DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE (A.D. 180-476)

From A.D. 180, when the first really worthless emperor, Commodus, was installed, to the accession of Diocletian (284), a few strong emperors -- Septimus Severus (192-211), Aurelian (270-5), Probus (276-82) -- postponed the dissolution of the empire by the barbarian invasions of the Goths (247-51), Franks (230-76), and Persians (260-70), in face of impoverishment by war, plague, and famine. The difficulties of the emperors were increased by the weakening discipline of the armies, which now consisted mainly of professionals and provincials with some recruits from the barbarian invaders, and also by the admission of barbarian settlers in lands within the empire. The separation of military and civil administration in the course of the third century, forecasting the Byzantine system, put an end to the old Roman conception of citizenship and of the empire. Nevertheless, Diocletian's administrative and economic reforms probably saved the empire at a time when it appeared on the verge of collapse.

Diocletian's choice of Milan, of Trier on the Moselle, Sirmium on the Save, and Nicomedia on the Marmara (293) as administrative capitals of the empire, and Constantine's creation of a 'New Rome' (Constantinople) on the Bosphorus (325) gravely affected the prosperity and prestige of Rome, and thereby of the Italian homeland, whilst enhancing the importance of the Northern Plain over that of the Peninsula. The military position also was revolutionized when Aurelian (270-75) fortified Rome, and when Milan, Ravenna, and Aquileia became advanced bases for the defence of the Peninsula. The veiled autocracy of the early emperors had long become an open tyranny, sanctioned and swayed by the armies; Septimus Severus (192) abstained from seeking confirmation of his authority from the Senate, and himself exercised most of its functions; Diocletian finally freed the emperor from constitutional control, and assumed the title 'master' (dominus). In the elaborate administration which he created, Rome and Italy wrere reduced to the level of the tribute-paying provinces, all alike now governed directly by imperial prefects and their subordinates.

The temporary division of the empire between Valentinian and Valens in 364 A.D. and the permanent separation of East from West on the death of Theodosius (395) deprived Italy of the hitherto customary support from beyond the Adriatic. The sack of Rome by Alaric's Goths in 410 was reparable, but the temporary loss of Italy's granary and source of oil in Roman Africa (Tunisia) to the Vandals (435) disorganized its artificial economy. The termination of the Western Empire in 476 by a barbarian chief, Odovacar, was accompanied by wide Teutonic settlements on the countryside, though the administration and the life of the cities do not seem to have been greatly disturbed.