The Reconstruction Of The Order Of The Empire

Socrates was a Byzantine historian living in the fifth century, and he wrote a book named Ecclesiastical History. In this book, Socrates wrote down many important historical events from the time of Constantineâ… to the early time of Theodosius II. From the beginning of the fourth century to the first half of the fifth century, the empire took a series of adjustments in the military, political and religious policies in order to face the pressures from outside and inside. As one of the primary sources of this time of history, Ecclesiastical History of Socrates is an important writing which could help us to understand the beginning of the transformation from Roman Empire to the Byzantine Empire. Based on the Ecclesiastical History of Socrates, other historical sources from the fourth century to the fifth century and the research of modern students, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the reconstruction of the military, political and religious orders in the Byzantine Empire from Constantine I to Theodosius II.In the history of Rome, the wars had very important influence to the political and social changes of Rome. The military pressure from outside and inside was the imminent problem in the Later Roman Empire or the early time of Byzantine Empire. The eastern part of the empire was governed by the government of Constantinople. At that time, the government of Constantinople carried out the measures to break up the military and political power and to deconcentrate military authority more strictly than the government of the western. Thus the government of Constantinople could enhance the control to the army and prevent the army unrest. In the mean time, the government of Constantinople could use more resources than the resources of the government of the western to enlarge its army and take flexible diplomatic measures. Hence the government of Constantinople could resolve the urgent military crises outside and inside and survive in this hard time of the transition, and at the same time, the government of the western was increasingly miring in the difficulties in the military field. In the political field, on the one hand, the government of the eastern empire which made Constantinople as its capital, basically followed the administration system which was provided by the political reforms of Diocletian and Constantine I from the time of Constantine I to Theodosiusâ…¡; and on the other hand, gradually, this system and the political order which was represented by this system were confined in the eastern part of the empire which made Constantinople as its capital. In this historical period, although the western region was still a part of the whole empire in name, the differences with the eastern region, such as economy, culture, military and so on, were widened day by day. In fact, the political connection between these two regions was also constantly weakening, and the government of Constantinople could hardly provide the continued and sufficient aids to the western region in time for itself interest and safety. In the end, the achievements of the political reforms of Diocletian and Constantine I were reserved in the eastern region of the Mediterranean Sea controlled by the government of Constantinople, and the western region was removed from this system.In the field of the religious life, the Christianity was on the fast track since Constantine I chose to take the policy to support it. In this period, the number of the Christian continuously increased, and the church got the higher social status with each passing day. Gradually, the Christianity was becoming the mainstream religion in the society of the empire, but the non-Christian was also still existed, and there were lots of factions which had different views in the group of the Christian. Competition in the coexistence of various religious group was an important feature at that time. In order to guarantee the social stability, consolidate power and tighten the screws to the religious affairs, the government took the policy which combined the aspects of toleration, restriction and suppression. Although this policy could not to solve the problem by the roots, it indeed brought some temporary results to the stability of social order. And the limited tolerant attitude of the imperial government was also beneficial to the long-term coexistence and communication of the classic traditional culture and Christian thoughts, thus gave a favorable environment for the shaping of the Byzantine culture.