The Beginnings of Rome

There can be little doubt that on the whole these reforms pro longed the existence of the empire, by creating a machinery which enabled the stronger emperors to utilize effectively all its available resources, and which even to some extent made good the deficien 'The seats of government for Diocletian and his three colleagues were Nicomedia, Mediolanum, Augusta Trevirorum, and Sirmium.

cies of weaker rulers. But in many points they failed to attain their object. Diocletian's division of the imperial authority among colleagues, subject to the general control of the senior Augustus, was effectually discredited by the 20 years of almost constant conflict which followed his own abdication (305-323). Constantine's partition of the empire among his three sons was not more successful in ensuring tranquillity, and in the final divi sion of the East and West between Valens and Valentinian (364) the essential principle of Diocletian's scheme, the maintenance of a single central authority, was abandoned. The "tyrants," the curse of the 3rd century, were far from unknown in the 4th. The system, moreover, while it failed altogether to remove some of the existing evils, aggravated others. The already overbur dened financial resources of the empire were strained still further by the increased expenditure necessitated by the substitution of four imperial courts for one, and by the multiplication in every direction of paid officials. The gigantic bureaucracy of the 4th century proved, in spite of its undoubted services, an intolerable weight upon the energies of the empire.

The Division of the Empire.

Diocletian and Maximian for mally abdicated their high office in 305. Nineteen years later Constantine I. the Great, the sole survivor of six rival emperors, united the whole empire under his own rule. His reign of 14 years was marked by two events of first-rate importance—the rec ognition of Christianity as the religion of the empire and the building of the new capital at Byzantium. The alliance which Constantine inaugurated between the Christian Church and the imperial Government, while it enlisted on the side of the State one of the most powerful of the new forces with which it had to reckon, imposed a check, which was in time to become a powerful one, on the imperial authority. The establishment of the new "City of Constantine" as a second Rome paved the way for the final separation of East and West by providing the former for the first time with a suitable seat of government on the Bosporus. The death of Constantine in 337 was followed, as the abdication of Diocletian had been, by the outbreak of quarrels among rival Caesars. Of the three sons of Constantine who in 337 divided the empire between them, Constantine the eldest fell in civil war against his brother Constans ; Constans himself was, ten years afterwards, defeated and slain by Magnentius; and the latter in his turn was in 353 vanquished by Constantine's only surviving son Constantius. Thus for the second time the whole empire was united under the rule of a member of the house of Constantine. But in 355 Constantius granted the title of Caesar to his cousin Julian and placed him in charge of Gaul, where the momentary elevation of a tyrant, Silvanus, and still more the inroads of Franks and Alamanni, had excited alarm. But Julian's successes during the next five years were such as to arouse the jealous fears of Constantius. In order to weaken his suspected rival the legions

under Julian in Gaul were suddenly ordered to march eastward against the Persians (36o). They refused ; and when the order was repeated, replied by proclaiming Julian himself emperor and Augustus. Julian, with probably sincere reluctance, accepted the position, but the death of Constantius in 361 saved the empire from the threatened civil war. Julian's attempted restoration of pagan and in especial of Hellenic worships had no more per manent effect than the war which he courageously waged against the multitudinous abuses which had grown up in the luxurious court of Constantius. But his vigorous administration in Gaul un doubtedly checked the barbarian advance across the Rhine, and postponed the loss of the western provinces; on the contrary, his campaign in Persia, brilliantly successful at first, ended in his own death (363), and his successor, Jovian, immediately sur rendered the territories beyond the Tigris won by Diocletian 70 years before. Jovian died on Feb. 17, 364; and on Feb. 26, Val entinian was acknowledged as emperor of the army at Nicaea. In obedience to the wish of the soldiers that he should associate a colleague with himself, he conferred the title of Augustus upon his brother Valens, and the division of the empire was at last effected—Valentinian became emperor of the West, Valens of the East. Valentinian maintained the integrity of the empire until his death (in 375), which deprived the weaker Valens of a trusted counsellor and ally, and was followed by a serious crisis on the Danube. In 376 the Goths, hard pressed by their new foes from the eastward, the Huns, sought and obtained the protection of the Roman empire. They were transported across the Danube and settled in Moesia, but, indignant at the treatment they re ceived, they rose in arms against their protectors. In 378 at Adrianople Valens was defeated and killed, and the victorious Goths advanced eastwards to the very walls of Constantinople. Once more, however, the danger passed away. The skill and tact of Theodosius, who had been proclaimed emperor of the East by Gratian, conciliated the Goths ; they were granted an allowance, and in large numbers entered the service of the Roman emperor. The remaining years of Theodosius's reign (382-395) were mainly engrossed by the duty of upholding the increasingly feeble au thority of his western colleague against the attacks of pretenders. Maximus, the murderer of Gratian (383), was at first recognized by Theodosius as Caesar, and left in undisturbed command of Gaul, Spain and Britain; but, when in 386 he proceeded to oust Valentinian II. from Italy and Africa, Theodosius marched west wards, crushed him and installed Valentinian as emperor of the West. In the very next year, however, the murder of Valentinian (392) by Arbogast, a Frank, was followed by the appearance of a fresh tyrant in the person of Eugenius, a domestic officer and nominee of Arbogast himself. Once more Theodosius marched westwards, and near Aquileia decisively defeated his opponents. But his victory was quickly followed by his own illness and death (395), and the fortunes of East and West passed into the care of his two sons Arcadius and Honorius.