The Justice of Constantine: Law, Communication, and Control

4. The Propagation of Justice

4 The Propagation of Justice Edicts and the Ideals of Justice The universal edict was the natural vehicle to convey the pretensions of the Constantinian regime to the masses of the empire.1 Imperial edicts were heard with awe.2 These constitutions indeed suggest that just governance and the integrity of imperial officials ranked among the foremost ambitions of Emperor Constantine. It was, of course, their purpose to suggest this. Edicts to the Roman people, the inhabitants of the empire, amply attest how justice was advertised and promised under Constantine’s rule. The constitutions in this and in the following chapters are a distillation of what may appropriately be called the aspirations of the Constantinian regime.3 Constantine answers administrative abuse and corruption with scathing rebukes and violent denunciations; he prohibits and protects in bold, sweeping statements—and punishes. The edicts of Constantine portray an emperor locked in a contest, not with barbarian invaders or domestic criminals, but with the very administration that serves in his name. This spectacle is a kind of populist absolutism; the spectators, those who read or hear the edicts of Constantine throughout the empire, are rallied to the cause of their ruler. Indeed, the religious sanction of the tetrarchs is trans- / 90 / 1. Cf. A. Eich and P. Eich, “Genese des Verlautbarungsstils der spätantiken kaiserlichen Zentrale ,” Tyche 19 (2004), 84 n. 31 and 85–87. 2. C. Kelly, “Emperors, Government and Bureaucracy,” CAH XIII, 143, citing Joh. Chrys., Hom. in Gen. 14.2, 44.1; Hom. in Matth. 1.8; cf. Lib., Or. 1.157; Basil, Ep. 3.1. 3. Aspirations: Jones, LRE, viii. See also the introduction to chapter 6 below. formed by Constantine into a relationship of service: the salvation of the emperor himself appears to rest on the success of his earthly mission.4 The ferocity of Constantine’s edicts is characteristic, seldom equaled by his successors. That is not to say that the declarations of Constantine were mere verbiage. Constantine does not expatiate on the vices of his administrators in toothless sermons; he decrees punishment and elaborates means of its realization. The channels through which corrupt governors and other officials may be called to account are consistently illustrated both for offender , the bureaucracy, and victim, the provincials of the empire. The need for administrative oversight after the provincial reorganization of Diocletian is met in part by the deployment of high officials throughout the empire , who were endowed with the legal authority of the emperor himself. Direct delegation might enable the emperor to be present in every province. The path of redress proceeded from the provincial governor to the men closest to Constantine, the praetorian prefects and comites provinciarum, and from thence to Constantine himself. This system of control is reflected in the hierarchy of appellate jurisdiction established by Constantine, which is the subject of chapter 8. The same approach is taken in cases of corruption and abuse. As we shall see, the edicts of Constantine loudly make this vicarious accessibility known to all. Licinius the Tyrant The conquest of the East in 324 made Constantine sole ruler of the Roman world, which had been shaken by the rival claims of the successors of the failed tetrarchic experiment. The acquisition of the populous and wealthy provinces of the Roman East set Constantine before a challenge of communication . It was naturally desirable to denigrate the Licinian regime, but in order to transform victory over Licinius into the triumph of all inhabitants of the East, Constantine presented a vision of government to his new subjects that advertised the restoration of liberty and the rule of law. Part of Constantinian liberty was, as is well known, religious: documents preserved by Eusebius show that Constantine wasted no time in declaring both general tolerance and personal favor for the Christian religion; the policies of Licinius that had disadvantaged it were reversed. The first years after the conquest of the East witnessed several edicts addressed by the emperor to The Propagation of Justice / 91 4. C. Ando, Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire (Berkeley, 1999), 397–98; cf. the conclusion of chapter 3 above and the discussion of CTh. 9.1.4 below. his new subjects, in which he expressed and defended his religious convictions .5 Constantine did not, however, limit his public pronouncements to matters of the spirit. Fragments of constitutions preserved in the Codex Theodosianus attest...