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Constantine’s Rise and Reforms
Diocletian and Maximian both retired in 304 CE, after which their deputies descended into conflict. After a brief civil war, Constantine defeated his chief rival Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge (312 CE). Now the Augustus of the West, he shared power with Licinius in the East until 324 CE, when he defeated Licinius and took complete control of the empire.
Constantine continued the reforms of Diocletian, both politically and militarily. The senate was demoted to city council of Rome, while the central government's bureaucracy was strengthened. He increased the size of the army yet again, stationing barely Romanized Germanic and Balkan forces along the borders as foederati. He also continued the subdivision of provinces and separated military and civil administration. When he found decurions were trying to evade tax collection by joining the civil bureaucracy, Constantine forbade it and made them a hereditary class, once again increasing social stratification. However, Constantine also went beyond Diocletian in two ways. First, he established a new imperial capital, Constantinople, in modern day Turkey, further consolidating the Empire’s power in the east. Second, he began the Christianization of the Roman Empire.
Constantine and Christianity
Constantinople was to be a new kind of Roman city: Christian. While there is much debate as to why he favored Christianity, whether it be merely political or out of true belief, what is known for sure is that he became a generous patron of Christianity and the Church. Whereas Diocletian had spearheaded a severe campaign of Christian persecution, Constantine issued the Edict of Milan (313 CE), legalizing Christianity.
Though Constantine did not make Christianity the state religion, he did privilege it in several ways. He constructed several churches in the empire’s large cities, including St. Peter’s Basilica, and made Sunday an official state holiday. He also granted the Church land for agricultural use, gave it access to imperial grain stores for charity, and allowed the Church to receive bequests of land. Clergy were similarly privileged, with bishops being allowed to hold civil court, and decurions being allowed to escape from tax-collecting duties by joining the clergy. These measures allowed Christianity to transform from a small, persecuted group to being a vital part of the Roman state by the 330s CE. At that time, Constantine stripped pagan temples of their agricultural land and precious metals, as well as banning sacrifice, a core pagan ritual. When Constantine died in 337 CE, he was baptized on his deathbed.
Constantine’s Legacy
In many ways, Constantine finished what Diocletian had started. Their new bureaucratic system sought to stabilize the Empire where it needed it most. The core of the Empire, in Italy and the Mediterranean coastal cities, was relatively stable during the century of civil unrest and troubles at the border, facing only minor economic decline. However, the provinces were a different story. Germanic invasions threatened them directly, and on top of that, economic inequality was on the rise as more and more land was gathered in the hands of latifundia owners. Imperial taxation, funding the constant warfare, only made matters worse. Diocletian and Constantine had to balance the need for military protection against invaders with the burdens that increased taxation created.
Roman society saw another balancing act as well, between diversification of the empire and the construction of rigid hierarchies and classes. The Empire became increasingly Germanized, as tribal peoples and Balkan peasants grew in numbers in the army and traditionally Latin Romans decreased. This created a means of real social advancement in late Roman society, with peasants being able to prove themselves through combat and rise to political power. However, at the same time, other hereditary classes emerged, such as Diocletian’s military class and Constantine’s tax-collecting decurions.
Constantine’s most significant legacy, in many regards, was his treatment of Christianity. Not only were his policies and support key in turning the Church into the social, cultural, and political force that it would eventually become, but they also cemented the memory of Rome and its ideals in Medieval European culture. With the Roman Empire memorialized in Christianity’s history, Roman tradition and ideal was preserved perhaps more strongly than they otherwise might have been.
