Interregnum is a word that refers to the period when thestate has no leader – the previous leader has died or lost an election and thenew leader has not taken office. In Roman law, interregnumwas accompanied by the proclamation of justitium (a state of emergency) which was designed to deal with adverse publicreaction upon hearing of the death of the sovereign.
I’m going to useinterregnum in a different way -- to describe the Empire between 280 to378 A.D. That period began with the reign of Diocletian, passed throughConstantine, and ended with Valens. I’m calling it an interregnum because itwas an interruption in the fall of the empire – made possible by strongleadership and a new form of governance.
Diocletian became emperor by a stroke of luck. He was losinga battle with the emperor Carinus, when several of Carinus’ officers, offendedwith his seducing of their wives, took revenge and killed him. Immediately theyrecognized Diocletian as their true emperor.
He was a strong leader who deserves first rank inthe history of the empire, but also suffers from a bad reputation fostered byChristian writers who curse him for his persecution of their people.
Here’s what Gibbon had to say:
His abilities wereuseful rather than splendid; a vigorous mind, improved by the experience andstudy of mankind; dexterity and application in business; a judicious mixture ofliberality and economy, of mildness and rigor; profound dissimulation, underthe disguise of military frankness; steadiness to pursue his ends; flexibilityto vary his means; and, above all, the great art of submitting his ownpassions, as well as those of others, to the interest of his ambition, and ofcoloring his ambition with the most specious pretences of justice and publicutility. Like Augustus, Diocletian may be considered as the founder of anew empire. Like the adopted son of Caesar, he was distinguished as astatesman rather than as a warrior; nor did either of those princes employforce, whenever their purpose could be effected by policy.
Soon after taking power, Diocletian named a colleague, Maximian,Caesar and assigned him control of the western provinces. This act gave himfree reign to deal with problems along the Danube – five years worth. Thedual-emperor model worked well but did nothing to solve the problem ofsuccession. Diocletian fixed that problem in 293 A.D.by having Maximian andhimself name their replacements – Julius Constantius and Galerius Maximianus.
All four of them had been participating in the wars startingin 286 A.D: a Berber revolt in Africa, a Persian seizure of Armenia, apretender in Egypt declaring himself emperor, and a breakaway commander inBritain. These challenges took four years to clean up. The Goths and Germanswere also troublesome during this time, but they were held back by a superior Romaneffort and dedicated commanders. The Germans spent much of the time fightingamong themselves.
Rome, the city, was now isolated and unimportant. Diocletianvisited there only once because it was just too far from the action. Thetetrarchs chose Trier, Milan, Thessalonica, and Nicomedia for their capitals.
By 304, Diocletian was old and sick. He decided to resignand convinced his partner to do likewise. The dual resignation date was May 1,305. The two new emperors ascended to the throne and named their replacementsas before, but the wrong people were passed over in the process. Severus andMaximinus were selected, but the sons of Constantius and Maximian – Constantineand Maxentius – were passed over. When Constantius died prematurely in 306, hisarmy proclaimed Constantine as new emperor in the west. Before Galerius couldelevate Severus in opposition, Maxentius proclaimed himself emperor in Rome.Ultimately, Constantine and Maxentius faced off in a battle at Milvian Bridgeon October 28th, 312 with Constantine the winner. Maxentius drownedtrying to cross the Tiber.
Now Constantine was in control of the western empire andLicinius was in control of the east. The latter had come to power in 308 A.D.as the nominee of Galerius to replace Severus in the west. But he was neverable to defeat Maxentius so he had to be content to stay in the Balkans andcontrol the eastern provinces. The uneasy partnership between Constantine andLicinius lasted for twelve years. Uneasy because Constantine’s temperamentwould not allow any compromise in his vision for Rome. That vision had twomajor components: making Christianity part of Roman life and becoming soleemperor.
Gibbon tells us of the man:
“The person, as wellas the mind, of Constantine, had been enriched by nature with her choicesendowments. His stature was lofty, his countenance majestic, hisdeportment graceful; his strength and activity were displayed in every manlyexercise, and from his earliest youth, to a very advanced season of life, hepreserved the vigor of his constitution by a strict adherence to the domesticvirtues of chastity and temperance. He delighted in the social intercourseof familiar conversation; and though he might sometimes indulge his dispositionto raillery with less reserve than was required by the severe dignity of hisstation, the courtesy and liberality of his manners gained the hearts of allwho approached him. The sincerity of his friendship has been suspected;yet he showed, on some occasions, that he was not incapable of a warm andlasting attachment. The disadvantage of an illiterate education had notprevented him from forming a just estimate of the value of learning; and thearts and sciences derived some encouragement from the munificent protection of Constantine. In the dispatch ofbusiness, his diligence was indefatigable; and the active powers of his mindwere almost continually exercised in reading, writing, or meditating, in givingaudiences to ambassadors, and in examining the complaints of hissubjects. Even those who censured the propriety of his measures werecompelled to acknowledge, that he possessed magnanimity to conceive, and patienceto execute, the most arduous designs, without being checked either by theprejudices of education, or by the clamors of the multitude.
In the field, heinfused his own intrepid spirit into the troops, whom he conducted with thetalents of a consummate general; and to his abilities, rather than to hisfortune, we may ascribe the signal victories which he obtained over the foreignand domestic foes of the republic. He loved glory as the reward, perhapsas the motive, of his labors. The boundless ambition, which, from the moment ofhis accepting the purple at York, appears as the ruling passion of his soul,may be justified by the dangers of his own situation, by the character of hisrivals, by the consciousness of superior merit, and by the prospect that hissuccess would enable him to restore peace and order to the distractedempire. In his civil wars against Maxentius and Licinius, he had engagedon his side the inclinations of the people, who compared the undissembled vicesof those tyrants with the spirit of wisdom and justice which seemed to directthe general tenor of the administration of Constantine.”
After a winning a battle against Licinius in 317 A.D.Constantine won concessions including most of the Balkans and the guaranteethat his sons would be in line for the throne. Then, in a final showdown 324A.D, Constantine defeated his rival at Hadrianopolis.
The emperor now turned his attention to the construction ofa new capital at Byzantium (Constantinople) which took six years. Then, in the330s A.D, he was engaged with the Germans along the Danube, defeating the Gothsin 332 A.D. and the Sarmatians in 334. These victories brought back to Rome muchof the Dacian territory originally won by Trajan.
Constantine died in 337 A.D. after being baptized as a Christian.His reign had marked two enormous changes in the empire: the embracing ofChristianity and the move of the capital to Constantinople.
Before his death, Constantine devised a plan to divide theempire between his four sons, an attempt to re-create the tetrarchy he had dismantledyears before. But the plan did not take root because the sons became rivalsinstead of partners. Constantine II was killed in battle in 340 A.D andConstans was over thrown and killed in 350 A.D. The remaining son, ConstantiusII, named an associate Julian in 360 A.D, who turned on his mentor and killedhim in 361 A.D. Julian died suspiciously in 363 while fighting the Persians andhis replacement Jovian died the next year when he was poisoned by carbonmonoxide from a fire in his tent.
The death of Constantine left Rome with no heir to thethrone, so the army chose a Pannonian officer of humble origin, Valentinian, toreplace him. He assumed power as Valentinian I in the west and named hisbrother Valens to control the Balkans and points to the east. Valentinian spenthis entire reign fighting the Germans: the Alemanni during the 360s A.D. andthen the Quadi and Sarmatians in the 370s. He died of a stroke in 375 A.D.
Valens angered the Goths by mismanaging Rome’s relationshipwith them. That and the pressure they felt from the Huns on their eastern flankmobilized the Goths against Rome. They inflicted a crushing defeat on Valens atHadrianopolis in 378 A.D, signaling the end of my interregnum. There would be nomore pauses before the empire crumbled to dust.
This story shows how two great leaders were able to propel theEmpire forward by strength of their will. Those who succeeded them were pale incomparison. The Goths saw this and knew the time had come to strike.
