The Roman Empire struggles after the Pax Romana
- In the Third Century AD:
- diseases spread
- hard to defend the frontier against the barbarians
- emperors lost hold of power
- stayed in power for an average of two and a half years
- this was because of wars or people wanted to kill you
- maintaining armies is expensive
- too many citizens in poverty
- 284 AD - Diocletian's Reforms
- increase the size of the army to 400,000 troops
- 1/3 bigger than during Augustus' time
- recruit from barbarians
- recruiting the barbarians was a big risk because they could easily conquer them from the inside
- divide Roman territories into smaller provinces
- new gov't had 20,000 officials
- 10 times bigger
- if you put more people in charge them more people will become corrupt
- there might be more ideas to help Rome
- more efficient at collecting higher taxes
- this provided a larger army
- but the people are getting something out of the higher taxes
- 300AD
- 60 million people in the empire
- several million are Christians
- Christianity appeal to the poor and disenfranchised
- more Christians
- more face-to-face contact
- more conversions
- more offspring
- Some Christians are gaining power, and becoming the ruling elite
- Diocletian
- rulled from 284-305
- left Christians alone
- then undertook the most systematic persecution of all*
- Constantine
- How did he persecute them all?
- What was his connection with Christianity?
- Constantine favored Christianity. He was exposed to Christianity by his mother but did not commit to a specific religion. But scholars believed that over time he did adopt his mothers religion. Although he didn't get baptized until right before his death. His conversion was thought to be a turning point for early Christianity and was referred to as the Triumph of the Church. But between the time he converted and when he was baptized him and his wife had his two eldest sons murdered. The battle marked the beginning of Constantine's conversion to Christianity. Eusebius of Caesarea recounts that Constantine and his soldiers had a vision of the Christian God promising victory if they daubed the sign of the Chi-Rho, the first two letters of Christ's name in Greek, on their shields. The Arch of Constantine, erected in celebration of the victory, certainly attributes Constantine's success to divine intervention; however, the monument does not display any overtly Christian symbolism.
- How did he restructure the empire?
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