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Introduction Introduction
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The Tetrarchic System and the Resurrection of a Sole Emperor The Tetrarchic System and the Resurrection of a Sole Emperor
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Reforms I: Reshaping the Provinces Reforms I: Reshaping the Provinces
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Reforms II: The Army and the Frontier Reforms II: The Army and the Frontier
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From the “Great Persecution” to the Making of the “Holy Land” From the “Great Persecution” to the Making of the “Holy Land”
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Conclusions Conclusions
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Bibliography Bibliography
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23 The Roman Near East in the Time of the Tetrarchy and Constantine I (ad 284–337)
Get accessVolker Menze is professor and head of the Department of Historical Studies at Central European University in Vienna. He has worked on the post-Chalcedonian Christological Controversy and published a book on Justinian and the Making of the Syrian Orthodox Church (Oxford Early Christian Studies, 2008). He edited a few Syriac texts related to non-Chalcedonian Eucharist communities and the early establishment of an underground church against the ruling Chalcedonian Church of the Empire. His recent work includes an edited volume on Syriac hagiography (The Wandering Holy Man: The Life of Barsauma, Christian Asceticism and Religious Conflict in Late Antique Palestine) and articles on the politics of church councils, book burnings, bribery, episcopal nepotism, and alternative ecclesiologies in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. He published the monograph Patriarch Dioscorus of Alexandria: The Last Pharaoh and Ecclesiastical Politics in the Later Roman Empire in the Oxford Early Christian Studies series in 2023.
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Published:22 April 2025
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Abstract
After the defeat of Emperor Valerian in 260 and the usurpation of the Palmyrene empire in the 260/270s, Roman control over the Near East was shattered. Emperor Diocletian (284–305) instituted a new form of government, the so-called Tetrarchy. The provinces were resized, the army reorganized, and the border defenses were fortified. Emperor Constantine (306–337) continued his predecessors’ successful work, and it often remains difficult for scholars to clearly attribute certain reforms to either the period of the tetrarchs or Constantine. The eastern frontier remained a top priority for all (Eastern) Roman emperors in late antiquity. By adopting Christianity as his favored religion, Constantine laid the basis for a long-term development that influenced the course of history beyond late antiquity. His building policy laid the foundation for what is called the “Holy Land” with Jerusalem as its center.
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