The history of the first seven years of Constantine, 306—313, is very complicated; after that, he had only one rival to struggle with, 314—323. At his accession, Galerius, as Augustus, was in possession of all the other provinces; of which, however, he had given to Cæsar Maximin the government of those of Asia, and to Cæsar Severus, now created Augustus, Italy and Africa. The latter, however, rendering himself odious by his oppression, Maxentius, the son of the former emperor, Maximianus, assumed the title of Augustus at Rome (Oct. 28, 306), and associated his father with himself in the government; so that at this time there were six rulers: Galerius, Severus, Constantine, Maximin, and the usurpers Maxentius and his father Maximianus. But in the year 307, Severus, wishing to oppose Maxentius, was abandoned by his own troops, upon which he surrendered himself to Maximianus, who caused him to be executed. In his place Galerius created his friend Licinius, Augustus; and Maximin obtained the same dignity from his army in Asia. In the mean time, Maximianus, after having endeavoured to supplant his own son in Rome, fled to Constantine, who had crossed over into Gaul and there defeated the Franks, 306; but having made an attempt upon the life of Constantine, who had married his daughter Fausta, that emperor caused him to be put to death, 310. As the excesses of Galerius soon brought him to the grave, 311, there only remained Constantine, Licinius, and Maximin, and the usurper Maxentius. The latter was soon defeated and slain, 312, before the gates of Rome, by Constantine, who thereby became master of Italy and the capital. A war having broken out about the same time between Maximin and Licinius, Maximin was defeated near Adrianople, and then killed himself, 313. The year 314 brought on a war between the two remaining emperors, Constantine and Licinius, which, however, ended the same year in an accommodation, by which Constantine obtained all the countries on the south bank of the Danube, as well as Thrace and Mœsia Inferior; it broke out again, however, in 322, and was finally terminated by a decisive victory in Bithynia, and the total overthrow of Licinius, whom Constantine put to death, 324.
6. However opposite may be the opinions formed respecting the reign of Constantine the Great, its consequences are perfectly plain. Although he annihilated military despotism, he established in its stead, if not completely, yet in great measure, the despotism of the court, and likewise the power of the hierarchy. He had already, during his expedition against Maxentius, decided in favour of the Christian religion; and since he thereby gained a vast number of partisans in all the provinces, and weakened at the same time the power of his co-emperors, or competitors, it was the surest way he could have taken to obtain sole dominion, the great object of his ambition. This change must nevertheless have had very considerable influence on every part of the government, as he found in the previously established hierarchy a powerful support of the throne; and since he, in concert with it, settled what was, and what was not the orthodox doctrine, he introduced a spirit of persecution heretofore unknown.
At a period in which religious parties must almost necessarily have become political parties, we can by no means venture to judge of the importance of the sect by the importance of their points of doctrine. The quarrels of the Arians, which arose at this time, gave Constantine, by the council of Nice, 325, the opportunity he wished for, of making good his authority in religious legislation.
7. The removal of the seat of empire from Rome to Constantinople was connected with this change in the form of worship—as a Christian court would have been awkwardly situated in a city still altogether pagan—although the need there was of protecting the frontiers against the Goths and Persians had a considerable share therein. It did, indeed, become the principal means of establishing the despotism of the court; but those who regard it as one of the causes of the decline of the empire, should remember, that for an empire fallen so low as the Roman was at this time, despotism was almost the only support that remained.
The various partitions of the empire from the time of Diocletian, had led the way to this change of the capital; because a natural result of that system was, that the emperors and Cæsars, when not with the army as they usually were, would reside in different cities. The seat of Diocletian's government was at Nicomedia; of Maximian's, at Milan; even Constantine himself remained but very little at Rome. In these new residences they felt themselves unfettered; and therefore, although the Roman senate existed till after the time of Constantine, its authority must have fallen of itself from the time of Diocletian.
8. We ought not, therefore, to wonder that the consequence of this removal was so complete a change in the whole form of government, that after a short time it seemed to be altogether a different state. A partition of the empire was made, which, though it might in part have been founded on those which had previously existed, was yet so different, that it not only changed the ancient divisions of the provinces, but completely altered their mode of government.—The court, with the exception of polygamy, assumed entirely the form of an eastern court.—A revolution also had taken place in the military system, by the complete separation of the civil and military authorities, which the prætorian præfects had hitherto possessed, but who now became merely civil governors.
According to the new division the whole empire was divided into four præfectures, each of which had its dioceses, and each diocese its provinces. The præfectures were: I. The eastern (præfectura Orientis); it contained five dioceses; 1. Orientis; 2. Ægypti; 3. Asiæ; 4. Ponti; 5. Thraciæ; forming altogether forty-eight provinces, and comprising all the countries of Asia and Egypt, together with the frontier countries of Libya and Thrace. II. Præfectura Illyrici, containing two dioceses; 1. Macedoniæ; 2. Daciæ; forming eleven provinces, and comprising Mœsia, Macedon, Greece, and Crete. III. Præfectura Italiæ, containing three dioceses; 1. Italiæ; 2. Illyrici; 3. Africæ; forming twenty-nine provinces, and comprising Italy, the countries on the south of the Danube, as far as the boundaries of Mœsia; the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, and the African provinces of the Syrtis. IV. Præfectura Galliarum, containing three dioceses; 1. Galliæ; 2. Hispaniæ; 3. Britanniæ; forming altogether twenty-eight provinces, and comprising Spain and the Balearian islands, Gaul, Helvetia, and Britain.—Each of these præfectures was under a præfectus prætorio (prætorian præfect), but who was merely a civil governor, and had under him vicarios, in the dioceses, as well as the rectores provinciarum, of various ranks and titles. They were named proconsules præsides, etc. Besides these, Rome and Constantinople, not being included in any of the four præfectures, had each its præfect.
As principal officers of state and the court (s. cubiculi), we now for the first time meet with the præpositus s. cubiculi (grand-chamberlain), under whom were all the comites palatii and cubicularii, in four divisions; these, at a later period, were frequently eunuchs of great influence; the magister officiorum (chancellor, minister of the interior); the comes sacrarum largitiorum (minister of the finances); the quæstor (the organ of the emperors in legislation; minister of justice and secretary of state); the comes rei principis (minister of the crown-treasury) [privy-purse]; the two comites domesticorum (commander of the household guards), each of whom had his corps (scholas) under him. The number of the state officers and courtiers was continually increasing. If the good of a commonwealth consisted in forms, ranks, and titles, the Roman empire must at this time have been truly happy!
At the head of the troops were the magistri peditum (masters of the infantry) and the magistri equitum (masters of the horse), under the magister utriusque militæ (general in chief of the whole army). Their subordinate commanders were called comites and duces. Constantine considerably reduced the army. In the arrangement of the troops he also made great alterations; these, however, were but of slight consequence compared with that which was produced by admitting into the service a continually increasing number of barbarians.
Notitia dignitatem utriusque Imperii cum not. Pancirolli Græv. Thesaur. Antiquitat. Rom. vol. vii.