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Main article: Roman
Empire
Diocletian
In 284 AD, Diocletian was hailed as Imperator by the eastern legions. Diocletian
healed the empire from the crisis, by political and economic shifts. A new form
of government was established: the Tetrarchy.
The Empire was divided among four emperors, two in the West and two in the East.
The first tetrarchs were Diocletian (in the East), Maximian (in
the West), and two junior emperors, Galerius (in
the East) and Flavius
Constantius (in the West). To
adjust the economy, Diocletian made several tax reforms.[127]
Diocletian expelled the Persians who plundered Syria and
conquered some barbarian tribes with Maximian. He adopted many behaviors of
Eastern monarchs, like wearing pearls and golden sandals and robes. Anyone in
presence of the emperor had now to prostrate himself[128] –
a common act in the East, but never practiced in Rome before. Diocletian did not
use a disguised form of Republic, as the other emperors since Augustushad
done.[129]
Diocletian was also responsible for a significant Christian persecution. In 303
he and Galerius started
the persecution and ordered the destruction of all the Christian churches and
scripts and forbade Christian worship.[130]
Diocletian abdicated in 305 AD together with Maximian,
thus, he was the first Roman emperor to resign. His reign ended the traditional
form of imperial rule, the Principate (from princeps)
and started the Dominate(from
Dominus, "Master")
Constantine and
Christianity
Constantine assumed the empire as
a tetrarch in 306. He conducted many wars against the other tetrarchs. Firstly
he defeated Maxentius in
312. In 313, he issued the Edict
of Milan, which granted liberty for Christians to profess their religion.[131] Constantine
was converted to Christianity, enforcing the Christian faith. Therefore, he
began the Christianization of the Empire and of Europe – a process concluded by
the Catholic Church in the Middle
Ages.
The Franks and
the Alamanni were
defeated by him during 306–308. In 324 he defeated another tetrarch, Licinius,
and controlled all the empire, as it was before Diocletian.
To celebrate his victories and Christianity's relevance, he rebuilt Byzantium and
renamed it Nova Roma ("New Rome"); but the city soon gained the informal name ofConstantinople ("City
of Constantine").[132][133] The
city served as a new capital for the Empire. In fact, Rome had lost its central
importance since the Crisis of the Third Century-–Mediolanum was
the capital from 286 to 330, and continued to hold the imperial court of West
until the reign of Honorius,
when Ravenna was
made capital, in the 5th century.[134] Between
290 and 330, half a dozen new capitals had been established by the members of
the Tetrarchy, officially or not: Antioch, Nicomedia, Thessalonike, Sirmium,
Milan, and Trier.[135]
Constantine's administrative and monetary reforms, reuniting the Empire under
one emperor, and rebuilding the city of Byzantium changed the high period of the ancient
world.
Fall of the
Western Roman Empire
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