Western Civilization.p

The Origins of Christianity and the Decline of the Roman Empire 107

this change were potentially disasterous. Severus was an

African, whose family members had long been senators

and were thoroughly romanized. His wife, Julia

Domna, was a gifted administrator and a patron of

Greek and Latin intellectuals who worked tirelessly for

cultural unity. The emperors who followed were of a

different sort. The tyrannical son of Severus and Julia,

Caracalla, was followed by men whose only common

characteristic was the support of a faction within the

army. Most were poorly educated provincials who

seemed like foreigners to a majority of their subjects. A

few were eccentrics or even children, and their average

tenure in office was short. All, however, tried to follow

the deathbed advice of Severus: “Stay on good terms,

enrich the soldiers, and don’t take much notice of any-

thing else.” He had been nothing if not a realist.

Imperial Efforts at Reform from

Septimius Severus to Diocletian

As the third century progressed, “enriching the soldiers”
grew more difficult. Both the economy and the popula-
tion continued to decline. The rate of conception
slowed, in part because people felt that they could no
longer afford to raise families. Furthermore, malnutrition
and disease contributed to the population loss. The first
great epidemic struck in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. It
was followed by others, whose exact nature is unknown.
Defense costs could not be reduced. The middle
years of the third century saw a renewal of the Persian
wars and the invasion of the Goths, a Germanic people
who forced the Romans to abandon their provinces
north of the Danube (the area now known as Romania)
and threatened the interior as well. Imperial politics
alone demanded enormous expenditures as regional
commanders struggled against one another for the
throne. Of the twenty-six emperors who ruled between
A.D. 235 and 283, only one died of natural causes. All
were forced to bribe the legions for their support; some
even bribed the enemy. Large sums were expended to
buy peace from both the Sassanids and the Goths. Such
efforts predictably failed.
Emperors beginning with Caracalla tried to deal
with these problems by reducing the precious metal
content of their coinage, a practice that did little more
than add inflation to the empire’s list of economic woes.
Taxation and forced requisitions had long since reached
the limits of productivity. Decurions and tenant farm-
ers, impoverished by an insatiable bureaucracy, aban-
doned their properties in favor of begging, banditry,
and piracy. The emperors, distracted by war and by the

requirements of personal survival, could do little about

it. Whole regions fell under the control of men who

were, in effect, warlords. In the east, Zenobia, queen of

the caravan city of Palmyra, managed briefly to gain

control of Syria, Egypt, and much of Asia Minor.

The emperors Claudius II Gothicus and Aurelian

brought the military situation under control between

268 and 275. However, major reforms were necessary.

Diocletian, who came to the throne in 284, embarked

upon a reorganization of the entire empire. To enlarge

the army without increasing its potential for anarchy,

he divided the empire into two halves, each ruled by an

augustus. Each augustus then adopted a caesar to serve

as his subordinate and successor.

Diocletian created four emperors, for each caesar

had primary responsibility for a region of his own

(see illustration 6.3). His colleague Maximian was

Illustration 6.3

The Tetrarchs, St. Mark’s Venice.The sculpture shows Dio-

cletian and his colleagues as an inseparable unit for purposes of

propaganda.