Early Byzantine Period (330–717)
Aleksandar Jovanović
Christianization of the Empire, Romanization of Christianity
From the times of Augustus to Constantine the Great, the Roman Empire has undergone a series of changes that the leaders of the state always justified by fitting them into the existing Roman laws and regulations––which at times had to be modified. Arguably one of the greatest official changes in the empire was introduced by emperor Caracalla’s Constitutio Antoniniana issued in 212 CE; this law granted Roman citizenship to virtually all free men and women of the empire, thus terminating the city of Rome’s special position in the Mediterranean. However, this law had long reaching consequences, as in Roman legal tradition it was the people who had to acclaim the new emperor. Now, the people included all the free inhabitants of the Roman Empire and, thus, the armies manned with Roman citizens started proclaiming their own emperors. This period of multiple emperors being acclaimed in military camps is known as the Crisis of the Third Century. The crisis and bloodshed ended with Diocletian becoming emperor in 284 CE and commencing a series of reforms to enlarge and centralize the country’s administration, as well as to split power between four official co-emperors.
While Diocletian’s idea of four co-emperors did not live long, the major administrative and fiscal reforms started under him continued with Constantine the Great, who became the sole emperor in 324 CE. Other than continuing Diocletian’s reforms of the administration by splitting the military and civil administration and by breaking down the traditional senatorial groups at the expense of equestrians, Constantine changed the previous policies towards the Christians in the empire. Traditionally, Christians––originating from the eastern provinces of the empire––were persecuted by the state (see the section on Christian martyrs). By the time of Constantine’s reign, the religion has spread around the empire and the emperor sought to recognize the Christians’ right to worship their god and practice their religion freely. A major law was issued in 313 CE by Constantine granting Christians the right of free worship. Constantine, however, did not stop at recognizing the Christians, but he himself became invested in the institutional organization of the empire’s church. We can say then that Constantine started the process of Christianization of the Roman Empire, as well as the Romanization of Christianity, which reached its apex at the end of the 4th century when Theodosius I made Christianity the sole official religion of the Roman Empire. In under a century, Christianity went from being outlawed to being the official and only allowed religion of the Roman Empire.
Edict of Milan (313 CE)
When I, Constantine Augustus, as well as I Licinius Augustus d fortunately met near Mediolanurn (Milan), and were considering everything that pertained to the public welfare and security, we thought -, a