Valentinian I, Emperor of Rome

The reign of Valentinian I marked a new stage in the decline of the Roman Empire, namely one in which emperors reigned but did not necessarily rule. Power was staring to ebb away from the person who was nominally in charge and towards the civil servants and officials who were increasingly making the important decisions.

Valentinian was born in 321 in what is now Croatia. Like his predecessor Jovian, he was a middle ranking army officer who was unexpectedly chosen to be Emperor. In Valentinian’s case this happened when Jovian was found dead in bed one morning, possibly poisoned by fumes from an ill-ventilated coal fire.

Valentinian was by no means the first choice of the general staff, who spent around a week mulling over several candidates before making the decision and offering him the job. It was not long before Valentinian realized that this was such a huge responsibility that he could not take it on alone and asked for his younger brother Valens to be made co-emperor alongside him, which was agreed, with Valentinian being in charge of the western empire and Valens of the eastern half.

Real power at this period of the empire’s history belonged to local bureaucrats, so that emperors were obliged to negotiate with various power structures that pretended to act as representatives of central government. The last thing that these local rulers wanted was effective imperial interference, and Valentinian and Valens were just the men who fitted the bill from their point of view.

Not surprisingly, this sort of hands-off rule allowed corruption to flourish at a local level, given that officials knew that they were unlikely to be held to account for activities that feathered their own nests.

One such example arose in North Africa at the start of Valentinian’s reign when Romanus, a long-serving military commander, refused to come to the aid of a city that was under attack because the inhabitants would not pay the huge bribe that he demanded from them. Romanus was able to get away with it and escape justice for the whole of Valentinian’s 11-year reign.

Evidence of where power really resided – i.e. not with the emperor – came when Valentinian fell seriously ill in 367 and the question arose of who might succeed him should he die. Two factions within the imperial court debated the matter between themselves without consulting either Valentinian or Valens.

In earlier times that would have been regarded as treasonous conspiracy and heads would certainly have rolled when – as indeed happened – the emperor recovered his health and learned what had been going on. However, nobody was punished. The net result was that Valentinian felt constrained to name a successor, who was his son Gratian, then aged 8.

Valentinian’s main problem was in dealing with barbarian revolts and incursions. In Britain there was trouble from tribes north of Hadrian’s Wall – aided by the Scotti from Ireland – and in the south the Romans had to deal with warlike Saxons and Franks. These proved to be relatively minor problems that local commanders were able to solve without too much difficulty.

Greater threats were posed by tribes in the Danube region, notably the Alemanni, Sarmatians and Quadi, and Valentinian met his end in dealing with the third of these tribes, although not on the battlefield. In 375 a delegation from the Quadi sued for peace in a face-to-face meeting with the emperor. The complaints they made about Roman behaviour annoyed Valentinian to the extent that he flew into a violent rage that led to a fatal stroke.

Valentinian’s brother Valens was still ruling over the eastern empire, where he had plenty of problems of his own to contend with. Valentinian’s son Gratian, now aged 16, was just about old enough to take up the reins of power in the west, but he found himself having to share them with an even less likely candidate for the job, namely Valentinian’s other son, by his second wife, who was also named Valentinian but had only reached the age of five!

© John Welford

Trebonianus Gallus and Aemilianus, Emperors of Rome

The years 251 to 253 have been reckoned as among the worst in the whole of Roman imperial history. This was a time of utter chaos, when major cities were sacked by invading tribes, armies were destroyed, and emperors came and went with considerable rapidity.

This article concerns two such emperors, of whom relatively little can be said because they emerged from nowhere and played only minor roles in the story of Rome’s sorry decline.

Trebonianus Gallus

Emperor Decius was killed at the Battle of Abrittus in June 251, the enemy being an invading army of Goths. He had previously indicated that his preferred successor was Publius Licinius Valerianus, but it was Gaius Vibius Trebonianus Gallus who was declared emperor when the time came.

Born in about the year 206, of aristocratic stock, Trebonianus Gallus had been governor of the province of Moesia Superior, which was one of the provinces being threatened by the Goths. He appears to have been a loyal and trusted follower of Decius, and a perfectly suitable successor. Valerianus (usually known as Valerian) seems to have accepted the situation and not to have been anxious to challenge Gallus for the throne. Given the track record of emperors of the time – in terms of short reigns and violent deaths – this was understandable.

The first act of Gallus as emperor was to conclude a peace treaty with the Goths. His second was to adopt the younger son of Decius to rule jointly with him, but this plan fell through when the young man died of the plague soon afterwards. Gallus then appointed his own son, Volusianus, to fill this position.

Trebonianus Gallus’s short reign was marked by a continuation of Decius’s persecution of the Christians, although this was not pursued with any great energy and consisted of expulsions rather than executions, and further efforts to defend the empire from barbarian incursions, which was by far the more pressing problem.

The troublesome tribes included the Franks and the Alemanni, the latter of whom managed to cross the Rhine and pillage as far as Spain before heading for home. In 252 the Goths claimed that the Romans had not fulfilled their side of the peace treaty and resumed their attacks in Greece and Asia Minor. They launched seaborne attacks from the Black Sea, burst through the Dardanelles and sacked a number of cities around the Aegean, including Ephesus.

The Sassanids also made a reappearance, with Shapur advancing up the Euphrates and crushing a Roman army at Barbalissos (northern Syria) in 253.

Rome and its emperor were in deep trouble.

Aemilianus

Marcus Aemilius Aemilianus was born in around 207, probably in Libya and of Moorish stock. As a general he had a measure of success in countering the Gothic incursions in the Danube region, and was considered by his troops to be a better bet than Trebonianus Gallus. They therefore declared him to be emperor and he set out towards Italy to stake his claim.

Gallus called on Valerian, who was commanding troops on the Rhine, to come to his aid, but he was too late. Gallus was killed by his own troops in August 253 before Valerian arrived.

Aemilianus may now have thought that he was home and dry, as long as he could see off the army led by Valerian when it turned up. However, the troops that had acclaimed him on the Danube had second thoughts now that they were in Italy. Valerian looked to be a much more acceptable prospect as emperor, and he was also likely to be approved by the Senate, which was not the case with Aemilianus.

Aemilianus therefore suffered the same fate as Trebonianus Gallus, just one month later.

© John Welford

The Tetrarchy from Diocletian to Constantine: Emperors of Rome

Emperor Diocletian decided to retire in April 305, assuming that the system for sharing imperial authority that he had set up would continue along the same lines. However, things did not run as smoothly as he had hoped.

Diocletian had split the empire into twelve “dioceses”, with each of four “tetrarchs” running three of them apiece. He and Maximian were the two senior tetrarchs, with Constantius and Galerius being subservient to them. Diocletian’s plan was for Maximian and himself to retire at the same time, with Constantius and Galerius moving up to fill the senior positions (“Augusti”) and two new men being appointed to be junior emperors (“Caesares”).

The original thought had been that the sons of Constantius and Maximian, namely Constantine and Maxentius respectively, would be the new Caesars, but Diocletian changed his mind on this. He subsequently announced that the new junior emperors-in-waiting would be a general named Flavius Valerius Severus and Maximinus Daia, who was a nephew of Galerius.

The problem was that not all the new men who took office on 1^st May 305 were content with what Diocletian had decreed. In particular, Constantius was annoyed that his son Constantine had been excluded from the succession.

It was not long before this source of dissent turned from being a potential problem to an actual one. Constantius was responsible for Britain and it was while he was in Britain in July 306 that he died at Eboracum (York). The army, presumably following the expressed wish of Constantius, declared Constantine to be the new emperor.

Meanwhile Maxentius, who was the other man to lose out when Diocletian changed his mind about the succession, refused to let matters lie and claimed the position that Diocletian had assigned to Severus. His father Maximian gave him his support, which was essential in deciding the issue because the army, which had served under Maximian, refused to back Severus who was imprisoned and eventually killed.

In 307 Galerius invaded Italy, hoping to defeat Maxentius and restore the arrangement that Diocletian had decreed. Constantine refused to take sides and Rome, protected by the walls erected 30 years previously by Aurelian and Probus, proved to be capable of withstanding a siege. Galerius had no choice but to withdraw.

On the other hand, Galerius did have a powerful friend to call upon for help, namely Diocletian who was quietly growing cabbages on his estate at Split (in modern Croatia). A conference was called in 308 at Carnuntum (in modern Austria), under the chairmanship of Diocletian, at which it was agreed that Constantine could continue to rule the regions he already controlled and Galerius would continue as the other senior emperor. A new junior emperor was appointed to replace Severus, this being a general named Licinius.

With civil war avoided, Diocletian went back to his vegetables and Galerius was happy to be recognized as the most powerful person in the empire. Unfortunately for him, he only lived to enjoy this status for another three years, dying of natural causes (a very nasty case of bowel cancer) in May 311.

The surviving emperors, who now all regarded themselves as Augusti rather than Caesares, then divided into two factions, Maximinus allying himself with Maxentius and Constantine with Licinius. One result of Diocletian’s reforms had been that the army, as well as the government, had split into what were virtually independent camps that were loyal to one or other of the tetrarchs. The result was that each of the four men controlled roughly equal forces, so any power struggle was likely to result in a highly destructive civil war.

In the event, the struggle boiled down to a contest between Constantine and Maxentius. Constantine was a strange character who exhibited a range of personality traits, one of which was a deep belief in divine intervention. The question was, which god to trust? He had long been a devotee of Sol Invictus – also known as Elagabal, the Syrian sun god who had originally been introduced to Rome by Elagabalus and then re-introduced by Aurelian. Constantine now decided to place his trust in the Christian god.

The story of Constantine’s conversion has become a legend, not least because of the profound implication it would have for the growth of Christianity as well as the later history of the Roman Empire. The truth of what happened is less easy to ascertain. However, the fact remains that Constantine was able to defeat Maxentius, and he ascribed his victory to what he termed the “Divine Mind”.

After the final battle with Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge on 28^th October 313, at which Maxentius was killed, Constantine was clearly the most dominant figure in Roman politics, and the Tetrarchy, such as it now was, was no longer a government by equal parties. 

© John Welford

The sons of Constantine, Emperors of Rome

Emperor Constantine had four sons, three of whom he saw as the foundation of a dynasty that would continue his project of reforming the Roman Empire into something that could survive for future centuries. The problem was that his sons did not inherit from him the qualities that might have made that possible.

Constantine’s first son, Crispus, was born to his first wife, Minervina, in around the year 300. However, he died in 326 having been tried, condemned and executed, on his father’s orders, for crimes that have never been fully explained.

The other three sons were born to Fausta, Constantine’s second wife, and were Constantine (born in 316 and known as Constantine II), Constantius (born in 317 and known as Constantius II) and Constans (probably born in 323). The rather confusing names are a clear enough indication of Constantine’s dynastic plans.

Emperor Constantine I died in 337, which meant that his sons were aged 21, 20 and (probably) 14. Constans was certainly a minor at the time, so his elder brother Constantine II  (see above coin) acted as his regent.

Constantius (the middle brother) was clearly the most ambitious and ruthless of the three, and he took it upon himself to eliminate any possible opposition from outside the brotherhood. He therefore ordered the arrest and execution of every other male descendent of Constantius I (grandfather of the three brothers) and his second wife Theodora. There were only two exceptions, namely Gallus and Julian who were his wife’s nephews (Constantius had married a first cousin). The boys (aged under 10) were taken away to be held in virtual house arrest in Diocletian’s former palace.

Fraternal rivalry

In 340 Constans reckoned that he was old enough to take full control of that part of the western empire (Italy and Illyricum) that Constantine I had decreed should be his. However, Constantine II, who was in charge of Gaul, Spain and Britain, saw things differently.

In 340 Constantius, who ruled the eastern empire, called for help from his elder brother to deal with a threat from the Persian empire under Shapur II. Constantine saw an opportunity to attack his younger brother Constans as he passed through Italy, but the boot was on the other foot. Constantine fell victim to an ambush and Constans was thus able to assume control of the whole of the western empire. East and west now harboured deep suspicions about each other’s intentions.

The rivalry between Constans and Constantius expressed itself in a number of ways, including religion. Although they were both nominally Christian emperors, they had their own ideas about the degree to which pagan elements should be allowed to continue in religious practice. There were also debates between churchmen in the western and eastern halves of the empire about the issues that led to Constantine I’s promulgation of the Nicene Creed in 325. Constantius was keen to summon a new council at which the creed would be “improved”.

With the western churchmen being backed by Constans and the eastern churchmen having the backing of Constantius, it seemed for a while that civil war would break out with religion as its prime cause. However, quite unexpectedly, in 345 Constantius backed down and allowed Constans to have his way. It would seem that the future of Christianity was not something that Constantius thought worth fighting over.

Constans would not enjoy his victory for long. The parts of his realm that had formerly been ruled by his brother Constantine felt neglected and a rival for the throne appeared in the form of Flavius Magnentius, the commander of the army in Gaul. In January 350, during a visit to Gaul by Constans, assassins hired by Magnentius attacked and murdered the youngest of the brothers, leaving just Constantius II as the sole survivor.

Constantius was now faced by two threats, namely Shapur in the east and Magnentius in the west, with the eastern problem being the more pressing one. In the event, dealing with Shapur was not as difficult as he first feared and in the summer of 350 he was able to turn his attention westwards.

A job for Gallus

However, Constantius was well aware that running the empire was no longer a job for one man. He now remembered that he had two surviving cousins, namely Gallus and Julian, still languishing in exile ten years after he had placed them there. He gave Gallus the rank of Caesar together with the task of keeping order in the east while Constantius was elsewhere. Julian was also released and was allowed to get himself an education at Constantinople.

The armies of Constantius and Magnentius met in battle at Mursa (in modern Croatia) in 351. It was a victory for Constantius but both sides suffered huge casualties. After a second battle in 353, at Mons Seleucus in Gaul, Magnentius committed suicide.

Meanwhile, Gallus made the mistake of exercising more power than he had been authorized to do. Constantius was not a man to take that sort of thing lying down and he had his cousin executed for treason. The same fate befell another pretender in the west, named Silvanus. Constantius now called on Gallus’s brother, Julian, to be his Caesar in the west while he returned to take full control in the east.

A job for Julian

Julian was an interesting character, not least because he threatened to undo the move of the empire towards Christianity and return it to paganism. He proved to be a wily operator, which was a good quality to have when his boss was a tyrant like Constantius who had already executed just about everyone in sight who was related to him, leaving Julian as the sole survivor.

Julian reckoned that the way to make himself look good in Constantius’s eyes was to arrange matters so that all failures in the western empire could be ascribed to other people. This was what he did when a band of raiders, the Alamanni, invaded his territory and Julian left his commanders to take the blame for the failure to repel them. Almost by accident, Julian managed to capture the king of the Alamanni, which duly impressed Constantius who then began to entrust Julian with real authority.

Julian also copied Constantius by only dealing with officials at one remove – via correspondence and emissaries – thus instilling a sense of fear in them. This ensured that nobody stepped out of line.

However, Julian was also ambitious and he felt that he was destined to become emperor. Constantius may have suspected that Julian could not be entirely trusted, but he had problems of his own to deal with on his eastern front thanks to Shapur II once again threatening to invade.

In the summer of 359 the Persians invaded and besieged the city of Amida (modern Diyarbakır in eastern Turkey). The city fell eventually, but the Persians then withdrew because of the time they had lost in mounting a summer campaign. Constantius knew that they would return, but in order to defeat them he needed more troops, which could only come from the west and be supplied by Julian.

This gave Julian the opportunity he needed to exploit the widespread discontent felt in the west towards Constantius. In March 360 he allowed himself to be declared Augustus and to propose to Constantius that the empire should be split between them, which was a deal that Constantius had no choice but to accept.

In 361 Julian went even further by leading an army into the Balkans, this being an obvious threat to Constantius’s authority. However, before open warfare could erupt Constantius died of a fever, leaving Julian in sole command of the empire. 

© John Welford

Six Roman emperors between Aurelian and Diocletian

The assassination of Aurelian in September 275 ushered in a period of ten years during which the Roman Empire once more descended into chaos. Six emperors came and went before the next strong ruler, Diocletian, came on to the scene.

Tacitus and Florian

Not for the first time in Rome’s history, a group of plotters acted to bring about the end of an emperor’s reign without having much idea about who they wanted to take his place. On this occasion the Senate made an unwise choice by selecting Marcus Claudius Tacitus (no relation to the historian of that name), a senator who was already aged about 75. Tacitus was immediately faced with the challenge of seeing off incursions of barbarians in Asia Minor. He and his half-brother Florian were successful in this, but that was not enough to save the emperor’s skin. He suffered the same fate as Aurelian, being killed by the same group of palace insiders in June 276, while still on campaign in northern Syria.

Florian took over the reins but had an even shorter stay in the top job. He was murdered after only two months by soldiers loyal to Marcus Aurelius Probus.

Probus

Probus was born in 232 in Pannonia and rose through the ranks of the army to become a general. He was determined to knock heads together and end once and for all the destructive power struggle within the higher echelons of the army and government. His way of doing this was to invite the assassins of Aurelius and Tacitus to a dinner, on the pretext of offering a reconciliation between the disparate groups, then having all the guests murdered.

Once he was firmly in power, Probus began the job of suppressing uprisings and incursions at various places throughout the empire. There were several attempted revolts by would-be emperors, which Probus was able to put down without too many problems, and he was also successful in seeing off Franks, Alemanni, Goths, Vandals and others, from Gaul to Egypt.

Probus’s policy was not always to seek battle against opposing tribes. In some places he allowed barbarian groups to settle within the borders of the empire, notably in Gaul and near the Danube. This helped to make up for depopulation caused by war and plague and also to pacify those people who might otherwise have sought to destroy Roman towns and institutions.

Eventually Probus had time to concentrate on domestic matters. These included the completion of the defensive walls around Rome that had been started by Aurelian. He also built temples and bridges in Egypt, planted vineyards in Gaul and worked on drainage projects on the Nile and the Danube.

Of course, he did not do all this work himself! That was done by his soldiers, who were not required to fight once all the incursions and uprisings were dealt with. However, that did not suit everybody in the army, especially as working hard on building sites and in fields was less to their liking than marching up and down on parade grounds and honing their military skills.

Probus fell victim in October 282 to a revolt led by the Praetorian Prefect Carus, who promptly declared himself to be the new emperor.

Carus

Carus was born in Narbonne, France, although nobody knows when. He promptly appointed his sons Carinus and Numerian to the rank of Caesar (deputy emperor), left Carinus in charge of the western empire, and set out eastwards with Numerian to tackle Rome’s old foe the Sassanids.

After the death of Shapur in 272 the Sassanid empire was nowhere near the threat that it had once been, so attacking it was more of a vanity project than a defensive one. However, before battle could be joined, Carus died suddenly in August 283 when the army was in Mesopotamia. The cause of his death is uncertain, although one source said that he had been struck by a thunderbolt – this could, of course, have been a symbolic way of saying that he had been assassinated.

The death of Carus left Carinus and Numerian as joint emperors. Numerian was quite happy to head for home, but the Romans had not gone far when Numerian contracted a serious eye infection, or so it was reported. This meant that he had to travel in a closed litter, so he remained out of sight as the army travelled westwards towards Rome. After a time, people noticed that a terrible stench was coming from the litter, and when it was opened it was found that Numerian had died and his body was starting to decompose.

Did he die of natural causes, or was there some dirty work afoot and had he already been dead before being placed in the litter? The latter was certainly the opinion of the commander of the Imperial Guard, Caius Aurelius Valerius Diocles. He promptly accused the new Praetorian Prefect of murder and ran him through with his sword. This unfortunate man, who may or may not have been guilty, was Flavius Aper who was also Numerian’s father-in-law.

Diocles was now acclaimed as the new emperor, for which role he took the name Diocletian.

Carinus

Meanwhile, Carinus was still ruling the western empire. History has not been kind to Carinus, mainly because it was written by people who were wholly sympathetic to Diocletian, who was seen as the man who saved the empire from chaos and depravity.

The truth would appear to be that Carinus spent most of his brief reign campaigning successfully against barbarians on the Rhine and the Danube and even venturing to Britain.

However, according to some accounts he found time to engage in every vice known to man, outdoing even the worst excesses of Caligula. He apparently married and then divorced nine wives, committed every sexual vice that could be imagined, killed people for the fun of it, and spent vast sums of money on entertainment and luxury. It does all seem a little unlikely, probably resulting from the over-active and warped imaginations of the historians!

What is definitely true is that Carinus had to fight for his throne against Diocletian, the armies meeting in 285 at the River Margus in what is now Serbia. The battle seemed to be going in Carinus’s favour, but he was struck down by an unknown hand, possibly belonging to one of his own commanders who saw Diocletian as a better bet as emperor. If that was what happened, the commander in question was probably correct in his opinion.

© John Welford

Magnus Maximus, Emperor of Rome

Magnus Maximus was a usurper who conquered part of the western Roman Empire and became recognized as emperor, albeit for a relatively short time.

He was probably born in the year 335 in what is now north-west Spain. He joined the army and served under his uncle, General Flavius Theodosius, whose son would later become Emperor Theodosius I.

Magnus rose to the status of General and served in Britannia, where he was active in putting down local uprisings.

Britannia was part of the western empire ruled by Emperor Gratian from November 375, but his rule was not always accepted with complete loyalty. When the army rebelled in 383 they declared Magnus Maximus (which translates as “Great the Greatest”) to be their emperor. He accepted their nomination and was soon having coins minted that showed winged Victory hovering over the two emperors – the western one being Magnus and the eastern being Theodosius.

There were in fact four men (or, to be more accurate, three men and a boy) who claimed the title of emperor at this juncture. The one who most concerned Magnus was Gratian, who was the “official” western emperor with jurisdiction over Gaul and Britannia. Magnus therefore crossed the English Channel, accompanied by a large number of soldiers whose duties had previously been to protect Roman Britain from troublesome local tribes.

Many of Gratian’s troops promptly deserted him and he fled to Lyons, where he was murdered on 25^th August.

Magnus Maximus was now in effective control of much of the western empire, namely Britannia, Gaul and Spain, and he was able to retain that position for the next five years. What he wanted most was recognition of his status by his fellow emperors, namely Theodosius and Valentinian II (Gratian’s half-brother), who was the nominal ruler of Italy, Africa and the western Balkans, despite being only 12 years old at the time of Gratian’s death.

Theodosius was willing to recognize Magnus as a co-emperor, but Valentinian – or rather, his adviser Bishop Ambrose – was not. Magnus had no choice but to resort to force and he therefore invaded north Italy (Valentinian was based at Milan) in 386. Valentinian fled eastwards, accompanied by his mother and sister, and sought refuge with Theodosius.

Theodosius was therefore given the choice of either supporting his cousin Magnus or the half-brother of the man who had nominated him for the post of eastern emperor. He was also offered Valentinian’s extremely attractive sister as his wife, and this was an offer he could not refuse.

Theodosius therefore marched against Magnus Maximus, who was completely unprepared for this turn of events. Magnus was captured at Aquileia (near modern-day Trieste) and executed on 27^th August 388, a fate that was also suffered by his family and close associates.

One important consequence of the short reign of Magnus Maximus was that the troops he took with him to Gaul did not return to Britannia. There is some evidence that many of them settled in what is now Brittany. The result of this was that Britannia was now deprived of much of its defence force and was therefore subject to incursion by tribes that included Picts from Scotland, Scots from Ireland and Saxons from northern Europe. Local chiefs who had formerly relied on Roman protection could no longer do so. The beginning of the end of Roman Britain can therefore be dated from around this time.

© John Welford

Leonidas, King of Sparta

Leonidas was a hero of ancient Greece whose conduct at the Battle of Thermopylae has become a byword down the centuries for selfless heroism against overwhelming odds.

Born in around 521 BC, Leonidas (the name means “lion-like”) was one of the sons of King Anaxandridas of Sparta. He became king himself in 491 BC, succeeding his half-brother Cleomenes.

The invasion of Greece by the Persians under Xerxes, in 480 BC, led to Leonidas’s determination to make a stand against the enemy. He chose 300 Spartan warriors who themselves had sons, so as not to risk the extinction of their families. On his march he was joined by troops from other cities, so his total force was around 7000 before he reached the pass of Thermopylae in August or September (accounts differ).

Thermopylae (the “hot gates”) was of huge strategic importance because it consisted of a very narrow route between a mountain and a morass, and was the only way of gaining access to southern Greece from the north, which the Persian force of at least 100,000 men was seeking to do.

As told by the historian Herodotus some fifty years after the event, Leonidas’s army was able to hold the Persians at bay for two days, inflicting massive casualties on them. However, a traitor named Ephialtes told the Persians about a mountain path that enabled them to skirt round the Greek army and then attack them from the rear.

On hearing of this move, Leonidas realised the hopelessness of his position. He dismissed all the troops except his own Spartans (men from Thespis and Thebes also volunteered to remain) and made a frontal attack on the Persians who confronted him, with the sole aim of selling Greek lives as dearly as possible. In the desperate battle that ensued, Leonidas was an early faller. His body was rescued by the Greeks, and the place where he fell was later marked by a stone lion.

Despite the defeat, the Greeks were emboldened by the courage and self-sacrifice of Leonidas and his men, and redoubled their efforts to repel the invading Persians, which was achieved after the naval victory at Salamis the following month.

Leonidas’s story has inspired military campaigners down the centuries, as well the 2007 movie “300” directed by Zack Snyder, which was itself based an earlier comic-book mini-series.

Alexander the Great was to find himself in the opposite situation to Leonidas during his own invasion of Persia in 330 BC. Unable to force through the narrow pass of the Persian Gate, Alexander sought, and found, a local guide to show him a mountain path by which he could take his men to a position from which he could attack the defenders from behind. 

© John Welford

Decius, Emperor of Rome

Decius was a short-lived Roman emperor who was notable for instigating a period of persecution of the growing sect known as Christians. He held a strong belief that the empire’s problems would be solved by focusing on what had served it well in past centuries, namely military might and devotion to Rome’s traditional gods.

Gaius Messius Quintus Decius Valerinus was born in around the year 201 in Pannonia, which covered parts of several modern countries including Hungary, Austria and Serbia. He was therefore defending his home territory when Emperor Philip (“The Arab”) gave him the task of seeing off the threat of Goths who were advancing across the Danube, which he did successfully in the year 249.

His troops decided that Decius would be a better emperor than Philip and persuaded him to “don the purple”. There is a suggestion that he was highly reluctant to accept, but that did not prevent him from marching towards Rome and meeting Philip in battle at Verona. Philip was killed and Decius became the undisputed emperor.

A new Trajan?

Decius celebrated his accession by pretending to be greater than he was. He did this by changing his name to Gaius Messius Quintus Traianus Decius in the apparent belief that he was a latter-day Trajan. A deeply superstitious man, Decius took to heart an ancient prophecy that a king

“will rule mighty Rome, skilled in war, emerging from the Dacians, of the number 300”

Decius was pushing the analogy to its limit, given that he was from Pannonia rather than Dacia, but he took the “number 300” to refer to the Greek latter Tau, this being the initial of Traianus, and Trajan had conquered Dacia at the beginning of the previous century, so perhaps Decius thought that he fitted as the fulfilment of the prophecy.

Religion and persecution

Decius took the decline of Rome to be due to general neglect of the ‘ancestral gods’ so his solution, begun in the year 250, was for all subjects of the empire to make formal sacrifices, for which proof was needed. The sacrifices had to be performed in front of officials, and evidence has survived of written declarations of sacrifice with the signatures of witnesses.

Not surprisingly, this demand did not go down well with Christians within the empire, with the result that the short reign of Decius was a period of religious persecution. Noted martyrs from this period, who were later recognized as Christian saints, included St Christopher, St Agatha, and St Fabian, who had been an early Pope.

Despite all Decius’s efforts, the sacrifices did not provide the protection for the empire that he had anticipated. Goths continued to invade from the north across the Danube, added to which a terrible plague swept across the empire.

Fighting the Goths

Decius spent much of his time in 250 and 251 trying to get to grips with the Goths, but this proved to be extremely difficult. Roman armies were used to fighting pitched battles, which they usually won, but these barbarian tribes refused to play by the rules. They preferred what today we would call “guerilla” tactics, namely carrying out sudden raids on unprepared units of troops then retreating back into hiding before they were ready to strike again.

In 250 Decius’s army was ambushed, with severe losses, after which the city of Philippopolis (in modern Bulgaria) was laid waste. It was not until June 251 that Decius was able to catch up with the Goths, who lured the Romans into swampy terrain at Abrittus (in modern Romania) and destroyed them.

This battle, which is also known as the Battle of Forum Terebronii, was one that the Romans should have won. General Trebonianus Gallus failed to press home his advantage, which allowed the Goths to counterattack. Gallus’s legions survived relatively unscathed but the rest did not. Decius and his son Hostilian were both killed, leaving Gallus to pick up the pieces and be declared the next emperor.

© John Welford

Diocletian, Emperor of Rome

Diocletian was one of the more effective later Roman Emperors and also had the distinction of being the only Emperor to abdicate his throne voluntarily.

Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus was born in Dalmatia, probably in 245, of obscure parentage. He had a career in the army under Emperors Aurelian, Probus and Carus, and was on campaign with Carus in Mesopotamia in 283 when the latter died suddenly. Legend has it that his tent was struck by lightning, but this could be taken as meaning that he was murdered by mutineers.

Carus had two sons, Carinus and Numerian, the latter of whom was on campaign with him while Carinus remained at home. Numerian was murdered in the summer of 284, but his assassins had no idea what to do next and pretended that their victim was still alive but suffering from an eye infection that prevented him from appearing in public. Eventually the stench from the rotting corpse became too powerful to ignore and the senior officers realised that they had to choose a compromise candidate for Emperor to set against Carinus.

The choice fell upon a mid-ranking officer called Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocles who took the name Diocletianus that is commonly abbreviated to Diocletian. His first act as Emperor was to take his sword and kill the praetorian prefect Flavius Aper whom he accused of the murder of Numerian.

In 285 the forces of Diocletian and Carinus met in battle at the Margus River in Moesia (modern Serbia). The battle was going in favour of Carinus when some of his troops mutinied and he was probably murdered by someone on his own side. Diocletian was now undisputed as Emperor.

Despite being unchallenged, Diocletian was wise enough to realise that things were unlikely to stay that way. Past history showed that, with Emperors having to be constantly on the move to defend the frontiers at one point or another, the close relationship between the governing class in Rome and the Emperor’s inner circle was breaking down. Without this communication there was every chance of factions arising that would foment rebellion and civil war. It was impossible to have a mobile Emperor and stable central authority at the same time.

Diocletian therefore took steps to devolve his authority by sharing power on a regional basis. He married one of his daughters to an officer called Maximian who was then made Augustus with dominion over the western provinces of the Empire, although it was made clear that Diocletian, in the east, would have seniority over him. Two junior Emperors, with the rank of Caesar, were also appointed later on, these being Flavius Constantius and Gaius Galerius. Constantius acted as deputy to Maximian and Galerius worked with Diocletian. The juniors also established a family relationship with their bosses by marrying their daughters. This four-way arrangement is known to historians as the Tetrarchy.

Diocletian also established new power bases for the Empire, with the emphasis being taken away from Rome itself. He established himself at Nicomedia in northwestern Turkey, and only visited Rome twice during his 21 years as Emperor. Other centres were where the Emperor, junior or senior, chose to reside, with palaces being built at Sirmium (Serbia), Aquileia and Milan (northern Italy), and Trier in Germany.

Diocletian went further by subdividing local government into twelve “dioceses”, equally divided between the eastern and western halves of the Empire. Although these enabled power to be devolved away from Rome, they increased the overall bureaucratic burden of running the Empire and also had the long-term effect of weakening its overall cohesion.

Another reform was to create a civil adminstration that was no longer dominated by the super-rich. This had been made easier by the hyperinflation of previous reigns, so that the huge fortunes of those at the top were now worth much less, and property valuations that had previously defined the class structure were now meaningless. It was therefore possible for people of relatively modest means to gain high office.

Reforms were also made to the legal and taxation systems, and Diocletian tried to institute economic stability through an “Edict on Maximum Prices”, although this proved to be a failure because it ignored some of the basic laws of supply and demand.

Despite his well-deserved reputation for clemency and humanity, Diocletian was not above persecuting Christians. In February 303 he issued an Empire-wide edict that ordered all Christians to sacrifice to the traditional gods, with severe punishments threatened for those who disobeyed. However, the tetrachs differed in their application of the edict, which ceased to be enforced after about 18 months. It was in any case becoming very difficult to enforce such edicts in a world where Christians had infiltrated institutions including the army, the imperial court and higher education.

In 305, having reached the age of 60, Diocletian decided to retire. His plan was that he and Maximian would retire at the same time, leaving the junior emperors to step into their shoes and appointing two new men as Caesars (Maximinus Daia and Flavius Valerius Severus). Maximian was not overjoyed at the idea, but he had no choice. At a ceremony on 1st May the two senior emperors abdicated.

Diocletian retired to a palace in his native Dalmatia where he enjoyed his later years growing vegetables in his garden, but he was to be called upon again to settle the power balance of the Empire.

Diocletian’s legacy should have been a degree of stability that the Empire had not known for a long time. However, despite the apparent elements of devolution, the arrangements under the Tetrarchy still depended on each member conceding that the ultimate decision-making power lay with one man. Once that man had gone, it was open season again for ambitious men to grab as much power as they could.

Galerius found that he did not have the authority of Diocletian to assert himself over other claimants, notably Maxentius who was the son of Maximian, who in July 306 came out of retirement to support his son’s claim to be Emperor after Constantius’s son, Constantine, had been declared Emperor on the death of his father. Galerius called on Diocletian to come to his aid.

Diocletian presided over a conference at which Galerius ended up being recognised by all parties as the senior Emperor. However, there was no guarantee that future trouble of a similar kind could be avoided without bloodshed, and this was indeed what was in store in later years.

Diocletian died in 313 (this is not certain, it could have been earlier) at the age (probably) of 68.

© John Welford

Constantine I, Emperor of Rome

Constantine was one of the most influential of all the emperors of Rome. His reign marked a definite turning point in the history of the empire, which would never be the same again. He must also be counted as the last truly “great” emperor of Rome. Although there were other notable emperors after his time, nobody was of anything like the same quality.

That is not to say that Constantine was a perfect emperor – far from it. He was an enigmatic character who is very difficult to assess. He may have been the first emperor who became a Christian, but he did not always behave in what most people would regard as a “Christian” way. Indeed, he was capable of great cruelty at the same time as displaying tolerance and acting wisely. His actions can also be seen as making the eventual fall of the western empire inevitable.

His rise to power

Constantine was born in (probably) 275 in Naissus, which is modern Nis in Serbia. His father was Constantius, who would become one of the four co-emperors known as the Tetrarchs who divided the empire between them at the behest, and under the control, of Emperor Diocletian. Constantius took on this role in 305, having control over Gaul and Britannia.

When Constantius went to Britannia in 306 to sort out a local uprising he took Constantine with him, which meant that when he died at Eboracum (York) in July 306 the army was only too ready to proclaim Constantine as his successor, although the job should have gone to the man who had been nominated for this role by Diocletian (Flavius Valerius Severus).

Constantine’s reign lasted for nearly 31 years, but it took 18 years for him to become sole emperor. Those years were a period both of sharing power and of eliminating his rivals.

They were also years of shifting loyalties, with the various would-be emperors working out where their best moves lay. The two main players at this stage were Maximian, who had been co-emperor with Diocletian and who been forced to retire from power at the same time that Diocletian did, and his son Maxentius.

Maxentius was able to get Constantine’s support for his own claim to be a co-emperor by giving Constantine his sister Fausta in marriage, despite her very young age – it would be nearly ten years before they started living together as husband and wife.

However, Maximian, who had always resented his forced retirement, tried to persuade Constantine to attack Maxentius, which Constantine was not prepared to do. Instead, Maximian tried to usurp his son by ripping the imperial robe off his shoulders. When Maxentius’s guard intervened, Maximian had no choice but to back off, after which he sought sanctuary with Constantine at Treveri (modern Trier on the border between Germany and Luxemburg).

This arrangement continued until 310 when Maximian tried to seize power when Constantine was away on campaign. The attempt failed and Maximian committed suicide.

Maxentius continued to be co-emperor in Rome, with control over Italy, Spain and Africa, despite the fact that his position was unofficial and another co-emperor, Licinius, was supposed to be doing that job.

In 312 Constantine took a big risk by deciding to challenge Maxentius head-on. It was at this point that Constantine appears to have had some sort of experience that convinced him to change his religious attitude. He was clearly a deeply pious person, but his devotion had up to now been towards Sol Invictus, the “Unconquered Sun”. This deity had its origins in Syria, and the cult of Sol Invictus had first come to Rome courtesy of Emperor Elagabalus, who had been the chief priest of the cult before unexpectedly becoming emperor. Worship of Sol Invictus lapsed after the fall of Elagabalus but had been re-introduced by Aurelian, who had made the cult one of the official Roman religions.

What exactly happened to Constantine, and when, is far from clear, mainly because later Christian writers were keen to see Constantine’s “conversion” as a major event in the history of Christianity and to treat it as something similar to St Paul’s vision on the road to Damascus. There are various stories, including that Constantine was visited by Jesus Christ in a dream and told to paint the “chi rho” symbol on his soldiers’ shields before going into battle. Another is that Constantine looked into the sky and saw the sign of the cross and the words “with this be victorious”.

A more likely explanation is that Constantine, seeking support from Sol Invictus, saw a phenomenon known as a “solar halo”, caused by sunlight being refracted by ice crystals in the upper atmosphere.

At all events, Constantine did not abandon his previous beliefs on the spot and suddenly become a Christian. It may well be that he saw Jesus Christ as Sol Invictus in another guise. When new coinage was issued later in his reign it was Sol Invictus who was portrayed alongside the emperor, and when a “day of rest” was instituted for the empire, it was “Sol Day” – Sunday – that was chosen.

What we do know is that Constantine began his campaign against Maxentius having placed his trust in the “Divine Mind”, although it is far from clear what he meant by this. We also know that he conducted the campaign with considerable skill and that he swept all before him after he entered Italy. It was not long before he reached Rome and waited for Maxentius to face him in battle.

The battle in question, fought at the Milvian Bridge across the River Tiber, was decisive. Whether or not Constantine’s men fought with Christian symbols on their shields, they were utterly victorious and Maxentius was among those who were killed. Constantine could now enter Rome in triumph.

Constantine did not stay long in Rome and was soon on his way back north. He was well aware that his next challenge was likely to come from the fourth co-emperor, namely Maximinus, who had allied himself with Maxentius. Constantine met his own ally, Licinius, to whom he gave his half-sister Constantia in marriage. Licinius was clearly expected to deal with Maximinus.

That is what happened. Maximinus had crossed the Dardanelles with an army and met Licinius near Adrianople (west of modern Istanbul), where he was soundly beaten. Licinius chased his retreating force back into Turkey and caught up with them at Tarsus, where Maximinus committed suicide. The four tetrarchs were now down to two.

The Roman Empire now effectively split into two halves – east and west – with each comprising six of the 12 dioceses established by Diocletian. The two emperors governed their realms with very little reference to each other and neither – at first – showed much interest in challenging the other for complete control.

However, problems arose when it came to planning for the succession if and when either of them should die. In 315 and 316 both of them became fathers of sons. Constantine already had a son, namely Crispus by his first wife Minervina, but Constantine was not sure whether he wanted Crispus to be his chosen heir. When Licinius’s son was born, the two men came to an agreement that neither son should succeed, but that the heir for both halves of the empire should be Bassanius, the husband of Constantine’s half-sister.

But then along came Constantine’s son by his second wife Fausta, and he changed his mind. If anyone wanted evidence that Constantine’s apparent conversion to Christianity did not include a change of heart in favour of Christian morality, his machinations in favour of his family’s interests should prove the point. Bassanius was promptly executed on a trumped-up charge and Constantine prepared to make war on Licinius.

However, things did not go all his own way. Licinius proved to be a tough nut to crack and Constantine could only conquer one of the three Balkan dioceses held by Licinius. He was forced to accept a compromise over the succession that recognized the claims of both infant sons as well as that of Crispus. The treaty that settled this was signed in March 317 and stayed in force for the next seven years.

By 324, Constantine and Fausta had produced two more sons and a daughter. Seeing himself as heading a potentially powerful dynasty, Constantine saw no reason why his family should share the imperial throne with anyone else and decided to get rid of Licinius for good.

This was achieved without too much difficulty. The civil war began in the summer of 324 and was all over by November. Licinius was sent into exile but then suffered the same fate as the unfortunate Bassanius. There was no doubt now as to who ran the Empire.

 

The first Christian emperor

With the Christians of the Empire now free from persecution, they proceeded to do what religious fundamentalists have delighted in doing down the ages, namely persecute each other. The relatively young religion was riven with disputes over matters of theology, and Constantine was well aware that this was a potent source of unrest. He decided to step in and knock some heads together.

The dispute that caused most upset, and which was to have the most profound implications, arose when a priest in Alexandria, named Arius, had a sharp disagreement with his bishop, named Alexander. This was over the nature of Christ and his relationship with God the Father. Arius maintained that the two were “of different substance” and that the Son was subservient to the Father. Alexander held that they were “of the same substance” and the Son (i.e. Jesus) had existed for all time as opposed to being created when “born of the Virgin Mary”.

Arius and Alexander each had many supporters for their point of view, and the issue – in Constantine’s view – could only be settled by bringing all the parties together and reaching a decision that would have the imperial seal of approval. The grand council met at Nicaea, in what is now Turkey.

The result was a statement of belief known as the Nicene Creed, ostensibly composed by Constantine although probably drafted by advisers, which (in amended form) has been the basic statement of belief held by most Christian denominations ever since. It was a compromise between the two opposing camps, although it supported Bishop Alexander’s view much more strongly than that of Arius.

Given a free choice, many modern Christians might think that Arius’s theory had much to recommend it – it does seem to make more sense logically – but they are not given that choice. For this they have a semi-pagan Roman emperor to thank whose grasp of theology was shaky at best and who may well have decided that the view of a bishop held more sway than that of a mere priest. Whatever the case, the decision stuck.

Constantinople

The other major reason why Constantine was the most influential emperor of the later Roman Empire was his founding of a new capital city for the eastern empire, which for many centuries bore the name Constantinople.

Constantine was well aware that the future of the empire depended on securing the eastern frontiers, in both Europe and Asia, and Rome was too far from either to be where the emperor should be based. The ancient city of Byzantium was an ideal location for an eastern base, being within striking distance of several likely trouble spots, and this was therefore Constantine’s choice.

Byzantium occupied a triangular peninsula on the north side of the Bosphorus strait that connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. Constantine’s new city could therefore be protected by the sea on two sides and by a new wall on the landward side. It was not long before the new city outgrew the original wall and new defences were built in the 5^th century by Emperor Theodosius II.

Another advantage of Byzantium was that seven hills could be distinguished within its area, which meant that it could be seen as a symbolic mirror of Rome, which was traditionally built on seven hills.

Constantine spared no expense in building his new capital, which began with a splendid imperial palace and a hippodrome that could accommodate 80,000 spectators. The city included churches, but older pagan temples were retained. Public buildings such as baths and a senate house were erected, although the senators of Rome were not expected to move to the new city.

The speed of construction was impressive. Begun in 324, the new city was consecrated in 330. This was partly due to elements of some of its buildings, such as columns and tiles, being appropriated from buildings elsewhere in the empire.

Running the Empire, and the succession

With Constantine concentrating his efforts on his new eastern capital, how was the western half of the empire to be managed? At first, his son Crispus was able to do the job, but disaster struck in the year 326. Various accounts exist of what actually happened, one of them involving a love affair between Crispus and his stepmother Fausta, but, whatever the facts, the net result was that Crispus was executed for treason and Fausta died soon afterwards. She may have taken the side of her stepson in an argument with Constantine and suffered the consequences.

Constantine was now left without an empress, so his elderly mother Helena became his ambassador and undertook a grand tour of the east, where Christian tradition asserts that she found portions of the “true cross” in Jerusalem as well as building churches at sacred sites. She was later honoured by the church as St Helena.

The empire, thanks largely to the reforms introduced by Diocletian, was now organized on regional lines in a number of respects, including the army. A strong leader like Constantine could keep all the pieces working together, but what about the future? That was something that gave Constantine much worry in his later years, as he realized that none of the potential candidates for succession fitted the bill.

He had three surviving sons as well as two nephews whom he saw as potential rulers of parts of the empire, but he did not consider appointing a single “Caesar” who would step up to “Augustus” on his death. His plan was evidently to divide the empire into five prefectures, with his nephew Hannibalianus having control of Iraq once it was brought under Roman control. It was while he was planning to invade Iraq in 337 that Constantine fell ill and died.

Constantine’s final act was to have himself baptized as a Christian, having spent his whole life as a dedicated follower of Sol Invictus but with the sneaking suspicion that Jesus Christ and Sol Invictus were two sides of the same coin. He also declared his intention to be buried as a Roman emperor in the mausoleum that he had had built for that purpose in Constantinople. His son Constantius later had the mausoleum consecrated as the Church of the Twelve Apostles, which would probably have annoyed Constantine greatly had he known.

By tolerating Christianity, and even taking an active role in its development, but keeping at arm’s length from it on a personal basis, Constantine made clear that being a Roman emperor and a Christian was perfectly possible without going the whole hog as a “Christian emperor”. This was a lesson that not all of his successors appreciated.

© John Welford