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

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Late Antiquity The Age of New Boundaries, 250-600

• The West
• CHAPTER 6

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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The Fall of Romes 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

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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

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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

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Conflicts to the West and East

• Justinians attempts to re-conquer the western
  provinces overextended Byzantiums resources
• Resentment of Justinians doctrinal interference
  fueled divisions between Christian churches in
  the east and west
• Intermittent and persistent warfare with the
  Persian Empire

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A Transformed World

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