CONSTANTINE'S
SUCCESSORS
TO JOVIAN: AND THE
STRUGGLE WITH PERSIA.
STRUGGLE WITH PERSIA.
Cambridge Medieval History - v1 - Christian Roman Empire and Teutonic Kingdoms
As was the case with
all high officials the magistri exercised jurisdiction over those under
their dispositio, not only in matters purely military, but in cases of crime
and even to some extent in connexion with civil proceedings. The lower
commanders also possessed similar jurisdiction, but the details are not
known. Appeal was to the emperor, who delegated the hearing as a rule
to one or other of the highest civil functionaries.
No view of the great imperial hierarchy of officials would be complete
which did not take account of the new title comes. Its application
followed no regular rules. In the earlier Latin it was used somewhat
loosely to designate men who accompanied a provincial governor, and
war
## p. 47 (#77) ##############################################
Comites
47
were attached to his staff (cohors), especially such as held no definite
office connected with administration, whether military or civil. Such
unofficial members of the staff seem especially to have assisted the
governor in legal matters, and in time they were paid, and were
punishable under the laws against extortion in the provinces. In
the early Empire the title comes begins to be applied in no very
precise manner to persons attached to the service of the emperor or of
members of the imperial family; but only slowly did it acquire an official
significance. Inscriptions of the reign of Marcus Aurelius show a change;
as many persons are assigned the title in this one reign as in all the
preceding reigns put together. Probably at this time began the bestowal
of the title on military as well as legal assistants of the emperor, and
soon its possessors were chiefly military officers, who after serving with
the
emperor,
took commands on the frontier. Then from the end of
the reign of Severus Alexander to the early years of Constantine the
description comes Augusti was abolished for human beings, but attached
to divinities. Constantine restored it to its mundane employment,
and used it as an honorific designation for officers of many kinds, who
were not necessarily in the immediate neighbourhood of an Augustus
or Caesar, but were servants of the Augustus or Augusti and Caesars
generally, that is to say might occupy any position in the whole imperial
administration. Constantine seems to have despatched comites, not all
of the same rank or importance, to provinces or parts of the Empire
concerning which he wished to have confidential information. Later they
appear in most districts, and the ordinary rulers are in some degree
subject to them, and they hear appeals and complaints which otherwise
would have been laid before the Praefecti Praetorio. The comites
provinciarum afford a striking illustration of the manner in which offices
were piled up upon offices, in the vain attempt to check corruption and
misgovernment.
In the immediate neighbourhood of the Court the name comes was
attached to four high military officers; the magister equitum and magister
peditum, and the commanders of the domestici equites and the domestici
pedites. Also to four high civil officers, the High Treasurer (comes
sacrarum largitionum) and the controller of the Privy Purse (comes rerum
privatarum); also the quaestor sacri palatii and the magister officiorum.
These high civil functionaries appear as comites consistoriani, being
regular members of the Privy Council (consistorium). Before the end
of Constantine's reign the words connecting the comes with the emperor
and the Caesars drop out, possibly because the imperial rulers were
deemed to be too exalted for any form of companionship. A man is
now not comes Augusti but comes merely or with words added to
identify his duties, as for instance when the district is stated within
which a military or civil officer acts, on whom the appellation has been
bestowed. The former necessary connexion of the comes with the Court
CH, II.
## p. 48 (#78) ##############################################
48
Comites. Patricii.
Consistorium
As a
having ceased, the name was vulgarised and connected with offices of
many kinds, sometimes of a somewhat lowly nature. In many cases it
was not associated with duties at all, but was merely titular.
natural result, comites were classified in three orders of dignity (primi,
secundi, tertii ordinis). Admission to the lowest rank was eagerly coveted
and often purchased, because of the immunity from public burdens which
the boon carried with it. Constantine also adapted the old phrase
patricius to new uses. The earlier emperors, first by special authorisa-
tion, later merely as emperors, had raised families to patrician rank,
but the result was merely a slight increase in social dignity. From
Constantine's time onwards, the dignity was rarely bestowed and then
the patricii became a high and exclusive order of nobility. They had
precedence next to the emperor, with the exception of the consuls actually
in office. Their titles did not descend to their sons. The best known of
the patricii are some of the great generals of barbarian origin, who were
the last hopes of the crumbling Empire. The title lasted long; it was
bestowed on Charles Martel, and was known later in the Byzantine
Empire.
At the centre of the great many-storeyed edifice of the bureaucracy
was the Consistorium or Most Honourable Privy Council. There was deep-
rooted in the Roman mind the idea that neither private citizen nor
official should decide on important affairs without taking the advice of
those best qualified to give it. This feeling gave rise to the great
advising body for the magistrates, the Senate, to the jury who assisted
in criminal affairs, to the bench of counsellors, drawn from his staff,
who gave aid to the provincial governor, and also to the loosely con-
stituted gathering of friends whose opinion the paterfamilias demanded.
To every one of these groups the word consilium was applicable. It
was natural that the early emperors should have their consilium, the
constitution of which gradually became more and more formal and
regular. Hadrian gave a more important place than heretofore to the
jurisconsults among his advisers. For a while a regular paid officer
called consiliarius existed. In Diocletian's time the old name consilium
was supplanted by consistorium. The old advisers of the magistrates
sat on the bench with them and therefore sometimes bore the name
adsessores. But it was impious to be seated in the presence of the new
divinised rulers; and from the practice of standing (consistere) the
Council derived its new name. From Constantine the Council received
a more definite frame. As shewn above, certain officers became comites
consistoriani. But these officers were not always the same after Con-
stantine's reign, and additional persons were from time to time called
in for particular business. The Praefectus Praetorio praesens or in
comitatu would usually attend. The Consistorium was both a Council
of State for the discussion of knotty imperial questions, and also a High
Court of Justice, though it is difficult to determine exactly what cases
## p. 49 (#79) ##############################################
The Roman Senate
49
might be brought before it. Probably that depended on the emperor's
will.
It is necessary that something should be said of the position which
the two capitals, Rome and Constantinople, held in the new organisation,
and of the traces which still hung about Italy of its older historical
privileges. The old Roman Senate was allowed a nominal existence,
with a changed constitution and powers which were rather municipal
than imperial. Of the old offices whose holders once filled the Senate, the
Consulship, Praetorship, and Quaestorship survived, while the Tribunate
and the Aedileship died out. Two consulares ordinarii were named by
the emperor, who would sometimes listen to recommendations from the
senators. The years continued to be denoted by the consular names, and,
to add dignity to the office, the emperor or members of the imperial
family would sometimes hold it. The tenure of the office was brief, and
the consules suffecti during the year were selected by the Senate, with the
emperor's approval. But to be consul suffectus was of little value, even
from a personal point of view. A list of nominations for the Praetorship
a
and Quaestorship was laid by the Praefectus urbi before the emperor for
confirmation. Apart from these old offices, many of the new dignitates
carried with them membership of the ordo senatorius. Ultimately all
officials who were clarissimi, that is to say who possessed the lowest of
the three noble titles, belonged to it. Thus it included not merely the
highest functionaries, as the principal military officers, the civil governors,
and the chiefs of bureaux, but many persons lower down in the hierarchy
of office, for example all the comites. The whole body must have
comprised some thousands. But a man might be a member of the ordo
without being actually a senator. Only the higher functionaries and
priests and the consulares described above, with possibly a few others,
actually took part in the proceedings. The actual Senate and the ordo
were distinguished by high-sounding titles in official documents, and
emperors would occasionally send communications to the Senate about
high matters, and make pretence of asking its advice, out of respect for
its ancient prestige, but its business was for the most part comparatively
petty, and chiefly confined to the immediate needs of the city. But
every now and then it was convenient for the ruler to expose the Senate
to the odium of making unpopular decisions, as in cases of high
treason; and when pretenders rose, or changes of government took place,
the favour of this ancient body still carried with it a certain value.
Among the chief functions of the senators was the supervision of the
supply of panis et circenses, provisions and amusements, for the
capital. The games were chiefly paid for by the holders of the Consul-
ship, Praetorship, and Quaestorship. The obligation resting on the
Praetorship was the most serious, and therefore nomination to this
magistracy took place many years in advance, that the money might
be ready. Naturally these burdens became to a large extent compulsory;
C. MED. H. VOL. I. CH. II.
4
## p. 50 (#80) ##############################################
50
The City of Rome
and so even women who had inherited from a senator had to supply
money for such purposes. Rich men of course exceeded the minimum
largely with a view to display. The old privilege still attached to Rome
of receiving corn from Africa. Diocletian divided Italy into two
districts, of which the northern (annonaria regio) paid tribute for
support of the Court at Milan, while the southern (dioecesis Romae,
or suburbicaria regio) supplied wine, cattle, and some other necessaries
for the capital.
Senators as such and the senatorius ordo were subject to special
taxation, as well as the ordinary taxation of the provinces (with
exception perhaps of the aurum coronarium). The follis senatorius was
a particular tax on senatorial lands, and even a landless senator had to
pay something. The aurum oblaticium already mentioned, was specially
burdensome.
The most important officer connected with the Senate was the
Praefectus urbi. His office had grown steadily in importance during the
whole existence of the Empire. From the time of Constantine its holder
was vir illustris. He was the only high official of the Empire who
continued to wear the toga and not the military garb. He was at the
head of the Senate and was the intermediary between that body and the
emperor. The powers of his office were extraordinary. The members of
the Senate resident in Rome were under his criminal jurisdiction. There
was an appeal to him from all the lesser functionaries who dealt with
legal matters in the first instance, not only in the capital, but in a
district extending 100 miles in every direction. His control spread over
every department of business. He was the chief guardian of public
security and had the cohortes urbanae, as well as the praefectus vigilum
under his command. The provisioning of the city was an important
part of his duty, and the praefectus annonae acted under his orders. A
whole army of officials, many of them bearing titles which would have
been strange to the Republic and early Empire, assisted him in looking
after the water-supply, controlling trade and the markets, and the
traffic on the river, in maintaining the river banks, in taking account of
the property of senators and in many other departments of affairs. It
is difficult to say how far his position was affected by the presence in the
city of a Corrector, and a Vicarius of the Praefectus Praetorio. The
material welfare of Rome was at least abundantly cared for by the
new monarchy. The city had already grown accustomed to the loss
of dignity caused by the residence of the emperors in cities more
convenient for the purposes of government. But the foundation of
Constantinople must have been a heavy blow. The institutions of the
old Rome were to a great extent copied in the new. There was a Senate
subject to the same obligations as in Rome. Most of the magistracies
were repeated. But until 359 no Praefectus urbi seems to have existed
at Constantinople. Elaborate arrangements were made for placing the
## p. 51 (#81) ##############################################
The Subjects of the Empire
51
new city on a level with the old as regards tributes of corn, wine, and
other necessaries from the provinces. The more frequent presence of
the ruler gave to the new capital a brilliance which the old must have
envied.
So far the machinery of the new government in its several parts has
been described. We must now consider in outline what was its total
effect upon the inhabitants of the Empire. The inability of the ruler to
assure good government to his subjects was made conspicuous by the
frequent creation of new offices, whose object was to curb the corruption
of the old. The multiplication of the functionaries in close touch with
the population rendered oppression more certain and less punishable
than ever.
Lactantius declares, with pardonable exaggeration, that the
number of those who lived on the taxes was as great as the number who
paid them. The evidence of official rapacity is abundant. The laws
thundered against it in vain. Oftentimes it happened that illegitimate
.
exactions were legalised in the empty hope of keeping them within
bounds. Penalties expressed in laws were plain enough and numerous
enough. For corruption in a province not only the governor but his
whole officium were liable to make heavy recompense. And the compara-
tive powerlessness of the governor is shewn by the fact that the officium
is more heavily mulcted than its head. But a down-trodden people
rarely will or can bring legal proof against its oppressors. Nothing
but extensive arbitrary dismissal and punishment of his servants by
the emperor, without insistence on forms of law, would have met the
evil. As it was, corruption reigned through the Empire with little
check, and the illicit gains of the emperor's servants added to the strain
imposed by the heavy imperial taxation. Thus the benefit which the
provincials had at first received by the substitution of Imperial for
Republican government was more than swept away. Their absorption
into the Roman polity on terms of equality with their conquerors,
brought with it degradation and ruin.
During the fourth century that extraordinary developinent was
completed whereby society was reorganised by a demarcation of classes
so rigid that it became extremely difficult for any man to escape from
that condition of life into which he was born. In the main, but not
altogether, this result was brought about by the fiscal system. When
the local Senates or their leaders were made responsible for producing to
the government the quota of taxation imposed on their districts, it
became necessary to prevent the members (decuriones or curiales) from
escaping their obligations by passing into another path of life, and also
to compel the sons to walk in their fathers' footsteps. But the main-
tenance of the local ordo was necessary also from the local as well as
the imperial point of view. The magistracies involved compulsory as
well as voluntary payments for local objects, and therefore those capable
of filling them must be thrust into them by force if need were. Every
CH. II.
4-2
## p. 52 (#82) ##############################################
52
Curiales. Collegia
kind of magistracy in every town of the Empire, and every official position
in connexion with any corporate body, whether priestly college or trade
guild or religious guild, brought with it expenditure for the benefit of
the community, and on this, in great part, the ordinary life of every
town depended. The Theodosian Code shews that the absconding
decurio was in the end treated as a runaway slave ; five gold pieces
were given to any one who would haul him back to his duties.
In time the members also of all or nearly all professional corporations
(collegia or corpora) were held to duties by the State, and the burden of
them descended from father to son. The evolution by which these free
unions for holding together in a social brotherhood all those who
followed a particular occupation were turned into bodies with the stamp
of caste upon them, is to be traced with difficulty in the extant inscrip-
tions and the legal literature. Here as everywhere the fiscal system
instituted by Diocletian was a powerful agent. A large part of the
natural fruits of the earth passed into the hands of government, and
a vast host of assistants was needed for transport and distribution. And
the organisation for maintaining the food-supply at Rome and Con-
stantinople became more and more elaborate. For the annona alone
many corporations had to give service, in most cases easily divined from
their names, as navicularii, frumentarii, mercatores, olearii, suarii, pecuarii,
pistores, boarii, porcinarii and numerous others. Similar bodies were con-
nected with public works, with police functions, as the extinction of fires,
with government operations of numerous kinds, in the mints, the mines,
the factories for textiles and arms and so on. In the early Empire the
service rendered to the State was not compulsory, and partly by rewards,
such as immunity from taxation, partly by pay, the government was
willingly served. But in time the burdens became intolerable. State
officers ultimately controlled the minutest details connected with these
corporations. And the tasks imposed did not entirely proceed from the
imperial departments. The curiales of the towns could enforce assistance
from the local collegia within their boundaries. And the tentacles of the
great octopus of the central government were spread over the provinces.
In the fourth and later centuries the restrictions on the freedom of these
corporations were extraordinarily oppressive. Egress from inherited
membership was inhibited by government except in rare instances.
Ingress, as into the class of curiales, was, directly or indirectly, com-
pulsory. The colleges differed greatly in dignity. In some, as in that
of the navicularii, even senators might be concerned, and office-holders
might obtain, among their rewards, the rank of Roman knight. On the
other hand, the bakers (pistores) approached near the condition of
slavery. Marriage, for instance, outside their own circle was forbidden,
whereas, in other cases, it was only rendered difficult. Property which
had once become subject to the duties required of a collegium could
hardly be released. The end was that collegiati or corporati all over the
1
1
## p. 53 (#83) ##############################################
Demarcation of Classes
53
Empire took any method they could find of escaping from their servitude,
and the law's severest punishments could not check the movement. If we
may believe some late writers, thousands of citizens found life in barbarian
lands more tolerable than in the Roman Empire.
The status of other classes in the community also tended to become
hereditary. This was the case with the officiales and the soldiers, though
here compulsion was not so severe. But the tillers of the ground (coloni)
were more hardly treated than any other class. It became impossible
for them, without breach of the law, to tear themselves away from the
soil of the locality within which they were born. The evolution of this
peculiar form of serfdom, which existed for the purposes of the State, is
difficult to trace. Many causes contributed to its growth and final
establishment, as the extension of large private and especially of vast
imperial domains, the imitation of the German half-free land-tenure
when barbarians were settled as laeti or inquilini within the Empire, the
influence of Egyptian and other Eastern land-customs, but above all the
drastic changes in the imperial imposts which Diocletian introduced.
The cultivator's principal end in life was to insure a contribution of
natural products for the revenue. Hence it was a necessity to chain him
to the ground, and in the law-books adscripticius is the commonest title
for him. The details of the scheme of taxation, given above, shew how
it must have tended to diminish population, for every additional person,
,
,
even a slave, increased the contribution which each holding must pay.
The owners of the land were in the first instance responsible, but the
burdens of course fell ultimately and in the main on the agricultural
workers
. The temporary loss of provinces to the invader, the failure of
harvest in any part of the Empire, the economic effects of pestilence, and
other accidents, all led to greater sacrifices on the part of those provinces
which were not themselves affected. The exactions became heavier and
heavier, the punishments for attempts to escape from duty more and more
severe, and yet flight and disappearance of coloni took place on a large
scale. By the end of the fourth century it was possible for lawyers to
say
of this unhappy class that they were almost in the condition of slaves,
and a century or so later that the distinction between them and slaves
no longer existed ; that they were slaves of the land itself on which they
were born.
In many other ways, under the new monarchy, the citizens of the
,
Empire were treated with glaring inequality. The gradations of official
station were almost as important in the general life of the Empire as they
now are in China, and they were reflected in titular phrases, some of
which have been given above. Etiquette became most complicated.
Even the emperor was bound to exalted forms of address in his com-
munications with his servants or with groups of persons within his
Empire. “Your sublimity,” “Your magnificence,” “Your loftiness,"
"
were common salutations for the greater officers. The ruler did not
CH. 11.
## p. 54 (#84) ##############################################
54
Demarcation of Classes
disdain to employ the title parens in addressing some of them. The
innumerable new titles which the Empire had invented were highly
valued and much paraded by their possessors, even the titles of offices in
the municipalities. Great hardship must have been caused to the lower
ranks of the taxpayers by the extensive relief from taxation which was
accorded to hosts of men in the service of the government (nominal or
real) as part payment for the duties which they performed or were
supposed to perform. With these immunities, as with everything else in
the Empire, there was much corrupt dealing. The criminal law became
a great respecter of persons. Not only was the jurisdiction over the
upper classes separated at many points from that over the lower, but
the lower were subject to punishments from which the upper were free.
Gradually the Empire drifted farther and farther away from the old
Republican principle, that crimes as a rule are to be punished in the
same way, whoever among the citizens commits them. A sharp distinc-
tion was drawn between the “more honourable” (honestiores) and the
“more humble” (humiliores or plebeii). The former included the
imperial ordo senatorius, the equites, the soldier-class generally and
veterans, and the local senators (decuriones). The honestiores could not
be executed without the emperor's sanction, and if executed, were exempt
from crucifixion (a form of punishment altogether abolished by the
Christian emperors). They could not be sentenced to penal servitude in
mines or elsewhere. Nor could they be tortured in the course of criminal
proceedings, excepting for treason, magic and forgery.
A general survey of Roman government in the fourth and later
centuries undoubtedly leaves a strong impression of injustice, inequality,
and corruption leading fast to ruin. But some parts of the Empire did
maintain a fair standard of prosperity even to the verge of the general
collapse. The two greatest problems in history, how to account for the
rise of Rome and how to account for her fall, never have been, perhaps
never will be, thoroughly solved.
>
## p. 55 (#85) ##############################################
55
CHAPTER III.
CONSTANTINE'S SUCCESSORS TO JOVIAN: AND THE
STRUGGLE WITH PERSIA.
DEATH had surprised Constantine when preparing to meet Persian
aggression on the Eastern frontier and it seems certain that the
Emperor had made no final provision for the succession to the throne,
though later writers profess to know of a will wbich parcelled out the
Roman world among the members of his family. During his lifetime
his three sons had been created Caesars and while for his nephew
Hanniballianus he had fashioned a kingdom in Asia, to his nephew
Delmatius had been assigned the Ripa Gothica. Possibly we are to see
in these latter appointments an attempt to satisfy discontent at Court;
it may be that Optatus and Ablabius, espousing the cause of a younger
branch of the imperial stock, had forced Constantine's hand and that it
was for this interference that they afterwards paid the penalty of their
lives. But it would seem a more probable suggestion that the Persian
danger was thought to demand an older and more experienced governor
than Constantius, while the boy Constans was deemed unequal to
withstand the Goths in the north. At least the plan would appear to
have been in substance that of a threefold division of spheres itself
suggested by administrative necessity; Constantine was true to the
principle of Diocletian, and it was only a superficial view which saw in
this devolution of the central power a partition of the Roman Empire'.
Thus on the Emperor's death there followed an interregnum of nearly
four months. Constantine had, however, been successful in inspiring his
soldiers with his own dynastic views; they feared new tumult and
internal struggle and in face of the twenty year old Constantius felt
themselves to be the masters. The armies agreed that they would have
none but the sons of Constantine to rule over them, and at one blow
they murdered all the other relatives of the dead Emperor save only the
child Julian and Gallus the future Caesar; in the latter's case men
looked to his own ill health to spare the executioner. At the same
time perished Optatus and Ablabius. On 9 September 337 Constantius,
Constantine II and Constans each assumed the title of Augustus as
joint Emperors.
1 Cf. Victor, Caes. XXXIX. 30, quasi partito imperio.
CH. II.
## p. 56 (#86) ##############################################
56
The Sons of Constantine
[337–338
His contemporaries were unable to agree how far Constantius was
to be held responsible for this assassination. He alone of the sons of
Constantine was present in the capital, it was he who stood to gain
most by the deed, the property of the victims fell into his hands, while
it was said that he himself regarded his ill-success in war and his
childlessness as Heaven's punishment and that this murder was one of
the three sins which he regretted on his death-bed. In later times some,
though considering the slaughter as directly inspired by the Emperor,
have yet held him justified and have viewed him as the victim of
a tragic necessity of state. Certainty is impossible but the circumstances
suggest that inaction and not participation is the true charge against
Constantius; the army. which made and unmade emperors was determined
that there should be no rival to question their choice. The massacre
had fatal consequences; it was the seed from which sprang Julian's
mistrust and ill-will : in a panegyric written for the Emperor's eye he
might admit the plea of compulsion, but the deep-seated conviction
remained that he was left an orphan through his cousin's crime.
In the summer of 338 the new rulers assembled in Pannonia (or
possibly at Viminacium in Dacia, not far from the Pannonian frontier)
to determine their spheres of government. According to their father's
division, it would seem, Spain, Britain, and the two Gauls fell to
Constantine : the two Italies, Africa, Illyricum and Thrace were sub-
jected to Constans, while southward from the Propontis, Asia and the
Orient with Pontus and Egypt were entrusted to Constantius. It was
thus to Constantius that, on the death of Hanniballianus, Armenia and
the neighbouring allied tribes naturally passed, but with this addition
the eastern Augustus appears to have remained content. The whole of
the territory subject to Delmatius, i. e. the Ripa Gothica which probably
comprised Dacia, Moesia I and II, and Scythia (perhaps even Pannonia
and Noricum) went to swell the share of Constans who was now but
fifteen years of age? . But though both the old and the new Rome were
thus in the hands of the most youthful of the three emperors, the balance
of actual power still seemed heavily weighted in favour of Constantine,
the ruler of the West; indeed, he appears to have assumed the position
of guardian over his younger brother. It may be difficult to account
for the moderation of Constantius, but Julian points out that a war
with Persia was imminent, the army was disorganised, and the pre-
parations for the campaign insufficient; domestic peace was the Empire's
great need, while Constantius himself really strengthened his own position
by renouncing further claims : to widen his sphere of government might
have only served to limit his moral authority. Further he was perhaps
unwilling to demand for himself a capital in which his kinsmen had been
1 In his eighteenth year, Eutrop. x. 9; cf. Seeck, Zeitschrift für Numismatik,
XVII. pp. 39 sqq.
## p. 57 (#87) ##############################################
338]
The War with Persia
57
so recently murdered : his self-denial should prove his innocence! . During
the next thirteen years three great and more or less independent interests
absorbed the energies of Constantius : the welfare and doctrine of the
Christian Church”, the long drawn and largely ineffective struggle
against Persia and lastly the assertion and maintenance of his personal
influence in the affairs of the West.
It was to Asia that Constantius hastened after his meeting with his
co-rulers. Before his arrival Nisibis had successfully withstood a Persian
siege (autumn 337 or spring 338), and the Emperor at once made
strenuous efforts to restore order and discipline among the Roman forces.
Profiting by his previous experience he organised a troop of mail-clad
horsemen after the Persian model—the wonder of the time—and raised
recruits both for the cavalry and infantry regiments; he demanded
extraordinary contributions from the eastern provinces, enlarged the
river flotillas and generally made his preparations for rendering effective
resistance to Persian attacks. The history of this border warfare is
a tangled tale and our information scanty and fragmentary. In
Armenia the fugitive king and those nobles who with him were loyal
to Rome were restored to their country, but for the rest the campaigns
resolved themselves in the main into the successive forays across
the frontier of Persian or Roman troops. Though Ludi Persici
(13–17 May) were founded, though court orators could claim that the
Emperor had frequently crossed the Tigris, had raised fortresses on its
banks and laid waste the enemy's territory with fire and sword, yet the
lasting results of these campaigns were sadly to seek : now an Arab
tribe would be induced to make common cause with Rome (as in 338)
and to harry the foe, now a Persian town would be captured and its
inhabitants transported and settled within the Empire, but it was rare
indeed for the armies of both powers to meet face to face in the open
field. Constantius persistently declined to take the aggressive; he
hesitated to risk any great engagement which even if successful might
entail a heavy loss in men whom he could ill afford to spare. Of one
battle alone have we any detailed account. Sapor had collected a vast
army; conscripts of all ages were enlisted, while neighbouring tribesmen
served for Persian gold. In three divisions the host crossed the Tigris
and by the Emperor's orders the frontier guards did not dispute the
passage. The Persians occupied an entrenched camp at Hileia or Ellia
near Singara, while a distance of some 150 stades lay between them and
the Roman army. Even on Sapor's advance Constantius true to his
defensive policy awaited the enemy's attack; it may be, as Libanius
asserts, that Rome's best troops were absent at the time. Beneath their
fortifications the Persians had posted their splendid mailed cavalry
1 For the above cf. Victor, Epit. xli. 20; Vita Artemii Martyris, AS. Boll.
Tom. viii. Oct. 20; Eutyches, Chron. dlex. Ol. 279; Seeck, Zeits. f. Numismatik, 1. c.
3 See Chap. v.
a
CH. III.
## p. 58 (#88) ##############################################
58
Reign of Constans
(338–360
(cataphracti) and upon the ramparts archers were stationed. On a mid-
summer morning, probably in the year 344 (possibly 348), the struggle
began. At midday the Persians feigned flight in the direction of their
camp, hoping that thus their horsemen would charge upon an enemy
disorganised by long pursuit. It was already evening when the Romans
drew near the fortifications. Constantius gave orders to halt until the
dawn of the new day; but the burning heat of the sun had caused
a raging thirst, the springs lay within the Persian camp and the troops
with little experience of their Emperor's generalship refused to obey his
commands and resumed the attack. Clubbing the enemy's cavalry, they
stormed the palisades. Sapor Aled for his life to the Tigris, while the
heir to his throne was captured and put to death. As night fell, the
victors turned to plunder and excess, and under cover of the darkness the
Persian fugitives re-formed and won back their camp. But success
came too late; their confidence was broken and with the morning the
retreat began.
Turning to the history of the West after the meeting of the Augusti
in 338, it would appear that Constantine forthwith claimed an authority
superior to that of his co-rulers'; he even legislated for Africa although
this province fell within the jurisdiction of Constans. The latter, how-
ever, soon asserted his complete independence of his elder brother and
in autumn (338? ) after a victory on the Danube assumed the title of
Sarmaticus. At this time (339) he probably sought to enlist the support
of Constantius, surrendering to the latter Thrace and Constantinople? .
Disappointed of his hopes, it would seem that the ruler of the West now
demanded for himself both Italy and Africa. Early in 340 he suddenly
crossed the Alps and at Aquileia rashly engaged the advanced guard of
Constans who had marched from Naissus in Dacia, where news had
reached him of his brother's attack. Constantine falling into an ambush
perished, and Constans was now master of Britain, Spain and the Gauls
(before 9 April 340). He proved himself a terror to the barbarians
and a general of untiring energy who travelled incessantly, making light
of extremes of heat and cold. In 341 and 342 he drove back an
inroad of the Franks and compelled that restless tribe “for whom
inaction was a confession of weakness to conclude a peace: he dis-
regarded the perils of the English Channel in winter, and in January 343
crossed from Boulogne to Britain, perhaps to repel the Picts and Scots.
His rule is admitted to have been at the outset vigorous and just, but
the promise of his early years was not maintained : his exactions grew
more intolerable, his private vices more shameless, while his favourites
were allowed to violate the laws with impunity. It would seem, however,
to have been his unconcealed contempt for the army which caused his
1 This is an inference drawn from his coinage.
2 Cf. the language of the Vita Artemii, 1. ο. ο δε Κωνστάντιος. . . το της εφας ασπά-
ζεται μέρος και τότε. . . κ. τ. λ.
>
## p. 59 (#89) ##############################################
350–352]
Death of Constans. Vetranio
59
.
a
fall. A party at Court conspired with Marcellinus, Count of the sacred
largesses, and Magnentius, commander of the picked corps of Joviani and
Herculeani, to secure his overthrow. Despite his Roman name Magnentius
was a barbarian: his father had been a slave and subsequently a freedman
in the service of Constantine. While at Augustodunum, during the
absence of the Emperor on a hunting expedition, Marcellinus on the
pretext of a banquet in honour of his son's birthday feasted the military
leaders (18 January 350); wine had fowed freely and the night was
already far advanced, when Magnentius suddenly appeared among the
revellers, clad in the purple. He was straightway acclaimed Augustus :
the rumour spread: folk from the country-side poured into the city:
Illyrian horsemen who had been drafted into the Gallic regiments joined
their comrades, while the officers hardly knowing what was afoot were
carried by the tide of popular enthusiasm into the usurper's camp.
Constans fled for Spain and at the foot of the Pyrenees by the small
frontier fortress of Helene was murdered by Gaiso, the barbarian emissary
of Magnentius. The news of his brother's death reached Constantius
when the winter was almost over, but true to his principle never to
sacrifice the Empire to his own personal advantage he remained in the
East, providing for its safety during his absence and appointing
Lucillianus to be commander-in-chief.
The hardships and oppression which the provinces had suffered under
Constans were turned by Magnentius to good account. A month after
his usurpation Italy had joined him and Africa was not slow to follow.
The army of Illyricum was wavering in its fidelity when, upon the advice
of Constantia sister of Constantius, Vetranio, magister peditum of the
forces on the Danube, allowed himself to be acclaimed Emperor
(1 March, at Mursa or Sirmium) and immediately appealed for help to
Constantius. The latter recognised the usurper, sent Vetranio a diadem
and gave orders that he should be supported by the troops on the
Pannonian frontier. Meanwhile in Rome, the elect of the mob, Flavius
Popilius Nepotianus, cousin of Constantius, enjoyed a brief and bloody
reign of some 28 days until, through the treachery of a senator, he fell
into the hands of the soldiers of Magnentius, led by Marcellinus the
newly appointed magister officiorum.
In the East, Nisibis was besieged for the third and last time:
Sapor's object was, it would seem, permanently to settle a Persian colony
within the city. The siege was pressed with unexampled energy; the
Mygdonius was turned from its course, and thus upon an artificial lake
the fleet plied its rams but without effect. At length under the weight
of the waters part of the city wall collapsed; cavalry and elephants
charged to storm the breach, but the huge beasts turned in flight and
broke the lines of the assailants. A new wall rose behind the old, and
though four months had passed, Jacobus, Bishop of Nisibis, never lost
heart. Then Sapor learned that the Massagetae were invading his own
CH. III.
## p. 60 (#90) ##############################################
60
Gallus Caesar
(350–351
a
country and slowly the Persian host withdrew. For a time the Eastern
frontier was at peace (A. D. 350).
In the West while Magnentius sought to win the recognition of
Constantius, Vetranio played a waiting game. At last, the historians
tell us, the Illyrian Emperor broke his promises and made his peace
with Magnentius. A common embassy sought Constantius : let him
give Magnentius his sister Constantia to wife, and himself wed the
daughter of Magnentius. Constantius wavered, but rejected the pro-
posals and marched towards Sardica. Vetranio held the
Vetranio held the pass of Succi -
the Iron Gate of later times--but on the arrival of the Emperor gave
way before him. In Naissus, or as others say in Sirmium, the two
Emperors mounted a rostrum and Constantius harangued the troops,
appealing to them to avenge the death of the son of the great
Constantine. The army hailed Constantius alone as Augustus and
Vetranio sought for pardon. The Emperor treated the usurper with
great respect and accorded him on his retirement to Prusa in Bithynia
a handsome pension until his death six years later. Such is the story,
but it can hardly fail to arouse suspicion. The greatest blot on the
character of Constantius is his ferocity when once he fancied his
superiority threatened, and here was both treason and treachery, for
power had been stolen from him by a trick. All difficulties are removed
if Vetranio throughout never ceased to support Constantius, even though
the Emperor may have doubted his loyalty for a time when he heard
that the prudent general had anticipated any action on the part of
Magnentius by himself seizing the key-position, the pass of Succi. It is
obvious that their secret was worth keeping : it is ill to play with armies
as Constantius and Vetranio had done; while the clemency of an outraged
sovereign offered a fair theme to the panegyrists of the Emperor.
Marching against one usurper in the West, Constantius was anxious
to secure the East to the dynasty of Constantine: the recent success of
Lucillianus may have appeared dangerously complete. The Emperor's
nephew Gallus had, it would seem, for some time followed the Court,
and while at Sirmium Constantius determined to create him Caesar.
At the same time (15 March 351) his name was changed into Flavius
Claudius Constantius, he was married to Constantia and became frater
Augusti; forthwith the prince and his wife started for Antioch.
Meanwhile Magnentius had not been idle; he had raised huge sums
of money in Gaul, while Franks, Saxons and Germans trooped to the
support of their fellow-countryman, whose army now outnumbered
that of Constantius. The latter however took the offensive in the
spring of 351 and uniting Vetranio's troops with his own marched
towards the Alpine passes. An ambush of Magnentius posted in the
defiles of Atrans inflicted severe loss on his advance guard and the
Emperor was compelled to withdraw. Elated by this success, the
usurper now occupied Pannonia and passing Poetovio made for Sirmium.
## p. 61 (#91) ##############################################
351-353 ]
The Battle of Mursa
61
Throughout his reign the policy of Constantius was marked by an
anxious desire to husband the military forces of the Empire, and even
now he was ready to compromise and to avoid the fearful struggle between
the armies of Gaul and Illyricum. He despatched Philippus, offering to
acknowledge Magnentius as co-Augustus in the West, if he would
abandon any claim to Italy. The ambassador was detained, but his
proposals after some delay rejected; the usurper was so certain of victory
that his
envoy the Senator Titianus could even counsel Constantius to
abdicate. An attack of Magnentius on Siscia was repulsed and an effort
to cross the Save was also unsuccessful. Constantius then retired,
preferring to await the enemy in open country where he could turn to
the best advantage his superiority in cavalry. At Cibalae the army
took up an entrenched position, while Magnentius advanced on Sirmium,
hoping to meet with no resistance. Foiled in this he marched to Mursa
in the rear of Constantius' army. The latter was forced to relieve the
town and here on 28 September the decisive battle was fought. Behind
Constantius flowed the Danube and on his right the Drave: for him
flight must mean destruction. On both wings he posted mounted
archers and in the forefront the mailed cavalry (cataphracti) which he had
himself raised after the Persian model ; in the centre the heavy armed
infantry were stationed and in the rear the bowmen and slingers. Before
the struggle Silvanus with his horsemen deserted Magnentius. From
late afternoon till far into the night the battle raged; the cavalry of
Constantius routed the enemy's right wing and this threw the whole line
into confusion. Magnentius fled but Marcellinus continued the fight; the
Gauls refused to acknowledge defeat; some few escaped through the
darkness, but thousands were driven into the river or cut down
upon
the
plain. It is said that Magnentius lost 24,000 men, Constantius 30,000+.
The
usurper took refuge in Aquileia and garrisoned the passes of the
Alps; although his overtures were rejected and though his schemes to
murder the Caesar Gallus and thus to raise difficulties for Constantius in
the East were foiled, yet the exhaustion of his enemies and the approach
of winter made pursuit impossible. Constantius forthwith proclaimed
an amnesty for all the adherents of Magnentius except only those
immediately implicated in his brother's murder; many deserted the
pretender and escaped by sea to the victor. In the following year (352),
Constantius forced the passes of the Julian Alps, while his feet dominated
the Po, Sicily and Africa. At the news Magnentius fled to Gaul and
by November the Emperor was already in Milan, abrogating all the
fugitive's measures. In 353 Constantius crossed the Cottian Alps and
at length, three years and a half after his assumption of the purple,
Magnentius was surrounded in Lyons by his own troops, and finding his
* Zonaras states that Constantius had 80,000 men, Magnentius 36,000. Seeck
bas suggested that at this time Magnentius may have been besieging Sirmium.
CH. III.
## p. 62 (#92) ##############################################
62
Magnentius
(350—353
cause hopeless committed suicide, while his Caesar Decentius also perished
by his own hand.
The importance and significance of this unsuccessful bid for empire
may easily be overlooked. A Roman civil official at the head of some
discontented spirits at the Court hatches a plot against his sovereign,
and in order to win the support of the army alienated by the contempt
of Constans induces a barbarian general to declare himself Emperor.
But though the Roman world was willing enough that Germans should
fight the Empire's battles in their defence, they were not prepared to see
another Maximin upon the throne; they refused to be reconciled to
Magnentius even by the admitted justice of his rule. The lesson of his
failure was well learned: the barbarian Arbogast caused not himself but
the Roman civilian Eugenius to be elected Emperor. Further, while in
this struggle the eastern and western halves of the Empire are seen
falling naturally and almost unconsciously asunder, the most powerful
force working for unity is the dynastic sentiment: Constantius claims
support as the legitimate successor of the house of Constantine and as
the avenger of the death of his son. His claim is not merely as the
chosen of senate or army but far more as the rightful heir to the throne.
This struggle throws into prominence the growth of the hereditary
principle and the warmth of the response which it could evoke from the
sympathies of the subjects of the Empire. No student of the history
of the fourth century can indeed afford to neglect the battle of Mursa ;
contemporaries were staggered at the appalling loss of life, for while
it is said that the Roman dead numbered 40,000 at Hadrianople
(A. D. 378), at Mursa 54,000 are reported to have been slain. It is
hardly too much to say that the defence of the Empire in the East was
crippled by this blow, and it must have been largely through the
slaughter at Mursa that Constantius was forced to make his fatal demand
that the troops of Gaul should march against Persia. Neither must the
military significance of the battle be forgotten : it lies in the fact that
this was the first victory of the newly formed heavy cavalry, and the
result of the impact of their charge, which carried all before it, showed
that it was no longer the legionary who was to play the most important
part in the campaigns of the future.
Meanwhile in Antioch Gallus was ruling as an oriental despot; there
was in his nature a strain of savagery, and his appointment as Caesar
seems to have awakened within him a brutal lust for a naked display of
unrestrained authority. His passions were only fed by the violence of
Constantia. The unsuccessful plot of Magnentius to assassinate the
Caesar aroused the latter's suspicions and a reign of terror began;
judicial procedure was disregarded and informers honoured, men were
condemned to death without trial and the members of the city council
imprisoned; when the populace complained of scarcity it was suggested
that the responsibility lay with Theophilus governor of Syria: the mob
:
## p. 63 (#93) ##############################################
332–354]
Fall of Gallus. Julian's Youth
63
took the hint and the governor perished. The feeling of insecurity was
rendered more intense by a rising among the Jews, who declared a certain
Patricius their King, and by the raids of Saracens and Isaurians upon
the country-side. The loyalty of the East was jeopardized. The reports
of Thalassius, the praetorian praefect, and of Barbatio, the Caesar's
Count of the guard, at length moved Constantius to action. On the
death of Thalassius (winter 353-4) Domitian was sent to Antioch as
his successor, directions being given him that Gallus was to be persuaded
to visit the Emperor in the West. The praefect's studied discourtesy
and overbearing behaviour enraged the Caesar; Domitian was thrown
into prison and the populace responding to the appeal of Gallus tore in
pieces both the praefect and Montius the quaestor of the palace. The
trials for treason which followed were but a parody of justice ; fear and
hate held sway in Antioch.
all high officials the magistri exercised jurisdiction over those under
their dispositio, not only in matters purely military, but in cases of crime
and even to some extent in connexion with civil proceedings. The lower
commanders also possessed similar jurisdiction, but the details are not
known. Appeal was to the emperor, who delegated the hearing as a rule
to one or other of the highest civil functionaries.
No view of the great imperial hierarchy of officials would be complete
which did not take account of the new title comes. Its application
followed no regular rules. In the earlier Latin it was used somewhat
loosely to designate men who accompanied a provincial governor, and
war
## p. 47 (#77) ##############################################
Comites
47
were attached to his staff (cohors), especially such as held no definite
office connected with administration, whether military or civil. Such
unofficial members of the staff seem especially to have assisted the
governor in legal matters, and in time they were paid, and were
punishable under the laws against extortion in the provinces. In
the early Empire the title comes begins to be applied in no very
precise manner to persons attached to the service of the emperor or of
members of the imperial family; but only slowly did it acquire an official
significance. Inscriptions of the reign of Marcus Aurelius show a change;
as many persons are assigned the title in this one reign as in all the
preceding reigns put together. Probably at this time began the bestowal
of the title on military as well as legal assistants of the emperor, and
soon its possessors were chiefly military officers, who after serving with
the
emperor,
took commands on the frontier. Then from the end of
the reign of Severus Alexander to the early years of Constantine the
description comes Augusti was abolished for human beings, but attached
to divinities. Constantine restored it to its mundane employment,
and used it as an honorific designation for officers of many kinds, who
were not necessarily in the immediate neighbourhood of an Augustus
or Caesar, but were servants of the Augustus or Augusti and Caesars
generally, that is to say might occupy any position in the whole imperial
administration. Constantine seems to have despatched comites, not all
of the same rank or importance, to provinces or parts of the Empire
concerning which he wished to have confidential information. Later they
appear in most districts, and the ordinary rulers are in some degree
subject to them, and they hear appeals and complaints which otherwise
would have been laid before the Praefecti Praetorio. The comites
provinciarum afford a striking illustration of the manner in which offices
were piled up upon offices, in the vain attempt to check corruption and
misgovernment.
In the immediate neighbourhood of the Court the name comes was
attached to four high military officers; the magister equitum and magister
peditum, and the commanders of the domestici equites and the domestici
pedites. Also to four high civil officers, the High Treasurer (comes
sacrarum largitionum) and the controller of the Privy Purse (comes rerum
privatarum); also the quaestor sacri palatii and the magister officiorum.
These high civil functionaries appear as comites consistoriani, being
regular members of the Privy Council (consistorium). Before the end
of Constantine's reign the words connecting the comes with the emperor
and the Caesars drop out, possibly because the imperial rulers were
deemed to be too exalted for any form of companionship. A man is
now not comes Augusti but comes merely or with words added to
identify his duties, as for instance when the district is stated within
which a military or civil officer acts, on whom the appellation has been
bestowed. The former necessary connexion of the comes with the Court
CH, II.
## p. 48 (#78) ##############################################
48
Comites. Patricii.
Consistorium
As a
having ceased, the name was vulgarised and connected with offices of
many kinds, sometimes of a somewhat lowly nature. In many cases it
was not associated with duties at all, but was merely titular.
natural result, comites were classified in three orders of dignity (primi,
secundi, tertii ordinis). Admission to the lowest rank was eagerly coveted
and often purchased, because of the immunity from public burdens which
the boon carried with it. Constantine also adapted the old phrase
patricius to new uses. The earlier emperors, first by special authorisa-
tion, later merely as emperors, had raised families to patrician rank,
but the result was merely a slight increase in social dignity. From
Constantine's time onwards, the dignity was rarely bestowed and then
the patricii became a high and exclusive order of nobility. They had
precedence next to the emperor, with the exception of the consuls actually
in office. Their titles did not descend to their sons. The best known of
the patricii are some of the great generals of barbarian origin, who were
the last hopes of the crumbling Empire. The title lasted long; it was
bestowed on Charles Martel, and was known later in the Byzantine
Empire.
At the centre of the great many-storeyed edifice of the bureaucracy
was the Consistorium or Most Honourable Privy Council. There was deep-
rooted in the Roman mind the idea that neither private citizen nor
official should decide on important affairs without taking the advice of
those best qualified to give it. This feeling gave rise to the great
advising body for the magistrates, the Senate, to the jury who assisted
in criminal affairs, to the bench of counsellors, drawn from his staff,
who gave aid to the provincial governor, and also to the loosely con-
stituted gathering of friends whose opinion the paterfamilias demanded.
To every one of these groups the word consilium was applicable. It
was natural that the early emperors should have their consilium, the
constitution of which gradually became more and more formal and
regular. Hadrian gave a more important place than heretofore to the
jurisconsults among his advisers. For a while a regular paid officer
called consiliarius existed. In Diocletian's time the old name consilium
was supplanted by consistorium. The old advisers of the magistrates
sat on the bench with them and therefore sometimes bore the name
adsessores. But it was impious to be seated in the presence of the new
divinised rulers; and from the practice of standing (consistere) the
Council derived its new name. From Constantine the Council received
a more definite frame. As shewn above, certain officers became comites
consistoriani. But these officers were not always the same after Con-
stantine's reign, and additional persons were from time to time called
in for particular business. The Praefectus Praetorio praesens or in
comitatu would usually attend. The Consistorium was both a Council
of State for the discussion of knotty imperial questions, and also a High
Court of Justice, though it is difficult to determine exactly what cases
## p. 49 (#79) ##############################################
The Roman Senate
49
might be brought before it. Probably that depended on the emperor's
will.
It is necessary that something should be said of the position which
the two capitals, Rome and Constantinople, held in the new organisation,
and of the traces which still hung about Italy of its older historical
privileges. The old Roman Senate was allowed a nominal existence,
with a changed constitution and powers which were rather municipal
than imperial. Of the old offices whose holders once filled the Senate, the
Consulship, Praetorship, and Quaestorship survived, while the Tribunate
and the Aedileship died out. Two consulares ordinarii were named by
the emperor, who would sometimes listen to recommendations from the
senators. The years continued to be denoted by the consular names, and,
to add dignity to the office, the emperor or members of the imperial
family would sometimes hold it. The tenure of the office was brief, and
the consules suffecti during the year were selected by the Senate, with the
emperor's approval. But to be consul suffectus was of little value, even
from a personal point of view. A list of nominations for the Praetorship
a
and Quaestorship was laid by the Praefectus urbi before the emperor for
confirmation. Apart from these old offices, many of the new dignitates
carried with them membership of the ordo senatorius. Ultimately all
officials who were clarissimi, that is to say who possessed the lowest of
the three noble titles, belonged to it. Thus it included not merely the
highest functionaries, as the principal military officers, the civil governors,
and the chiefs of bureaux, but many persons lower down in the hierarchy
of office, for example all the comites. The whole body must have
comprised some thousands. But a man might be a member of the ordo
without being actually a senator. Only the higher functionaries and
priests and the consulares described above, with possibly a few others,
actually took part in the proceedings. The actual Senate and the ordo
were distinguished by high-sounding titles in official documents, and
emperors would occasionally send communications to the Senate about
high matters, and make pretence of asking its advice, out of respect for
its ancient prestige, but its business was for the most part comparatively
petty, and chiefly confined to the immediate needs of the city. But
every now and then it was convenient for the ruler to expose the Senate
to the odium of making unpopular decisions, as in cases of high
treason; and when pretenders rose, or changes of government took place,
the favour of this ancient body still carried with it a certain value.
Among the chief functions of the senators was the supervision of the
supply of panis et circenses, provisions and amusements, for the
capital. The games were chiefly paid for by the holders of the Consul-
ship, Praetorship, and Quaestorship. The obligation resting on the
Praetorship was the most serious, and therefore nomination to this
magistracy took place many years in advance, that the money might
be ready. Naturally these burdens became to a large extent compulsory;
C. MED. H. VOL. I. CH. II.
4
## p. 50 (#80) ##############################################
50
The City of Rome
and so even women who had inherited from a senator had to supply
money for such purposes. Rich men of course exceeded the minimum
largely with a view to display. The old privilege still attached to Rome
of receiving corn from Africa. Diocletian divided Italy into two
districts, of which the northern (annonaria regio) paid tribute for
support of the Court at Milan, while the southern (dioecesis Romae,
or suburbicaria regio) supplied wine, cattle, and some other necessaries
for the capital.
Senators as such and the senatorius ordo were subject to special
taxation, as well as the ordinary taxation of the provinces (with
exception perhaps of the aurum coronarium). The follis senatorius was
a particular tax on senatorial lands, and even a landless senator had to
pay something. The aurum oblaticium already mentioned, was specially
burdensome.
The most important officer connected with the Senate was the
Praefectus urbi. His office had grown steadily in importance during the
whole existence of the Empire. From the time of Constantine its holder
was vir illustris. He was the only high official of the Empire who
continued to wear the toga and not the military garb. He was at the
head of the Senate and was the intermediary between that body and the
emperor. The powers of his office were extraordinary. The members of
the Senate resident in Rome were under his criminal jurisdiction. There
was an appeal to him from all the lesser functionaries who dealt with
legal matters in the first instance, not only in the capital, but in a
district extending 100 miles in every direction. His control spread over
every department of business. He was the chief guardian of public
security and had the cohortes urbanae, as well as the praefectus vigilum
under his command. The provisioning of the city was an important
part of his duty, and the praefectus annonae acted under his orders. A
whole army of officials, many of them bearing titles which would have
been strange to the Republic and early Empire, assisted him in looking
after the water-supply, controlling trade and the markets, and the
traffic on the river, in maintaining the river banks, in taking account of
the property of senators and in many other departments of affairs. It
is difficult to say how far his position was affected by the presence in the
city of a Corrector, and a Vicarius of the Praefectus Praetorio. The
material welfare of Rome was at least abundantly cared for by the
new monarchy. The city had already grown accustomed to the loss
of dignity caused by the residence of the emperors in cities more
convenient for the purposes of government. But the foundation of
Constantinople must have been a heavy blow. The institutions of the
old Rome were to a great extent copied in the new. There was a Senate
subject to the same obligations as in Rome. Most of the magistracies
were repeated. But until 359 no Praefectus urbi seems to have existed
at Constantinople. Elaborate arrangements were made for placing the
## p. 51 (#81) ##############################################
The Subjects of the Empire
51
new city on a level with the old as regards tributes of corn, wine, and
other necessaries from the provinces. The more frequent presence of
the ruler gave to the new capital a brilliance which the old must have
envied.
So far the machinery of the new government in its several parts has
been described. We must now consider in outline what was its total
effect upon the inhabitants of the Empire. The inability of the ruler to
assure good government to his subjects was made conspicuous by the
frequent creation of new offices, whose object was to curb the corruption
of the old. The multiplication of the functionaries in close touch with
the population rendered oppression more certain and less punishable
than ever.
Lactantius declares, with pardonable exaggeration, that the
number of those who lived on the taxes was as great as the number who
paid them. The evidence of official rapacity is abundant. The laws
thundered against it in vain. Oftentimes it happened that illegitimate
.
exactions were legalised in the empty hope of keeping them within
bounds. Penalties expressed in laws were plain enough and numerous
enough. For corruption in a province not only the governor but his
whole officium were liable to make heavy recompense. And the compara-
tive powerlessness of the governor is shewn by the fact that the officium
is more heavily mulcted than its head. But a down-trodden people
rarely will or can bring legal proof against its oppressors. Nothing
but extensive arbitrary dismissal and punishment of his servants by
the emperor, without insistence on forms of law, would have met the
evil. As it was, corruption reigned through the Empire with little
check, and the illicit gains of the emperor's servants added to the strain
imposed by the heavy imperial taxation. Thus the benefit which the
provincials had at first received by the substitution of Imperial for
Republican government was more than swept away. Their absorption
into the Roman polity on terms of equality with their conquerors,
brought with it degradation and ruin.
During the fourth century that extraordinary developinent was
completed whereby society was reorganised by a demarcation of classes
so rigid that it became extremely difficult for any man to escape from
that condition of life into which he was born. In the main, but not
altogether, this result was brought about by the fiscal system. When
the local Senates or their leaders were made responsible for producing to
the government the quota of taxation imposed on their districts, it
became necessary to prevent the members (decuriones or curiales) from
escaping their obligations by passing into another path of life, and also
to compel the sons to walk in their fathers' footsteps. But the main-
tenance of the local ordo was necessary also from the local as well as
the imperial point of view. The magistracies involved compulsory as
well as voluntary payments for local objects, and therefore those capable
of filling them must be thrust into them by force if need were. Every
CH. II.
4-2
## p. 52 (#82) ##############################################
52
Curiales. Collegia
kind of magistracy in every town of the Empire, and every official position
in connexion with any corporate body, whether priestly college or trade
guild or religious guild, brought with it expenditure for the benefit of
the community, and on this, in great part, the ordinary life of every
town depended. The Theodosian Code shews that the absconding
decurio was in the end treated as a runaway slave ; five gold pieces
were given to any one who would haul him back to his duties.
In time the members also of all or nearly all professional corporations
(collegia or corpora) were held to duties by the State, and the burden of
them descended from father to son. The evolution by which these free
unions for holding together in a social brotherhood all those who
followed a particular occupation were turned into bodies with the stamp
of caste upon them, is to be traced with difficulty in the extant inscrip-
tions and the legal literature. Here as everywhere the fiscal system
instituted by Diocletian was a powerful agent. A large part of the
natural fruits of the earth passed into the hands of government, and
a vast host of assistants was needed for transport and distribution. And
the organisation for maintaining the food-supply at Rome and Con-
stantinople became more and more elaborate. For the annona alone
many corporations had to give service, in most cases easily divined from
their names, as navicularii, frumentarii, mercatores, olearii, suarii, pecuarii,
pistores, boarii, porcinarii and numerous others. Similar bodies were con-
nected with public works, with police functions, as the extinction of fires,
with government operations of numerous kinds, in the mints, the mines,
the factories for textiles and arms and so on. In the early Empire the
service rendered to the State was not compulsory, and partly by rewards,
such as immunity from taxation, partly by pay, the government was
willingly served. But in time the burdens became intolerable. State
officers ultimately controlled the minutest details connected with these
corporations. And the tasks imposed did not entirely proceed from the
imperial departments. The curiales of the towns could enforce assistance
from the local collegia within their boundaries. And the tentacles of the
great octopus of the central government were spread over the provinces.
In the fourth and later centuries the restrictions on the freedom of these
corporations were extraordinarily oppressive. Egress from inherited
membership was inhibited by government except in rare instances.
Ingress, as into the class of curiales, was, directly or indirectly, com-
pulsory. The colleges differed greatly in dignity. In some, as in that
of the navicularii, even senators might be concerned, and office-holders
might obtain, among their rewards, the rank of Roman knight. On the
other hand, the bakers (pistores) approached near the condition of
slavery. Marriage, for instance, outside their own circle was forbidden,
whereas, in other cases, it was only rendered difficult. Property which
had once become subject to the duties required of a collegium could
hardly be released. The end was that collegiati or corporati all over the
1
1
## p. 53 (#83) ##############################################
Demarcation of Classes
53
Empire took any method they could find of escaping from their servitude,
and the law's severest punishments could not check the movement. If we
may believe some late writers, thousands of citizens found life in barbarian
lands more tolerable than in the Roman Empire.
The status of other classes in the community also tended to become
hereditary. This was the case with the officiales and the soldiers, though
here compulsion was not so severe. But the tillers of the ground (coloni)
were more hardly treated than any other class. It became impossible
for them, without breach of the law, to tear themselves away from the
soil of the locality within which they were born. The evolution of this
peculiar form of serfdom, which existed for the purposes of the State, is
difficult to trace. Many causes contributed to its growth and final
establishment, as the extension of large private and especially of vast
imperial domains, the imitation of the German half-free land-tenure
when barbarians were settled as laeti or inquilini within the Empire, the
influence of Egyptian and other Eastern land-customs, but above all the
drastic changes in the imperial imposts which Diocletian introduced.
The cultivator's principal end in life was to insure a contribution of
natural products for the revenue. Hence it was a necessity to chain him
to the ground, and in the law-books adscripticius is the commonest title
for him. The details of the scheme of taxation, given above, shew how
it must have tended to diminish population, for every additional person,
,
,
even a slave, increased the contribution which each holding must pay.
The owners of the land were in the first instance responsible, but the
burdens of course fell ultimately and in the main on the agricultural
workers
. The temporary loss of provinces to the invader, the failure of
harvest in any part of the Empire, the economic effects of pestilence, and
other accidents, all led to greater sacrifices on the part of those provinces
which were not themselves affected. The exactions became heavier and
heavier, the punishments for attempts to escape from duty more and more
severe, and yet flight and disappearance of coloni took place on a large
scale. By the end of the fourth century it was possible for lawyers to
say
of this unhappy class that they were almost in the condition of slaves,
and a century or so later that the distinction between them and slaves
no longer existed ; that they were slaves of the land itself on which they
were born.
In many other ways, under the new monarchy, the citizens of the
,
Empire were treated with glaring inequality. The gradations of official
station were almost as important in the general life of the Empire as they
now are in China, and they were reflected in titular phrases, some of
which have been given above. Etiquette became most complicated.
Even the emperor was bound to exalted forms of address in his com-
munications with his servants or with groups of persons within his
Empire. “Your sublimity,” “Your magnificence,” “Your loftiness,"
"
were common salutations for the greater officers. The ruler did not
CH. 11.
## p. 54 (#84) ##############################################
54
Demarcation of Classes
disdain to employ the title parens in addressing some of them. The
innumerable new titles which the Empire had invented were highly
valued and much paraded by their possessors, even the titles of offices in
the municipalities. Great hardship must have been caused to the lower
ranks of the taxpayers by the extensive relief from taxation which was
accorded to hosts of men in the service of the government (nominal or
real) as part payment for the duties which they performed or were
supposed to perform. With these immunities, as with everything else in
the Empire, there was much corrupt dealing. The criminal law became
a great respecter of persons. Not only was the jurisdiction over the
upper classes separated at many points from that over the lower, but
the lower were subject to punishments from which the upper were free.
Gradually the Empire drifted farther and farther away from the old
Republican principle, that crimes as a rule are to be punished in the
same way, whoever among the citizens commits them. A sharp distinc-
tion was drawn between the “more honourable” (honestiores) and the
“more humble” (humiliores or plebeii). The former included the
imperial ordo senatorius, the equites, the soldier-class generally and
veterans, and the local senators (decuriones). The honestiores could not
be executed without the emperor's sanction, and if executed, were exempt
from crucifixion (a form of punishment altogether abolished by the
Christian emperors). They could not be sentenced to penal servitude in
mines or elsewhere. Nor could they be tortured in the course of criminal
proceedings, excepting for treason, magic and forgery.
A general survey of Roman government in the fourth and later
centuries undoubtedly leaves a strong impression of injustice, inequality,
and corruption leading fast to ruin. But some parts of the Empire did
maintain a fair standard of prosperity even to the verge of the general
collapse. The two greatest problems in history, how to account for the
rise of Rome and how to account for her fall, never have been, perhaps
never will be, thoroughly solved.
>
## p. 55 (#85) ##############################################
55
CHAPTER III.
CONSTANTINE'S SUCCESSORS TO JOVIAN: AND THE
STRUGGLE WITH PERSIA.
DEATH had surprised Constantine when preparing to meet Persian
aggression on the Eastern frontier and it seems certain that the
Emperor had made no final provision for the succession to the throne,
though later writers profess to know of a will wbich parcelled out the
Roman world among the members of his family. During his lifetime
his three sons had been created Caesars and while for his nephew
Hanniballianus he had fashioned a kingdom in Asia, to his nephew
Delmatius had been assigned the Ripa Gothica. Possibly we are to see
in these latter appointments an attempt to satisfy discontent at Court;
it may be that Optatus and Ablabius, espousing the cause of a younger
branch of the imperial stock, had forced Constantine's hand and that it
was for this interference that they afterwards paid the penalty of their
lives. But it would seem a more probable suggestion that the Persian
danger was thought to demand an older and more experienced governor
than Constantius, while the boy Constans was deemed unequal to
withstand the Goths in the north. At least the plan would appear to
have been in substance that of a threefold division of spheres itself
suggested by administrative necessity; Constantine was true to the
principle of Diocletian, and it was only a superficial view which saw in
this devolution of the central power a partition of the Roman Empire'.
Thus on the Emperor's death there followed an interregnum of nearly
four months. Constantine had, however, been successful in inspiring his
soldiers with his own dynastic views; they feared new tumult and
internal struggle and in face of the twenty year old Constantius felt
themselves to be the masters. The armies agreed that they would have
none but the sons of Constantine to rule over them, and at one blow
they murdered all the other relatives of the dead Emperor save only the
child Julian and Gallus the future Caesar; in the latter's case men
looked to his own ill health to spare the executioner. At the same
time perished Optatus and Ablabius. On 9 September 337 Constantius,
Constantine II and Constans each assumed the title of Augustus as
joint Emperors.
1 Cf. Victor, Caes. XXXIX. 30, quasi partito imperio.
CH. II.
## p. 56 (#86) ##############################################
56
The Sons of Constantine
[337–338
His contemporaries were unable to agree how far Constantius was
to be held responsible for this assassination. He alone of the sons of
Constantine was present in the capital, it was he who stood to gain
most by the deed, the property of the victims fell into his hands, while
it was said that he himself regarded his ill-success in war and his
childlessness as Heaven's punishment and that this murder was one of
the three sins which he regretted on his death-bed. In later times some,
though considering the slaughter as directly inspired by the Emperor,
have yet held him justified and have viewed him as the victim of
a tragic necessity of state. Certainty is impossible but the circumstances
suggest that inaction and not participation is the true charge against
Constantius; the army. which made and unmade emperors was determined
that there should be no rival to question their choice. The massacre
had fatal consequences; it was the seed from which sprang Julian's
mistrust and ill-will : in a panegyric written for the Emperor's eye he
might admit the plea of compulsion, but the deep-seated conviction
remained that he was left an orphan through his cousin's crime.
In the summer of 338 the new rulers assembled in Pannonia (or
possibly at Viminacium in Dacia, not far from the Pannonian frontier)
to determine their spheres of government. According to their father's
division, it would seem, Spain, Britain, and the two Gauls fell to
Constantine : the two Italies, Africa, Illyricum and Thrace were sub-
jected to Constans, while southward from the Propontis, Asia and the
Orient with Pontus and Egypt were entrusted to Constantius. It was
thus to Constantius that, on the death of Hanniballianus, Armenia and
the neighbouring allied tribes naturally passed, but with this addition
the eastern Augustus appears to have remained content. The whole of
the territory subject to Delmatius, i. e. the Ripa Gothica which probably
comprised Dacia, Moesia I and II, and Scythia (perhaps even Pannonia
and Noricum) went to swell the share of Constans who was now but
fifteen years of age? . But though both the old and the new Rome were
thus in the hands of the most youthful of the three emperors, the balance
of actual power still seemed heavily weighted in favour of Constantine,
the ruler of the West; indeed, he appears to have assumed the position
of guardian over his younger brother. It may be difficult to account
for the moderation of Constantius, but Julian points out that a war
with Persia was imminent, the army was disorganised, and the pre-
parations for the campaign insufficient; domestic peace was the Empire's
great need, while Constantius himself really strengthened his own position
by renouncing further claims : to widen his sphere of government might
have only served to limit his moral authority. Further he was perhaps
unwilling to demand for himself a capital in which his kinsmen had been
1 In his eighteenth year, Eutrop. x. 9; cf. Seeck, Zeitschrift für Numismatik,
XVII. pp. 39 sqq.
## p. 57 (#87) ##############################################
338]
The War with Persia
57
so recently murdered : his self-denial should prove his innocence! . During
the next thirteen years three great and more or less independent interests
absorbed the energies of Constantius : the welfare and doctrine of the
Christian Church”, the long drawn and largely ineffective struggle
against Persia and lastly the assertion and maintenance of his personal
influence in the affairs of the West.
It was to Asia that Constantius hastened after his meeting with his
co-rulers. Before his arrival Nisibis had successfully withstood a Persian
siege (autumn 337 or spring 338), and the Emperor at once made
strenuous efforts to restore order and discipline among the Roman forces.
Profiting by his previous experience he organised a troop of mail-clad
horsemen after the Persian model—the wonder of the time—and raised
recruits both for the cavalry and infantry regiments; he demanded
extraordinary contributions from the eastern provinces, enlarged the
river flotillas and generally made his preparations for rendering effective
resistance to Persian attacks. The history of this border warfare is
a tangled tale and our information scanty and fragmentary. In
Armenia the fugitive king and those nobles who with him were loyal
to Rome were restored to their country, but for the rest the campaigns
resolved themselves in the main into the successive forays across
the frontier of Persian or Roman troops. Though Ludi Persici
(13–17 May) were founded, though court orators could claim that the
Emperor had frequently crossed the Tigris, had raised fortresses on its
banks and laid waste the enemy's territory with fire and sword, yet the
lasting results of these campaigns were sadly to seek : now an Arab
tribe would be induced to make common cause with Rome (as in 338)
and to harry the foe, now a Persian town would be captured and its
inhabitants transported and settled within the Empire, but it was rare
indeed for the armies of both powers to meet face to face in the open
field. Constantius persistently declined to take the aggressive; he
hesitated to risk any great engagement which even if successful might
entail a heavy loss in men whom he could ill afford to spare. Of one
battle alone have we any detailed account. Sapor had collected a vast
army; conscripts of all ages were enlisted, while neighbouring tribesmen
served for Persian gold. In three divisions the host crossed the Tigris
and by the Emperor's orders the frontier guards did not dispute the
passage. The Persians occupied an entrenched camp at Hileia or Ellia
near Singara, while a distance of some 150 stades lay between them and
the Roman army. Even on Sapor's advance Constantius true to his
defensive policy awaited the enemy's attack; it may be, as Libanius
asserts, that Rome's best troops were absent at the time. Beneath their
fortifications the Persians had posted their splendid mailed cavalry
1 For the above cf. Victor, Epit. xli. 20; Vita Artemii Martyris, AS. Boll.
Tom. viii. Oct. 20; Eutyches, Chron. dlex. Ol. 279; Seeck, Zeits. f. Numismatik, 1. c.
3 See Chap. v.
a
CH. III.
## p. 58 (#88) ##############################################
58
Reign of Constans
(338–360
(cataphracti) and upon the ramparts archers were stationed. On a mid-
summer morning, probably in the year 344 (possibly 348), the struggle
began. At midday the Persians feigned flight in the direction of their
camp, hoping that thus their horsemen would charge upon an enemy
disorganised by long pursuit. It was already evening when the Romans
drew near the fortifications. Constantius gave orders to halt until the
dawn of the new day; but the burning heat of the sun had caused
a raging thirst, the springs lay within the Persian camp and the troops
with little experience of their Emperor's generalship refused to obey his
commands and resumed the attack. Clubbing the enemy's cavalry, they
stormed the palisades. Sapor Aled for his life to the Tigris, while the
heir to his throne was captured and put to death. As night fell, the
victors turned to plunder and excess, and under cover of the darkness the
Persian fugitives re-formed and won back their camp. But success
came too late; their confidence was broken and with the morning the
retreat began.
Turning to the history of the West after the meeting of the Augusti
in 338, it would appear that Constantine forthwith claimed an authority
superior to that of his co-rulers'; he even legislated for Africa although
this province fell within the jurisdiction of Constans. The latter, how-
ever, soon asserted his complete independence of his elder brother and
in autumn (338? ) after a victory on the Danube assumed the title of
Sarmaticus. At this time (339) he probably sought to enlist the support
of Constantius, surrendering to the latter Thrace and Constantinople? .
Disappointed of his hopes, it would seem that the ruler of the West now
demanded for himself both Italy and Africa. Early in 340 he suddenly
crossed the Alps and at Aquileia rashly engaged the advanced guard of
Constans who had marched from Naissus in Dacia, where news had
reached him of his brother's attack. Constantine falling into an ambush
perished, and Constans was now master of Britain, Spain and the Gauls
(before 9 April 340). He proved himself a terror to the barbarians
and a general of untiring energy who travelled incessantly, making light
of extremes of heat and cold. In 341 and 342 he drove back an
inroad of the Franks and compelled that restless tribe “for whom
inaction was a confession of weakness to conclude a peace: he dis-
regarded the perils of the English Channel in winter, and in January 343
crossed from Boulogne to Britain, perhaps to repel the Picts and Scots.
His rule is admitted to have been at the outset vigorous and just, but
the promise of his early years was not maintained : his exactions grew
more intolerable, his private vices more shameless, while his favourites
were allowed to violate the laws with impunity. It would seem, however,
to have been his unconcealed contempt for the army which caused his
1 This is an inference drawn from his coinage.
2 Cf. the language of the Vita Artemii, 1. ο. ο δε Κωνστάντιος. . . το της εφας ασπά-
ζεται μέρος και τότε. . . κ. τ. λ.
>
## p. 59 (#89) ##############################################
350–352]
Death of Constans. Vetranio
59
.
a
fall. A party at Court conspired with Marcellinus, Count of the sacred
largesses, and Magnentius, commander of the picked corps of Joviani and
Herculeani, to secure his overthrow. Despite his Roman name Magnentius
was a barbarian: his father had been a slave and subsequently a freedman
in the service of Constantine. While at Augustodunum, during the
absence of the Emperor on a hunting expedition, Marcellinus on the
pretext of a banquet in honour of his son's birthday feasted the military
leaders (18 January 350); wine had fowed freely and the night was
already far advanced, when Magnentius suddenly appeared among the
revellers, clad in the purple. He was straightway acclaimed Augustus :
the rumour spread: folk from the country-side poured into the city:
Illyrian horsemen who had been drafted into the Gallic regiments joined
their comrades, while the officers hardly knowing what was afoot were
carried by the tide of popular enthusiasm into the usurper's camp.
Constans fled for Spain and at the foot of the Pyrenees by the small
frontier fortress of Helene was murdered by Gaiso, the barbarian emissary
of Magnentius. The news of his brother's death reached Constantius
when the winter was almost over, but true to his principle never to
sacrifice the Empire to his own personal advantage he remained in the
East, providing for its safety during his absence and appointing
Lucillianus to be commander-in-chief.
The hardships and oppression which the provinces had suffered under
Constans were turned by Magnentius to good account. A month after
his usurpation Italy had joined him and Africa was not slow to follow.
The army of Illyricum was wavering in its fidelity when, upon the advice
of Constantia sister of Constantius, Vetranio, magister peditum of the
forces on the Danube, allowed himself to be acclaimed Emperor
(1 March, at Mursa or Sirmium) and immediately appealed for help to
Constantius. The latter recognised the usurper, sent Vetranio a diadem
and gave orders that he should be supported by the troops on the
Pannonian frontier. Meanwhile in Rome, the elect of the mob, Flavius
Popilius Nepotianus, cousin of Constantius, enjoyed a brief and bloody
reign of some 28 days until, through the treachery of a senator, he fell
into the hands of the soldiers of Magnentius, led by Marcellinus the
newly appointed magister officiorum.
In the East, Nisibis was besieged for the third and last time:
Sapor's object was, it would seem, permanently to settle a Persian colony
within the city. The siege was pressed with unexampled energy; the
Mygdonius was turned from its course, and thus upon an artificial lake
the fleet plied its rams but without effect. At length under the weight
of the waters part of the city wall collapsed; cavalry and elephants
charged to storm the breach, but the huge beasts turned in flight and
broke the lines of the assailants. A new wall rose behind the old, and
though four months had passed, Jacobus, Bishop of Nisibis, never lost
heart. Then Sapor learned that the Massagetae were invading his own
CH. III.
## p. 60 (#90) ##############################################
60
Gallus Caesar
(350–351
a
country and slowly the Persian host withdrew. For a time the Eastern
frontier was at peace (A. D. 350).
In the West while Magnentius sought to win the recognition of
Constantius, Vetranio played a waiting game. At last, the historians
tell us, the Illyrian Emperor broke his promises and made his peace
with Magnentius. A common embassy sought Constantius : let him
give Magnentius his sister Constantia to wife, and himself wed the
daughter of Magnentius. Constantius wavered, but rejected the pro-
posals and marched towards Sardica. Vetranio held the
Vetranio held the pass of Succi -
the Iron Gate of later times--but on the arrival of the Emperor gave
way before him. In Naissus, or as others say in Sirmium, the two
Emperors mounted a rostrum and Constantius harangued the troops,
appealing to them to avenge the death of the son of the great
Constantine. The army hailed Constantius alone as Augustus and
Vetranio sought for pardon. The Emperor treated the usurper with
great respect and accorded him on his retirement to Prusa in Bithynia
a handsome pension until his death six years later. Such is the story,
but it can hardly fail to arouse suspicion. The greatest blot on the
character of Constantius is his ferocity when once he fancied his
superiority threatened, and here was both treason and treachery, for
power had been stolen from him by a trick. All difficulties are removed
if Vetranio throughout never ceased to support Constantius, even though
the Emperor may have doubted his loyalty for a time when he heard
that the prudent general had anticipated any action on the part of
Magnentius by himself seizing the key-position, the pass of Succi. It is
obvious that their secret was worth keeping : it is ill to play with armies
as Constantius and Vetranio had done; while the clemency of an outraged
sovereign offered a fair theme to the panegyrists of the Emperor.
Marching against one usurper in the West, Constantius was anxious
to secure the East to the dynasty of Constantine: the recent success of
Lucillianus may have appeared dangerously complete. The Emperor's
nephew Gallus had, it would seem, for some time followed the Court,
and while at Sirmium Constantius determined to create him Caesar.
At the same time (15 March 351) his name was changed into Flavius
Claudius Constantius, he was married to Constantia and became frater
Augusti; forthwith the prince and his wife started for Antioch.
Meanwhile Magnentius had not been idle; he had raised huge sums
of money in Gaul, while Franks, Saxons and Germans trooped to the
support of their fellow-countryman, whose army now outnumbered
that of Constantius. The latter however took the offensive in the
spring of 351 and uniting Vetranio's troops with his own marched
towards the Alpine passes. An ambush of Magnentius posted in the
defiles of Atrans inflicted severe loss on his advance guard and the
Emperor was compelled to withdraw. Elated by this success, the
usurper now occupied Pannonia and passing Poetovio made for Sirmium.
## p. 61 (#91) ##############################################
351-353 ]
The Battle of Mursa
61
Throughout his reign the policy of Constantius was marked by an
anxious desire to husband the military forces of the Empire, and even
now he was ready to compromise and to avoid the fearful struggle between
the armies of Gaul and Illyricum. He despatched Philippus, offering to
acknowledge Magnentius as co-Augustus in the West, if he would
abandon any claim to Italy. The ambassador was detained, but his
proposals after some delay rejected; the usurper was so certain of victory
that his
envoy the Senator Titianus could even counsel Constantius to
abdicate. An attack of Magnentius on Siscia was repulsed and an effort
to cross the Save was also unsuccessful. Constantius then retired,
preferring to await the enemy in open country where he could turn to
the best advantage his superiority in cavalry. At Cibalae the army
took up an entrenched position, while Magnentius advanced on Sirmium,
hoping to meet with no resistance. Foiled in this he marched to Mursa
in the rear of Constantius' army. The latter was forced to relieve the
town and here on 28 September the decisive battle was fought. Behind
Constantius flowed the Danube and on his right the Drave: for him
flight must mean destruction. On both wings he posted mounted
archers and in the forefront the mailed cavalry (cataphracti) which he had
himself raised after the Persian model ; in the centre the heavy armed
infantry were stationed and in the rear the bowmen and slingers. Before
the struggle Silvanus with his horsemen deserted Magnentius. From
late afternoon till far into the night the battle raged; the cavalry of
Constantius routed the enemy's right wing and this threw the whole line
into confusion. Magnentius fled but Marcellinus continued the fight; the
Gauls refused to acknowledge defeat; some few escaped through the
darkness, but thousands were driven into the river or cut down
upon
the
plain. It is said that Magnentius lost 24,000 men, Constantius 30,000+.
The
usurper took refuge in Aquileia and garrisoned the passes of the
Alps; although his overtures were rejected and though his schemes to
murder the Caesar Gallus and thus to raise difficulties for Constantius in
the East were foiled, yet the exhaustion of his enemies and the approach
of winter made pursuit impossible. Constantius forthwith proclaimed
an amnesty for all the adherents of Magnentius except only those
immediately implicated in his brother's murder; many deserted the
pretender and escaped by sea to the victor. In the following year (352),
Constantius forced the passes of the Julian Alps, while his feet dominated
the Po, Sicily and Africa. At the news Magnentius fled to Gaul and
by November the Emperor was already in Milan, abrogating all the
fugitive's measures. In 353 Constantius crossed the Cottian Alps and
at length, three years and a half after his assumption of the purple,
Magnentius was surrounded in Lyons by his own troops, and finding his
* Zonaras states that Constantius had 80,000 men, Magnentius 36,000. Seeck
bas suggested that at this time Magnentius may have been besieging Sirmium.
CH. III.
## p. 62 (#92) ##############################################
62
Magnentius
(350—353
cause hopeless committed suicide, while his Caesar Decentius also perished
by his own hand.
The importance and significance of this unsuccessful bid for empire
may easily be overlooked. A Roman civil official at the head of some
discontented spirits at the Court hatches a plot against his sovereign,
and in order to win the support of the army alienated by the contempt
of Constans induces a barbarian general to declare himself Emperor.
But though the Roman world was willing enough that Germans should
fight the Empire's battles in their defence, they were not prepared to see
another Maximin upon the throne; they refused to be reconciled to
Magnentius even by the admitted justice of his rule. The lesson of his
failure was well learned: the barbarian Arbogast caused not himself but
the Roman civilian Eugenius to be elected Emperor. Further, while in
this struggle the eastern and western halves of the Empire are seen
falling naturally and almost unconsciously asunder, the most powerful
force working for unity is the dynastic sentiment: Constantius claims
support as the legitimate successor of the house of Constantine and as
the avenger of the death of his son. His claim is not merely as the
chosen of senate or army but far more as the rightful heir to the throne.
This struggle throws into prominence the growth of the hereditary
principle and the warmth of the response which it could evoke from the
sympathies of the subjects of the Empire. No student of the history
of the fourth century can indeed afford to neglect the battle of Mursa ;
contemporaries were staggered at the appalling loss of life, for while
it is said that the Roman dead numbered 40,000 at Hadrianople
(A. D. 378), at Mursa 54,000 are reported to have been slain. It is
hardly too much to say that the defence of the Empire in the East was
crippled by this blow, and it must have been largely through the
slaughter at Mursa that Constantius was forced to make his fatal demand
that the troops of Gaul should march against Persia. Neither must the
military significance of the battle be forgotten : it lies in the fact that
this was the first victory of the newly formed heavy cavalry, and the
result of the impact of their charge, which carried all before it, showed
that it was no longer the legionary who was to play the most important
part in the campaigns of the future.
Meanwhile in Antioch Gallus was ruling as an oriental despot; there
was in his nature a strain of savagery, and his appointment as Caesar
seems to have awakened within him a brutal lust for a naked display of
unrestrained authority. His passions were only fed by the violence of
Constantia. The unsuccessful plot of Magnentius to assassinate the
Caesar aroused the latter's suspicions and a reign of terror began;
judicial procedure was disregarded and informers honoured, men were
condemned to death without trial and the members of the city council
imprisoned; when the populace complained of scarcity it was suggested
that the responsibility lay with Theophilus governor of Syria: the mob
:
## p. 63 (#93) ##############################################
332–354]
Fall of Gallus. Julian's Youth
63
took the hint and the governor perished. The feeling of insecurity was
rendered more intense by a rising among the Jews, who declared a certain
Patricius their King, and by the raids of Saracens and Isaurians upon
the country-side. The loyalty of the East was jeopardized. The reports
of Thalassius, the praetorian praefect, and of Barbatio, the Caesar's
Count of the guard, at length moved Constantius to action. On the
death of Thalassius (winter 353-4) Domitian was sent to Antioch as
his successor, directions being given him that Gallus was to be persuaded
to visit the Emperor in the West. The praefect's studied discourtesy
and overbearing behaviour enraged the Caesar; Domitian was thrown
into prison and the populace responding to the appeal of Gallus tore in
pieces both the praefect and Montius the quaestor of the palace. The
trials for treason which followed were but a parody of justice ; fear and
hate held sway in Antioch.
