TWILIGHT AND DAWN FROM THE 6TH TO THE IOTH CENTURY
the Roman sense of power, mass and plastic body belong to a period
later than the Republic, and even the Early Empire. The Colosseum
is of the late 1st century A.D., the Pantheon of the early 2nd, the
Baths of Caracalla of the early 3rd, the Basilica of Maxentius (usually
called of Constantine) of the early 4th.
By then a fundamental change of spirit and no longer only of
forms had taken place. The relative stability of the Roman Empire
was overthrown after the death of Marcus Aurclius (180); rulers
followed each other at a rate such as had been known only during
short periods of civil war. Between Marcus Aurelius and Constantino,
in 125 years, there were forty-seven emperors; less than four years
was the average duration of a reign. They were no longer elected by
the Roman Senate, that enlightened body of politically experienced
citizens, but proclaimed by some provincial army of barbarian
troops, often barbarians themselves, rude soldiers of peasant stock,
ignorant of and unsympathetic to the achievements of Roman
civilisation. There was constant internecine warfare, and constant
attacks of barbarians from outside had to be repulsed. Cities declined
and were in the end deserted, their market-halls and baths and blocks
of flats collapsed. Soldiers of the Roman army sacked Roman towns.
Goths, Alemans, Franks, Persians sacked whole provinces. Trade,
seaborne and landbornc, came to an end, estates and farms and
villages became self-supporting once again, payments in money were
replaced by payments in kind; taxes were often paid in kind. The
educated bourgeoisie decimated by wars, executions, murder and a
lower and lower birthrate had no longer a share in public affairs.
Men from Syria, Asia Minor, Egypt, from Spain, Gaul and Germany,
held all the important positions. The subtle political balance of the
Early Empire could no longer be appreciated and was no longer
maintained.
When a new stability was brought about by Diocletian and
Constantino about 300, it was the stability of an oriental autocracy
with a rigid oriental court ceremonial, with a merciless army and
far-reaching State control. Soon Rome was no longer the capital of
the Empire; Constantinople took her place. Then the Empire fell
into two: that of the East to prove mighty, that of the West to
become the prey of Teutonic invaders, the Visigoths, the Vandals,
the Ostrogoths, the Lombards, and then for a while to be part of the
Eastern—the Byzantine—Empire.
Now during these centuries the massive walls, arches, vaults,