The making of the Constantinian Empire -- The failures of Julian -- The Valentiniani -- Adrianople and the coup of Theodosius -- The reign of Theodosius I -- Stilicho and his rivals -- Galla Placidia and Flavius Constantius -- The reign of Theodosius II -- Placidia, Aetius, and Valentinian III -- The fall that no one noticed -- After the Theodosians -- Zeno and Anastasius -- The western kingdoms -- The imperial periphery -- From Rome to Byzantium -- The Roman emperors from Constantine I to Justinian. "The Tragedy of Empire begins in the late fourth century with the reign of Julian, the last non-Christian Roman emperor, and takes readers to the final years of the Western Roman Empire at the end of the sixth century. One hundred years before Julian's rule, Emperor Diocletian had resolved that an empire stretching from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, and from the Rhine and Tyne to the Sahara, could not effectively be governed by one man. He had devised a system of governance, called the tetrarchy by modern scholars, to respond to the vastness of the empire, its new rivals, and the changing face of its citizenry. Powerful enemies like the barbarian coalitions of the Franks and the Alamanni threatened the imperial frontiers. The new Sasanian dynasty had come into power in Persia. This was the political climate of the Roman world that Julian inherited"-- | 
The tragedy of empire [0,17 mb]