Late Antiquity: The Age of New Boundaries, 250-600

1. Late Antiquity: The Age of New Boundaries, 250-600 The West CHAPTER 6

2. The Breakdown of Imperial Government • Chronic civil war and political turmoil between 233 and 284 C.E. • Invasions in both eastern and western provinces • Economic collapse and administrative breakdown • Political decentralization, as power shifted to provincial capitals

3. Reformation under Diocletian, 284-305 C.E. • Tetrarchy - the empire was divided in two, each half with a senior and junior emperor • Heightened the symbolic power of the emperor • Separated administrative and military bureaucracies, in provinces • New tax system to pay for larger government

4. The Unintended Consequences of Reform • Increasing social inequality • Shift in power from urban élites to imperial bureaucracy led to deterioration of urban life • Acceleration of decentralization and fragmentation • Political and economic power shifted decisively to the eastern half of the empire

5. Constantine: The First Christian Emperor • Constantine (r. 306-337) became sole emperor abandoning tetrarchy • Retained separate eastern and western administrations • Conversion to Christianity led to eventual Christianization of entire empire • Built city of Constantinople - came to symbolize the link between empire and Christianity

6. The Spread of Christianity • Christian community evolved into a formal organization, with an administration and hierarchy modeled on imperial system • The Petrine Succession - by mid-fifth century, the bishop of Rome achieved preeminence • Christianity transformed the physical appearance and spiritual life of cities • Increasing intolerance of non-Christian religions - polytheistic worship banned in 391

7. Christian Doctrine and Heresy • Demarcation, by the Church, between orthodox and heretical thought • Dispute between Arians and Athanasians over the nature of the Trinity and the nature of Jesus Christ • Nicene Creed (325) - stated Jesus was identical in nature and essence to God • Council of Chalcedon (451) - declared Jesus was both human and divine

8. Communities of Faith and Language • Chalcedonian (Orthodox or Catholic) - North Africa, Balkans, Italy, Gaul • Monopysite - Armenian church and kingdom, Coptic church in Egypt, Syriac church in Syria • Arian - Germanic settlers in western Empire • Latin was the language of Christianity, in the west • Greek was the language of Christianity, in the east

9. The Monastic Movement • Egyptian ascetic movement challenged the wealth and hierarchy of the Church • Monastic communities: Pachomius (ca. 292-346) wrote instructions to regulate communal, ascetic life • Monasticism offered women an opportunity for independence from male world, but also reinforced negative perceptions of women in Christian thought

10. Jews in a Christian World • Advance of Christianity led to legal discrimination against Jews • Abolition of Jewish Patriarchate, 429 B.C.E., spelled the end of Jewish status as an official ethnic community within the empire • Rabbinic Judaism legitimized the subordination of women, in Jewish communities

11. Access to Holiness: Christian Pilgrimage • Competition for relics of saints and martyrs • Palestine became the spiritual focus of the Christian world and a principal pilgrimage destination • Pilgrimage fostered a sense of Christian community between people of many lands • Development of a “spiritual geography”

12. Christian Intellectual Life • After 312, the Church began to reconcile Christian and classical thought • Monasteries were instrumental in the preservation and transmission of classical learning • Neoplatonic thought reinforced Christian asceticism and ideas about the soul • Disconnection of human destiny from the fate of the Roman Empire, in historical thought

13. The Fall of Rome’s Western Provinces • Lacking the military capacity to repel Germanic invaders, the western government offered them land within the empire • Germanic settlers consolidated and strengthened over several generations • Gradually, these settlements became independent kingdoms

14. The End of Roman Rule in the Western Empire • Germanic settlers were numerically inferior, but militarily superior - they retained a distinct identity • Loyalty and allegiance to local kings superseded service to empire • Development of new warrior aristocracies, with personal ties to local king

15. The Birth of Byzantium: Christianity and Law • The emperor Justinian defined the imperial role in explicitly Christian terms • Enforced uniformity of Roman law and orthodox Christianity, by force • Constantinople became the political and spiritual center of a monotheistic empire, united under one God, one emperor and one law

16. Conflicts to the West and East • Justinian’s attempts to re-conquer the western provinces overextended Byzantium’s resources • Resentment of Justinian’s doctrinal interference fueled divisions between Christian churches in the east and west • Intermittent and persistent warfare with the Persian Empire

17. A Transformed World • Division of Europe into two culturally, politically and linguistically separate regions • Emergence of Christianity as a defining characteristic of Western civilization