I. The Autocrat and His Court
Powers and titles of the emperor. The government of the late Roman empire was an autocracy, in which the emperor was the active head of the administration and at the same time the source of all legislative, judicial and military authority. For the exercise of this authority the support of the army and the bureaucracy was essential. All the sovereign rights of the Roman people were regarded as having been transferred to the imperial power. The emperor was no longer the First of the Roman citizens—the primus inter pares—but all within the empire were in equal degree his subjects. This view of the exalted status of the emperor was expressed in the assumption of the divine titles Jovius and Herculius by Diocletian and Maximian. Their Christian successors, although for the greater part of the fourth century they accepted deification from their pagan subjects, found a new basis for their absolutism in the conception of the emperor as the elect of God, who ruled by divine guidance. Thus the emperor could speak of the imperium which had been conferred upon him by the heavenly majesty. The adjectives “sacred” and “divine” were applied not only to the emperor’s person but also to everything that in any way belonged to him, and the “imperial divinity” was an expression in common use.
As the sole author of the laws, the emperor was also their final interpreter; and since he acted under divine guidance those who questioned his decisions, and those who neglected or transgressed his ordinances, were both alike guilty of sacrilege. The emperor was held to be freed from the laws in the sense that he was not responsible for his legislative and administrative acts, yet he was bound by the laws in that he had to adhere to the general principles and forms of the established law of the state, and had to abide by his own edicts, for the imperial authority rested upon the authority of the laws.
The titles of the emperor bore witness to his autocratic power. From the principate he had inherited those of Imperator, the significance of which was revealed in its Greek rendering of Autocrator, and Augustus, which was as well suited to the new as to the old position of the emperor. More striking, however, was the use of dominus or dominus noster, a title which, as we have seen, was but rarely used during the principate, but which was officially prescribed by Diocletian. The term princeps, although it has long lost its original significance, still continued to be employed in official documents, at times in conjunction with dominus.
Imperial regalia. The imperial regalia likewise expressed the emperor’s autocratic power. With Diocletian the military garb of the principate was discarded for a robe of silk interwoven with gold and Constantine I introduced the use of the diadem, a narrow band ornamented with jewels, which formed part of the insignia of the Persian monarchs, and was symbolic of absolutism in the ancient world.
The succession. We have seen how the scheme devised by Diocletian for regulating the succession to the throne broke down after his retirement. His successors refused to abdicate their imperial authority and only surrendered it with life itself. In the appointment of new emperors two principles found recognition—election and coöptation. The system of election was a legacy from the principate, and recourse was regularly had to it when the imperial throne was vacant. The elected emperor was usually the choice of the leading military and civil officials, approved by the army. In Constantinople, from the fifth century at least, the nomination was made by these officers in conjunction with the reorganized senate, and the new emperor was proclaimed before the people assembled in the Hippodrome. The emperors thus appointed claimed to have been elected by the officials, the Senate, and the army with the sanction of the people. However, as the history of the time shows, the right of election might be exercised at any time, and a victorious usurper became a legal ruler. Thus the autocracy, as has been aptly remarked, was tempered by a legal right of revolution. As this method of election guaranteed a high average of ability among emperors, so the custom of coöptation gave opportunity to admit the claim of dynastic succession. An Augustus could appoint as his colleague the one whom he wished to succeed him on the throne. However, it is to be noted that a son [pg 335]who was thus elevated to the purple became emperor by virtue of his father’s will and not by the right of birth.
The imperial court. Under Diocletian the organization and ceremonial of the imperial palace were thoroughly remodelled. The servants of the household—ushers, chamberlains, grooms and the like—were now formed into corps on a military basis, with a definite regulation of insignia, pay, term of service and promotion. In harmony with the general spirit of the autocracy, the court ceremonial was designed to widen the gulf between the ruler and his subjects and to protect his person by rendering it inaccessible. Surrounded by all the pomp and pageantry of an oriental potentate, the Roman emperor was removed from contact with all but his immediate entourage. The effect of this seclusion was to enhance the power of the few who were permitted to come into touch with him, in particular the officials of the imperial household. The personal servants of the emperor were placed on the same level as the public administrative officers, and the most important of them, the grand chamberlain, before the close of the fourth century had become one of the great ministers of state, with a seat in the imperial cabinet. In conformity with the assumption of the title dominus and of the diadem, was the requirement of prostration from all who were admitted to an audience with the emperor. In addition to its civilian employees, the palace had its special armed guard. These household troops were the scholarians, organized by Constantine I when he disbanded the praetorian guards who had upheld the cause of Maxentius.