{"id":797,"date":"2024-07-30T18:35:42","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T18:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1021earlycivilizations\/chapter\/7-4-brotherly-love-in-turbulent-times\/"},"modified":"2025-03-19T15:40:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T15:40:19","slug":"7-4-brotherly-love-in-turbulent-times","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/ppschum1021earlycivilizations\/chapter\/7-4-brotherly-love-in-turbulent-times\/","title":{"raw":"7.4 Brotherly Love in Turbulent Times","rendered":"7.4 Brotherly Love in Turbulent Times"},"content":{"raw":"
\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"331\"]\"A 7.8<\/strong> Map of Commerce from Rome between 100 BCE to 300 CE. Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.1<\/a><\/sup>[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_678\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"76\"]\"A 7.9<\/strong> Trajan's Column. 106-113 CE, Rome.3<\/sup><\/a>[\/caption]\r\n

Imagine yourself as a soldier in the Roman Legion. You\u2019ve been serving in the oldest city in The Netherlands, Nijmegen [image 7.8]. The date is year 15 of Trajan\u2019s Reign (113 CE). Trajan has been expanding the empire of 50 million people to its greatest extent, 3.5 million square miles. Being an effective Roman general, Trajan\u2019s great military victories have been commemorated with classically influenced columns and inscriptions, sculptures and triumphal arches [image 7.9]. Proper towns have been built with paved streets, water supply and a forum with its administrative basilica, markets and temples. Additionally, every settlement has commoda <\/em>(people\u2019s palaces): stadia, circuses, public baths and amphitheaters.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"338\"]\"Gold 7.10<\/strong> Solidus. Unestablished date, Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmegen.2<\/sup><\/a>[\/caption]\r\n\r\n

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As a member of the Legion you have been paid a basic wage of three solidi<\/em> a year [image 7.10]. It was from this coin that future legionnaires will be known as \u201csoldiers.\u201d (The German language turned the word solidus<\/em> into\u00a0skelding,<\/em> the origin of shilling<\/em>.)<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1191\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"259\"]\"A 7.11<\/strong> and 7.12<\/strong> Two panels of a Roman military diploma. Unestablished date, Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmegen.4<\/sup><\/a>[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1192\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"383\"]\"A 7.12<\/strong>[\/caption]\r\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Upon finishing your service you received a copy of your military record [both halves, images 7.11 and 7.12]. This small folding bronze double tablet, your diploma,<\/em> a<\/em>uthorized your rights of Roman citizenship.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"179\"]\"A 7.13<\/strong> Augustus Coin found in the Pudukottai Hoard India. 27 BCE-14 CE, British Museum.5<\/sup><\/a>[\/caption]\r\n

By studying the map, the coins and the diploma (all from the Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmegen, The Netherlands) we can deduce several characteristics of Roman civilization: trade, roads, citizenship, a single code of laws, a unified currency, soldiers and enforced peace of (at the time of Trajan) 400,000 men. Pax Romana <\/em>was marvelous for spreading the Roman values of Authoritarianism, Organization and Utilitarianism. Though the \u201cpeace\u201d was without the political freedom as the Greeks had understood it and more limited than had been experienced in Republican Rome, it was a more continuous peace than the Mediterranean had ever known. However, like an autostrada <\/em>which goes in two directions, that ordered civilization also had \u201concoming\u201d traffic. Lured by relative stability and security, cultivated land and wide borders, barbarian gladiators, slaves and freed-men poured into the army and then into Roman society.<\/p>\r\nThe ordered civilization of Pax Romana ended with one long period of civil wars, usurpations and violent transfers of power. Between 235 and 260 CE more than 20 emperors took the throne, and all but one died violently, either in battle against Roman enemies or through assassination or lynching. The myth of the so-called divine <\/em>emperor [image 7.13] has been cancelled out. Goodbye, also, Humanism and Individualism. For the foreseeable future, Authoritarianism will be a significant value.\r\n

The time of Roman power and grandeur had passed. With the crumbling of Rome the empire was plunged into military anarchy. In an effort to control the far-flung empire, power was given to local leaders. The imperially sanctioned bureaucrats raised taxes, doubled the size of the army and devalued the currency, but the economy continued to spiral downward with deeper and deeper hyperinflation. Without money, and having lost their confident can-do Roman spirit, public building stopped almost completely. Urban centers were depopulated as inhabitants fled to the countryside for safety. Taking up the roads, citizens built city walls. Thus it was that hill towns in Italy and Spain would develop different accents, dialects, breads, sweets, pasta shapes, histories and myths.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"283\"]\"A 7.14<\/strong> Citt\u00e0 Antica, Verona. 1618.6<\/sup><\/a>[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"222\"]\"A 7.15<\/strong> Modern city map of Verona.7<\/sup><\/a>[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"177\"]\"A 7.16<\/strong> Cut in the ancient city wall of Verona.8<\/sup><\/a>[\/caption]\r\n

These reused paving stones may still be seen in modern Verona, Italy. The protective city walls are evident in the reconstructed vision of the old fortification of Citt\u00e0 Antica <\/em>between the Adige River and the Via Dei Partigiani [image 7.14]. Modern-day roads [image 7.15] were shaped by that fortification, with an occasional need to cut through those walls. We can still see the stacked paving stones from which those defensive walls had been built [image 7.16].<\/p>\r\n

Seeking to bring some stability to the far-flung Empire, openly autocratic Diocletian <\/strong>(r. 284-305) expanded upon a notion of joint rule which had been tried earlier in Republican Rome.9 In 293 Diocletian ripped away all remaining fa\u00e7ades of republicanism with the creation of a Tetrarchy<\/strong>, a rule-of-four. By dividing the empire in half he created the Western <\/strong>Roman Empire <\/strong>and the Eastern Roman<\/strong> Empire <\/strong>(also to be known as the Byzantine <\/strong>Empire). These two divisions were further subdivided into four quadrants [image 7.17]. The four new dominions were smaller and more manageable. The Augustus <\/strong>(emperor) Diocletian maintained his rule of the eastern quarter (from Nicomedia in Bithynia, Thrace, Asia, and Egypt). Conveniently for him, this area had greater economic and demographic resources and was inaccessible to those pesky Germanic barbarians. His Caesar <\/strong>(\u201cchosen successor\u201d), Galerius <\/strong>(ruling from Thessalonike), was responsible for the Danube frontier and the Balkans. In the west Diocletian elevated one of his officers, Maximian<\/strong>, to an equal position of co- emperor. Headquartered in Milan, Augusti Maximian ruled Italy and Africa. Maximian\u2019s Caesar was Constantius <\/strong>who ruled from Trier. His territorial responsibility was the least populated portion of the empire: Britain and Gaul.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"539\"]\"A 7.17<\/strong> Map of the Roman Empire under the Tetrarchy, showing the dioceses and the four tetrarchs' zones of influence post-299, after Diocletian and Galerius had exchanged their allocated provinces.10<\/sup><\/a>[\/caption]\r\n

With the establishment of the Tetrarchy, no emperor spent any length of time in Rome. On the other hand, as a result of Diocletian\u2019s leadership and more skilled and competent administrators, the eastern empire, now known as \u201cRome,\u201d would stand for a thousand years until 1453 when the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople.<\/p>\r\n

Let\u2019s examine a manufactured image of Diocletian\u2019s revolutionary political system. We find the sculpture not in Constantinople\u2019s philadelphion <\/em>(open space), where in 305 CE it had been attached to a column by an unknown artist, but in Venice, Italy!11<\/a> <\/sup>After looting Constantinople in 1204, Crusaders brought the 51\u201d tall porphyry (purple marble) sculpture of the Four<\/em> Tetrarchs<\/em> to Saint Mark\u2019s Basilica and had it built into the fa\u00e7ade of the building [image 7.18].12<\/sup><\/a> Dressed in military garb, the sour, heavy and dour rulers anxiously grasp their swords with their free hands [image 7.19]. In this symbolic representation we can distinguish the bearded Augusti (emperors) [Image 7.20] from the clean-shaven Caesari (subordinates) [image 7.21], but it is impossible to distinguish Diocletian from Maximian. There are no identifiable, individual features. Individualism is gone!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"270\"]\"A 7.18<\/strong> Fourth century CE sculpture of the Four Tetrarchs from Constantinople placed after 1204 into the exterior wall of Saint Mark\u2019s Basilica, Venice, Italy (on the lower left).14<\/sup><\/a>[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"274\"]\"A 7.19<\/strong> Close-up of Fourth century CE sculpture of the Four Tetrarchs.13<\/sup><\/a>[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n

\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"328\"]\"A 7.20<\/strong> The bearded Augusti (Diocletian and Maximian).15<\/sup><\/a>[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"318\"]\"A 7.21<\/strong> The unbearded Caesari (Galerius and Constantius).16<\/sup><\/a>[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"223\"]\"A 7.19<\/strong> Four Tetrarchs.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nIndividualism was not the only value to be disappearing.\u00a0Neither were the figures on this sculpture scaled according to Pythagorean proportions, appreciated as recently as 106-113 CE on Trajan\u2019s<\/em> Column<\/em> [images 7.9 and 7.22]. In a swift turn of events, Humanism was also gone.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"492\"]\"Detail 7.22<\/strong> Column of Trajan (detail). 113 CE, The Emperor (fourth from the lower right) oversees construction in Rome.17<\/sup><\/a>[\/caption]\r\n

The four arcons<\/em> were embracing in a desperately hoped-for unity. In theory, the colleagues were supposed to act in concert with each other, issuing laws that were to be observed in both halves of the empire, while each was responsible for defending his own territory. In reality, the Eastern Empire flourished while the Western Empire struggled and neither gave much thought to helping the other. Each saw the other more as a competitor than as a teammate and both worked primarily in their own self-interest. This was not a portrayal of cooperative unity. This \u201cbrotherly love\u201d is no more convincing than the Augustinian implementation of Pax Romana, or for that matter, than the declarative Ara Pacis had been to us. We must admit, that even in Roman times, pax<\/em> and peace <\/em>were not the same.<\/p>\r\n

Before we leave Diocletian, it should be pointed out that he was very pious in his devotion to the Roman gods. It must have caused considerable family stress when both his wife, Prisca, and his daughter, Valeria, converted to Christianity. Furthermore, missing his chance to harness the dynamic element of Christianity for the benefit of the empire, Diocletian began the worst persecution in the history of Christianity. During the ten years of his \u201cfinal suppression,\u201d from 303-313, he issued several imperial edicts:<\/p>\r\n\r\n