history - the roman empire & byzantium

8/13/2019 History - The Roman Empire & Byzantium

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Rome and Romania, 27 BC-1453 AD

Animated History of Romania

I. First Empire, "Rome," 27 BC-284 A. "PRINCIPATE," 27 BC-235, 261 years

1. JULIO-CLAUDIANS 2. The Bosporan Kingdom 3. Armenia, 401 BC-428 AD

The Patriarchs of Armenia 4. Numidia 5. Judaea 6. FLAVIANS & ANTONINES 7. SEVERANS

B. CRISIS OF THE THIRD CENTURY, 235-284, 49 Years Crisis of the Third Century Chart

II. Second Empire, Early "Romania," 284-610 A. "DOMINATE," 284-379, 95 years

1. TETRARCHS Chart of the Tetrarchy Late Roman Capitals

2. CONSTANTIANS

The Approaches and Environs of Constantinople The Theodosian Walls of Constantinople

Cross Section of the Walls The Patriarchs of Constantinople

3. VALENTIANS B. CRISIS OF THE FIFTH CENTURY, 379-476, 97 Years

1. THEODOSIANS Visigoths Burgundians Vandals Western Provinces of the Notitia Dignitatum, c.400 AD Eastern Provinces of the Notitia Dignitatum, c.400 AD The Roman Army, c. 408 AD

2. LAST WESTERN EMPERORS C. THE EAST ALONE, 476-518, 42 Years

1. LEONINES Ostrogoths

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Roman Coinage D. RETURNING TO THE WEST, 518-610, 92 years

1. JUSTINIANS Lombards Provinces at the Death of Justinian, 565 AD

2. Georgia, 588-1505

III. Third Empire, Middle "Romania," Early "Byzantium," 610-1059 A. THE ADVENT OF ISLAM, 610-802, 192 years

1. HERACLIANS The Organization of the Themes and Exarchates, at the Death of Constans II,

AD 2. Armenia, 628-806 AD 3. SYRIANS (ISAURIANS) 4. Doges (Dukes) of Venice, 727-1797

B. REVIVAL AND ASCENDENCY, 802-1059, 257 years 1. NICEPHORANS 2. AMORIANS (PHRYGIANS) 3. Bulgaria before Roman Conquest

Macedonian Bulgaria 4. MACEDONIANS 5. Armenia, 806-1064

IV. Fourth Empire, Late "Romania/Byzantium," 1059-1453 A. THE ADVENT OF THE TURKS, 1059-1185, 126 years

1. DUCASES 2. Seljuk Sult.ns of Rm 3. COMNENI 4. Lesser Armenia 5. Kings of Jerusalem and Cyprus, 1099-1489

County of Edessa Principality of Antioch

County of Tripoli Order of the Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon Order of the Knights of the Hospital of St. Mary of the Teutons in Jerusalem

B. THE LATIN EMPIRE, 1185-1261, 76 years 1. ANGELI 2. Bulgaria, Asens 3. LATINS

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Latin Patriarchs of Constantinople Kings of Thessalonica Dukes of Athens Princes of Achaea

4. Epirus 5. Trebizond 6. LASCARIDS

C. THE LAST DAYS, 1261-1453, 192 years 1. Serbia 2. Bosnia 3. Bulgaria, Terters 4. Begs (Beys) of Aydn 5. PALAEOLOGI

The Flag of ROMANIA 6. Romanians

V. Fifth Empire, Ottomans, Islamic Byzantium, 1453-1922, 469 years The Patriarchs of Constantinople Animated History of Turkiya The Shihb Amrs of Lebanon, 1697-1842 AD The House of Muh.ammad 'Al in Egypt, 1805-1953 AD

Modern Romania, Ottoman Successor States in the Balkans 1817, Serbian Autonomy 1834, after Greek Independence 1858, after the Crimean War

Romnia, 1611-present 1875 Congress of Berlin, 1878

Montenegro, 1697-1918 1908

Greece, 1821-present

1912, before the Balkan Wars Serbia & Yugoslavia, 1817-present

1913-1914, after the Balkan Wars, & before World War I Bulgaria, 1879-present

1925, after World War I Albania, 1914-present

1943, Axis Occupation in World War II 1947, after World War II

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Macedonia, 1991-present 1999, Ethnic Cleansing

Armenia & Georgia, 1991-present

scussion of the period covered by this page, with sources on Roman and "Byzantine" history, upon whi

e actual tables and genealogies are based, may be found in "Decadence, Rome and Romania, the Emperho Weren't, and Other Reflections on Roman History." One Roman source not mentioned there is thendy Who Was Who In The Roman World, edited by Diana Bowder [1980, Washington Square Press, Po

ooks, 1984]. That was the first source I ever saw that organized Roman Emperors into logical groups. Ources are given here at the points where they are used. This page is continued and supplemented by theaterial in "Successors of Rome: Germania", "Successors of Rome: Francia", "Successors of Rome: Theriphery of Francia", "Successors of Rome: Russia", and "The Ottoman Sultns". Some material on earlistory may be found at "Historical Background to Greek Philosophy"and "Historical Background toellenistic Philosophy".

he maps are originally those of Tony Belmonte, edited to eliminate references to "Byzantium" and withrrections and additions. Tony's historical atlas (with Tony) disappeared from the Web. It was painstakinassembled by Jack Lupic, but then his site has disappeared also. Corrections and additions are based onnguin Atlas of Ancient History(Colin McEvedy, 1967), The Penguin Atlas of Medieval History(ColincEvedy, 1961), The New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History(Colin McEvedy, 1992), The Anchor Atlasorld History, Volume I(Hermann Kinder, Werner Hilgemann, Ernest A. Menze, and Harald and Ruthukor, 1974), and various prose histories. My graphics programs do not seem to be quite as sophisticatedony's, so maps I have modified may not look as professionally done as his originals.

ote that Greek words and names are not phonetically transliterated but are actuallyLatinizedin bothelling and morphology. Thus, the name that could be transliterated from Greek as "Doukas," is written

Ducas." The epithet of Basil II, "Bulgaroktonos," "Bulgar Slayer," is rendered "Bulgaroctonus." This isntrary to increasing usage but is, as Warren Threadgold says [A History of the Byzantine State and Socianford University Press, 1997, p. xxi], what the Romans would have done themselves when writing in tatin alphabet. Since the Latin alphabet is used here, and since the Roman Empire originally used Latin aiversal language, never forgotten in Greek Romania, that is the practice here. Exceptions would be for

reek words that simply have Latin translations. Thus, Greek Rhmaioi, "Romans," corresponds to Latinomani(not "Rhomaeoe"). A kind of exception to this would be when the Greek word is part of ampound. For instance Tsar Kalojan of Bulgariawas called the "Roman Killer,"Rhmaioktonos. Thisould Latinize as Rhomaeoctonus.

FIRST EMPIRE, "ROME," 27 BC-284, 310 years

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he "First Empire" is what often would be considered the entirehistory of the "Roman Empire." It isfinitely the end of the Ancient World. If "Rome" means paganism, bizarre Imperial sex crimes, and the

omana, then this would indeed be it. A later Empire that is Christian, more somberly moralistic, and moset with war, sounds like a different civilization, which it is, and isn't. That the earlier civilization didn'tall" but merely became transformed is a truth that both academic and popular opinion still hasn't quite cterms with. If the decadence of pagan religion and despotic emperors was going to be the cause of the

all" of Rome, then it certainly should have fallen in the Crisis of the Third Century. That it didn't wouldem almost like a disappointment to many. But the greatest of the 3rd century Emperors, like Aurelian, dt popular books, movies, and BBC television epics made about them. They begin to pass into a kind ofstorical blind spot. The Pax Romanaseems real enough in certain places, but there were not many reignthout some major military action. As long as these were remote from Rome, people would have thoughas peace. Once Aurelian rebuilt the walls around Rome, things had obviously changed.

"PRINCIPATE," 27 BC-235, 261 years

1. JULIO-CLAUDIANS

Augustus 27 BC-14 AD

Tiberius I 14-37

Caligula 37-41

Claudius I 41-54

Invasion of Britain, 43

Nero 54-68

non-dynastic

Galba 68-69

Otho 69

Vitellius 69

This is the period that fits everybody's main idea of the "Roman Empire."Caligula and Nero, and Robert Graves's version of Claudius, are objects ofendless fascination, moralizing, guilty pleasure, and not-so-guilty pleasure.Whatever these emperors were actually like, this approachbegan with the Romans themselves, with Suetonius's list ofTiberius's sexual perversions, lovingly reproduced in Bob Guccione's moviCaligula(1979, 1991). Whether Tiberius was really guilty of anything of thsort is anyone's guess, but we don't hear much in the way of such accusatioabout subsequent Emperors, except for a select few, like Caracalla and

Elagabalus. Meanwhile, Augustus had secured the Rhine-Danube frontier, Claudius conquered most of Britain. Augustus originally wanted an Elbe-Danube frontier, but his forces were caught in a catastrophic ambush anddestroyed. The Romans gave up on the Elbe permanently. Only Charlemagby the conquest of Saxony, would secure what Augustus had wanted. Theshadow of the Republic persisted during this period, as Augustus adaptedRepublican forms to his own concentration of absolute power, and someonlike Claudius could still dream of restoring the Republic. The year 69 prettymuch ended these dreams, since the first free-for-all scramble for the thronrevealed that the army, and only the army, would determine who would beEmperor. Strangely enough, despite the occasional anarchy, this would be source of strength for the Empire, since it always did the best with successf

ldiers at its head. Unsuccessful soldiers faced the most merciless reality check (whether killed by theemy or by their own troops); but purely civilian Emperors, like Honorius, could endure one disaster aftother without their rule necessarily being endangered.

he family of the Julio-Claudians seems like one of the most complicated in history. This chart eliminates

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many people in thefamily to focus on tdescent and relationthe Emperors. Caligand Nero aredescendants ofAugustus, through hdaughter Julia (fromfirst marriage); butClaudius and Nero aalso descendants ofMark Antony, who course committedsuicide, shortly befoCleopatra, rather thabe captured after hidefeat by Augustus.

The use of crowns tindicate the emperoat this pointanachronistic, but itconvenient. The crofor Christian RomanEmperors, which ofcourse will not occu

until Constantine, isshown with a nimbulike deified earlier

mperors, because they are always portrayed with halos, like Saints, and are said to be the "Equal of thepostles."

3. KINGS OF ARMENIA

Orontids

Orontes/Ervand I Satrap, 401-344

Codomannus/Darius III

Satrap, 344-336

King of Persia,336-330

Orontes/Ervand II336-331

Like the Bosporan Kingdom, the history of Armeniastretchfrom the Golden Age of Greece through the Hellenistic Perioprotracted status as a Roman, and Persian, client. Thedifferences are that (1) Armenia was not a Greek colony but realm of an indigenous people of Anatolia, like the Phrygianand Cappadocians, and (2) Armenia outlived all the Greekcolonies, all the other ancient kingdoms of Anatolia, and eveRome itself. Armenia was subject to a long military anddiplomatic tug-or-war between Rome and Parthia, then Romand Persia, and finally Rome and Islm. Even today theArmenian language reflects strong Persian influence -- which

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King, 331-c.325

Mithranes c.325-c.317

Orontes III c.317-c.260

Samus c.260

Arsames c.260-c.230

Xerxes c.230-c.212

Orontes IV c.212-c.200

Artaxiads

Artaxias/Arashes c.189-c.164

Tigranes I ?

Artavasdes/Artavasd I 159-95

Tigranes/Tigran IIhe Great

95-55

Roman influence, 69

Artavasdes II 55-33

Artaxes 34-20

Tigranes III 20-c.8

Tigranes IV c.8 BC-1 AD

Artavasdes II 1-c.2

Ariobarzanes c.2-c.4

Artavasdes III c.4-c.6

Tigranes & Erato ?

Vonones 11-16

Artaxias/Artashes I 18-c.34

Arsaces/Arshak I c.34-36

has made it difficult to determine the affinities of Armenian other Indo-European languages. Deep Roman influence isevident in the fact that Armenia converted to Christianity in AD, more than a decade before Christianity had any officialtoleration or status in Romania itself. Armenia has thustraditionally been regarded as the first officially Christiancountry, though, with uncertainties in dating, Ethiopiamay b

able to challenge this. The conversion of Armenia, underTiridates III, the Great, was effected by St. Gregory theIlluminator(or Enlightener), a Roman and Christian raisedArmenian, who then became Armenian Patriarch(301-325,d.332) -- undoubtedly the first Armenian Patriarch, althoughlater the line was reckoned back to the Apostles, as with mosPatriarchates.

The traditional date of the conversion of Armenia, however, now been questioned. A.E. Redgate, in The Armenians[BasiBlackwell, 1998, 2000, pp.116-117], says that it was more likc.314, after Constantine's own conversion. Backdating the evwas a later fabrication, during the period of Persian rule, in oto assert that Armenian Christianity was independent of Romand that Chistianity therefore did not represent Romansympathies and disloyality to the Sassanids. Redgate thinks tthe conversion of Tiridates III (or IV) was precisely to displaloyalty to Rome. If Redgate is right, then Ethiopia probably wthe priority debate.

The kingdom after the end of this period indeed passed for atime under Persian control, then Persian rule, Roman reconqby Heraclius, and finally the Islmic conquest. Laterindependence in the Middle Ages included the Kingdom of tBagratidsand the outlying Kingdom of Lesser Armeniain thTaurus Mountains. The Seljuk conquest ushered in manycenturies of Turkish rule, and of course the history of Armenin the 20th century is scarred by the genocide, less Islmic th

nationalistic, by the Ottoman Turks. During all this theArmenian Church was always independent -- often regarded schismatic by the Roman Catholicism of both Constantinopland the Popes. Today the Armenian Catholicos, in a newlyindependent Republic of Armenia, has been able to travel anfreely reestablish contact with Armenian churches around theworld.

After the advent of Persian rule, St. Mesrop(Mashtots, 360-

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Mithridates 36-51

Radamistus] c.52-c.54

Arsacids

Tiridates/Trdat I51-60,63-100

Tigranes VIof Cappadocia

60-62

Axidares c.110

Parthamasiris 113-114

Roman annexation, 114-117

Sanatruces c.115

Vologases/Valarsh I 117-c.142

Pacorus c.160-163

Sohaemus c.163-c.175

Valarsh II c.215

Tiridates II/III/Khosrov I 217-252

Tiridates III/IV,he Great

287-330

Christianity adopted, 301

Khosrov II/Kotak,he Young

331-338

Tigranes V/Tiran 338-350

Kidnapped by Shapur II, 350

Arsaces/Arshak II 350-367

Artashes III d.428

AD) invented an appropriate alphabet for Armenian (and anoone for Georgian) at the beginning of the 5thcentury -- in fact possibly during the reign ofSassanid King Varahran V (421-439 AD). The alphabet islargely based on the Greek alphabet, but Mesrop had to invensome letters for sounds that didn't exist in the Greek alphabetleast one of these was later used for the Cyrillicalphabet, wh

was invented by Saints Cyril and Methodius (d.885) to helpconvert the Slavs.

An Armenian taxidriver in Los Angeles recently told a friendmine that the Armenian alphabet was derived from the Ethioalphabet(actually, syllabary). This very astonishing notionwould involve both dismissal of thehistorical record for Armenia andremarkable abnegation of national claims

that usually only expand, not retreat -- as some Ethiopians sathat their alphabet was invented autochthonously rather thanderived from Old South Arabian, as it was. I am very curioushow this notion got started and if Armenians who pass it on eknow about St. Mesrop.

This list is based on E.J. Bickerman, Chronology of the AnciWorld[Cornell Univesity Press, 1968-1982, pp. 135-136], anM. Chahin, The Kingdom of Armenia[Dorset Press, New Yo1987, 1991, pp. 211-257]. Bruce R. Gordon's Regnal

Chronologiesdisplays several different names, sequences, andates, but I have not tried to compare or reconcile them.

My knowledge of Armenian is originally from my textbook aUCLA,Modern Armenianby Hagop Andonian (ArmenianGeneral Benevolent Union of America, New York, 1966). Mrecent Armenian immigrants to the United States, however,coming from the former Soviet Armenia, speak a differentdialect (Eastern Armenian) from what earlier immigrants, fro

Turkey, spoke (Western Armenian).

The Patriarchs of Armenia

Armenia Continued

4. KINGS OF NUMIDIANo less that four foreign

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PersianControl, 364-428; PersianRule, 428-633

Masinissa c.215-149

Gulussa &Mastanabal

149-c.145

Micipsa 149-118

Adherbal &Hiempsal I 118-116

Jugurtha 118-105

War with Romans,112-106

Gauda 105-?

Hiempsal II c.88-c.50

Juba I c.50-46

Juba II c.30 BC-c.22

Ptolemy c.22 AD-40

Roman Province

cultures have been plantedinto North Africa over thecenturies. The Kingdom ofNumidia was originally

omoted by Rome as an ally against the Carthaginians. In the Secondunic War (218-201), Masinissa went from fighting effectively forarthage to an alliance with Rome. His cavalry is largely what enabledipio Africanus to defeat Hannibal at Zama in 202. He was thenpported by the Romans in eliminating his Numidian rivals. However,hen he wanted to marry the wife of the great Numidian king Syphax, theathaginian princess Sophonisba, the Romans demanded that she bended over to them. Masinissa enabled her to poison herself instead.

ome supported Masinissa the rest of his life. He died shortly beforearthage itself was exterminated in 146. Numidian allies thus enabledome to overthrow the first foreign culture in North Africa, thehoenician (or "Punic" to the Romans). The Numidians then, of course,scovered what being an "ally" of Rome really meant, and war resulted

later Kings tried to preserve their independence -- especially the War ofgurtha (112-105). Like the native kingdoms of Anatolia, Numidia wason converted into a Roman province, opening the way for thetroduction of a Latinate culture. If no other events had intervened, Northfrica today would probably boast its own Romance language, likeanish or French. This, however, was not to be. The Vandalsinterrupted

oman rule, but not long enough to make any lasting difference, if Islamd not soon arrived. When it did, this became the most durably plantedreign culture, with a large colonial element, as the FatimidCaliphs of Egypt later directed an invasion o

hnic Arab tribes -- in revenge for North African defection from the Fatimids, and from the Shi'itecausehe last culture planted was that of France, beginning with the occupation of Algeria in 1830. Eventually,mething like 30% of the population of Algeria was French colonials, who began to fight as the era of delonization threatened their position. This brought about the fall of the French Fourth Republicin 1958.terestingly, the two greatest French Existentialistwriters and philosophers were on opposite sides of theue. Jean Paul Sartre had become a dogmatic Marxist who demanded Algerian independence at any cos

hile Albert Camus, whose most famous book, The Stranger, is set in Algeria, could not so easily dismisor French farmers who had lived in Algeria for nearly a century -- Camus also suspected that Sartre'sctrinaire leftism concealed a bit of collaboration with the Germans in World War II. The return of Char

Gaulle to power in 1958 ushered in harsh medicine about Algeria. De Gaulle decided that France shout her losses, and the colony was abruptly granted independence in 1962. This began a bitter exodus of thench colonials and the nauseating torture and massacre of all those Algerians who were associated withlonial regime. The cycle of terrorism continues even today, as leftist ideology has collapsed into anhappy civil conflict between military rule and Islamic fundamentalism, and frightened Algerians havecreasingly fled....to France.

5. LEADERS & KINGS OF JUDAEAThe success of the great struggle of the Maccabees to free the

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Hasmoneans

udas Maccabaeus 167-161

Jerusalem Occupied, 164

onathan 161-143

Simon 142-135

ohn Hyrcanus I 135-105

Aristobulus 104-103

Alexander Jannaeus 103-76

Salome Alexandra 76-67

Aristobulus II 67-63

Pompey captures Jerusalem, 63

Hyrcanus II 63-40

Antigonus 40-37

Herodians

Herod I the Great King,37-4 BC

ArchelausEthnarch,4 BC-6 AD

Herod II AntipasTetrarch,4 BC-39 AD

PhilipTetrarch,

4 BC-37 AD

Herod Agrippa IKing,37-44

Agrippa IIKing,50/53-100?

Jews from the Seleucid Kingsis still commemorated in theholiday of Hanukkah, based on an incident when the Templereconsecrated after the liberation of Jerusalem. Little oil wasavailable for the Temple lamps, but what there was burnedmiraculously for eight days. The burning of candals forHanukkah coincides, however, with similar fire rituals of mapeople at the darkest time of the year, in December, and

Hanukkah has also taken on the gift-giving attributes ofChristmas -- exemplifying the adapation of religious rituals tseveral purposes. Explanations of Hanukkah often awkwardlrefer to the "Syrians" instead of to the Seleucid Greeks -- butwould certainly seem more politic today to risk offending theGreeks than to have the modern Syrians, who had nothing to with the Seleucids, feel accused of ancient tyranny. ModernIsraeland Syria have enough recentissues to deal with.

The hard won independence of Judaea fell within a century toRome, which for a time, as elsewhere, tolerated a fiction of lrule -- the Herodian dynasty owed its power entirely to Romafavor. This did not mollify the Messianic hotheads, whoinevitably sparked a rebellion that led to the final destructionthe Temple, the end, in a sense, of ancient Judaism, massacreand mass suicides, as at Masada, and the increasing DiasporaJews into the Roman world. Out of this also came the story opeaceful Messiah, who had been executed and resurrected,whose cult eventually overwhelmed Rome itself, transformin

Hellenistic Romanism into a culture of both Athens andJerusalem. Jews themselves derived little enough benefit fromthis transformation, since Pauline Christianity had repudiatedritual requirements of the Law and the new religion becameincreasingly estranged from the old. Once the new religionbecame the State Religion of Rome, the rigor with whichJudaism had rejected the old gods now became public policytheir own disability. Christianity never had the provision fouin Islam, however grudging, for the toleration, within limits, kindred religionists. The fate of Jews in Christendom thusbecame a matter of local preference, though no less an authothan St. Augustine said that Jews should be tolerated so that tBiblical prophecies of the Coming of Christ would be preservby a disinterested, or even hostile, source. Augustine,interestingly, did not doubt that Jews could be trusted tofaithfully preserve the Hebrew text of the Bible -- as they did

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Jewish Revolt & War, 66-73:Destruction of Jerusalem, 70 AD;

Fall of Masada, 73;Revolt of Bar Kokhba, 132-135

The genealogy of theHasmonaeans is from The

Complete World of The Dead Scrolls(Philip R. Davies, GeoJ. Brooke, & Phillip R. CallawThames & Hudson Ltd., 2002,p.42). The incestuous marriagethe children and grandchildrenHerod the Great, perhaps typicof a Hellenistic dynasty, like thPtolemies, were very hard tounderstand. The chart in my

edition of Josephus (The JewisWar, Penguin Classics, 1960,p.410) did not make things verclear, but then my colleague DSmith helped straighten thingsfor me. There seems to be somquestion about the parentage oHerodias and Agrippa I -- withDavies, Brooke, & Callaway

going for Aristobulus. Aristoband his brother Alexander,descendants of the Hasmonaeathrough their mother, were botexcecuted by Herod.

Since Mediaeval Jews shared the continuing trade andcommercial culture of the MidEast, and were often its only

representatives in impoverisheand ruralized Latin Europe, thbecame fatefully associated inEuropean eyes with thecommercial and financialpractices that Europeans at oncneeded, wanted, misunderstooand resented. A similar proble

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later occurredover again inEastern Euro

where the Kings of Poland weeager to bring in a moresophisticated population,unwelcome in Western Europedevelop the country andstrengthen the throne. Suchresentments in time foundtheoretical expression in Marxview that the Jews embodied tarchetype of grasping andexploitive capitalism. This mathem class enemies, but that w

on enough converted into raceenemies when Marxism mutated into Fascism and Naziism. Jews whoought they had escaped the class and race animus in the Soviet Union soon came to be suspected, purge

d, increasingly, murdered by Stalin, while Hitler, of course, decided to kill them all. This helped promoe idea, not surprisingly, that all Jews should return to Palestine and found a Jewish State, which is whatppened. After 2000 years, however, the Zionists found that they didn't have a lot in common with theodern Arabic speaking population of the place they returned to -- rather than learn Arabic, they evencided to revive Hebrew, which was already dying out as a spoken language in the days of the Hasmoned which some Jews refused to speak as being a sacred language (they still speak Yiddish). After fifty yes conflict between Israeland Arab Palestinians has still not been resolved.

y some estimates, e.g. Paul Johnson in hisA History of the Jews[HarperPerennial, 1988], Jews constitut

much as 10% of the population of the Roman Empire. I am not familiar with the basis of this estimate, m familiar with the difficulty of estimating Roman population at all. I find so high a figure inherentlymprobable. Judaea, although the "land of milk and honey" in the Bible, is a pretty barren place. This is no

ing to support a large population, especially on the basis of ancient agriculture. That there should be asany Jews there as, for instance, Egyptians is impossible. Of course, a large part of the estimate is based e Diaspora population. Even in the time of the Ptolemies, Alexandria already had a very large Jewishpulation. But that is a key point: the Diaspora population is mostly going to be urban; but the urbanpulation of the Roman Empire is unlikely to have been more than 20% of the whole. Even today, 85% e population of Tanzania, whose growth was ruined by the socialism of its post-independence governmestill in agriculture. If the population of the Empire was as much as 20% urban, and Jews were 10% of thpulation, then Jews would have to constitute nearly half of the population of every city, especiallycluding Rome itself (which may have had a population of over a million people at one point -- it could ofed by surplus grain from North Africa and Egypt). That is nothing like the impression we get from the

cords, where so large a group in Rome would be felt on a constant basis. So this "10%" seems like aavely inflated figure, though we may never have a really accurate one.

hen Jerusalem fell to Titus, the Temple and most of the city were demolished. The furniture and sacredssels of the Temple, including, Josephus says, the red curtains of the Inner Sanctuary, were carried off t

ome -- portrayed on the Arch of Titus (through which mediaeval Jews refused to walk). They remained

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ere until 455, when the Vandalssacked the city and removed their loot to Carthage. When Belisariuserthrew the Vandals for Justinianin 533 and found the items from the Temple in Carthage, they were sck to Constantinople. There they disappear from history. There is no reason not to think that they werefely kept, along with all the rest of the Classical heritage, at Constantinople, at least until the looting of y by the Fourth Crusadein 1204. At that point many treasures were carried off, largely to Venice. Thermention, however, except for the fabulous stories about the Templars, of anything, generally or

ecifically, from the Temple in Jerusalem being found by the Crusaders, and nothing of the sort has ever

bsequently been noticed kept at Venice or elsewhere. The greatMenrhof the Temple, described in dJosephus and shown on the Arch, is certainly not something to be easily overlooked. We are thus left w

considerable mystery, and it is a little surprising that there are not, at least, legends about the fate of theemple items.

nce it has previouslybeen noted that the Ark of the Covenant, despiteRaiders of the Lost Ark(1981), wt carried off to Tanis, one might wonder what subsequently happened to it. Although Josephus speaks otus taking away "the Law," he describes nothing like the Ark. Later, Mediaeval sources (e.g.Mirabiliarbis Romae, c.1143, The Marvels of Rome, Italica Press, New York, 1986, p.29) speak of the Ark having

en in Rome, but this was long, long after the fact. It must not be forgotten, however, that the Temple hace before been destroyed, by Nebuchadnezzar, in 587 BC. It is not clear that anything of the Templervived, and so the Ark could well have been destroyed then -- or concealed on the Temple Mount, where Templars supposedly found it.

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he maps here begin with Rome at its height under Trajan. The traditional notion that Trajan marched all ay down to the Persian Gulf now seems open to question, but he certainly annexed a good part ofesopotamia, as well as Armenia and Dacia. These, as it happened, were all the most organized states on

rders of Rome, exceptingly only Kush. The Pax Romanathus was often a matter of war on the frontierder to preserve the peace within. But when Hadrian withdrew from some of Trajan's conquests, he was oubled by the revolt of Bar Kochba in Judaea.

6. FLAVIANS & ANTONINES

Vespasian 69-79

Jewish Revolt & War, 66-73:

Destruction of Jerusalem,70 AD; Fall of Masada, 73

Titus 79-81

Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, 79;Colosseum dedicated, 80

Domitian 81-96

The Flavians Vespasian and Titus were both great soldiers and, to thRoman historians, virtuous and admirable men. Unfortunately, Titubrother Domitian was not quite of the same stamp, and then went onreign longer than his father and brother. He was succeeded by a

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Nerva 96-98

Trajan 97-117

Dacia conquered, 101-106;Nabataean Petra annexed,

106; Armenia & Mesopotamia

annexed, 114; JewishRevolt, 115-117

Hadrian 117-138

Bar Kochba's Revoltin Judaea, 132-135

Antoninus Pius 138-161

Lucius Verus 161-169

Parthian War, 162-168

Marcus Aurelius 161-180

German War, 168-175

Commodus 177-192

non-dynastic

Pertinax 193

Didius Julianus 193

Niger, in Syria 193-194

Clodius Albinus,n Britain & Gaul

193-197

fraternity of soldiers whoadopted each other tosecure competent andpeaceful succession. The"Five Good Emperors" (inboldface) became the idealof generations, all the wayto Gibbon, for peaceful andbenevolent government.Trajan was the firstEmperor born in theprovinces (Spain) andbriefly, with hisMesopotamian campaign,expanded the Empire to itsgreatest extent. In theMiddle Ages, Trajan had

such a powerful reputationfor goodness that the storybegan to circulate that Godhad brought him back tolife just so he couldconvert to Christianity.Dante even includes that intheDivine Comedy.Antoninus Pius became theonly Roman Emperor in1500 years to be called"the Pious," but we reallyknow precious little abouthis reign, which is onlycovered by the poor

Historia Augusta. Thismay simply illustrate the principle that goodness and peace (the heigof the "Pax Romana") is boring. The peace ended under MarcusAurelius, the closest thing to a "philosopher king" until Thomas

fferson, but also a very competent general, who smashed a major German invasion across the Danube,hile consoling himself with Stoicism for the miseries of war, plague, and personal loss. Marcus's only reilure was to leave the Empire to his worthless son, Commodus. Hereditary succession, although eventuaabilized in Constantinople, would prove a dangerous principle at many moments in Roman history. Thecompetence and viciousness of Commodus then set off his assassination and the second great free-for-aght for the throne, in 193. This was not without its comic aspect, when the Praetorian Guard killed thesciplinarian Pertinax and literally put the throne up for sale. The wealthy Didius Julianus made the best t had no other ability to secure his rule. He was killed by Septimius Severus, a notably humorless man,

ho arrived in Rome promptly -- and then also abolished the Guard.



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though Hollywood, and Italian cinema, used to turn out one Roman themed movie after another, frequeth religious overtones (called "sword-and-sandals" epics), the genre all but died with a 1964 movie abo

ommodus, The Fall of the Roman Empire(a tad premature there on the "Fall"). Except for Fellini's strantyricon(1970), the pornographic Caligula(1979), and the comicMonty Python's Life of Brian(1979), xt Roman movie would not be released until 2000, with Ridley Scott's big budget and successful Gladi

his is also, as it happens, about Commodus. The closing implication of Gladiatoris diametrically theposite of the 1964 movie, with the good guys apparently having won and a hopeful future in the offing.

either movie, of course, gets it quite right. The competition for the throne in 193 was not very edifying, solutely none of the players appear in Gladiator, not even Pertinax, the prefect of the city of Rome. Onher hand, the story does not pretend to historical accuracy about the events. Commodus did like to fightadiators, but he was not killed that way, and certainly not by a wronged general. There is no evidence thommodus killed his father, or any hint that Marcus considered a non-hereditary succession. Even in theovie it is clear that his provision for such a thing came far too late to be effective. Gladiatoris a goodovie and a good story, but it is not a serious attempt to present real Roman history. Because of its succewever, one can hope that other events in Roman history, however fictionalized, will have a chance to monto the screen.

7. SEVERANS

Septimius Severus 193-211

Caracalla 198-217

Geta 209-211

Roman Citizenship

to all free persons, 212

Macrinus 217-218

Diadumenian 218

Elagabalus 218-222

Alexander Severus 222-235

It took a little time for Septimius to put down all the would-be Emperorsthe provinces, but he did so with determination and ferocity. The virtuesnobility reputed to Trajan, of culture to Hadrian, of piety to Antoninus, aof philosophy to Marcus Aurelius were all missing in Septimius SeverusHe also doesn't seem to have considered anything other than hereditarysuccession, despite having a particularly nasty son, Caracalla, as thecandidate. His attempt to ballance Carcalla with his brother Geta simplyGeta murdered. Another factor, however, was the loyalty inspired in the

troops to the family, and Caracalla himself maintained that popularityreasonably well, until his inevitable murder. This set off another brief frfor-all, untilloyalty to theSeveran familyprevailed. The"family,"however, turnedout to be the

tirely matrilineal creation of Severus' sister-in-w, Julia Maesa, who brought her two grandsons,tirely unrelated to Severus, to the throne. Thezarre Elagabalus (sometimes "Heliogabalus"),yling himself the god of his grandmother's Syrianlar cult, and then the amiable and reasonablyfective Alexander thus wrapped up the dynasty.exander was killed after the overdue reality checkbattle, against the newly aggressive Persians. He was not that bad, but evidently not good enough for h

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wn troops, who killed him and his mother. Septimius Severus himself was one of the two Roman Emperonstantius Chloruswas the other) to die (a natural death) at York (Eboracum) in Britain.

bit of an intellectual revival took place at the court of Septimius Severus. This has been called the "Secphistic" and was largely due to the interests of Julia Domna. In a history of the sophists written at the tiPhilostratus, he says that Julia attracted a circle of mathematicians and philosophers. However, this

tually meant something more like "astrologers and sophists," and the revival was more of a retrospectiv

cient philosophy than a movement that contributed much original or of interest to it. Nevertheless, suchspiration and preoccupation has been compared to similar concerns in the Renaissance.

CRISIS OF THE THIRD CENTURY, 235-284, 49 Years

Thismaplooklike shoube frthe FCent

TheGothnot y

dividare hbut tcompart boatwhicwe wnot s

withthemlaterThe

anks here duplicate the later course of the Vandals, through Gaul, Spain, and North Africa, but without me effects. Later, the Frankswill not be a principal invader but will be the ultimate beneficiary of thevasions. The Alemannialso will be less active later, remaining in Germany and leaving their name as thord for "German" in Romance languages. Rome is weakened by revolt in the West and a Palyrmenekeover in the East. But in this era Roman institutions prove resilient enough to restore the status quo an

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ith troubling strategic withdrawls). But the Germans remain across the Rhine and Danube, growing inmbers and sophistication. One might even say that all this was a dress rehearsal for the later invasions. e theater, if the dress rehearsal goes poorly, the opening will go well. This is what happened.

he chaos that had threatened in some earlier successions

Maximinus I Thrax 235-238 SONS, BROTHERS, etc.

Gordian I Africanus 238 Gordian II 238

Balbinus & Pupiens 238

Gordian III 238-244

Philip I the Arab 244-249 Philip II 247-249

Decius 249-251

Herennius 251

Hostilianus 251

Trebonianus Gallus 251-253 Volusianus 253

Aemilianus 253

Valerian I 253-260Valerian II 253-255

Saloninus 255-259

Gallienus 253-268

260, defeated and capturedby the Sassanid Shh Shapur I

Postumus, in Gaul 259-268

Claudius II Gothicus 268-270 Quintillus 270

Defeat of Goths, 269

Victorianus, in Gaul 268-270

Tetricus I, in Gaul 270-273 Tetricus II 270-273

Zenobia, of Palmyra 267-272 Vabalanthus 270-273

Aurelian 270-275

Withdrawl from Dacia, 271

(in 69 and 193) now arrived in 238, wh

we can say that there were five Emperoin one year. The complexity of thefollowing period can only be appreciateor even understood, by reviewing the"Crisis of the Third Century" chart. FewEmperors reigned long or died naturaldeaths. Gordian III's six years would coas lengthy for the period, but his murdewould prove all too typical. The musicachairs of murders did not help prepare t

Empire for increased activity by theGermans and Persians. Decius andHerennius were killed in battle by theGoths in 251 -- the only Roman Emperto die in battle (against external enemiebesides Julian(against the Persians, 36Valens(against the Goths again, 378),Nicephorus I(against the Bulgars, 811)and Constantine XI(with the fall of

Constantinople to the Turks, 1453).Valerian's relatively long reign ended wthe unparalleled ignominy of beingcapturedby Shapur I -- the only RomanEmperor captured by an enemy untilRomanus IVin 1071. His son Gallienuthen endured one invasion and disasterafter another, with the Empire actuallybeginning to break up. Despite a short

reign (and a natural death), Claudius IIbegan to turn things around by defeatinthe Goths, commemorated with a columthat still stands in Istanbul. His colleaguAurelian then substantially restores theEmpire, only to suffer assassination,initiating a new round of revolvingEmperors. This finally ended withDiocletian, who picked up reforming th

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Tacitus 275-276 Florianus 276

Probus 276-282

Carus 282-283Numerian 283-284

Carinus 283-285

Empire, militarily, politically, andreligiously, where Aurelian had left off

Not much in the wadynasties in this perMany Emperors, ofcourse, wanted toassociate their sonswith them to arrangfor their successionin the violent ends o

most Emperors, thesons usually died wthem. Gordian III,Gallienus, and Cariare the principalexceptions, ruling intheir own right afterdeath of fathers or, Gordian, uncle andgrandfather.

The invasions andpolitical troubles ofThird Century shoothe religious andphilosophicalcertainties upon whRome had previousthrived. Exotic

religious cults, likeMithraism andhristianity, now beganexert wide appeal; and a profound shift occurred in philosophy. We no longer hear much of Stoics or

picureans, but whole new perspectives and concerns are ushered in by the mystical Egyptian Plotinus270), who even enjoyed some Imperial patronage under Gordian III and Philip the Arab. He makes thecond Sophistic look superficial indeed. With his return to the epistemology and metaphysics of Plato an

ristotle, Plotinus, as such the founder of Neoplatonism, picks up the mainstream of development of theestern philosophical tradition, which had somewhat detoured in the Hellenistic Periodthrough revivals

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esocratic doctrine (Heraclitus for the Stoics, Atomism for the Epicureans). Plotinus's student, disciple, aoswell Porphyry(d.>300), who enjoyed patronage from Aurelian, promoted Neoplatonic principles, wr

introduction to Aristotle's logical works, theIsagoge, which became an indispensable text in the Middlges, and even began organizing the defense of traditional religion in hisAgainst the Christians-- thougheoplatonic version of traditional religion now looks much more of a piece with Christian sensibilities thath things like the peculiar and archaic practices examined by Frazer in The Golden Bough. The culturaltellectual sea change of the period, soon followed by Diocletian's reforms, usher in the world of Latentiquity. Classicists start to become nervous and irritable.

5 AD

. SECOND EMPIRE, EARLY "ROMANIA," 284-610, Era ofiocletian 1-327, 326 years

he "Second Empire" is a period of transformation whose beginning and end seem worlds apart. Even at ginning, however, Classicists find themselves becoming uncomfortable, in large part because they are n



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bbing shoulders with Byzantinists, Mediaevalists, and, worse, historians of religion and, gasp, even of thhurch. In the Middle Ages, this was regarded as a triumphant period, when the Roman Empire wasdeemed and ennobled with its conversion to and transformation by Christianity -- becoming a "Romaniahose name is now not even familiar as the name of the Roman Empire. In Modern thought, this construcnds to be reversed, with the superstition and dogmatism of Christianity dragging the Classical World doto the Dark Ages. At the same time, however, there is still a strong attraction to the idea of blaming thellapse of the Empire on the characteristics of pagan Roman society -- slavery, the Games, sexual licensrruption, etc. Since this is more or less the Christiancritique of pagan society, we have the curious caseitics maintaining the perspective of Christian moralism even while rejecting Christianity as the approprisponse. This not entirely coherent approach also results in the doublethink of moral satisfaction with theall" of the (Western) Empire in 476 while carefully ignoring the survival and resurgence of the Empire ie East. The truth, as it happens, is one of continuity. The very same institutions, both Roman and Christsum and detail, that failed in the West in the face of the German threat, did just fine in the East, longtlasting, and in two dramatic cases defeating, the German successor kingdoms. What neither Trajan nor

onstantine nor Justinian could have anticipated were the blows that would fall next.

"DOMINATE," 284-379, 95 years

0 AD



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1. TETRARCHS

DiocletianAugustus 284-305,286-305 East

retired 305,died 311 or 313

Maximian Augustus 286-305 WestUsurper 306-308,310 West

Constantius I Chlorus Caesar 293-305 West Augustus 305-306 West

Galerius Caesar 293-305 East Augustus 305-311 East

Maximinus II Daia Caesar 305-309 East Augustus 309-313 East

Severus Caesar 305-306 West Augustus 306-307 West

Constantine I

he Great

Caesar 306-307 West,

308-309 West

Augustus 307-308 West,309-337 West,324-337 East

Maxentius] Usurper 306-312, Italy

Licinius Augustus 308-324 East

Domitius Alexander] Usurper 308-311, Africa

Intrinsically one of the mointeresting and importantperiods in Roman history,Tetrarchy unfortunatelysuffers from the relativepoverty of the sources wehave for it. Despite the ricliterature of the 4th centurDiocletian never got a Tacor Suetonius, and whatAmmianus Marcellinus mhave said about him is nolost. Part of this may bebecause history moved soquickly after Diocletian. Hcould still have been alive

when Constantine legalizeChristianity, and it was, ocourse, Constantine whomsubsequent Christian writwanted to glorify. ButDiocletian created a systethat was the closest to aconstitutional order than

ome ever had. Its enemy was hereditary succession, which had triumphed in Constantine, if imperfectlye end of the period. So here, not just in religion, we have a turning point. The succession by appointmenoption, or marriage of the Antonines is now seen for very nearly the last time. The complexity of this, aevents, can be seen, not just in the following genealogy, but in the Chart of the Tetrarchy. As the first

mperor with a very clearly Greek name (Diocls, before being Latinized toDiocletianus), Diocletianreshadows the later Greek character of the Empire. It is also from this point that the status of the Emperevated far beyond that of a mere official to a being with semi-divine status, altering the form of governmom "Principate" (fromprinceps, "prince" or "first") to "Dominate" (from dominus, "lord"). The fiction te Emperor is actually a kind of Republican official is now gone. This elevation was simply transformedlled back or abolished, by the Christianization of the office.

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ne of the most famous aspects of Diocletian's rule is the famous "Edict on Maximum Prices" of 301 ADnce Diocletian himself explains the law as needed to prevent some from profiteering off of the basic neeothers, this is turns out to be relevant to many modern debates. The "greed" of those who make a profit

hile prices rise is still a point of useful political appeal for many politicians and leftist activists. It looks,wever, like prices, especially agricultural prices, were rising under Diocletian because the taxburden hcome so large that many people simply abandoned their farms -- Diocletian also tried forbidding this. Soceltian himself was not a sympathetic person to Christian writers, the charge of "greed" tends to getrned around, as the contemporary writer Lactantius, appointed by Diocletian himself as a professor of L



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erature in Nicomedia, the capital, says, "...Diocletian with his insatiable greed..." Lactantius' account ofreaucratic excess and behavior could apply in many modern situations:

The number of recipients began to exceed the number of contributors by so much that, withfarmers' resources exhausted by the enormous size of the requisitions, fields became desertedand cultivated land was turned into forest. To ensure that terror was universal, provinces toowere cut into fragments; many governors and even more officials were imposed on individual

regions, almost on individual cities, and to these were added numerous accountants, controllersand prefects' deputies. The activities of all these people were very rarely civil... [J.J. Wilkes,Diocletian's Palace, Split: Residence of a Retired Roman Emperor, Oxbow Books, Oxford,1986, 1993, p.5]

ot only now are there whole countries where the dependent classes exceed the numbers of the productivasses (e.g. Italy or France), but in the United States the fate of the Social Security system will probably aled when the number of beneficiaries exceeds the number of contributors. These modern systems,hough voted in by popular majorites who like "free lunch" welfare politics, are run by bureaucrats whohavior, of course, is "very rarely civil" either to contributors orbeneficiaries. And modern bureaucrats

otected from accountability by "Civil Service" status and their own politically active and powerful publmployee labor unions. Yet politicians rarely characterize or criticize such people for their own self-intere

greed, although this phenomenon is now well understood and described in Public Choiceeconomics.hile the behavior of the bureaucrats is understandable, the harshest truth is that, with sovereignty no lonvested in a autocrat like Diocletian, the ultimate "greed" today is derived from the voters.

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0 AD

2. CONSTANTIANS

Constantius I Chlorus 293-306 W

Constantine I the Great 306-337 W+E

Council I, Nicaea I, Nicene Creed, 325

Constantine II 337-340 W

Constans I 337-350 W

Magnentius] 350-353 W

Constantius II 337-361 E+W

Gallus 351-354 E, Caesar

If the Tetrarchy was a major turning point in Romanhistory, with Constantine we are right around the cornerlooking down a very different avenue of time. Here is wthe die-hard paganophile Romanists check out, and whethe Byzantinists check in. But the changes that take placare mostly, as they had been for some time, gradual. EvConstantine's Christianity was a gradual affair. He did nactually convert until on his deathbed; and although heoutlawed pagan sacrifice, he did not close the temples ootherwise show disrespect or hostility to the old gods, anin fact seems to have long still invoked Sol Invictus, the"Unconquered Sun" of Aurelian and Diocletian. He mayhave imagined a sort of syncretism such as had beencommon in the old religions but that was not going to betolerated in Christianity. When Constantinople was builthe old acropolis was left alone. Indeed, it may have beeleft alone for much of the Middle Ages. A statue of Athis supposed to have still been standing when the Fourth



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ulian the Apostate355-360 W, Caesar;360-363, Augustus

non-dynastic

ovian 363-364

Crusade arrived in 1203. Remarkably, this may have stibeen the bronze statute of Athena Promachoswhich hastood in the open on the Acropolis at Athens, reportedlyvisible from out to sea, and was moved to the new city bConstantine. The statue was only then torn down becaussome thought she was beckoning to the Crusaders. It is nhard to tell what may have been on the acropolis all that

me because the site was finally put to a new use by the Ottomans, who built the great Topkap Palace theis certainly the right place for such a building, and so one is a little surprised to learn that no majorilding, as far as we know, was put there all the years of Romania. Even the beginning of Constantine'sachment to Christianity is obscure. The story that he saw a vision of the Cross in the sky with thescription Hc Vince("By this [sign, sign] Conquer") before (or during) the battle of the Milvian Bridghen he defeated Maxentius in 312, comes very much later in hagiography [I indicate the long "o," sincein the ablative, although this would not have figured in any such Latin inscription]. The earliest mentionything of the sort, by Lactantius again, is that Constantine had a dreamwhere he was shown theypher of Christ," the Greek letters ChiandRho, which he caused to be put on the shields of hisldiers. Later versions thus increase the dramatic and miraculous elements of the event, using what

terwould become the most symbolic of Christianity, the Cross. Using a Christian symbol in anyrm, however, and for any reason, would have been dramatic enough. Constantine's Empire went tos three sons, who might have shared it with their cousins, but killed them instead. The sons, however, enwith no heirs themselves, and the last family member on the throne, Julian, was one of the cousins who

d escaped the massacre. Julian, whose own writings have been preserved, is one of the better known buanger figures of the century. Quixotically trying to restore paganism, he only seemed to demonstrate the old gods were spent and nobody's heart was really in it anymore. Although apparently a fine enoughilitary commander against the Franks, Julian's short reign ended with another Quixotic effort, againstrsia. It was not so much the war itself as the ill conceived scale of the invasion, which left Julian all but

anded with his army, deep in Mesopotamia, with the Persians avoiding battle but constantly harassing hmehow this had not happened to Alexander, Trajan, Heraclius, or the forces of the Caliph Omar. It coslian his life, and his religious cause, since the Christian Jovian was then chosen by the Army.

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8 AD

3. VALENTIANS

Valentinian I 364-375 W Valens 364-378 E

Gratian 367-383 Wdefeated and killed bythe Visigoths, Battleof Adrianople, 378

Theodosius I,the Great

379-395 E

Magnus Maximus] 383-388 W

Valentinian II 375-392 W

Eugenius] 392-394 W

394-395 W

With Valentinian and his brother Valenthe Christian nature of the Empire wassealed. But the future seemed secureenough. Valentinian was vigorous andcompetent, even if his brother wasn't somuch. Unfortunately, Valentinianapparently died of a heart attack (orperhaps a cerebral hemorage) in a fit of

anger over the insolence of somerepresentatives from the Huns. WithValens as the senior Emperor, he didn'twait for assistance before moving to pudown a revolt by the Visigoths, who harecently been admitted as refugees fromthe Huns but were now rising up agains

istreatment by their hosts. The resulting battle was close and hard fought but turned into a catastrophic rth Valens himself falling. Gratian appointed Theodosius as the new Eastern Emperor to restore the

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uation (marrying him to his sister), which seems to have about the most useful thing he accomplished,fore his murder. His brother Valentinian, secured on the throne against the usurper Magnus Maximus b

heodosius, then mostly seems to have been a pawn, until his own death drew Theodosius west (again) town the usurper Eugenius. Things thus went steadily down hill after Valentinian. Although the Battle of

drianople need not have fundamentally affected the strength of the Empire, it acquires great symboliceaning in retrospect because of the more permanent damage subsequently done by the Visigoths and theeakening of the Empire that attended it.

CRISIS OF THE FIFTH CENTURY, 379-476, 97 Years

0 AD



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One of the minterestingpeople in thediagram is thEmpress GalPlacidia, thedaughter ofTheodoius I, wife ofConstantius Iand the mothValentinian IWith Honoriuand Constantshe was buriethe chapel of

Saints Nazariand Celsus inRavenna. J.BBury (Historthe Later Rom

EmpireVol. Dover 1958, 263) says tha"her embalmbody in Impe

bes seated on a chair of cypress wood could be seen through a hole in the back till A.D.1577, when all ntents of the tomb were accidentally burned thourgh the carelessness of children." Mosaics in Ravenna

om this period already show the books of the Bible bound in codices, i.e. familiar bound books rather throlls.

1. THEODOSIANS,WEST

WESTERNCOMMANDERS

1. THEODOSIANS,EAST

394-395,West Theodosius I, the Great

379-395,East

Council II, Constantinople I, Arianism condemned, 381; Destructionof the Serapeum, 391; Abolition of the Olympic Games, 394 (?)

Stilicho 395-408

Arcadius 395-408 E

Theodosius may hbeen called "Greamainly forestablishing

AthanasianOrthodoxy and foactions againstpaganism like cloand sometimesdestroying templeand ending theOlympic Games(which, however,

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Honorius 395-423 WSuevi, Vandals,

& Alans cross Rhine,1 January 407

Constantius III410-421

TheodosiusII

408-450 E

421 W

Castinus 422-425

Gadiatorial combatended in Colosseum,404; Rome sacked by

Visigoths, 410

ConstantineIII)]

407-411in Britain,Gaul & Spain

ohn 423-425 W defeated by Vandalsin Spain, 422

Council III, Ephesus,Nestorianism condemned, 431

ValentinianII

425-455 WFelix 425-430

Atius 430-454

Rome sacked by Vandals, 455 Marcian 450-457 E

Council IV, Chalcedon, Monophysitism condemned, 451

seem to havecontinued in somform for anothercentury). Otherwihe did get the Gounder control andthe Empire, to allappearances, sounand prepared for future. Unfortunathere were two veserious problemsOne was that theGoths remained aunified andaggressive tribewithin the Empire

ready to beginrampaging again any time. Anothewas that Honoriuand Arcadius, thesons between whTheodosius dividthe Empire, wereyoung andinexperienced.Leaving the Armythe hands of theGerman comman

ilicho set the stage for all the evils of divided authority and palace intrigue. The result of this would besaster. When the times called for a strong soldier Emperor, there wasn't one -- and there would not be onr some time, perhaps not until Heraclius. With the Goths running wild, and an alliance of German tribesossing the frozen Rhine on New Year's Eve of 407, the institutions were not prepared to bounce back thay Rome had in the 3rd Century. A characteristic moment came when the commander Atius, sometimelled "the Last Roman," who had defeated the Huns at Chalons, was murdered by the incompetent and

alous Emperor Valentinian III. Valentinian's own murder, as the Vandals symbolically arrived to plundeome, then left the throne completely at the mercy of the next person to get control of the Army, who waerman Ricimer. Ricimer could not himself, as a German, become Emperor, so he could only retain pow

keeping the Emperors as figureheads, or killing them. This was not a formula for retrieving the situatio

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is noteworthy that the Venerable Bede (673-735) numbered Theodosius II as the 45th and Marcian as th

th Emperors since Augustus. This is considerably less than the count we might make now and itterestingly implies that Bede possessed a sort of "official" list from which many ephemeral Emperors wcluded. After Roman Britain disappeared from history, when the usurper Constantine "III" took his trooGaul, Bede'sHistory of the English Church and Peopleis just about the first that we then hear of it, thrndred years later. What events filled that time became strongly mythologized, especially around the figKing Arthur. Bede does not mention Arthur, but he does talk about a British leader against the Angles,

mbrosius Aurelius, who gained a period of peace after defeating the invaders at Badon Hill in about 49r 518). This becomes an element of the Arthur story. I suspect that the vividness of the Arthur stories, liat of the Greek epics and of theMahbhratain India, is an artifact of a literate society that for a time lliteracy but remembered, after a fashion, what it was like. The literature on the problem of Arthur and

itain in this period is vast. Two of the more interesting recent books might be The Discovery of Kingrthurby Geoffrey Ashe [Guild Publishing, London, 1985] and From Scythia to Camelot, A Radicaleassessment of the Legends of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and the Holy Grailby C. Scttleton and Linda A. Malcor [Garland Publshing, Inc, New York, 1994]. Littleton and Malcor made thegnificant discovery that the scene of Arthur's death in Mallory'sMorte d'Arthur, where the sword Excalias thrown into a lake, occurs in almost identical terms in the legends of the Ossetians in the Caucasus.here is a possible connection, since the Ossetians are descendants of the Alans, and Marcus Aurelius hadttled a tribe of Alans, the Iazyges, whom he had defeated in 175 and taken into Roman service, in the noBritain, where many of them settled at Bremetenacum Veteranorum, south of Lancaster. The legion to

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hich the Iazyges were assigned, the VI Legion Victrix, was commanded by one Lucius Artorius CastuArtorius" looks like the Latin source of the name "Arthur." There is nothing certain about the speculation

d disputes over all this, however, except that they will be endless.

2. LAST WESTERN EMPERORS[names in brackets

not recognized by East]WESTERN

COMMANDERSPetronius Maximus] 455 W

Avitus 455-456 W

Ricimer 456-472

Majorian 457-461 W

Libius Severus] 461-465 W

interregnum 465-467 W

Anthemius 467-472 W

Joint E/W expedition againstVandals fails, 468

Olybrius] 472 W

interregnum 472-473 W Gundobad,King of

Burgundy

472-473

Glycerius] 473 Wulius Nepos 473-480 W

Orestes 473-476Romulus "Augustulus"] 475-476 W

Odoacer 476-493

The last twenty years of the WesternEmpire are mainly the story of the

commander Ricimer. The last WesternEmperor really worthy of the name waprobably Majorian, who was a militaryman in his own right and operated in GHe suffered a defeat and was murderedRicimer. Henceforth, the Emperors wemainly puppets and operations wereconfined to Italy. The rest of the WesteEmpire fell almost by default to theVandals, Visigoths, and Burgundians.

Roman pocket under local commanderremained in the north of Gaul until theFrankish King Clovissubjugated it in 4Ricimer was once perusaded to accept Emperor from the East, Anthemius, anparticipate in an assault on the Vandalsbut this was a disaster, and he ended hi"reign" with another figurehead on thethrone. After a King of Burgundy,

Gundobad, briefly had his own figurehon the throne, a new nominee of theEastern Emperor, Julius Nepos, and a ncommander, Orestes, were installed. Brather than work together to get thingsorganized again, Nepos was chased ouDalmatia by Orestes, who put his own

child, on the throne. In 476, whenrestes and his son were then deposed by Odoacer, who decided to do without a figurehead Emperor, thisas the rather anticlimactic "Fall of Rome." Odoacer even returned the Western Regalia to Constantinopl

epos, meanwhile, was still in Dalamatia. Odoacer got rid of him by 480. Since Odoacer, de jure, was aithful officer of the Emperor in Constantinople, one could say that the last institutional existence of theestern Empire surived until Odoacer was overthrown by the Ostrogoths in 493.

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6 AD

THE EAST ALONE, 476-518, 42 Years

1. LEONINES

Leo I 457-474 E

Joint E/W expeditionagainst Vandals fails, 468

Leo II 473-474 E

Zeno the IsaurianTarasikodissa)

474-491 E+W

Basiliscus] 475-476 E

Anastasius I 491-518

Leo I purged the Eastern Army of Germans and so turned the Eastaway from the process of barbarization that had rendered the WesteArmy useless. A lastchance to recoupthings for the wholeEmpire came in 468,after Leo had gottenRicimer to accept the

Theodosian relativeAnthemius asWestern Emperor. A

joint amphibiouscampaign was puttogether to recover

frica from theandals. This should have succeeded, but it failed through a combination of incompetence, treachery, andd luck. Ricimer may not have really wanted it to succeed, and it wasn't long before he got rid of



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nthemius. After Odoacer decided not to bother with a Western Emperor, Leo's Isaurian son-in-law, Zenound himself as the first Emperor of a "united" Empire since Theodosius I, but little was left of the Westnly Odoacer in Italy vaguely acknowledged the Emperor's suzerainty -- we don't know what allegiance, y, remained in the Roman pocket in northern Gaul. Nothing was done about this at the time, andnastasius, by temperament or by wisdom, concentrated on allowing the East to rest and build up its strenrt of that involved reforming the coinage, which is one of the benchmarks for the beginning of "Byzantstory.

0 AD

RETURNING TO THE WEST, 518-610, 92 years

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5 AD

1. JUSTINIANS

ustin I 518-527

ustinian I 527-565

Plato's Academyclosed, 529;North Africa regained, 533;

Rome regained, 536; endof dating by Consuls, 537;Ostrogoths defeated, 552;

Council V, Constantinople II,Monophysitism condemned

again, 553; Andalusia

regained, 554

ustin II 565-578

LombardsInvade Italy, 568

Tiberius II574-578, Caesar;578-582, Augustus

Justinian took the rested strength of the East and threw it, commandedhis great general Belisarius, against the Vandalsand Ostrogoths. TheVandals, caught off guard, collapsed quickly. In 540 the Ostrogothssurrendered to Belisarius, who had to rush East to meet a Persianinvasion. He was too late. Khusro I had already sacked Antioch (540)Then in 541 the resistance of the Ostrogoths revived, and the plague hthe Empire. The campaign in Italy then took another 11 years, with mand money very short. Successful, if exhausted, Justinian was then absecure part of southern Spain. Meanwhile he had built the greatest chuin Christendom, Sancta Sophia, codified Roman Law, and driven the pagans, at Plato's Academy, out of business. This wore out the Empirebut it could easily have recovered to new strength if further blows hadfallen. The Lombardsinvaded Italy in 568; and although they were

unable to secure the whole peninsula, or the major cities (except in thvalley), they became a source of constant conflict for most of the nexttwo hundred years. Meanwhile, the Danube frontier had become veryinsecure. As early as 540 (again) Bulgars and Slavs were raiding into Balkans. Maurice not only restored the frontier but crossed it to apply"forward defense" of the Early Empire. Unfortunately, this hardcampaigning became unpopular with the troops; and in 602 theymurdered Maurice and his whole family. Under Phocas, things beganunravel. The Persians began the campaign that would net them the As

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Sack of Athens by Slavs, 582

Maurice 582-602

non-dynastic

Phocas 602-610

part of the Empire, recreating the Persia of the Achaeminids, and theDanube frontier collapsed so completely that it would not be restored almost four hundred years.



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2. KINGS OF IBERIA/GEORGIA

Guaram I 588-595

Stephen I 595-627

Adarnase I 627-639

Stephen II 639-c.650

Adarnase II c.650-c.684

Guaram II c.684-695

ArabRule, 695-888

Guaram III 695-c.748

Nerse c.748-c.760

Stephen III c.760-779/80

uansher 779/80-807

interregnum, 807-813

At the west end of the Caucasus Mountains, Georgia is the home ofancient Christian kingdom, and of a people speaking a non-Indo-European language, which has affinities with other Caucasianlanguages, but none elsewhere. The Roman client states of ColchisLazica and Iberia had long been in existence when they

converted to Christianity around 330. A uniquealphabet was created for their unique language aboutthe same time that the same thing was done forArmenian -- in fact it is supposed to have been done by the same

person, St. Mesrop. The modern alphabet, as seen above, is a morerecent creation. Unlike Monophysite Armenia, Georgia adopted theprinciples of the Ecumenical Councils, the Roman Catholic Churchthe time, or the Greek Orthodox Church now. Subsequently, likeArmenia, Iberia was often under Persian control, while Lazicaremained Roman in the ongoing Persian tug-of-war with Romania

KINGS OF ABASGI

independence

Leon II 767-8

Theodosius II 811-8

Demetrius II 811-8

(and another Georgian state, Abasgia,was independent). This list begins aboutthe time Iberia came back under Romanprotection. Briefly under the Persiansagain, a much longer period of foreignrule commenced with the Islmicconquest. Part of Georgia, Abasgia,became independent first. When Iberiafollowed, it was for a time even under

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Ashot 813-830

interregnum, 830-843

Bagrat I 842/3-876

David I 876-888

independence, 888

Adarnase IV 888-912

to Abasgia, 912-923

David II 923-937

Bagrat II 937-994

Gurgen II 994-1008

Bagrat III 1008-1014

George I 1014-1027

Bagrat IV 1027-1072

SeljukRule

George II 1072-1089

David II 1089-1125

Demetrius I1125-1154,1155-1156

David III 1154-1155

George III 1156-1184

Tamar (f) 1184-1212

David Soslan 1193-1207

George IV 1212-1223

Rusudani (f)1223-1231,d.1245

George I 872-8

John 876-8

Adarnase 880-8

Bagrat I 887-8

Constantine II 898-9

George II 916-9

Leon III 960-9

Demetrius III 969-9

Theodosius III 976-9

Bagrat III 978-1

union with Georgia, 10

Abasgian rule, but then Abasgia andIberia were unified in what might becalled the first complete

history - the roman empire & byzantium

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