LATE ROMAN EMPIRE: 3rd-6th C. AD
DIOCLETIAN 284-305 TETRARCHY – four capitals,
none at Rome
Motive: military defense of frontiers & orderly succession
Four rulers: two Augusti
(Diocletian = Senior Augustus)
two
Caesars (successors)
Four
Prefectures and their capitals:
GAUL
ITALY ILLYRICUM
ASIA
Capitals: | | |
Trier
Milan
Sirmium Nicomedia
(near Belgrade)
(on Bosphorus Straits
near
Byzantium)
Rulers: West
East
Senior
Caesar Augustus
Augustus Caesar
Constantius Maximian
Diocletian Maximianus
|
| (abdicate
in 305 AD)
Son
Son
Constantine Maxentius
chosen
by chosen by
troops in Gaul army in Rome
306- 312
battle for succession among all of above, except Diocletian
308 Licinius chosen Augustus in West by Diocletian
312 BATTLE OF MILVIAN BRIDGE
Constantine defeats Maxentius
conversion to Christianity: sees cross in sun, & letters
IHS =
“In Hoc Signo Vinces” = “In this sign you will win.”
313
EDICT OF MILAN: toleration
of Christians (but Roman religion remains)
323 BATTLE OF ADRIANOPLE: defeat of Licinius
324 324
MOVE OF CAPITAL TO BYZANTIUM (CONSTANTINOPLE)
325 COUNCIL of NICEA 1st ecumenical (world) council
of Christianity
called by Constantine, acting as head of church (Caesaropapism)
- N NICENE CREED drawn up as basic statement of Christian
orthodoxy
especialy doctrine of Trinity: son is of “the same
substance as the Father”
ARIAN
HERESY condemned (Christ as son, lesser being than Father)
Arian heretics expelled from Empire; convert German tribes
DATE
OF EASTER fixed (after full moon after vernal equinox)
EMPEROR THEODOSIUS 380 Christianity
becomes official religion of Empire
410 SACK OF ROME BY ALARIC THE VISIGOTH (Visigoths settle in Spain)
ST. AUGUSTINE, BISHOP OF HIPPO (North Africa)
writes The City of God to explain Sack of Rome
430 VANDAL KINGDOM OF NORTH AFRICA: conquest of
Carthage
452
ATTLILA THE HUN invades Italy
Pope Leo I negotiates to save Rome from
sack
476
DEPOSITION OF ROMULUS “last Emperor” in the West
by ODOACER = warlord of mixed
German/Hun ancestry
GERMANIC KINGDOMS: “SUCCESSOR STATES” TO ROMAN EMPIRE IN WEST
493-526 OSTROGOTHIC KINGDOM:
first of Germanic “successor states”
includes all of Italy, Rome
THEODORIC THE OSTROGOTH
establishes capital at RAVENNA
EMPEROR
JUSTINIAN’S RECONQUEST OF ITALY 527-565
534
conquers Vandal Kingdom of North Africa
535-554 Italian War: against Ostrogoths, devastates Italy
529
JUSTINIAN’S CODE: CORPUS IURIS CIVILIS in 2 volumes
Imperial codification of Roman Law; crucial legacy to
European west
HAGIA SOPHIA (Santa Sophia or Holy Wisdom): built in Constantinople
greatest Christian church until Renaissance
LOMBARD CONQUEST OF ITALY 568-774
(do not conquer city of Rome)
military
victory due to exhaustion of Roman Italy, plague, famine,
following Justinian's wars Capital
in Pavia (northern Italy)
Byzantine capital in Ravenna (not conquered until
750’s)
TRANSITION TO CHRISTIAN PAPAL ROME
OF MIDDLE AGES
(“second Rome” or Roma nera = black Rome, because
clergy wears black)
East:
CAESAROPAPISM
-- "Caesar acts as Pope" --
Church as department of state;
Emperor calls church councils, decides doctrinal disputes
West: PAPAL PRIMACY Roman church
resists Imperial control from East,
evolve doctrine of papal primacy within Church
Pope as primus inter pares (first among equal Bishops)
APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION from St. Peter
Scriptural foundation of Peter's authority:
Matt l6:l8 "Thou art Peter & upon this rock I will build
my church."
gatekeeper
holds "keys of kingdom"
body in Vatican = relic, pilgrimage site; pallium placed
on tomb
DONATION OF CONSTANTINE:
alleged letter of Constantine to Pope Silvester I, dated 3l5:
Imperial power in Rome & Western provinces of Empire granted to
Pope
"official" basis for papal claims of secular or temporal
power
probably 8th C forgery: circa 750, papal tension with Byzantium,
Lombards leads to Franco-Papal alliance, model is the actual
Donation of Pepin: Frankish King, father of Charlemagne conquers
central
Italy for Pope from Lombards, makes grant of conquered land to Pope;
this is basis of medieval Papal States or “Patrimony of St.
Peter”
POPE GREGORY THE GREAT: "Father
of Medieval Papacy" (540-604)
noble Roman family; lives through Justinian's wars and
Lombard invasion;
prefect of City of Rome; enters monastery; ambassador
to Constantinople
Pope 590-604: directs civil administration of
Rome: food supplies,
military defense, courts; church revenues for hospitals,
schools
missionary activities for northern Europe, England: sends mission in
597 Augustine converts Anglo-Saxons (not same as Augustine of Hippo)
writings: Miracles of Italian Fathers, Dialogues,
saints' lives eg Benedict,
miracle stories; Book of Pastoral Care - Bishops duties
see Life of
Pope Gregory from medieval Golden Legend in xerox packet
FRANCO PAPAL ALLIANCE: Popes call on Frankish
Kings of Gaul (Germanic tribe)
CHARLEMAGNE: 800 AD crowned Emperor of Romans in St. Peters on
Christmas Day