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L1: Roots of Byzantine Society: Constantine the Great

HIST 302 Spring 2012

Roman Chronology

509-31 BCE Roman Republic 31 BCE- 235 CE Principate (Empire) 235- 284 3rd Century Crisis 284-395 Dominate

– 324 Constantine starts Constantinople

395-610 Byzantine Revival – 610 Heraclius adopts Greek as official language

610-867 Middle Byzantine Empire 867-1204 Byzantine Commonwealth 1204-1258 Empire in Exile 1258-1453 Palaeologan Dynasty

Pluralism in the High Empire

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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

– apotheosis

– deus (god)

– divus (son makes divine)

– numen (divine power)

• practice of sacrificing to the emperors becomes part of citizen’s patriotic duty

deus

divus

numen

Crisis of the Third Century Empire fractures temporarily Numerous waves of invasions

– Quadi – Macromanni – Sarmatians – Persia – Aspirants to the Throne

Economic turmoil • piracy • debasement of coinage (inflation) • low taxation revenues

3

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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

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Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs, Saint Mark’s, Venice (porphyry)

• Military expansion • Administrative • Fiscal reform • “Restoration” of

Roman religious traditions

• Persecution of alien religions an absolutist approach

The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer, Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883)

Bust in Musei Capitolini, Rome

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

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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

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Arch of Constantine

Basilica of Constantine

Constantine finished this impressive basilica (used for legal affairs) stands at the eastern edge of the Roman Forum.

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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

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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

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Arian Schism Diagram

Arian Trinity Nicene or “Catholic” Trinity

Son

Spirit

Father

Father

Son

Spirit

homoiousia “similar essence”

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

Byzantine fresco monastery of Sumela in NE Turkey

Council of Nicaea 325 CE

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Constantine is revered as a saint, together with his mother Helena

mother Helena, who reportedly discovered the True Cross on which Christ was said to be crucified