Roman Empire - Dominate

  General Description   The Roman Principate is generally regarded as ending during or just after the crisis of the 3rd century CE (235-284 CE). The date of 284 CE marks the accession of Diocletian ^[1] and the period includes the Constantinian Dynasty (305-363 CE), Valentinian Dynasty (364-378 CE) and the early part of the Theodosian dynasty (379-457 CE). According to the historian David Baker, the ’Eastern Empire enjoyed an expansion phase c. 285-450’. ^[2] The period ends after the reign of Theodosius, the last emperor to rule over both the Eastern and Western halves of the Empire. ^[3]
Near the end of the 3rd century, beginning at the end of the Severan Dynasty, the Principate nearly collapsed in the face of internal warfare and pressure from external foes, including the Sassanid Persian Empire and nomadic tribes from Germany and eastern Europe. Rome briefly lost control over parts of France, Britain, and southern Spain and suffered several significant losses in battle to the Sassanids. Under first the Emperor Aurelian (r. 270-275 CE) then Diocletian (r. 284-305), all territory was recovered and a series of administrative and economic reforms inaugurated a second phase of the Roman Empire, which we refer to as the Dominate (denoting the increasing centralization of authority and the development of a large bureaucratic apparatus). This period saw notably the increasing popularization of Christianity, culminating in its acceptance as the official state religion under the Emperor Theodosius at the end of the period. The late 3rd century also saw the Empire split into two distinct administrative halves: a Western half, with its capital at Rome, and an Eastern one, ruled first from Nicomedia in Anatolia and then from Byzantium (re-founded as Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul, by the Emperor Constantine I the Great in 330 CE). Each half was ruled by a different emperor along with a junior colleague, titled ’Caesar’. This arrangement is known as the Tetrarchy (’rule of four’), which lasted until Constantine I managed to once again rule both halves together. The Empire was divided a few more times, until Theodosius (r. 379-392 CE) united it for the final time. In 393, Theodosius once more divided the Empire, naming Arcadius Emperor in the East and Honorius Emperor in the West. This marks the end of the Dominate period, leading to a period of instability and, ultimately, the collapse of the Roman state in the west, yet recovery and the continuation of Roman rule in the east (which became known as the Byzantine Empire, after Constantinople’s original name).
Population and political organization
During the Dominate period, the power centre of the Roman Empire shifted decisively away from Rome and Italy, beset by decades of crisis and civil infighting, to Anatolia; specifically, to the old Greek city of Byzantium that was re-founded and glorified by the Emperor Constantine I. Before this, Diocletian brought stability back to the Empire after the crises of the 3rd century CE by inaugurating a series of administrative and economic reforms. Although most offices and institutions of the preceding Principate period were retained, Diocletian increased the number of provinces, adding more governors and provincial officials who reported directly to the emperor, and further split the empire into two halves to aid in the administration of such a vast and diverse territory. ^{[4] [5]} The early Dominate is known for the decline of autonomy, prestige, and power of Rome’s provincial elite and the concomitant rapid increase in the power of the central bureaucracy. ^{[6] [7] [8]}
When Constantine I established Constantinople as the capital in 330 CE, he furnished the city with a palace, hippodrome, and a great imperial bureaucracy. In terms of personnel the administration in Constantinople reached its largest extent in the 4th century with ’somewhat over thirty thousand functionaries’. ^[9] Constantine was the first emperor to vigorously promote Christian religion and his patronage of the Christian church laid the foundations of a Christian empire. ’He built grand churches at the sacred loci of Christianity, including churches celebrating Christ’s birth, baptism, and resurrection and Peter’s death in Rome. ... Constantine’s successors would continue this pattern. Many churches would become quite wealthy. Their clergy were exempt from taxation and other onerous obligations like labor.’ ^[10]
The Empire, creaking under its vast territory of 4.5 million square kilometres, supported a population of up to 70 million people. Rome had lost population from its peak under the Principate, probably supporting around 800,000 in 300 CE and around 500,000 by the beginning of the 5th century. Constantinople also had slightly under 500,000 inhabitants, though it developed rapidly under the patronage of Constantine I and his successors and became the new centre of literacy and culture in the Roman world - rivalling, if not surpassing, Rome herself. ^[11]

[1]: (Boatwright et al. 2012, 438) Mary T. Boatwright, Daniel J. Gargola, Noel Lenski and Richard J. A. Talbert. 2012. The Romans. From Village to Empire: A History of Rome from Earliest Times to the End of the Western Empire. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

[2]: (Baker 2011, 245-46) David Baker. 2011. ’The Roman Dominate from the Perspective of Demographic-Structural Theory’. Cliodynamics 2 (2): 217-51.

[3]: (Morgan 2012) James F. Morgan. 2012. The Roman Empire: Fall of the West, Survival of the East. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse.

[4]: (Black 2008, 181) Jeremy Black. 2008. World History Atlas. London: Dorling Kindersley.

[5]: (Cameron 1993) Averil Cameron. 1993. The Later Roman Empire, A.D. 284-430. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

[6]: (Loewenstein 1973, 238) Karl Loewenstein. 1973. The Governance of Rome. The Hague: Martin Nijhoff.

[7]: (Eich 2005) Peter Eich. 2005. Zur Metamorphose des politischen Systems in der römischen Kaiserzeit: Die Entstehung einer "personalen Bürokratie" im langen dritten Jahrhundert. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

[8]: (Eich 2015) Peter Eich. 2015. ’The Common Denominator: Late Roman Imperial Bureaucracy from a Comparative Perspective’, in State Power in Ancient China and Rome, edited by Walter Scheidel, 90-149. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[9]: (Lendon 1997, 3) J. E. Lendon. 1997. Empire of Honour: The Art of Government in the Roman World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[10]: (Madigan 2015, 20) Kevin Madigan. 2015. Medieval Christianity: A New History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

[11]: (Lee 2013, 76) A. D. Lee. 2013. From Rome to Byzantium AD 363 to 565: The Transformation of Ancient Rome. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.