Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/802

Rh 778 ROME [HISTORY. rf f Lltered second point in the new system was the complete and final harac- emancipation of the imperial authority from all const! tu- tional limitation and control. The last lingering traces of its republican origin disappear. The emperors from utho- Diocletian onwards are autocrats in theory as well as in ity- practice. The divided powers, the parallel jurisdictions, the defined prerogatives of the Augustan system have all vanished. There is but one legal authority throughout the empire, that of the emperor himself ; and that authority is absolute. This avowed despotism Diocletian, following in the steps of Aurelian, hedged round with all the pomp and majesty of Oriental monarchy. The final adoption of the title " dominus," so often rejected by earlier emperors, the diadem on the head, the robes of silk and gold, the replacement of the republican salutation of a fellow citizen by the adoring prostration even of the highest in rank before their lord and master, were all significant evel- marks of the new regime. 1 In the hands of this absolute ruler was placed the entire control of an elaborate admin- istrative machinery. Most of the old local and national distinctions, privileges, and liberties which had once flourished within the empire had already disappeared under the levelling influence of imperial rule, and the level- ling process was now completed. Roman citizenship had, since the edict of Caracalla, ceased to be the privilege of a egrada- minority. Diocletian finally reduced Italy and Rome to on f the level of the provinces : the provincial land-tax and pro- ya vincial government were introduced into Italy, 2 while Rome ceased to be even in name the seat of imperial authority. 3 he new Throughout the whole area of the empire a uniform system Iminis- O f administration was established, the control of which was centred in the imperial palace, and in the confidential ministers who stood nearest the emperor's person. 4 Be- tween the civil and military departments the separation was complete. At the head of the former, at least under the completed organization of Constantine, were the four pre- fects, 5 next below them the " vicarii," who had charge of the "dioceses," below these again the governors of the sepa- rate provinces (" praesides," " correctores," " consulares"), 6 under each of whom was a host of minor officials. Parallel with this civil hierarchy of prefects, vicars, prse- sides, and smaller " officiales " was the series of military officers, from the "magistri militum," the "duces," and "comites" downwards. But the leading features of both are the same. In both there is the utmost possible sub- ordination and division of authority. The subdivision of provinces, begun by the emperors of the 2d century, was systematically carried out by Diocletian, and either by Diocletian or by Constantine the legion was reduced to one-fifth of its former strength. 7 Each official, civil or military, was placed directly under the orders of a superior, and thus a continuous chain of authority connected the emperor with the meanest official in his service. Finally, the various grades in these two imperial services were care- 1 Aurel. Victor, 39; Eutrop., ix. 26. 2 Marquardt, Staatsverw., i. 80-83, where a list is given of the seventeen so-called " provinciae " into which Italy, together with Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, was divided. Each had its own governor ; the governors were subject to the two vicarii (vie. urbis, vie. Italiae), and they in turn to the prefect of Italy, whose prefecture, however, included as well Africa and Western Illyricum. 3 The seats of government for Diocletian and his three colleagues were Milan, Treves, Sirmium, Nicomedia. 4 For these last, see Gibbon, ii. chap. xvii. p. 325 ; cf. also ffotitia Dignitatum and Booking's notes. 8 "Praefecti praetorio." The four prefectures were Oriens, Illy- ricum, Italia, Gallia, to which must be added the prefectures of Rome and Constantinople. 6 There were 12 dioceses and 116 provinces ; cf. in addition to the authorities mentioned above, Bethmann-Hollweg, Civil-Prozess, iii. ; Walter, Oesch. d. Rom. Rechts, i. pp. 428 sq. (Bonn, 1845). 7 For this and other changes in the military organization, see Madvig, ii. 572 ; Marquardt, ii. 584 S?. fully marked by the appropriation to each of distinctive titles, the highest being that of "illustris," which was confined to the prefects and to the military magistri and comites, and to the chief ministers. 8 There can be little doubt that on the whole these Effects reforms prolonged the existence of the empire, by creating of *& a machinery which enabled the stronger emperors to refonnf utilize effectively all its available resources, and which even to some extent made good the deficiencies of weaker rulers. But in many points they failed to attain their object. Diocletian's division of the imperial authority among colleagues, subject to the general control of the senior Augustus, was effectually discredited by the twenty years of almost constant conflict which followed his own abdication (305-323). Constantino's partition of the empire among his three sons was not more successful in ensuring tranquillity, and in the final division of the East and West between Valens and Valentinian (364) the essential principle of Diocletian's scheme, the mainten- ance of a single central authority, was abandoned. The "tyrants," the curse of the 3d century, were far from unknown in the 4th, and their comparative paucity was due rather to the hold which the house of Constantine obtained upon the allegiance of their subjects than to the system of Diocletian. This system, moreover, while it failed altogether to remove some of the existing evils, aggravated others. The already overburdened financial resources of the empire were strained still further by the increased expenditure necessitated by the substitution of four imperial courts for one, and by the multiplication in every direction of paid officials. The gigantic bureaucracy of the 4th century proved, in spite of its undoubted services, an intolerable weight upon the energies of the empire. 9 Diocletian and Maximian formally abdicated their high Co: office in 305. Eighteen years later Constantine, the sole t | ue tl) survivor of six rival emperors, united the whole empire Grea1 under his own rule. His reign of fourteen years was marked by two events of first-rate importance, the recog- Recog- nition of Christianity as the religion of the empire, 10 and '"t' 011 the building of the new capital at Byzantium. The C1 alliance which Constantine inaugurated between the Christian church and the imperial government, while it enlisted on the side of the state one of the most powerful of the new forces with which it had to reckon, imposed a check, which was in time to become a powerful one, on the imperial authority. The establishment of the new " City of Constantine " as a second Rome, with a second senate, Const a prefect of the city, regiones, and even largesses, did more than proclaim once again the deposition of Rome from her old imperial position. It paved the way for the final separation of East and West by providing the former for the first time with a suitable seat of government on the Bosphorus. The death of Constantine in 337 was followed, as the abdication of Diocletian had been, by the outbreak of quarrels among rival Caesars. Of the three sons of Constantine who in 337 divided the empire between them, Constantine the eldest fell in civil war against his brother Constans ; Constans himself was, ten years afterwards, defeated and slain by Magnentius; and the latter in his turn was in 353 vanquished by Constantino's only surviving son Constantius. Thus for the second Co: time the whole empire was united under the rule of a member of the house of Constantine. But in 355 Con- 8 The grades were as follows : illustres, spectabiles, clarissimi, per- fectissimi, egregii. For the other insignia, see Madvig, ii. 590, and the Notitia Dignitatum. 9 The passion for moulding everything after a uniform official pattern extended beyond the departments of civil and military administration to the professions and to society. Walter, op. cit., i. 456 ; Marquardt, ii. 230 sq. 10 Gibbon, ii. chaps, xv. xvi. ; Ranke, Weltgesch. , iii. 525. 351