La figure du prince dans l’Antiquité tardive (284-410)

Abstract

After the period of military anarchy in the third century, the imperial institution was transformed, taking on new and more solid forms. Between 284 and 410, imperial power shifted from the tetrarchy of Diocletian to the “charismatic” monarchy of Constantine and his successors, i.e. legitimised by divine grace as a divine gift. The main features of these phases will be analysed below, with attention also being paid to the alternative solution represented by the brief principate of Julian the Apostate (361-363) and to the changes that took place after the death of Theodosius (379-395), which made the Late Antique prince even more distant from his subjects.

Keywords

• Late Antiquity
• Tetrarchy
• Prince
• Constantine
• Julian
• Theodosius