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A History of the Byzantine State and Society
 9780804779371

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A History of the Byzantine State and Society

WARREN TREADGOLD

A History of the Byzantine State and Society

STANFORD

UNIVERSITY

PRESS

Stanford, California

Stanford University Press Stanford, California © 1997 by the Board ofTrustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University

CIP data appear at the end of the book Maps: Helen L. Sherman

Cover illustration: Four groups of saints from a twelfth-century mosaic of the Last Judgment in the Church of Santa Maria Assunta, Torcello. The groups are, from the rear of the procession, at left: (1) female saints, led by the hermit Saint Mary the Egyptian; (2) monastic saints, led by the abbot Saint Euthymius the Great; (3) military saints in court costume, led by Saint Theodore the Recruit; (4) episcopal saints, led by Saint John Chrysostom followed by Saints Gregory of Nazianzus, Nicholas of Myra, and Basil of Caesarea. (Photo: Irina Andreescu-Treadgold) Title page: Left leaf of a twelfth-century menologium icon from the Monastery of Saint Catherine, Mount Sinai, showing Christ and six of the twelve great feasts of the Church at the top, with the saints commemorated each day during the months from September to February. The right leaf of the same icon appears below as Fig. 207. (Photo: Courtesy of Michigan-Princeton-Alexandria Expedition to Mount Sinai)

IN MEMORY OF MY FATHER, DONALD TREADGOLD

(1922-1994), WHO PASSED ON TO ME HIS RESPECT FOR SCHOLARSHIP, THE CLASSICS, AND THE CHRISTIAN EAST

Contents

Tables and Maps Preface Note on Transliteration Introduction

PART 1 I

xiii XV

XXI

3

The Enlarged State and the Burdened Society

The Refoundation of the Empire, 284-337

13

Diocletian's New System, I 3. Stability Restored, 22. Renewed Conflict, 27. Constantine's Changes, 36. A Partly Finished State, 43. 2

The State Under Strain, 337-395 Continuity Under Constantius II, 52. Defeat Under Julian, 59· Defeat Under Valens, 63. Reconstruction Under Theodosius, 69.

3

The Danger ofBarbarization, 395-457 Hostility Between East and West, 78. The Threat of the Huns, 88. The Growth of Barbarian Influence, 97.

52

vm 4

Contents

The Formation ofByzantine Society, 284-457

103

Regions and Jurisdictions, I04. The Growth of Government, I I2. The Spread of Christianity, I 19. Hellenism and Romanism, 126. Impoverishment and Prosperity, I 36.

PART II

5

The Interrupted Advance

The Eastern Recovery, 457-5 I 8

149

Leo's Struggle with the Germans, I 51. Zeno's Struggle for Stability, I 56. Anastasi us's Reforms, 164. 6

The Reconquests and the Plague, 518-565

174

The Rise ofJustinian, I74· Justinian's Projects, I78. Justinian's Triumphs, I84. The Persian Attack, 192. The Arrival of the Plague, I96. Justinian's Achievements, 207. 7

The Danger of Overextension, 565-610 Justin II's Overconfidence, 2I9. Tiberius's Overspending, 223. Maurice's Retrenchment, 227. The Beginning ofDisintegration, 236.

8

A Divided Society, 457-610 East, West, and Center, 242. Order and Disorder, 253. Church Authority and Its Limits, 259. Higher and Lower Culture, 264. Expansion and Depression, 273.

PART III

9

The Contained Catastrophe

Two Fights for Survival, 610-668 The Persian Conquests, 287. Heraclius's Response, 293. The Arab Conquests, 301.

218

Contents

Constans II's Resistance, 307. and the Themes, 314. IO

1x

Constans II

The War of Attrition, 668-7I7

323

Arab and Bulgar Attacks, 323. Justinian II's Risks, 330. Seven Revolutions, 337·

II

The Passing of the Crisis, 7I7-780 Change Under Leo III, 346. Conflict Under Constantine V, 356. Constantine V's Iconoclasm, 360. Leo IV's Moderation, 366.

I2

The Shrinking of Society, 610-780

371

Losses and Depredations, 372. TheReorganized State, 380. The Shaken Church, 387. Cultural Disruption, 393. Economic Contraction, 402.

PART IV

I3

The Long Revival

Internal Reforms, 780-842

417

The New Regime oflrene, 417. Nicephorus's Expansion, 424. Renewed Dissension, 429. Theophilus's Ambitions, 436.

I4

External Gains, 842-9I2 Stability Under Theodora, 446. Progress Under Michael III, 450. Basil's Victories, 455. Leo VI's Frustrations, 461. Leo VI's Expansion, 466.

IS

The Gains Secured, 912-963 The Rival Regents, 473. The Gains of Romanus Lecapenus, 476. More Gains Under Constantine VII, 487. The Inheritance ofRomanus II, 494.

47I

x

Contents

16

The Great Conquests, 963-1025 The Conquests of Nicephorus II, 499. The Conquests ofJohn Tzimisces, 505. The Struggles ofBasil II, 513. Basil II's Successes, 520. Basil II's Conquests, 525·

17

The Expansion ofSociety, 780-1025

534

Annexations and Assimilation, 535· The Partnership ofEmperor and Army, 543· The Partnership of Emperor and Church, 552. Cultural Revival, 558. Economic Growth, 569.

PART

v

The Weak State and the Wealthy Society

18

Erratic Government, 1025-IOSI Administrative Drift, 583. Constantine IX's Indolence, 590. Abortive Reforms, 598. Military Disaster, 604.

19

Improvised Reconstruction, 1081-1143 Alexius Comnenus's Survival, 612. Alexius and the First Crusade, 619. John II and Normalcy, 629.

20

Diminishing Security, II43-1204 Manuel's Norman Wars, 638. Manuel's Shifting Alliances, 643. The Fall of the Comneni, 650. The Fall of the Empire, 656.

21

A Restless Society, 102 5-1204 Growing Regionalism, 667. Tensions at the Center, 677. The Church and the West, 684. Cultural Ferment, 691. Wealth and Trade, 699.

612

Contents PART VI

22

XI

The Failed Restoration

The Successor States, I204-I26I

709

The Emergence of Successors, 710. The Rise ofEpirus, 716. The Rise of Nicaea, 723. The Return to Constantinople, 730. 23

The Restored Empire, I26I-I328

735

The Labors ofMichael VIII, 736. The Failures of Andronicus II, 745. Family Rivalry, 754· 24

The Breakdown, I328-I391 Recovery Under Andronicus III, 760. The Great Civil War, 764. Plague and Collapse, 771. The Remnant of the Empire, 777.

25

The End ofByzantine Independence, I39I-146I A Narrow Escape, 784. A Last Appeal, 792. The Final Fall, 797.

26

The Separation of Society from State, I 204- I 46 I Byzantines and Greeks, 804. The Fragmented Empire, 8 13. The International Church, 821. The Makings of a Renaissance, 827. The Passing of the State, 837.

Conclusion

Reference Matter Appendix: Lists ofRulers Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Emperors (284-1453), 857 Emperors at Trebizond (1204-1461), 861 Latin Emperors (1204-

857

xu

Contents

1461), 861 Latin Emperors (1204-1261), 861 Archbishops (324-381) and Patriarchs (381-1462) ofConstantinople, 862 Western Roman Emperors (285-480), 866 Persian Kings (274-651), 867 Arab Caliphs (632-940), 868 Fatimid Caliphs of North Africa (909-969) and Egypt (969-1171), 870 Seljuk Sultans ofNicaea (1081-1097) and !conium (1097-1261), 870 Ottoman Emirs (1281-1362) and Sultans (1362-1481), 870 Bulgarian Khans (681-913) and Emperors (913-1018), 871 Restored Bulgarian Emperors (u86-1393), 872 Serbian Kings (1217-1346) and Emperors (1346-1371), 872

Abbreviations Bibliographical Survey General Studies, 894 General Reference Works, 896 Part 1: 284-457, 897 Part II: 457-610, 902 Part III: 610-780, 905 Part IV: 780-1025, 908 Part V: 10251204, 912 Part VI: 1204-1461, 915

Endnotes Index

921 971

Tables and Maps

TABLES I. 2.

3. 4·

5· 6. 7·

8. 9· IO. I I.

I2. I

3.

I4. IS. I6. 17. I8.

Table of Greek-English Transliterations The Dynasties of Diocletian and Constantine I The Dynasties ofValens and Theodosius I Estimated State Budgets in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries The Dynasty of Leo I The Dynasty ofJustin I Estimated State Budgets in the Sixth Century The Dynasty ofHeraclius The Dynasty ofLeo III Field Army Units in 565 and 773 Estimated State Budgets in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries The Amorian Dynasty The Macedonian Dynasty Estimated State Budgets in the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Centuries The Comnenus and Ducas Dynasties The Angelus Dynasty The Lascaris Dynasty and the Thessalonian and Latin Emperors The Palaeologus Dynasty Estimated State Budgetary Plan for I32I

xxn 46 68 I45 I 54 206 277 308

367 373

4I2 43 8 490

576 6o8 660 726

756 843

XlV

Tables and Maps

MAPS I.

2. 3· 4· 5· 6. 7· 8. 9· IO. II. I2. 13. 14· IS. I6. I7. 18. 19. 20. 21.

Greek-speaking Areas About 284 The Eastern Roman Empire About 3I2 The Eastern Roman Empire About 395 The Army of the Eastern Roman Empire About 395 Cities in the Eastern Roman Empire About 457 The Empire About 565 The Army About 565 The East About 633 The Themes and Exarchates About 668 The Empire About 780 The Army About 775 Cities About 780 The Army in 840 The Empire About I025 The Themes About I025 The Themes About 668 and About 900 The Empire About 1143 Constantinople About 1200 The Successor States About 1218 The Empire About 1282 Greek-speaking Areas About 1910

6 32

So I06 138 2I5 245 302 32I 368 376 404 444 53 I 536 546 635 674 720 744

sso

Preface

Today, in the age of the monograph, the time for a general survey seems always to be the indefinite future. Yet the reader of monographs on Byzantium often senses that they presuppose a common body of knowledge, which one would expect to find in a general book. Though that book used to be George Ostrogorsky's History nomisma, shown twice actual size, with Valens on horseback on the reverse. (Photo: Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C., copyright 1996)

reaffirmed the Nicene Creed at a council in 362, and two years later the less anti-Arian bishops met to define their intermediate position. Valens found that many eastern sees were claimed by two or three bishops who accepted the decisions of different councils. But at Constantinople itself the death of Macedonius had strengthened the hand of the Arian bishop Eudoxius. Influenced by Eudoxius, Valens decided to confirm the decisions of Constantius's councils, which after all were the most recent to be summoned by an emperor. Consequently Valens again exiled the bishops exiled under Constantius. This decision was primarily political, but as such it was impolitic. A wiser ruler than Valens would have seen that Constantius's attempt to conciliate the Arians had caused more division than it healed, and that merely upholding a precedent was not worth alienating the western church and the majority of eastern Christians, who opposed Arianism with varying degrees of fervor. Although Valens had become emperor legally, he had no hereditary right to the throne. In 365, after he set out for the eastern frontier to hold the Persians to their treaty, Julian's relative Procopius was proclaimed emperor at Constantinople. Procopius's dynastic claim was so obvious that he had gone into hiding for fear of being accused of rebellion. In the end he decided that if he was going to be accused anyway he might as well rebel. He won over the troops in Thrace and the first contingent that Valens sent against him, then received more men from the Goths across the Danube. Yet most of his forces deserted him when Valens at-

State Under Strain, 337-395

65

tacked him in 366. After capturing and beheading Procopius, the emperor quickly subdued the remaining rebels. Shaken at discovering the fragility of his rule, Valens became more concerned with political opponents than ecclesiastical ones. Whereas he executed, exiled, and confiscated the property of those who had supported Procopius, he allowed Athanasius to return to Alexandria. In 367 Valens tried to assure his popularity by assessing the land tax at half the previous rateJ He undertook a three-year war against the Goths to punish their support of Procopius. The emperor was finally successful, and forced them to accept a treaty renouncing the tribute they had formerly received from the empire. Valens had regained his confidence by 370, when he moved to Antioch and apparently planned to remain in the Diocese of the East. At this time he allowed the city councils ofhis part of the empire to regain custody of their old civic lands, evidently in return for their remitting a sum equal to two-thirds of the lands' current revenue to the central government. 8 Valens also dispatched expeditions that expelled the Persians from Armenia and part of Iberia, which they had occupied after the empire abandoned its Armenian protectorate. These achievements seemed substantial. But the next year Valens learned with alarm that some of his pagan courtiers at Antioch, having convinced themselves by divination that his successor would be an imperial notary named Theodore, were plotting to hasten the supposedly inevitable. The prophecy was actually somewhat ambiguous, since it was that the next emperor's name would begin with the four Greek letters TH-E-0-0. 9 After a ruthless investigation, Valens put to death not only Theodore and the others implicated in the plot, but other pagans alleged to have used divination for any purpose. To deepen Valens' displeasure, the new Roman client king of Armenia proved disloyal. Valens had him assassinated. The emperor's religious policies were now palpably failing. A new generation of strongly anti-Arian bishops had taken office in Anatolia, led by Basil ofCaesarea in Cappadocia. On the Arian side, the chief theologian Eunomius of Cyzicus was making Arianism more radical by arguing that the Son was not even similar in substance to the Father. When Eudoxius of Constantinople died in 370 and Athanasius of Alexandria died in 373, the bishops whom Valens approved to succeed them faced widespread protests. In an attempt to restore order, the emperor commanded all the eastern bishops to sign copies of the Creed ofRimini and

66

THE ENLARGED STATE AND BURDENED SOCIETY

14. Saint Basil, bishop of Caesarea (370-79). Fourteenth-century fresco in the Monastery of the Chora, Constantinople. (Photo: Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C., copyright 1996)

Seleucia on pain of exile, thereby starting an ineffectual but bitter persecution of a large part of the hierarchy. Meanwhile events outside Valens' jurisdiction took a menacing turn. In 375 Valentinian suddenly died and left the rule of the West to his sons Gratian and Valentinian II, who were dangerously young for such heavy responsibilities. At about the same time, a horde of the warlike Asiatic nomads known as the Huns arrived from Central Asia and utterly defeated the Greutungi, a loose confederation of Gothic tribes settled north of the Black Sea. The next Gothic confederation of tribes to the west, the Tervingi, after a brief attempt at resistance despaired of defeating the Huns. Instead, in 376 their principal leaders sent an embassy to Valens asking for asylum in Thrace, in return for which their men would serve the emperor as regular soldiers. Valens agreed, hoping to economize on the army and to resettle some vacant land in northern Thrace that had been devastated by years of

State Under Strain, 337-395

67

border warfare. A mass ofTervingi, perhaps numbering some two hundred thousand, crossed the river. 10 The Tervingi, by this time largely converted to Arian Christianity, seemed ready to honor their agreement. They promptly supplied many recruits, who were sent for training to Syria and southern Thrace. But the Roman authorities in northern Thrace, who even with goodwill would have had trouble supplying this many refugees, mistreated the Tervingi, extorting slaves from them in return for inferior food. As tension mounted between Tervingi and Romans, many Greutungian refugees also sought asylum on Roman territory. Despite Valens' refusal, they managed to cross the Danube unopposed. Soon fighting broke out between Tervingi and Roman troops. Both groups of Goths began to plunder Roman farms. The Tervingian recruits in southern Thrace deserted and joined what had now become a full-scale revolt. Valens sent reinforcements from Syria in 377, but these, after initially confining the rebellion to northern Thrace, could not keep the Goths from breaking through to the well-cultivated farmland to the south. Appealing to his western colleagues for help, Valens arranged a truce with the Persians, recalled the bishops he had exiled, and gathered all available troops from Armenia and Syria. In 378 he marched against the Tervingi, probably with an army approaching forty thousand men. 11 For whatever reason, Valens would not wait for a Roman army that was slowly making its way from the West, and met a united force ofTervingi and Greutungi near Adrianople. A disorderly attack by the Roman cavalry began a chaotic battle between the two large armies, in which the less disciplined Goths had the advantage over the disoriented Romans. After fighting long and fiercely, almost two-thirds of the Roman army was killed, or about twenty-five thousand men. Valens himself died, and the rest of the Romans fled. This battle of Adrianople was the most crippling and humiliating defeat suffered by a Roman army in a hundred years. The Goths, who had also lost many men, lost still more in unsuccessful attempts to storm the walls of Adrianople and Constantinople. The Romans quickly massacred the Tervingian recruits in Syria. Nonetheless, for the time being, the battle of Adrianople had prostrated the eastern empire's field armies. Never an outstanding emperor, Valens had shown little strategic insight and run an unreasonable risk. But even a gifted ruler might have had trouble grasping and handling the threat posed by the Goths, which was like nothing the empire had seen for a century. The

TABLE 2

The Dynasties of Valens and Theodosius I Emperors are in capital letters. Senior emperors of the East are in italics, with the years of their reigns marked "r."; emperors of the West are in roman type. Other years are of births and deaths. Gratian

I

I

I

Marina

I

2

= VALENTINIAN I = Justina

VALENS

= Domnica

Theodosius the Elder (d. 376)

(321-75) ~(ca. 328-78; r. 364-78)

I

2

GRATIAN

VALENTINIAN II

(371~92)

(359-83)

CONSTANTIUS III (d. 421)

=I

Galla Placidia (388?-450)

~ Honorius

I

Galla = THEODOSIUS I= Aeha FlaCCilla

Eudoxia (d. 404)

=I

I

(347-95; (r. 379-95)

I

..

Serena = St1hcho

I

I

I

HONORIUS = Maria (384-423) (d. ca. 407)

ARCADIUS (ca. 377-408; r. 395-408)

Eudocia = THEODOSIUS II (401-50; r. 408-so)

I

VALENTINIAN III = Eudoxia (419-55)

kingof Vandals

,J

2

I

ANTHEMIUS = Euphem1a

~-ca. 462)

Huneric, = Eudocia

I

Pulcheria = MARCIAN = F (399-463) (392-457; r. 450-57)

, : J472) d.

Verina = LEO I (d. ca. 484) j (ca. 401-74; r. 457-74) (See Table 4)

Placidia = OLYBRIUS Anthemius

Marcian

= Leontia

(See Table 4)

Anicia Juliana

ZENO

I



=Ariadne =2 ANASTAS/US I (See Table 4)

Leo

State Under Strain, 337-395

69

defensive machinery created by Diocletian and modified by Constantine had fallen apart, before a mass of Germans formed almost by chance. RECONSTRUCTION UNDER THEODOSIUS

The adolescent western emperor Gratian rose to the occasion. Instead of making his younger brother Valentinian II eastern emperor, as precedent would have suggested, he turned to a capable general, Theodosius. Immediately after the battle of Adrianople Gratian put Theodosius in charge of operations in the Balkans, where the Sarmatians had crossed the Danube to join the rampaging Goths. When Theodosius brought an army from the West and crushed the Sarmatians, Gratian rewarded him with the rank of Augustus at Sirmium, early in 379. Theodosius was assigned not simply the Prefecture of the East, which Valens had ruled, but a newly defined Prefecture of Illyricum. The latter consisted of the dioceses of Dacia and Macedonia, which had formerly belonged to the West, though not Pannonia, which remained western. This addition to the East was necessary not only because the barbarians threatened 11lyricum as much as they did Thrace, but because the only effective mobile troops left in the area belonged to the Army oflllyricum, which had not fought at Adrianople. Although at his accession Theodosius was barely thirty-three, since his twenties he had served creditably in Britain under his father, also an eminent general, and he had already distinguished himself as a local commander in Illyricum by defeating the Sarmatians five years before. His parents had been rich Christian landowners in Spain and had educated him well, evidently seeing that he acquired a working knowledge of Greek. He had retired from public life in 376, when Gratian had executed his father on an obscure charge, but Theodosius never showed public rancor over this episode. 12 While he could lose his temper under extreme provocation, usually he was calm and diplomatic, and became popular with his soldiers and officials. He was probably the empire's ablest ruler since Diocletian. He also faced the worst crisis since Diocletian's time. The Goths had established themselves in force amid the ruins of the Thracian farms, and after the battle of Adrianople they were not much afraid of the Roman army, which indeed was no longer very formidable. Because they could not return to their former lands, now occupied by the Huns, the Goths could only be removed from the empire by virtually exterminating them.

70

THE ENLARGED STATE AND BURDENED SOCIETY

That task would require enlisting and training many more new recruits than the tax rolls could easily spare, who would need to be paid much more than the tax system could easily raise. If in fighting the Goths the Romans lost badly again, the eastern empire would be practically defenseless against the Goths, Huns, and Persians, and its very survival would be in doubt. Yet the Goths could hardly be allowed to advertise the empire's weakness by raiding the Balkans indefinitely. For a year Theodosius recruited whatever troops he could find, including many Germans and even Gothic deserters, while patrolling the western boundary of the Prefecture of Illyricum to keep the Goths out. He replaced a military system that had usually separated infantry from cavalry with a system of unified armies for Illyricum, Thrace, and the East, and another in the Emperor's Presence, each under a single master of soldiers. Though these measures made the army look rather better, it was still too weak to fight the Goths, and its discipline and morale were especially shaky. Fortunately for the Romans, at the time of their greatest weakness their adversaries did not seize the opportunity to attack. The Goths were busy plundering Thrace. The Huns had conquered enough to keep them satisfied for the present without invading the empire. With the death of the long-lived Shapiir II in 379, even the Persians became more pacific. The religious divisions in the East were also growing more manageable. Like almost all westerners, Theodosius rejected Arianism, and his western colleague Gratian was becoming increasingly anti-Arian under the influence of Ambrose, the forceful new bishop of Milan. In the East, now that the bishops exiled by Valens had returned, most of the Church was ready to accept the Nicene Creed. Many of the Christians of Constantinople elected the firmly orthodox Gregory of Nazianzus, a close friend of the recently deceased Basil of Caesarea, to replace their Arianizing bishop. A council of eastern bishops at Antioch approved the Nicene formula. Though himself of the same opinion, Theodosius avoided taking concrete action against the Arians because the military danger remained acute. In the spring of 38o, the Tervingi broke into Macedonia and headed for Greece, while the Greutungi invaded Dacia and drove west. Finding his forces too feeble to repel this double attack, Theodosius requested and received reinforcements from Gratian, who hurried to the Balkans with a second detachment. The first group of reinforcements drove the Tervingi back into Thrace, and Gratian's arrival checked the Greutungi.

State Under Strain, 337-395

71

I 5· Theodosius I (r. 379-95), at center, and his court in the imperial box of the Hippodrome in Constantinople. Relief on the base of the Obelisk of Theodosius from the Hippodrome, Constantinople. (Photo: Irina AndreescuTreadgold)

After conferring with Theodosius at Sirmium, Gratian agreed to settle the Greutungi on his own territory in Pannonia, while the Tervingi began squabbling among themselves. During this time, Theodosius fell gravely ill at Thessalonica. Fearing that he would die, he received baptism, which like most Christians in public life he had postponed to avoid the rigors of church discipline. As it happened, he recovered; but on his recovery he became the first emperor to rule as a full member of the Church, constrained to do penance if he committed a serious sin. His deference to the ecclesiastical hierarchy correspondingly increased. He also issued an edict appealing to all his subjects to accept the full divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, though he prescribed no penalties for those who dissented, including Arians, Jews, and pagans. The emperor then entered Constantinople and celebrated a triumph that could be justified as an attempt to reassure public opinion, if not by any solid success. From the start he made the city more his permanent

72

THE EN LA R G ED STATE AND B U R D EN ED S 0 C I E T Y

capital than his temporary residence, and outfitted the palace there with a splendor appropriate to peacetime. He also gave some attention to domestic measures, dividing the overlarge Diocese of the East by making Egypt a separate diocese under an Augustal prefect. 13 Theodosius understood that he would greatly ease the crisis ifhe could convince both Romans and barbarians that it was already over. The war with the Goths was in fact dying down. Early in 381 dissension among the Tervingi became so bitter that their deposed king fled to Constantinople, and on his subsequent death his supporters joined the Roman army. While the Goths thus lost some of their strength, Theodosius continued vigorously recruiting Roman soldiers. 14 Although he had benefited from the help of the western empire and from the Goths' disunity, Theodosius deserves great credit for keeping the eastern army from disintegrating, as it had been ready to do during the worst of the emergency. Taking advantage of his respite from war, the emperor tried to end the disorder in the Church. First he ordered Christians who did not accept the Nicene Creed to surrender their churches. Then he summoned the remaining bishops to an ecumenical council at Constantinople. This council both confirmed the Nicene Creed, with its declaration that the Son was fully divine, and added a statement that the Holy Spirit was fully divine as well. From this it followed that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were three persons of a single Godhead, the Trinity. The dogma of the Trinity clarified for the first time the relationship of the three persons long mentioned in the Christian formula of baptism. The bishops accordingly condemned both the Arians and those who denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit, who were termed "Macedonians" because they included former partisans of Macedonius. Agreeably with Theodosius's high regard for Constantinople, the council also awarded the city's bishop an honorary rank second only to the pope's, noting that Constantinople was the New Rome. Some now began to give him the honorific title of patriarch of Constantinople. Although Arianism remained dominant among the Germans, this Second Ecumenical Council soon won acceptance from the great majority of Christians, perhaps not surprisingly. After all, Arianism had never been official doctrine or even a majority belief within the empire; most opponents of the Council of Nicaea had merely defended creeds that did not exclude Arianism. As Arianism grew more extreme, almost everyone had come to realize that such a controversial doctrine needed to be

State Under Strain, 337-395

73

either adopted or condemned. Given this choice, most Christians were unwilling to deny the full divinity of Christ, and accepted the Nicene Creed. After the Council of Constantinople Theodosius forbade Arians and other heretics to build churches to replace those that they had lost, leaving them to hold services in makeshift and inconspicuous places. As a further vindication of the faith he had approved, the emperor explicitly forbade the use of pagan sacrifices for divination, a prohibition that he enforced so strictly as nearly to ban any sacrificing whatever. He thus returned pagans to approximately their position under Constantius II, after twenty years of milder treatment since Julian's day. In 382 Theodosius concluded a treaty with the Goths, apparently including the bulk of both the Tervingi and the Greutungi. As in 376, the Goths were permitted to live in Roman territory in return for doing military service, the Tervingi in northern Thrace and the Greutungi in Pannonia. But instead of serving as regular troops in different divisions of the Roman army, the Goths were to serve under their own leaders as Roman allies ("federates," foederati), with virtual independence from Roman administration. From this time the Greutungian federates came to be known as the Ostrogoths, and the Tervingian federates as the Visi or, for the sake of parallelism, the Visigoths. 15 The terms of this treaty were probably the best available to Theodosius without a fight. Though for the Goths to keep their own territory and army within the empire was dangerous, for them to loot the empire as declared enemies was still worse. If they were managed well, they might prove useful against other enemies; if they revolted later, by that time the regular Roman army might be able to fight them on more equal terms. The treaty at least reduced the risk of a Roman military collapse. After concluding it, apparently as a sign that the worst was over, Theodosius returned jurisdiction over the Prefecture oflllyricum to Gratian. 16 The empire's security remained precarious. Less than a year after this treaty was signed, civil war broke out in the West and rebels killed the emperor Gratian, whose help had been so useful to the East. The usurper Maximus assumed power in the Prefecture of Gaul, though he conceded the prefectures ofltaly and Illyricum to the young Valentinian II and his mother Justina. Theodosius was sufficiently disturbed by Maximus's rebellion to pay a visit to northern Italy in 384. When he found that matters had stabilized, however, he decided to recognize the usurper rather than pursue another civil war. Theodosius soon returned to his residence at Constantinople, where

74

THE ENLARGED STATE AND BURDENED SOCIETY

he pursued negotiations for peace with Persia and continued to repair his army. When a large band ofOstrogoths invaded Thrace in 386, Roman troops were strong enough to kill many of them and to capture the rest. The captives were settled in vacant lands in Phrygia, well into Anatolia. Then the Persians agreed to a peace. Though under the peace treaty the Romans recognized a Persian protectorate over most ofArmenia, they gained the remainder of Armenia for the empire, governing it through Armenian satraps. This shortened the eastern frontier and made it more defensible. 17 Yet just as the East regained its equilibrium, civil war resumed in the West. In 387 the usurper Maximus invaded Italy. Valentinian II and Justina took refuge at Thessalonica, sending appeals for help that their eastern colleague could not well refuse. After allying himself with Justina by marrying her daughter Galla, in 388 Theodosius marched west, entrusting the East to his young son Arcadius under the care of his prefect of the East, Tatian. As the eastern emperor advanced, he defeated Maximus twice in Pannonia and finished him off in northern Italy. Theodosius was in control of the entire West by the end of the year. This campaign against Maxim us gave impressive proof of the recovery of the eastern field army, even if many of that army's troops were now Gothic federates and other barbarians. While he officially restored Valentinian II, Theodosius remained in the West for three years, repairing the empire as best he could. In 390 he legislated that decurions who became senators must continue to serve on their councils, and so finally stopped the principal drain on the councils' resources. Decurions could now enjoy higher rank, but without escaping their duty to collect taxes. This law applied to both East and West. During his stay in the West, Theodosius visited Rome but spent most of his time at Milan, by now the usual western capital, where he took the city's bishop, Ambrose, as his spiritual guide. In a striking demonstration of his power, the bishop made the emperor do public penance for having a crowd at Thessalonica massacred, though some of the victims had lynched a general. The next year, again under Ambrose's influence, Theodosius ordered the closure of all pagan temples and prohibited all sacrifices in both East and West. He enforced his measures against paganism more strictly than Constantius II had done, and with more effect. Soon most temples were destroyed, and paganism began to decline rapidly. Later in 391, the emperor returned to Constantinople to rule the east-

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em empire, to which he again added the Prefecture of Illyricum, apart from Pannonia. During his stay in the West he had transferred a number of western mobile troops to the East, giving it an adequate mobile army for the first time since the battle of Adrianople. With these new troops he expanded the eastern Army in the Emperor's Presence into two armies of parallel organization, each about twenty-one thousand strong. 18 On the whole Theodosius had reestablished order in the East, though he still had to campaign against German marauders in Macedonia and to suppress pagan riots when the temples were closed in Egypt and Syria. The West was less fortunate than the East. Valentinian II's disagreements with his German master of soldiers Arbogast led to the western emperor's death in 392 and Arbogast's proclamation of a puppet emperor, Eugenius. While Eugenius was nominally a Christian, Arbogast was a pagan and introduced toleration of paganism. By contrast, at the same time Theodosius was prescribing fines even for pagan worship in private, and replacing his pagan prefect Tatian with an ardent Christian, Rufinus. The eastern emperor rebuffed Eugenius's overtures for peace, and began preparations for war. Assembling a great expeditionary force that like his earlier one was largely German, Theodosius marched west once more in 394· Again he left his son Arcadius in the East, this time under the guidance of Rufinus. Theodosius's force, unopposed as it marched through the Balkans, met the army of Arbogast and Eugenius just inside the border of the Diocese of Italy, at the Frigidus River. In a day of extremely bloody fighting, Theodosius was defeated, suffering the loss of many of his Visigothic federates. The next day, however, with characteristic determination, he joined battle once more, and in further fierce fighting he prevailed. Eugenius was killed, and Arbogast committed suicide. The entire West quickly submitted to Theodosius, who summoned his younger son Honorius to be its emperor. He intended to return to rule the East, entrusting both Honorius and the West to Stilicho, a half-German general who had married Theodosius's niece. But shortly after Honorius arrived, early in 395, Theodosius died at Milan, of dropsy. Although at Theodosius's death the empire was undoubtedly vulnerable, the wonder is that it was no worse. Since the death of Constantine I, both state and army had suffered from civil wars, defeats by the Persians and Germans, a corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy, and perhaps even economic and demographic decline. Constantius II, Julian, Jovian, and Valens had all been competent though not brilliant rulers, with consid-

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16. Silver missorium ofTheodosius I, probably dating from 388, showing the emperor enthroned between his son Arcadius (right) and Valentinian II (left), with guardsmen at the sides and a personification of Earth at the bottom. (Photo: Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid)

erable understanding of the problems they faced. Their difficulties as they juggled one crisis after another mostly reflected the empire's underlying weakness and the strength of its enemies' attacks. After the battle of Adrianople, the eastern empire was temporarily in grave danger, and its imminent collapse under German and Persian pressure was conceivable. Since that battle had shown how risky it could be to fight the empire's enemies head on, Theodosius can scarcely be blamed for avoiding such attacks when he could. No doubt the original Tervingian revolt and Arbogast's proclamation of Eugenius showed the dangers of allowing Germans too much power inside the empire. But despite his strenuous efforts to recruit more Romans, Theodosius needed German troops as well, and he managed his Germans skillfully enough that they fought for him repeatedly without rebelling. Admittedly Theodosius introduced no sweeping reforms of the many

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defects in the administration and army. But those defects, however easy to identify, were maddeningly difficult to correct. Theodosius's constant and successful efforts to avoid impending catastrophe left him scant leisure to plan for the long run. He nonetheless rescued the empire from the gravest peril, and restored a stability that capable and unified leadership should have been able to maintain. Although at his death his sons were too young to provide that leadership, he had supplied each of them with a capable adviser, Arcadius with Rufinus and Honorius with Stilicho. No ruler could have done much more.

CHAPTER THREE

The Danger of Barbarization, 395-457

What Theodosius failed to foresee was that Stilicho and Rufinus would quarrel. The late emperor had specified that his elder son Arcadius should rule the prefectures of the East and Illyricum, while Honorius, the younger son, should have the prefectures of Italy and Gaul. That much was not in dispute. But according to Stilicho, in a private conversation on the day of his death the emperor had entrusted both his sons to Stilicho's care. Stilicho therefore claimed authority over the whole empire. Rufinus refused to accept this claim, which rested on Stilicho's word alone.' For the moment Rufinus controlled the administration of the East and Illyricum. But Stilicho retained almost all of the mobile armies of both eastern prefectures, which Theodosius had led against Eugenius's rebels. Just as Stilicho ruled for Honorius, who was a boy of eleven, Rufinus had effective control over Arcadius. At age eighteen, Arcadius should have been old enough to take some part in ruling; but even as an adult he was too weak of wit and will to assert himself So at a time when strong government was urgently needed to manage the Germans, Huns, and other barbarians, both inside and outside the empire, squabbling surrogates ruled for figurehead emperors. HOSTILITY BETWEEN EAST AND WEST

At the news ofTheodosius's death, the East's lack of mobile forces became conspicuous. To exploit it, some eastern Huns crossed the Caucasus and Armenia and invaded the East, penetrating to northern Syria.

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17. Arcadius (r. 395 -408). Marble bust now in the Istanbul Archeological Museum. (Photo: Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C., copyright 1996)

Still worse, the Visigothic federates, returning from the West to find their lands in northern Thrace under attack by the western Huns, revolted against the empire. Led by their commander Alaric, the Visigoths moved into southern Thrace. Soon they reached the suburbs of Constantinople. They were particularly dangerous because Alaric was fully aware of his opportunity. Through negotiations, Rufinus persuaded Alaric to withdraw, possibly by promising the Visigoths new land in Thessaly. In any case, that was the place they entered and began to pillage. In keeping with the role that Stilicho claimed as guardian of the whole empire, he promptly led the combined field armies of East and West into Thessaly to drive out the Visigoths. Perhaps his intervention should have been welcome to Rufinus. But the eastern prefect regarded it as a threat. Despite Rufinus's long service as a trusted adviser of Theodosius and his authority as prefect, his power was not quite secure. The ravages of the Huns and Visigoths had hurt his reputation; many resented his

3,

THE EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE ABOUT 395

_ - - Boundary of a~ or atala • • • • • • Boundaty of a provtnCe



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