Prelude: The Roman World Transformed (c.300-
c.600)
At the beginning of the third century, the Roman Empire included Italy, North Africa coast, Spain,
England, Wales, France, Belgium, the Balkans (Greece..), Turkey, Syria, Modern Lebanon, Israel and
Egypt. All the regions except Italy were known as provinces.
The Provincialization of the Empire (c.250 - c.350)
The Roman Empire was too large to be ruled by one man in one place, except in peacetime; this
became clear during the crisis of the third century:
- External cause: two different groups from two different directions attacked the frontier of the
Empire
- The Roman government responded to those attacked with some reform1:
- Expand the army (new crack mobile troops, reinforcing standing army..).
- There weren’t enough recruits: they had to come from Germany or elsewhere
(Land in return for military service).
- The city of Rome was too far from any of the fields of war to serve as military
headquarters, that’s why Milan, Trier, Sardica, Nicomedia, Constantinople and, later
on, Ravenna were turned into new capital → the wealth and labour of the Empire
moved toward the provinces.
- Internal cause: political succession crisis that saw more than twenty men claim the title of
emperor2 between 235 and 284.
- For administrative purpose, Diocletian divided the Empire into four parts (later reduced
to two) each of them governed by an emperor.
- The war over imperial succession ended with the establishment of Constantine’s
dynasty.
- End: Diocletian brought the crisis under control and Constantine brought it to an end.
A New Religion
The empire of Constantine was meant to be the Roman empire restored, yet it couldn’t differ more
from the old Roman Empire: it marks the end of the classical era and the beginning of the Late
Antiquity, a period transformed by the culture and the religion of the provinces.
- The Jews of Palestine gave birth to new religious groups, one coalesced around Jesus →
Christianity
3
- At first Romans elite were indifferent to Christianity: they had never insisted that the
provincials give up their beliefs → they added official Roman gods into local
pantheons4.
- Christianity attracts men and women who had never been given the chance to feel
truly Roman: the new religion was confident, hopeful and universal → they were
welcomed as equal in small assemblies where God was the same, no matter what
religion they followed before.
1
That brought new importance to the provinces.
2
Most of them were military men, chose to rule by their troops.
3
Devoted to the gods that serve them so well over the years
4
Paganism was thus at one and the same time personal, familial, local and imperial
, - The Romans persecuted Christians because they didn’t want to worship any other God.
The Jews also refused to honour the Roman gods, but the Roman could usually
(barely) tolerate their practice as part of their particular cultural identity. Christians,
however, claimed their God not only for themselves but for all.
Major official government persecutions of Christians began in 250s, with the third-
century crisis.
- Despite their tiny number (10% of the population), they were well organised: they
gathered into ‛churches‛5 and formed a two-tiered institution:
6
- At the bottom, there were the people
7 8
- Above were the clergy, that was supervised by a regional bishop who was
assisted by ‚presbyters‛, deacons and lesser servitors. Some bishop
(Alexandria, Antioch, Carthage, Jerusalem and Rome) were more important
than others.
- In 313, in the Edict of Milan, Emperors Licinius and Constantine9 declared toleration for all the
religions in the Empire ‚so that whatever divinity is enthroned in heaven maybe gracious and
favourable to us‛.
- Constantine favoured Christianity:
- Making sure that property was restored to churches that had been stripped during the
persecutions.
- Giving special privileges to priests.
- The ancient Greek city of Byzantium became a new Christian city (with his name →
Constantinople).
- He called and presided over the first ecumenical (universal) church council, the Council
of Nicaea, in 325 → some of the Canon law and doctrine of the Christian church were
hammered out.
- In a series of laws starting in 380 with the Edict of Thessalonica, Emperor Theodosius I
declared that the form of Christianity determined by the Council of Nicaea applied to all
Romans → Christianity was now the official religion of the Roman Empire.
As Paganism gave way to Christianity, disagreements within Christianity came to the
foreground. Christians fought amongst themselves over Doctrine issues and the location of
the holy.
Doctrine
For both Saint Athanasius (295-373) and Priest Arius (250-336, after which the Arians were named)
God was triune, that is, three persons in one: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Their debate was about the nature of these persons:
- Arians viewed the Father as pure Godhead, while the Son (Christ) was created → Christ was
therefore not purely human, nor purely divine, but mediating in between.
- To Athanasius and the assembled bishops at Nicaea, this was Heresy: they viewed Christ as
being of the same substance as the Father.
Arius was condemned and banished, but his doctrine managed to persist.
5
From the Greek world ekklesia= assemply
6
‚Laity‛ from Greek laikos = of the people
7
From Greek kleros = lot, or inheritance
8
From Greek episkopos = overseer
9
He was the chief force behind the Edict: it was emitted just after his triumphant battle at the Milvian Bridge against his rival
emperor Maxentius in 312, a victory that he attributed to the God of the Christians.
,Arianism was only the tip of the iceberg: the period between 350-450 may be described as the ‘era of
competing doctrines’.
Saint Augustine (354-430) bishop of Hippo was the most influential Western churchman of
his day. Doctrinal debates were carried out everywhere but Augustine wrote most of the
definitive answers to these disputes in the City of God → he defined two cities: the first one,
the ‚City of Man‛, was imperfect, while the second one, the ‚City of God‛, was perfect. However the
institution of society in the first one - churches, schools, government - make possible the attainment
of the second one.
The Source of God’s Grace
Supposedly God had said to Peter: ‚Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And
whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt
loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.‛
It had been interpreted in various fashions (the popes of Rome, who took it to mean that, as the
successors of Saint Peter, the first Bishop of Rome, they held the keys), but all Christians viewed it as
confirming that the all-important powers of binding (imposing penance on) and loosing (forgiving)
sinners were in the hands of Christ’s earthly heirs.
During the Mass, the central liturgy of the earthly church, the bread and wine became the
flesh and blood of Christ, called the ‚Eucharist‛. Through the Mass the faithful were joined to one
another, to the souls of the dead and Christ himself.
There were certain people believed to be so beloved by God, so infused with his grace, that
they were models of virtue and powerful wonder-workers:
- The Saints → in the early church these were mainly martyrs who died for their faith; but, after
the prosecutions of Christians ended, so did martyrdom: in the 4th and 5th century the new
saints had to find ways to become martyrs whilst alive (climbing pillars and standing there for
decades, entering tombs to battle with demons…). These men and women became compelling
role models → after their death their power was thought to live on in their remains, that
became relics and were highly sought by the clergy and the laypeople alike.
Art from the Provinces to the Centre
In the third century: artistic traditions came from the periphery to transform the centre:
- Classical Roman art was characterized by light and shadow, a sense of atmosphere and a
feeling of movement, even in the midst of calm; figures suggesting volume and real weight on
the ground, they interacted, touching one another or talking.
Roman artist used to capture everyday life as well as myths scene.
- Roman sculptors, like painters, were interested in movement and three-dimensionality.
They showed figures turning and interacting with one another, and they created space
by playing on the optical illusion of ‚perspective‛ where some elements seem to
recede while others come to the front.
- Even in the classical period other artistic values and conventions existed in the Roman Empire
- in the provinces
- These provincial styles had been pushed down for years by the juggernaut of Roman
political and cultural hegemony.
- In the third-century regional traditions re-emerged: as provincial military med became
the new heroes and emperors, artistic tastes changed as well.
, The Barbarians
Like a married couple in a bitter divorce, Romans and Goths10 had once wooed one another, they then
became dependent and eventually, they fell into betrayal and strife.
- The Romans called all these people ‚barbarians‛, but they distinguish the one beyond the
Rhine as ‚Germani‛.
- Historians today differentiate these people linguistically: ‚German people‛ are those who
spoke Germanic languages; these people were accustomed to a settled existence:
archaeologists have found evidence in northern Europe, near Wijster, of some of their hamlets
(large wooden houses, partitioned so that they could be shared by humans and animals)
- Some were craftsmen: carpenters who built the houses, ironworkers who made the
tools, cobber who made the shoe…; some were craftswomen: spinners and weavers
who used the spindle whorls and loom-weights.
- Very few were rich, those were the ones with access to roman products. Even the rich
at Wijster weren’t very powerful: it is very likely that here, as elsewhere in the Germanic
world, kings leading military forced lorded over the community, commanding labour
services and a percentage of its agricultural production.
- All along the Empire’s border, Germanic traders bartered with Roman provincials, but
barbarians and Romans had numerous ethnic differences: food, language, clothing, hairstyle,
behaviours…
Germanic ethnicities were often in change as tribe came together and broke apart:
- Goths: their ‛ethnogenesis‛ made them not one people but many.
Taking advantage, and soon becoming part of the 3rd-century crisis, the Black Sea Goths
invaded and plundered the nearby provinces of the Roman Empire: at first, the Romans paid them to
buy peace, but soon they stopped and preferred confrontation. After many years of bitter fighting,
the raids stopped, but the Goths soon re-emerged as two separate groups:
- Ostrogoths, from north of the Black Sea.
- Visigoths, today Romania.
By the mid-330s the Visigoths were allies of the Empire, fighting in their armies, and by the
end of the 4th century many Roman Army units were made up of whole tribes (Goths or
Franks) fighting as ‘federates’ for the Roman Government. Under the pressure of the Huns, a nomadic
people from the ‚steppeland‛ of west-central Asia, this arrangement fell apart:
- 376 the Huns invade the Black Sea region, driving the Visigoths and other refugees away from
their settlements → the Visigoths petitioned Emperor Valens (r.364-378) to be allowed into
the empire, he agreed:
- Up to 200,000 settled within the empire, leading to a humanitarian crisis and
resentment among the Romans.
- Famine set in, and the food was sold to the Visigoths at exorbitant prices.
- 378, the Visigoths rebel against the Romans, killing Emperor Valens in the battle of
Adrianople.
- Several arrangements were tried: the Romans needed Soldiers, and the Visigoth's food and a
place to settle, but the rewards were considered insufficient by the Visigoths and under Alaric,
they sacked Rome in 410
- The Visigoths marched on to take Southern Gaul and by 484 they had most of Spain
as well.
10
Visigothic, Franks and Burgudian as well.
