The Fall of the Roman Empire by Michael Grant

Author:Michael Grant
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Non Fiction, History
ISBN: 9780297817116
Publisher: London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996.
Published: 1990-09-14T23:00:00+00:00

IV

THE PARTNERSHIPS THAT FAILED

8

Ally against Ally

Another very relevant and destructive disunity which helped to destroy the Roman Empire was of a political and geographical nature. For that Empire, disastrously as it turned out, was divided into two halves, each under a separate ruler - one in the West and one in the East.

The idea that Rome's Empire was too large to be ruled and defended by a single man was nothing new. Already in the second century, Marcus Aurelius had elevated a co-Emperor to share his power. A hundred years later, Valerian had divided the provinces on a geographical basis between himself and his son Gallienus, to whom he allotted the West. Next, Diocletian (284-305), while undertaking an elaborate reorganization of the Imperial system, gave the Western regions to a colleague, establishing his own Eastern residence at Nicomedia (Izmit) in Asia Minor. Constantine the Great reunited the Empire, governing it from his new capital at Constantinople. Then it was divided again between his sons, and subsequently for a brief period was reunited once more, from 353 to 364.

It was in the latter year that Valentinian I was hailed Emperor by the army. Immediately afterwards, the soldiers demanded that he should appoint a colleague to share his power. For whenever there was only a single Emperor, the troops felt that the risk of his death, and of consequent chaos, was too great, and indeed the death of the last monarch, Jovian, had resulted, like

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