tribulations.
With the decline of the city-based ‘middle class’ people turned to religion, the majority saw
an increasing tying to the soil, and the cosmopolitan Roman attitude was replaced by
religious dogma.
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Dogma and centralized power created the conditions for the rise of a religious class whose
power grew steadily throughout the next millennium.
The emperor’s power slowly eroded, as the religious bureaucracy consolidated its own.
But the early Byzantine period is characterized by the al-embracing power of an emperor
chosen by God, who is the highest military commander, the supreme judge, the only
legislator and the defender of the Church and Orthodoxy.
During this early period there is still a residual power in the senate, in the city populations
(organized in demes, urban militias were charged with the defense of the walls), and in the
military hierarchy.
A powerful court developed around the emperor, borrowing oriental elements into its
complex protocol.
The Byzantine state had a powerful administrative machine, with a well-trained and highly
differentiated civil service, an excellent legal system, and a superb military machine.
Its economy stood on a highly developed financial system and its golden coinage was the
main stay of its economy.
Inheriting the best of the Greek and Roman cultures, the Byzantines’ world nevertheless
different.
Ostrogorsky wrote about them that: “a predilection for compilation denoted a real
intellectual aridity, (…) imitation skimmed over the meaning and content of the subject matter,
and empty conventional rhetoric often missed the original beauty of form.”
Next class we will take a look at their ships!!
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