canon of the Council declares: "The bishop of Constantinople shall rank next to the bishop of Rome, because Constantinople is New Rome," because of the political pre-eminence of the city as the capital of the Empire. Patriarchs of older Eastern sees objected to this exaltation of the patriarch of Constantinople. The see of Constantinople was at that time occupied by Gregory of Nazianzus, the Theologian, who had played a very important rôle in the capital during the first years of the reign of Theodosius. He was unable to manage the numerous dissenting parties represented at the Council, and was later forced to withdraw from his see, leave the Council, and depart from Constantinople. His place was taken by Nectarius, a man of the world, of limited theological attainments, but one who knew how to keep on good terms with the Emperor. Nectarius became the president of the Council. In the summer of the year 381 the Council closed its sessions. In his attitude to the clergy at large, that is, the Catholic (Nicene) clergy, Theodosius was rather generous. He conserved and occasionally enlarged the privileges of the bishops and clergy in the matter of personal duties, court responsibilities, etc., granted during the reign of some of the predecessors of Theodosius. He was careful, however, that all these privileges should not interfere with the interests of the government. Thus, by one edict Theodosius imposed upon the church extraordinary government duties (extraordinaria munera).81 The availability of the church as a refuge for criminals prosecuted by the government was greatly limited in view of the frequent abuse of this privilege. In particular, people indebted to the government were forbidden to seek protection against the debt collectors in the temples, and the clergy were ordered not to hide them.8 82 Theodosius aimed to be the sole arbiter of the church affairs of the Empire, and on the whole he succeeded in attaining this aim. In one instance, however, he came into serious conflict with one of the distinguished leaders of the Western church, Ambrose, bishop of Mediolanum (Milan). Theodosius and Ambrose held diametrically opposed views on the relation between the church and the 81 Codex Theodosianus, XI, 16, 18. 82 Ibid., IX, 45, I. state: the former stood for the supremacy of the state over the church; the latter assumed that the church could not be subject to the temporal power. The conflict centered about the massacres which took place in Thessalonica. In this rich and populous city were quartered a large number of Germanic troops headed by a very tactless commander who did nothing to prevent the violence of the soldiers. The city population, provoked by the German outrages, finally revolted and killed the commanding officer as well as many soldiers. The infuriated Theodosius, well disposed toward the Germans, who ranked high in his army, smote the citizens of Thessalonica with a bloody massacre, showing no mercy to sex or age; the Emperor's orders were executed by the Germans. The horrible deed was not allowed to pass unpunished. Ambrose excommunicated Theodosius, who, in spite of his power, was forced publicly to acknowledge his own guilt and then to observe humbly the penance imposed by Ambrose, who forbade him to wear the imperial regalia during the period of atonement. During the merciless struggle with the heretics, Theodosius took decisive steps also against the pagans. Several decrees prohibited the offering of sacrifices, the divination by the entrails of animals, and the visiting of the temples. In effect this amounted to the closing of many pagan temples, some of which now were used for government purposes, while others were almost completely destroyed, all their rich treasures of art being demolished by the fanatical mob. The destruction of the famous temple of the god Serapis, the Serapeum, which still remained the center of pagan worship in the city of Alexandria, is particularly significant. The last decree against the pagans was issued by Theodosius in the year 392. It prohibited completely the offering of sacrifices, the burning of incense, the hanging of garlands, libations, divinations, etc. It also declared all who disobeyed these orders guilty of offense against the Emperor and religion, and liable therefore to severe penalties. This decree refers to the old religion as "a pagan superstition" (gentilicia superstitio).88 One historian calls this edict of 392 "the funeral song of pagan ism."84 It was the last step taken by Theodosius in his war upon paganism in the East. In the western part of the Empire we must notice the particularly well-known episode during the struggle of Gratian, Valentinian II, and Theodosius against paganism, namely, the removal of the statue of victory from the Roman senate. The senators, who were still half pagan, viewed this enforced removal of the statue as the final ruin of the former greatness of Rome. The famous pagan orator, Symmachus, was sent to the Emperor with a plea for the restoration of the statue to the senate. Th. I. Uspensky speaks of this plea as "the last song of dying paganism which timidly and mournfully begged mercy of the young Emperor (Valentinian II) for the faith to which his ancestors were indebted for their fame, and Rome for its greatness."85 The mission of Symmachus did not gain the desired result. The year 393 saw the last celebration of the Olympic games. Among other monuments of antiquity, the statue of Zeus, the work of Phidias, was transferred from Olympia to Constantinople. We may gather from the foregoing account that the religious policy of Theodosius differed greatly from that of his predecessors. The latter, while favoring some one Christian party or paganism (as did Julian), still followed to some extent a policy of toleration toward other religious groups; de jure parity of religious beliefs still persisted. By designating the Nicene Creed as the only legal creed, Theodosius laid an absolute veto upon all other tendencies in the Christian fold, as well as upon paganism. Theodosius was one of those emperors who believed that the church and the religious life of his subjects should come under their authority. The aim of his life was to create a single Nicene church; but in spite of all his efforts he did not succeed in reaching his goal. The religious disputes, far from ceasing, only multiplied and spread very rapidly, causing religious life in the fifth century to be most stormy and passionate. Over paganism Theodosius attained a complete triumph. Deprived of opportunity openly to avow its faith, paganism ceased to exist as 84 Rauschen, Jahrbücher der christlichen Kirche unter dem Kaiser Theodosius dem Grossen (Freiburg i.B., 1897), p. 376. 85 Th. I. Uspensky, I, 140 (in Russian). an organized whole. There still were pagans, of course; but only as separate families or individuals did they cherish secretly the beloved past of their dead religion. The famous pagan school at Athens was not affected by any of the decrees of Theodosius; it continued its work of spreading the knowledge of classical literature among the students who came to it. The German (Gothic) problem in the fourth century. The Gothic problem was the most acute problem of the Empire at the end of the fourth century. For some still unknown reasons the Goths, who at the opening of the Christian Era had occupied the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, migrated, probably in the latter part of the second century, further south into the territory of present-day Southern Russia, reaching as far as the shores of the Black Sea, and settled in the districts between the Don and the Lower Danube. The Dniester divided the Goths into two tribes: the eastern Goths, otherwise named Ostrogoths or Ostgoths, and the western Goths, or Visigoths. Like all other Germanic tribes of this period, the Goths were barbarians. In their new territory they found themselves under very favorable cultural conditions. The northern shore of the Black Sea had for a long time before the Christian Era been covered with numerous rich Greek colonies, whose cultural level was very high. Their influence, as proved by archeological data, reached out far into the North and was felt even centuries later during the early Christian period. At the time of the Gothic migration to the shores of the Black Sea, the Crimea was occupied by the rich and civilized Kingdom of Bosphorus. Through contact with these old Greek colonies and the Kingdom of Bosphorus, the Goths became acquainted with the classical culture of antiquity, while by continuous proximity to the Roman Empire in the Balkan peninsula they came in touch with more recent developments of civilization. As a result of all this, the Goths, when later they appeared in Western Europe, were culturally superior to all the other Germanic tribes, who entered their historical life in the West in a state of complete barbarism. During the third century, following the settlement in the South near the Black Sea, the Goths directed their activities along two distinct paths: on the one hand, they were attracted by the sea and the possibilities it offered for raiding the cities along its shores; on the other hand, in the southwest, the Goths reached the borders of the Roman Empire on the Danube and came in contact with the Empire. The Goths first gained a hold on the north shore of the Black Sea, and then, in the third century A.D., they invaded the greater part of the Crimea and the Kingdom of the Bosphorus. In the second half of the third century they undertook a number of piratical raids, using numerous Bosphorian vessels. They repeatedly robbed the rich coast land of the Caucasus and Asia Minor. By following the western shore of the Black Sea they entered the Danube, and crossing the sea, they even made their way, by the Bosphorus, to the Propontis (Sea of Marmora), and through the Hellespont (the Dardanelles) they penetrated into the Archipelago. On these adventurous raids they pillaged Byzantium, Chrysopolis (on the Asiatic side facing Byzantium-Scutari at present), Cyzicus, Nicomedia, and the islands of the Archipelago. The Gothic pirates went even farther than this: they attacked Ephesus and Thessalonica, and upon reaching Greek shores they sacked Argos, Corinth, and probably even Athens. Fortunately, however, the invaluable monuments of classical art in the latter city were spared. The islands of Crete, Rhodes, and even the far-removed Cyprus suffered from several Gothic attacks. Still, in all these expeditions by sea, they contented themselves with pillage, after which the Gothic vessels would return to their homes on the northern shores of the Black Sea. Many of these bands of sea robbers were either exterminated on foreign shores or captured by Roman troops. Far more serious were the relations of the Goths with the Empire on land. Taking advantage of the troubles and anarchy of the third century within the Empire, the Goths began to cross the Danube and enter the territory of the Empire as early as the first half of that century. The Emperor Gordian was forced to pay the Goths an annual tribute. But even this did not suffice. A short while later the Goths again entered Roman territory and swarmed over Macedonia and Thrace. The Emperor Decius marched against them and fell in battle in the year 251. In the year 269 Claudius |