Late Antiquity: The Age of New
Boundaries, 250-600
The West
CHAPTER 6
The Breakdown of Imperial
Government
• Chronic civil war and political turmoil
between 233 and 284 C.E.
• Invasions in both eastern and western
provinces
• Economic collapse and administrative
breakdown
• Political decentralization, as power shifted
to provincial capitals
Reformation under Diocletian,
284-305 C.E.
• Tetrarchy - the empire was divided in two,
each half with a senior and junior emperor
• Heightened the symbolic power of the
emperor
• Separated administrative and military
bureaucracies, in provinces
• New tax system to pay for larger
government
The Unintended
Consequences of Reform
• Increasing social inequality
• Shift in power from urban élites to imperial
bureaucracy led to deterioration of urban
life
• Acceleration of decentralization and
fragmentation
• Political and economic power shifted
decisively to the eastern half of the empire
Constantine: The First
Christian Emperor
• Constantine (r. 306-337) became sole emperor
abandoning tetrarchy
• Retained
separate
eastern
and
western
administrations
• Conversion to Christianity led to eventual
Christianization of entire empire
• Built city of Constantinople - came to symbolize
the link between empire and Christianity
The Spread of Christianity
• Christian community evolved into a formal
organization, with an administration and hierarchy
modeled on imperial system
• The Petrine Succession - by mid-fifth century, the
bishop of Rome achieved preeminence
• Christianity transformed the physical appearance
and spiritual life of cities
• Increasing intolerance of non-Christian religions polytheistic worship banned in 391
Christian Doctrine and Heresy
• Demarcation, by the Church, between orthodox
and heretical thought
• Dispute between Arians and Athanasians over the
nature of the Trinity and the nature of Jesus Christ
• Nicene Creed (325) - stated Jesus was identical in
nature and essence to God
• Council of Chalcedon (451) - declared Jesus was
both human and divine
Communities of Faith and
Language
• Chalcedonian (Orthodox or Catholic) - North
Africa, Balkans, Italy, Gaul
• Monopysite - Armenian church and kingdom,
Coptic church in Egypt, Syriac church in Syria
• Arian - Germanic settlers in western Empire
• Latin was the language of Christianity, in the west
• Greek was the language of Christianity, in the east
The Monastic Movement
• Egyptian ascetic movement challenged the wealth
and hierarchy of the Church
• Monastic communities: Pachomius (ca. 292-346)
wrote instructions to regulate communal, ascetic
life
• Monasticism offered women an opportunity for
independence from male world, but also
reinforced negative perceptions of women in
Christian thought
Jews in a Christian World
• Advance of Christianity led to legal discrimination
against Jews
• Abolition of Jewish Patriarchate, 429 B.C.E.,
spelled the end of Jewish status as an official
ethnic community within the empire
• Rabbinic Judaism legitimized the subordination of
women, in Jewish communities
Access to Holiness: Christian
Pilgrimage
• Competition for relics of saints and martyrs
• Palestine became the spiritual focus of the
Christian world and a principal pilgrimage
destination
• Pilgrimage fostered a sense of Christian
community between people of many lands
• Development of a “spiritual geography”
Christian Intellectual Life
• After 312, the Church began to reconcile Christian
and classical thought
• Monasteries were instrumental in the preservation
and transmission of classical learning
• Neoplatonic
thought
reinforced
Christian
asceticism and ideas about the soul
• Disconnection of human destiny from the fate of
the Roman Empire, in historical thought
The Fall of Rome’s Western
Provinces
• Lacking the military capacity to repel
Germanic invaders, the western government
offered them land within the empire
• Germanic
settlers
consolidated
and
strengthened over several generations
• Gradually, these settlements became
independent kingdoms
The End of Roman Rule in the
Western Empire
• Germanic settlers were numerically inferior,
but militarily superior - they retained a
distinct identity
• Loyalty and allegiance to local kings
superseded service to empire
• Development of new warrior aristocracies,
with personal ties to local king
The Birth of Byzantium:
Christianity and Law
• The emperor Justinian defined the imperial
role in explicitly Christian terms
• Enforced uniformity of Roman law and
orthodox Christianity, by force
• Constantinople became the political and
spiritual center of a monotheistic empire,
united under one God, one emperor and one
law
Conflicts to the West and East
• Justinian’s attempts to re-conquer the
western
provinces
overextended
Byzantium’s resources
• Resentment of Justinian’s doctrinal
interference fueled divisions between
Christian churches in the east and west
• Intermittent and persistent warfare with the
Persian Empire
A Transformed World
• Division of Europe into two culturally,
politically and linguistically separate
regions
• Emergence of Christianity as a defining
characteristic of Western civilization