PREFACE
THE present volume covers a space of about two hundred
years beginning with Constantine and stopping a little short of Justinian. At its
opening the Roman Empire is standing in its ancient majesty, drawing new
strength from the reforms of Diocletian and the statesmanship of Constantine:
at its close the Empire has vanished from the West, while the East is slowly
recovering from the pressure of the barbarians in the fifth century, and
gathering strength for Justinian's wars of conquest. At its opening heathenism
is still a mighty power, society is built up on heathen pride of class, and
Rome still seems the centre of the world: at its ending we see Christianity
supreme, Constantinople the seat of power, and the old heathen order of
society in the West dissolving in the confusion of barbarian devastations. At
its opening Caesar's will is law from the Atlantic to Armenia: at its ending a
great system of Teutonic and Arian kingdoms in the West has just been
grievously shaken by the conversion of the Franks from heathenism direct to
orthodoxy.
In our
first chapter we trace the rise of Constantine, his reunion of the Empire, his
conversion to Christianity, the political side of the Nicene Council, and the
foundation of Constantinople. Then follows Dr Reid's account of the reforms of
Diocletian and Constantine, which fixed for centuries the general outline of
the administration. After this Mr Norman Baynes takes up the struggle with
Persia under Constantius and Julian, and continues in a later chapter the story
of the wars of Rome in East and West in the times of Valentinian and
Theodosius. The victory of Christianity is treated by Principal
Lindsay; and he describes also the rival systems of Neoplatonism and Mithraism,
and gives an account of Julian's reaction and the last struggles of heathenism. The next
chapter is devoted to Arianism. First the doctrine is
described, in itself and in some of its relations to modern thought; then the religious
side of the Nicene Council is given, and the complicated history of the
reaction is traced down to the decisive overthrow of Arianism in the Empire by
Theodosius. After
this Mr C. H. Turner describes the organisation of the Church — clergy, creeds
and worship — looking back to the beginning, but chiefly concerned with its
development in the age of the great Councils.
We now pass to the Teutons. Dr Martin Bang begins in
prehistoric times, describing their migrations and their conquests westward and
southward till the legions brought them to a stand on the Rhine and the Danube,
and their long struggle of four centuries to break through the Roman frontier
before the battle of Hadrianople settled them inside the Danube. Then Dr
Manitius carries down the story through the administrations of Theodosius and
Stilicho to the great collapse — the passing of the Rhine, the overrunning of
Gaul and Spain, the Roman mutiny of Pavia, and the sack of Rome by Alaric.
After this the great Teutonic peoples have to be dealt with severally.
Dr Ludwig Schmidt begins with the settlement of the
Visigoths in Gaul, traces the growth and culmination of their kingdom of
Toulouse, and ends with their expulsion from Aquitaine by Clovis. Professor
Pfister gives the early history of the Franks; but they are still a feeble folk
when he leaves them, for the conquests of Clovis belong to another volume. Then
Dr Schmidt tells the little that is known of the Sueves and Alans in Spain, and
more fully describes the history and institutions of the Vandal kingdom in
Africa to its destruction by Belisarius.
Our next
chapter differs from the rest in containing very little history. It is Dr Peisker's account of Central Asia and the Altaian mounted
nomads. It
is given as a general (and much needed) introduction to the chapters on the
Huns, the Avars, the Turks, and the rest of the Asiatic hordes who devastated
Europe in the Middle Ages. To this is attached Dr Schmidt's short account of
the Huns and Attila. We next turn to our own country. Professor Haverfield
describes the conquest and organisation of Roman Britain, and the decline and
fall of the Roman power in the island, while Mr Beck deals with the English in
their continental home, and tells the story of their settlement in Britain from
the English side. After this Mr Barker records the last struggles of the
Western Empire — the loyalty of Gaul and the disaffection of Africa — under
Aetius and Majorian, concluding with the barbarian mutiny at Pavia which
overthrew the last Augustus of the West. Then
M. Maurice Dumoulin continues the history of Italy under the barbarian rule of
Odovacar and Theodoric, describing the great king's policy, and showing how he
kept in check for awhile the feud of Roman and barbarian which had wrecked the
Western Empire. Turning
now to the Eastern provinces, the fifth century, which falls to Mr Brooks, is
upon the whole a prosaic period of second-rate rulers and dire financial strain. Yet even here we have striking events, remarkable
characters, and important movements — the fall of Rufinus and the failure of Gainas;
Pulcheria ruling the Empire as a girl of sixteen, the romance of Athenais, and
the catastrophe of Basiliscus; the Isaurian policy of Leo, and the reforms of
Anastasius. Then
Miss Alice Gardner traces the history of religious disunion in the East. The
fall of Chrysostom brought to the front the rivalry of Constantinople and
Alexandria, the defeat of Nestorianism at Ephesus and of Monophysitism at
Chalcedon fixed the lines of orthodoxy, but left Egypt and Syria heterodox and disaffected,
and the reconciling Henoticon of Zeno produced nothing but a new schism. In the
next chapter Dom Butler traces the growth of monasticism and its various forms
in East and West, including the Benedictine rule and the Irish monks. After this Professor Vinogradoff surveys the whole field of social and
economic conditions in the declining Empire, and shows the part which rotten
economics and bad taxation played in its destruction. Then Mr H. F. Stewart
gives his account of the heathen and Christian literature of the time, and of
the various lines of thought which seemed to converge upon the grand figure of Augustine.
The volume concludes with Mr Lethaby's account of the beginnings and early
development of Christian art.
Shortly: to the student of universal history the Roman
Empire is the bulwark which for near six hundred years kept back the
ever-threatening attacks of Teutonic and Altaian barbarism. Behind that bulwark rose
the mighty structure of Roman Law, and behind it a new order of the world was
beginning to unfold from the fruitful seeds of Christian thought. So when the
years of respite ended, and the universal Empire went down in universal ruin,
the Christian Church was able from the first to put some check on the northern
conquerors, and then by the long training of the Middle Ages to mould the
nations of Europe into forms which have issued in richer and fuller developments
of life and civilisation than imperial Rome had ever known.
It remains
for us to give our best thanks to Dr A. W. Ward for much counsel and
assistance, and to all those who have kindly helped us by looking over the
proofs of particular chapters.
H. M. G.
J.
P. W.
September 1911
