Western Civilization

of Constantine’s reign, the army had also been reorgan-

ized. Military forces were divided into two kinds: garri-

son troops, which were located on the frontiers and

intended as a first line of defense against invaders, and

mobile units, which were located behind the frontier

but could be quickly moved to support frontier troops

when the borders were threatened. This gave the

empire greater flexibility in responding to invasion.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL TRENDS The political and mili-

tary reforms of Diocletian and Constantine greatly

enlarged two institutions—the army and the civil

service—that drained most of the public funds.

Although more revenues were needed to pay for the

army and bureaucracy, the population was not grow-

ing, so the tax base could not be expanded. Diocletian

and Constantine devised new economic and social pol-

icies to deal with these financial burdens, but like

their political policies, they were all based on coercion

and loss of individual freedom. To fightinflation,

Diocletian resorted to issuing a price edict in 301 that

established maximum wages and prices for the entire

empire, but despite severe penalties, it was unenforce-

able and failed to work.

Coercion also came to form the underlying basis for

numerous occupations in the late Roman Empire.

NA

RB

ON

EN

SI

S^

(^) Elb
e (^) R.
GERMANY
Damascus
Black Sea
Red
Sea
Atlantic
Ocean
North
Sea
Baltic
Sea
Adriatic
Sea
(^)
(^) Medi
terranean
Sea
Dan
ube (^) R.
Rhine
(^)
(^) R
.
(^) N
ile (^)
(^) R.
Ebr
o (^) R
.
R
ho
ne
R.^
(^) Dnie
per (^) R.
Do
n R.^
Rome
Alexandria
Sardinia
Corsica
Sicily
Crete
Cyprus
Ravenna
Balearics
Carthage
Corinth
Athens
Syracuse Rhodes
Pergamum
Nicomedia
Byzantium
(Constantinople)
Antioch
Jerusalem
Adrianople
(^) D
AL
M
AT
IA
CISALPINE
GAUL
PHRYGIA
BITHYNIA
ASIA
JUDAEA
EGYPT
Sahara
NORTH AFRICA
GAUL
NUMIDIA
LIBYA
SYRIA
CAPPADOCIA
THRACE
MOESIA
DACIA
BRITAIN
MAURI
TANIA
NEAR
ER
SP
AI
N^
F
AR
TH
ER
SP
AIN
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Line of division between
the Eastern and Western Empires
Sei
ne R
.
Pyrenees
Alp
s
CILICIA
iT
ber
R.
0 200 400 Miles
0 200 400 600 Kilometers
Prefecture of Gaul
Prefecture of Italy
Prefecture of Illyricum
Prefecture of the East
MAP 7.1Divisions of the Late Roman Empire, ca. 300.Diocletian imposed order and a new
economic and administrative structure on the late empire. He divided the Roman Empire into four
regions, each ruled by either an “Augustus” or a “Caesar,” although Diocletian retained supreme
power.
Q Compare this map with Map 6.1. How much territory had been lost by the time of
Diocletian?
148 Chapter 7Late Antiquity and the Emergence of the Medieval World
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