The Fall of the Roman Empire
I. INTRODUCTION
· Looking at the third century AD · Caracalla and Geta (211 AD) to Constantine (D. 337 AD) · Why start and finish point? § ‘Cleanest’ way of doing the third century § Encompasses the third century crisis
· Period of political instability · Rapid changeover of imperial power – difficult to hold onto power for very long · No continued dynasties similar to those in 1st and 2nd century
· What counts as being emperor? · Previously those recognised/ratified by senate as emperor · Vespasian first emperor to be declared outside of Rome · Starts to raise question of who gets on emperor list · Unrecognised authority but in practise acting as emperor · Lines between legitimate and illegitimate authority become blurred within the third century
· Even author of Historia Augusta challenged with who to include as emperor
II. DECLINE AND FALL
· Gibbon saw the 2nd century as the highpoint of empire · Myth of Golden Age questioned
· Period of crisis · Political instability · Diminution of office · Military weakness and invasion · Climate – poor harvests · Plague · Economic failure · Religious corruption · Gibbon’s narrative took two main aspects: · Barbarism – influx of barbarians from outside the empire instilling a lack of discipline and virtues · Spread of Christianity which changed Roman values and doctrinal disputes · Traditional calibre of man who made it to office was no longer making it to the imperial throne · Change in type of person who makes it to imperial office · Diminution in office
III. CRISIS OR TRANSITION
· Gibbon established an influential model for third century crisis · Scholars who still buy into the idea of a crisis in the third century · Geza Alfoldy · But could also be a later scholarly construct which doesn’t reflect the reality of the third century · Much less material for the 3rd century · Has it not survived because less literature was written · More material from the viewpoint of Christians · Does the 3rd c. look so bad because we have so many Christian sources looking at it through a rhetorical lens? · Are these scholars just missing things? – intellectual culture blossoms in the third century – Longinus § Crisis in terms of mining production but does it really class as a crisis if it produces some of the finest philosophical minds? · On the basis of methodology · Are we using anachronistic standards?
|