Download Constantine I

Shane Mason
The Byzantine Empire (Working Title)
Constantine the Great; Emperor of Rome, bows his head in prayer during high
mass in the Church of St. Eirene located in the ancient city of Byzantium. Up until now
Byzantium has been a small, but prosperous town on the shores of the Bosphorus the inlet
of which separates Europe from Asia. The sermon ends, and the Emperor stands in his
new capital, renamed Constantinople in his honor; the date is May 11, 330 A.D. The
Empire Constantine the Great created, the Byzantine Empire, would last for just over
1000 years; it survived these troubled years of barbarian invasions and Islamic conquest
through improvisation, determination, and organization, all the while shaping Middle
Age Europe, even in its fall, it passed on its Greco-Roman heritage, in the form of
refugees and their books, to Italy and sparked the Renaissance.
In 293, Diocletian split the Empire into four parts; keeping the east for himself,
he split the remaining three regions between the senior generals of the land; one of them
was Constantine the Great’s father, Constantius, but his mother on the other hand was an
innkeeper’s daughter (Norwich 3-4). Constantine was raised in his father’s footsteps; as
soon as he was of sufficient age, he was campaigning with his father (Constantine the
Great, C.274-337). It was on one such Campaign into Britannia that Constantius fell sick
near what is now York ("Constantius Chlorus." The Roman Empire.). With his fathers
death, he expected to be recognized as Augustus, signifying the senior royal rank his
father held, but Galerius (the other Augustus) only recognized him as Caesar; a junior co-
emperor, but Constantine was content with that for now (Constantine the Great, C.274337). When Diocletian died, his divided Empire faltered without a strong leading role, the
original four co-emperors grew to six, and imperial jealousy and ambition grew with it
(Constantine the Great, C.274-337). Things came to a head when Maxentius threatened
Constantine’s part of the empire, modern day France, Constantine’s response was to take
the offensive; he assembled his army and marched on Rome and the armies met at
Milvian Bridge (Constantine the Great, C.274-337). The Battle of Milvian Bridge was a
turning point in European History, if Constantine would have lost, it is unlikely than any
later Roman Emperor would have changed the state religion to Christianity or would
have founded a stable eastern Empire that would last till the 15th century. Regardless of
what ifs, Constantine won the battle and the Western Roman Empire (Norwich 6).
According to legend, during or shortly before the battle Constantine saw a divine vision;
a cross appeared in the sky bearing the inscription Hoc Vince, conquer by this; he went
on to win the battle and afterwards converted to Christianity (Constantine the Great,
C.274-337). By the year A.D. 313, the Empire was back in the hands of two men,
Constantine in the west and Licinius in the east ("Emperor Licinius." The Roman
Empire.). Both were ambitious military men, conflict was inevitable, after two wars and
a series of inconclusive battles, the two armies met again in 324 A.D. Licinius was
captured and put to death (Norwich 8). As one of Constantine’s first acts as emperor was
to move the capital to Byzantium; a moderately sized city on the shore of the Bosporus,
In 330 A.D. he held a huge consecration ceremony at Byzantium with Pagans and
Christians alike, the city was dedicated to the Holy Virgin the date was May, 11, 330
A.D. a Monday. (Norwich 13). For the next seven years, Constantine’s reign was
unremarkable; he spent most of his time renovating Constantinople until he died in 337
A.D. from an unknown illness ("The Collapse of the Roman Empire." The Roman
Empire.). With his death, the Empire went to his three sons; Constantine, Constantius,
and Constance (Norwich 20). After a series of civil wars, all three sons of Constantine
the Great were dead, and Constantius’ cousin Julian was sole ruler of the Empire ("The
Collapse of the Roman Empire." The Roman Empire.). Initially named Caesar by the
Constantius after he had claimed his brothers land, Julian had rebelled and began
marching on Constantinople only to have Constantius fall sick and die (Norwich 21).
Julian was a quiet scholar type; he was educated at Athens, the premier school in the
Empire and spent eight years wandering from philosophical school to school in Greece
("The Collapse of the Roman Empire." The Roman Empire.). His military record is quite
impressive, but on a civil level, he was less successful; During his travels in Greece,
Julian had converted back to the old gods, and he now legislated in their favor (Norwich
25). Julian inherited from Constantius a war with Persia, it was in the retreat from this
eastern war when Julian was struck and killed by a javelin ("The Collapse of the Roman
Empire." The Roman Empire.). Immediately after Julian’s death, the captain of the
imperial guard, a man named Jovian, was proclaimed emperor (Norwich 29). Jovian
made two official administrative acts during his reign, the first effectively ceded Armenia
to Persia for peace, and the second was to restore the rights that Julian had denied to the
Christians. ("The Collapse of the Roman Empire." The Roman Empire.). Jovian died in
his bedroom in Dadastana, modern Turkey, days after the retreat ended; he ruled for less
than a year ("The Collapse of the Roman Empire." The Roman Empire.). A barely literate
son of a rope maker was proclaimed Emperor in Jovian’s wake; Valentinian made his
younger brother Valens co-Augustus and announced that he would rule the east while
Valentinian himself would rule the west (Norwich 30). Valentinian ruled harshly and
decisively, he maintained the imperial frontiers vigorously, but his anger (which was
legendary) would be the death of him, literarily (Norwich 30). A tribe called the Quadi
attacked some land on the roman frontier; they then sent a messenger to Valentinian
explaining that the Romans provoked the attack, when Valentinian received the embassy
“the anger welled up within him as he listened, his face turning a deeper and deeper
purple until he suddenly fell forward and died from a fit of apoplexy [a stroke] and died”
(Norwich 30). Valentinian’s death left three ruler’s of Rome, Valentinian’s two sons and
half brothers, Gratian who was 16, Valentinian who was 4, and Valens who shared his
brother’s rage but none of his other good qualities, this imperial band was woefully under
qualified for the events to come ("The Collapse of the Roman Empire." The Roman
Empire.). Barbarian immigration would be central to Roman policy making for the next
century and a half. Valens may have been able to gain valuable allies against the Hunnic
horde but the Goths, a nomadic tribe from the central steppe, who hade asked to settle in
Thrace for safety from the Huns were confiscated of their valuables and placed in refugee
camps with no food; in response they turned to looting eventually killing Valens and
most of his army at the Battle of Adrianople 378 A.D. ("The Collapse of the Roman
Empire." The Roman Empire.). Gratian in the west elevated Theodosius, the son of a
successful general, to the rank of Co-Augustus and sent him to the east where by 380 A.D
he had succeeded in peacefully settling the Goths in Thrace. (Norwich 31). Just as the
Goth issue was being resolved in the east, Gratian faced a rebellion in the west headed by
Maximus, military governor of Britain ("The Collapse of the Roman Empire." The
Roman Empire.). The two armies met out side Paris, and after five days of light
skirmishing, Gratian’s army betrayed him and he was captured ("Roman Emperors DIR
Magnus Maximus." RomanEmperors - DIR--). Maximus’ rule proved to be a short one,
as soon as Theodosius was capable, he marched west where Maximus was defeated,
captured, and killed while Valentinian II was put back on the throne. ("The Collapse of
the Roman Empire." The Roman Empire.). After Theodosius’ death, his son Arcadius
took control of the East and his other son Honorius inherited the West ("The Collapse of
the Roman Empire." The Roman Empire.). Theodosius also appointed a general named
Stilicho as the guardian of this new empire; he was virtually the regent of the western
Empire while the eastern remained a sense of autonomy ("The Collapse of the Roman
Empire." The Roman Empire.). It is fortunate for both empires that he came about when
he did, for the next 13 years he was the only thing between the growing barbarian horde
and the Roman Empire ("The Collapse of the Roman Empire." The Roman Empire.).
Stilicho’s campaigns against the Visigoth king Alaric displayed great military talent, but
after Stilicho had secured peace with the Goth king, he was executed on Arcadius’ orders
in 408 because he was expected of conspiring with Alaric ("The Collapse of the Roman
Empire." The Roman Empire.). Rome was sacked by the Visigoths just two years later,
this was the end of a united western Roman Empire, other Romans would continue to rule
in the west as comparatively petty rulers growing more and more like the people they
ruled. ("The Collapse of the Roman Empire." The Roman Empire.). Valentinian III was
one such petty “Emperor” of Italy, but much like Honorius he was but a figurehead, the
man that truly ran Italy was Flavius Aetius, a some time hostage of the Visigoths and
Huns (Flavius Aetius (Roman General) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia.). After many
years of defending what remained of the western empire, culminating with a victory over
Attila at the Battle of the Cataulaunian Plains, he suffered the same fate as Stilicho,
betrayed and killed by the Emperor, outlasting his Arch-enemy Attila by just a year
(Flavius Aetius (Roman General) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia.). 73 years later, a
reinvigorated Byzantine Empire under Justinian I endeavored to regain former Roman
territory (Norwich 66). It was a strange set of circumstances that allowed such a reconquest to be possible, the normal plethora of barbarian ethnicities hell-bent on
destroying the empire seemed to be engaged with their own affairs, and Justinian found
in a young Thracian general named Belisarius a loyal, competent subordinate that could
be trusted with independent command (Norwich 66). When the king of the North Africa
was deposed by a distant cousin, Gelimer, Justinian sent a letter inquiring about the state
of affairs, to which Gelimer replied, “Nothing was more desirable than that a monarch
should mind his own business.” Justinian had the first target of his re-conquest, the
Vandals, a Germanic nomad people had ruled North Africa since being invited over by an
imperial traitor, whom was promptly betrayed and fled to Italy. ("History of the
Vandals." The Roman Empire.). Belisarius set off with 5,000 cavalry and 10,000 infantry
sources indicate that a large amount, possibly half, were of barbarian extraction and that
most of these were Hunnic, he made landfall south of Carthage in 533 (Norwich 67).
Gelimer had planned a grand three-part maneuver, but one section of his army attacked
before the planned time, Belisarius seized the moment and defeated the Vandal army
piece-by-piece, Gelimer escaped himself, but realizing the futility of his struggle
surrendered the same year. ("History of the Vandals." The Roman Empire.). After a short
celebration in Rome, Belisarius was ordered to move on to Sicily where most of the
island, discontented with the Gothic usurper Theodahad, threw open their gates, Italy
would not be so easy (68 Norwich). When Belisarius first landed in Italy with an army
consisting of 7,500 men, Theodahad and his 50,000 strong Goth army were content with
remaining in Rome ("The Collapse of the Roman Empire." The Roman Empire.).
Belisarius met no resistance until he reached the city of Naples; the garrison lasted for
three weeks, and then followed the traditional hours of pillage and murder (Norwich 69).
Theodahad was promptly murdered for his complacency and the Goths under their new
king Witiges, instead of marching south to smash Belisarius’ force underfoot as any good
general would, head north to deal with a Frankish incursion into Italy (History of
Constantinople." The Roman Empire.). Belisarius meanwhile sprung upon Rome and
captured the eternal city. (History of Constantinople." The Roman Empire.). The
recapture of Rome was the height of the reinvigorated Byzantine Empires power, war
with the Persians started up on the eastern frontier and for the remaining years of his life
Belisarius was sent from eastern to western front with an ever-smaller force. (History of
Constantinople." The Roman Empire). Justinian became reluctant to give Belisarius
independent command, fearing a military coup, and instead allowed mediocre generals to
maintain his empire (History of Constantinople." The Roman Empire). Justinian’s reign
impacted the dark age world in many ways, while his (or more accurately Belisarius’)
military accomplishments would not last, the money from the conquests funded many a
building project in Constantinople, he gave permission to a group of monks to go east and
bring back silkworm eggs and the skill to open a silk factory (Norwich 84). He simplified
the old Roman laws into the very influential Justinian Code, which would be taught as far
away as medieval Bologna, powerfully influencing European legal science ("History of
Europe :: The Transformation of Thought and Learning -- Britannica Online
Encyclopedia.")
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