AFTER AURELIAN
- Interregnum
- 275 Aurelian dies at Caenophurium, nature of death unclear
- No successor in places indicates this wasn’t an organised conspiracy/plan against Aurelian, but a one man attack on the emperor
- Sources record him being killed by a low level administrator
- No obvious factions contending for power - nobody wants the job
- Clear that life expectancy not long for emperor
- Sources remember an interregnum; period between rules, with no emperor
- Degree to which there actually was an interregnum has been questioned
- Coinage produced in this period; bust of Roman people, reverse SC with interregnum urbis?
- Historia Augusta; world governed by collaboration of senate
- Rosy image of a period of uncertain chaos
- Long historical interregnum, or sources struggling to put together narrative?
- NB from 272 narrative of Dexippus ends; historical narrative confusion
- General choose Marcus Claudius Tacitus as emperor
- Takes some action against the Goths
- Possible that later sources are confused between ‘Claudius’ and Claudius Gothicus
- Lasts only 6 months; murdered
- Rapid succession
- 275 Tacitus’ brother Florianus acclaimed army in Asia
- Probus simultaneously acclaimed
- Florianus killed by own soldiers - reign 60-88 days
- Literary trope? Nature of succession similar to previous emperors
- Probus reigned for 6 years
- Constantly on campaign/dealing with usurpations
- Celebrates a triumph in 281
- One of the most important emperors of the third century about whom we know hardly anything
- 282 Probus dies
- Murdered by prefect, Carus?
- Carus then declared emperor
- NB. No evidence of senate recognition… or even asking for it
- Power of senate had long been diminishing
- Absence of evidence does not mean it didn’t happen
- Normal for emperors to be ratified by the senate, even if they didn’t go to Rome
- One way to distinguish between emperor/usurpers is to look at who the senate recognised
- Carus elevates two sons, Carinus and Numerianus, by splitting territory between them
- Carus dies; stuck by lightning, or illness
- 283 Numerianus hailed by army; eye infection/assassination?
- Carinus left as sole ruler
DIOCLES/DIOCLETIAN- Accession
- Nov 20 284: junior military officer ends up on imperial throne, chosen by senior imperial officers who didn’t want the role for themselves
- Gaius Valerius Diocles
- One of the very few emperors about whom we know nothing of his earlier life; shows he was not very important
- First actions; addresses troops, calls on sun god to avenge Numerianus
- Then stabs prefect Aper
- Led forced to Illyricum, confronting Carinus at Maargus
- Carinus killed before battle by own troops
- Makes no sense for Diocles to march against the brother of the person he just claimed to avenge
- Narrative to cover up the reality that Diocles was the usurper; common occurrence for the 3rd century
- Stabilising power
- One of the least promising emperors of the third century manages to do what no other emperor of the century has done, and stabilises his authority; he manages to retire from politics!
- Everything against him being a successful emperor
- Not important, in terms of family history
- Dynastically weak; daughter but no son
- Takes a series of measures to try and resolve both issues; quite conventional steps
- Latinises his name; Diocletianus
- Chooses a a Caesar: 285 Maximian
- 4 years later, promotes Maximian to position of Augustus
- Electing a Caesar has precedent, but electing two Augusti more unusual
- Requires a degree of faith in co-ruler not to destabilise rule
- Two Augusti, not of the same family (new situation), appearance of new ideology to understand this
- Success bound not just in his actions but the way he presents it
- Emergence of diarchy - rule by two
- Two Augusti referred to as like Jupiter and Hercules; divine figures but ranked. Religious ideology to link new model of rule
- Unified government, split between two courts; Diocletian based in Balkans, Maximian in Northern Gaul
- Attempt to solve the problems of sole rule, and prevent further fragmentation
- Image of unity AND superiority of one
- Identical figures, but one emperor has a slightly more patriarchal stance than the other
- Recognition that rule needs to be shared, but one emperor is to be superior to prevent usurpation; separate emperors working in unity
- Through diarchy will be restoration
- New imperial system that would enable the empire to be restored
- Language of restoration goes back to the res publica
- Rules for 25 years, retires; extraordinary transition
A NEW SYSTEM?- The tetrarchy
- End 290:Diocletian and Maximian meet at Milan
- Two emperors not sufficient- Carausis, the pirate king
- 287 fleet protecting coast of Britain
- Allowing pillage. Maximian orders death
- Flees to Britain where he is declared emperor
- 293 command vsCarausis passed to Costantius - won
- Divores wife and married Maximian’s daughter
- Later 293 Galerius acclaimed Caesar, also made to divorce wife and made to marry Diocletian’s daughter
- Bound into the framework of imperial rule
- End up with tetrarchy - by design or accident?
- The system which stabilises the empire
- ‘Tetrarchy’ never used in antiquity; modern term, quite misleading
- In antiquity, referred to formal splitting of territory for rule by four
- Cf. Herod the Great, territory split between 4 children
- Not ruling separate territories, 4 different holders of imperial office, based in separate areas of the empire, but no formal division of territory
- Debated the extent to which this really was a new system of rule
- Unusual example of what was actually fairly standard?
- Response to difficulty of maintaining military command on multiple frontiers
- The Dominate
- Move from principate to dominate; rule by princeps to dominus
- 2 Augustu, 2 Caesares
- None assume central base in Rome; now impractical as a base for emperors who are involved in constant campaigning
- New imperial capitals near frontiers, centres of military action
- Distinctive ideology of new regime
- Focus on collegiality and harmony
- New military imagery; square jawed, stubbled beards, short hair
- Statue on corner, looking out into multiple directions, guarding entire empire
- Suggestion that with Diocletian that treating of emperors as gods rather than equals starts to happen
- Sacralised figure; less likely to be assassinated? Not every man could be emperor, but divine individuals had been chosen
- Having 4 emperors produced a much more bureaucratic administrative system
- New provinces
- Tetrarchy goes hand in hand with the reorganisations of the mechanisms of empire
|
|