Late Roman Empire, Constantinian Dynasty: Constantine-I Sole Ruler: Christianity [2/3], Constantinople, Prefectures, Succession

59*CONSTANTINE I (c.65; r.307-337) (Gaul→W→all)

Towards the end of 326 Crispus was arrested, tried for treason and executed, and Constantine’s wife Fausta banished to internal exile, where she died a few years later. There is later speculation of the reasons behind this, but it is likely that father and son disagreed about the future direction of government, and that Fausta objected to the treatment of her stepson.

In 333 the governor of Cyprus, Calocaerus, attempted to establish himself as master of the island. Constantine sent his half-brother, ¹⁹Flavius Dalmatius. The usurper was defeated and taken to Tarsus where he was tried and executed.

Christianity [2/3]

Shortly after he defeated Licinius, a new problem arose for Constantine regarding the Christians of the Eastern Empire. Adherents of the faith were engaged in a bitter dispute over the true nature of God from ideas developed by Arius (350/56 -336), a theologian from Alexandria, who claimed that the Son of God less divine than God having been created by him and therefore there was a time when the Son did not exist.

Constantine ruled that the so-named Arian Controversy would be put before bishops at the First Council of Nicaea (325) in northwestern Asia Minor. The council decided overwhelmingly against the Arians. Of the estimated 250-318 attendees, all but two agreed to sign the Nicene Creed affirming the co-divinity of the Son with the Father and they, along with Arius, were banished to Illyricum. The council also agreed on a uniform observance of the date of Easter, the most important feast of the ecclesiastical calendar.

Constantinople

Rome remained greatly venerated but had long ceased to be the political centre of the Empire, for the city lay far from endangered frontiers and had been superseded as an imperial residence in the West by cities such as Mediolanum (=Milan). 

Constantine, shortly after gaining control of the East by defeating Licinius, spent lavishly on a rushed programme at the site of the old Greek city of Byzantium, and built a new city he called Nova Roma (=New Rome), the new capital of the Roman Empire. The site of the new capital served as a natural crossroads between Europe and Asia Minor and between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. On 11 May 330, when Constantine formally dedicated the city, he renamed Constantinople in his own honour.

Prefectures

Since the reforms of Diocletian, the provinces, smaller than before, each governed by a praeses, had been grouped together to form civil dioceses; each governed by a vicarius, and these grouped together to form praetorian prefectures, each under the authority of either an augustus or caesar, and each of whom had a praetorian prefect to support him in military, juridical and financial matters.

Succession

On 18 September 335, Constantine raised his nephew ²⁰Flavius Dalmatius (fl.335-337) to the rank of caesar, with the control of Dacia, Macedonia and Achaea. Another nephew ²¹Flavius Hannibalianus (c.320-337) was appointed to the throne of Pontus (335-337). He took control of Armenia and took the title King of Kings with control over Lesser Armenia, Pontus and Cappadocia.

In 337 Constantine fell ill and died on 22 May after having himself baptised by Eusebius of Nicomedia (c.80; fl.325-341). None of the caesares had been raised to the status of augustus, and an interregnum extended to 9 September. 

During this period, in the absence of Constantine’s three sons, his soldiers accepted the word of Eusebius who said that the emperor had been poisoned by his two half-brothers, ¹⁹Flavius Dalmatius the Censor and ⁴⁷Julius Constantius. The army accordingly lynched Dalmatius, Julius, and Dalmatius’ two sons, Dalmatius and Hannibalianus, and all the other male descendents of Constantius-I Chlorus and his second wife ⁰¹Flavia Maximiana Theodora, apart from ²⁷Flavius Claudius Constantius Gallus (c.29; fl.337-354) and ²⁸Flavius Claudius Julianus (31/32; fl.337-363).