Also like many Roman emperors, though more effectively than most, he used the symbols of power to enhance his own imperial reputation and power. From Vespasian and Domitian his father had adopted the name Flavius, a signal of "his own new dynastic pretensions .1116 The original Flavian family was not especially successful, lasting only three generations and ending with the assassination of Domitian in 96. Besides, Domitian had been condemned by Christian writers as a persecutor. Yet Constantine found something to emulate in the Flavians: their contribution to the Ro man cityscape. Domitian had such a reputation for building that people joked he had a Midas touch that turned everything to stone. His most important building was the new Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill, still a landmark by the fourth century.'? Constantine also tried to channel some of Trajan's success by reusing some of Trajan's Roman monuments. Details of Constantine's triumphal arch were sculpted from Trajan's statues and reliefs, and the colossal statue of himself that he placed in Maxentius's Basilica Nova, of which only an enormous head, a hand and a kneecap remain, "may have originally been a statue ofTrajan."1S He rebuilt Trajan's bridge across the Danube.
Constantine inherited a position as Caesar at his father's death, the Western empire after defeating his brother-in-law Maxentius and the Eastern empire after defeating another brother-in-law, Licinius. He was an imperialist, and apparently aspired to be an imperialist like Trajan, who wanted to be like Alexander.
Yet something had changed. With Constantine, the Roman army and empire, like Roman worship, Roman cityscapes, Roman law and society, were being transformed. Something new was being born. Rome had been baptized and was being desacrificed.
WHAT DOES THE EMPEROR WANT TO HEAR?
Late Roman emperors lived in a bubble. Diocletian had introduced all manner of court ceremonial, appropriate to his supposed divine status, and many features of that ceremonial continued after the Tetrarchy collapsed, especially in the florid rhetoric of the panegyrists. Stamped with overconscious artifice, "poetical tricks, avoidance of hiatus or of inelegant words; metrical terminations of sentences or clauses; variation through an apparently limitless vocabulary of periphrasis," panegyrics celebrated the emperor's divine virtues and successes. "One almost imagines ... that the emperor never had a normal conversation with anybody."19
Panegyrists did not tell a story straight, but neither were they necessarily official instruments of court propaganda.20 Panegyrists thought about how their subjects would receive their praises and told emperors things they thought the emperors wanted to hear. We can wring important historical truths from the panegyrists, so long as we read them upside down and backwards. Panegyrists returned again and again to common themes, and in these themes they laid out a vision of what kind of man the emperor was supposed to be, what kind of man the emperor thought he was. Emperors were to be virtuous men, guided by justice, temperance, courage and prudence. Panegyrists frequently alluded to the imperial recusatio, a ritual reluctance to assume power whose precedent had been established by Augustus. Military ability was important, as was readiness to provide for subjects (providentia) and cooperate with colleagues (concordia). Since Augustus, pietas was a leading virtue; an emperor could not expect success without the assistance of the gods.2' Emperors were also expected to express the imperial strategy of honor.
Constantine's panegyrists no doubt distorted as much as any. A panegyrist told him around 310 in Triers that he was a "most sacred Emperor" to whose "divinity" he offered his address.22 After his father died, he fought back the tears, the orator said, remembering that "it was not right to mourn any longer a ruler who had been consecrated as a god."23 Constantine himself had arisen, like every new divinity, from the edge of the earth, as "Mercury from the Nile, the source of which river is unknown, and Liber from the land of the Indians, who are almost privy to the sunrise, have shown themselves to mankind as gods manifest." He had a theory: "Regions next to heaven are more holy than Mediterranean ones," and therefore "it is closer for an Emperor to be sent by the gods from where the land ends."24
Godlike conquests were another subject for celebration. Constantine had recently put down the revolt of his father-in-law, Maximian, but the panegyrist focused on Constantine's earlier conquests among the Franks. When the Frankish kings tried to take "the opportunity of your father's absence to violate the peace," Constantine "visited the punishment of their rashness" on the "contemptible band of barbarians who tested the very beginnings of your reign with a sudden attack and unexpected brigandage." He imposed the "ultimate penalty," even at the risk of "perpetual hatred of that race and their implacable fury." That was good policy: "clemency is secure insofar as it spares enemies and protects its own interest." Pardon is "more prudent," but "to trample them down in their fury" is "more courageous." That is what Constantine did.
So that the monstrous power of the barbarians might be broken in every way, and so that the enemy should not merely grieve over the punishment of their kings, you have made in addition, invincible Emperor, a devastating raid on the Bructeri. In this the first aim of your strategy was to attack them when they were off guard by suddenly throwing your army across ... that this nation, which is accustomed to frustrate warfare by taking refuge in forests and marshes, should lose the opportunity for flight. And so countless numbers were slaughtered, and very many were captured. Whatever herds there were were seized or slaughtered; all the villages were put to the flame; the adults who were captured, whose untrustworthiness made them unfit for military service and whose ferocity for slavery, were given over to the amphitheater for punishment, and their great numbers wore out the raging beasts.25
Such an emperor: young, courageous, with flashing eyes and a majesty that "dazzles us at the same time as it invites our gaze." Such an emperor must have been "that great king" Alexander and his hero, Achilles, "the Thessalian hero, whose combination of courage and beauty is celebrated."26
Several years later, another panegyrist celebrated Constantine's triumph over the "contemptibly small," "twisted" and slack-limbed Maxentius in similar terms, and drew from this success a warning for barbarians who might consider attacking the empire. Constantine cheerfully "accepts the submission of friendly kings and the very fact of being feared and cultivated by the noblest kings counts the same as praise for victory [ad laudem victoriae]," yet barbarians should not think him soft: "he is glad that the fame of his valor [gloriam virtutis suae gaudet] is increased as often as it is challenged." Nothing is "lovelier than this triumphal celebration in which he employs the slaughter of enemies for the pleasure of us all, and enlarges the procession of the games out of the survivors of the massacre of the barbarians."27
The whole Roman ideology of conquest is there. Swift, godlike Constantine descends to the field seeking praise and fame, whether by clemency or by conquest. Blood and slaughter follow him on campaigns, reducing enemy fury to abject fear. Once Constantine converted, churchmen seem to have played along. Like the panegyrist of 306, Eusebius compared Constantine to Cyrus and Alexander the Great, whose conquests also followed a steady eastward progress. Constantine "began his reign at the time of life at which the Macedonian died, yet doubled the length of his life, and trebled the length of his reign." He started "as far as the Britons, and the nations that dwell in the very bosom of the Western ocean." As he moved through Europe, "he subdued likewise all Scythia, though situated in the remotest North, and divided into numberless diverse and barbarous tribes." His conquests pushed "to the Blemmyans and Ethiopians, on the very confines of the South," and he did not "think the acquisition of the Eastern nations unworthy his care." Though beginning in the far west, his reign was like the sunrise, "diffusing the effulgence of his holy light to the ends of the whole world, even to the most distant Indians, the nations dwelling on the extreme circumference of the inhabited earth." Everywhere, "he received the submission of all the rulers, governors, and satraps of barbarous nations, who cheerfully welcomed and saluted him, sending embassies and presents, an
d setting the highest value on his acquaintance and friendship; insomuch that they honored him with pictures and statues in their respective countries, and Constantine alone of all emperors was acknowledged and celebrated by all."28
Constantine's conception of his own life's work was much the same. "Beginning at the remote Britannic ocean, and the regions where, according to the law of nature, the sun sinks beneath the horizon," he wrote, "I banished and utterly removed every form of evil which prevailed, in the hope that the human race, enlightened through my instrumentality, might be called to a due observance of the holy laws of God, and at the same time our most blessed faith might prosper under the guidance of his almighty hand .1129
EMPIRE ON DEFENSE
Rhetoric did not match the reality. During the third and fourth centuries, Roman emperors had little time for conquest. Their role was mainly defensive. As we saw in chapter two, the third century witnessed a recurring pattern of internal conflict and external threat. Whenever there was an interregnum, or when two pretenders were vying for power in the empire, the barbarians would seize the chance to invade. As long as Roman armies could concentrate on fighting barbarians, the situation was a decided mismatch in Rome's favor; but when Rome's armies were being deployed against one another, the barbarians had a free hand to invade and pillage. During the third and fourth centuries, the good emperors were the ones who spent their time fighting barbarians rather than other Romans.30
When Diocletian wanted to celebrate the achievements of his imperial reign in the prologue to his Price Edict, he pointed to the fact that the empire had been free from barbarian invasions:
We may thank the good fortune of our state, as well as the immortal gods,
on remembering the wars we have waged successfully. The condition of the world has been placed, tranquil, in the lap of the deepest quiet and peace towards good men. For this reason we have labored and spent our effort lavishly. Now both Roman dignity and majesty desire that the public honor be arranged faithfully and fittingly adorned. We, who by supernatural forces' benevolent support have suppressed the raging depredations of the past by slaughtering the very peoples of the barbarian tribes, will secure the quiet we have established with the reinforcements Justice deserves.
It was no little thing when Christians taunted Diocletian about his military failures. Their criticisms challenged "the foundations of his claim to rule "31
The turmoil that followed the retirement of Diocletian and Maximian created conditions similar to those of the previous century, but Constantine's rise to sole imperial power again gave the empire internal stability and helped prevent further incursions. Much of Constantine's imperial propaganda supported the image of the emperor as protector of Rome against barbarians. He gave up his family's mythical connection with Hercules and replaced it with a genealogical connection to Claudius, known as Gothicus for his defeat of the Goths during his reign, and linked himself symbolically to Trajan.32 He claimed to be successful in defending the empire.
Not everyone agreed. In his satirical symposium Caesares, Constantine's grand-nephew, the emperor Julian, depicts Constantine boasting of his achievements before an assembly of great conquerors-Alexander, Julius and Octavius, and Trajan. Constantine claims victories over Romans, Germans, Scythians and Asian barbarians. When the host Silenus suggests he has offered "mere gardens of Adonis as exploits," Constantine is confused. Silenus explains that by "gardens of Adonis" he means "those that women plant in pots, in honour of the lover of Aphrodite, by scraping together a little earth for a garden bed. They bloom for a little space and fade forthwith." Julian concluded, "At this Constantinus blushed, for he realised that this was exactly his own performance."33
Zosimus too was a critic of Constantine's military and imperial policies. Far from protecting the empire against barbarian invasion, Constantine left the empire far more vulnerable than it had been. He "gave the Barbarians free access into the Roman dominions" by reversing Diocletian's policy of garrisoning towns and establishing fortresses along the frontier." Instead Constantine removed "the greater part of the soldiers from those barriers of the frontiers" and sent them to towns farther from the borders. People along the frontier "were exposed to the Barbarians" without defense, and the towns were oppressed "with so great a multitude of soldiers, that many of them were totally forsaken by the inhabitants." In short, "he was the first cause of the affairs of the empire declining to their present miserable state."34 The anti-Christian bias of Julian and Zosimus distorts their story here. Constantine's reign was marked by comparative peace along the frontier, as well as internally.
Constantine did have one opportunity at the end of his reign to mount a large-scale campaign. Persia had long been the eastern nemesis of the Roman Empire. In 260, the Roman emperor Valerian was defeated and captured by the Persian ruler Shapur I. Galerius recovered some of Rome's dignity with a devastating victory over Shapur's son Narseh in 297, but the memory of Valerian's flayed skin, which was dyed and hung in a Persian temple after his death, continued to haunt the Roman consciousness." Gripped by the anxiety of influence, Constantine was again playing Trajan, contemplating an eastern campaign that would surpass his predecessor's. 36
Constantine had contemplated an invasion of Persia since 325. Around that time, he minted a medallion depicting him as Jupiter with an orb and phoenix, a symbol of eastern revival. The medallion also depicted Dionysus, a deity associated with Galerius and thus evoking the memory of that emperor's earlier triumph in Persia. According to Elizabeth Fowden, "Dionysus, the mythical conqueror of India, combined with the Phoenix looked forward not simply to the defense of Rome's eastern frontier but to the expansion toward the world's eastern reaches."37
Only in 336 did he follow through on those plans. When he learned "of an insurrection of some barbarians in the East," the emperor "observed that the conquest of this enemy was still in store for him, and resolved on an expedition against the Persians. Accordingly he proceeded at once to put his forces in motion." Winning the bishops' approval was an essential part of the preparation, since "he judged it right to take [some] with him as companions, and as needful coadjutors in the service of God." For their part, the bishops cheerfully "declared their willingness to follow in his train, disclaiming any desire to leave him, and engaging to battle with and for him by supplication to God on his behalf. Full of joy at this answer to his request, he unfolded to them his projected line of march." To provide a place for their ministry, "he caused a tent of great splendor, representing in shape the figure of a church, to be prepared for his own use in the approaching war. In this he intended to unite with the bishops in offering prayers to the God from whom all victory proceeds.""
Constantine's death at Nicomedia in 337 cut short what might have been his most important campaign. Shapur wasted no time in taking advantage. He devastated Mesopotamia and then besieged Nisibis for two months before the city surrendered. The only descendant of Constantine who attempted to revive the effort was Julian, and he died from a hemorrhage caused by a spear wound after being pushed back from the walls of Ctesiphon. In 363, Shapur II forced major concessions from Julian's successor Jovian. Territories returned to their pre-Galerian borders, as Rome ceded five regions and fifteen forts to the Persians and agreed not to assist the Armenian king Arsak.39
GOD AND EMPEROR
Constantine's abortive Persian conquest looks like another Roman adventure driven by sacrificial frenzy for honor, vengeance and a desire to keep enemies in their subordinate place. Yet there are hints that between 306 and the 330s something had changed. Sometime before, Constantine had written a "tactful, allusive, and indirect"40 letter in his own hand to Shapur.4' Addressing the Persian king as a "brother," he summarized the "most holy religion" that had given him "deeper acquaintance with the most holy God." Finding common ground with nonsacrificial Persian Zoroastrian practice, Constantine emphasized that the "God I invoke with bended knees" is horrified by "the blood of sacrifices" and recoils from "their foul and detestab
le odors." The sacrifice he craves is "purity of mind and an undefiled spirit" that manifests itself in "works of moderation and gentleness." "He loves the meek," Constantine continued, "and hates the turbulent spirit. . . . While the arrogant and haughty are utterly overthrown, he requites the humble and forgiving with deserved rewards."
The purpose of the letter was to advise Shapur about how to deal with the sizable Christian community in his own realm. Constantine was an eyewitness of "the end of those who lately harassed the worshipers of God by their impious edicts," and he warned Shapur not to follow their example. Everything is "best and safest" when men follow God's laws and recognize that God is at work through the church, endeavoring to "gather all men to himself." He expressed his joy at hearing that Persia was full of Christians, and he closed the letter with a prayer that "you and they may enjoy abundant prosperity, and that your blessings and theirs may be in equal measure," so that "you will experience the mercy and favor of that God who is the Lord and Father of all."
Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom Page 24
