Progress Review: ‘Monotheism and Military Strength on the Borders of the Later Roman Empire’ - Emily Blackwell

Constantine’s conversion to Christianity marks the moment in history when the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity began to lose its stranglehold over the Mediterranean. While the ramifications of retrofitting a relatively new religion into a centuries’ old civilisation certainly worked to weaken the Roman Empire, religion was used in other ways by Rome’s rivals to strengthen their military capabilities. The creation of a new Persian Empire in the early third century meant that the state religion, Zoroastrianism, was intertwined with the Sasanian polity and military in ways that allowed unparalleled success on the Armenian frontier. In the early fifth century the Germanic barbarians across the Rhine used Arianism to bridge cross-ethnic divides which led to a unified barbarian front, capable of contesting the Roman Empire’s hold on the western capital. By the early sixth century the Ostrogothic Kingdom had established separation from the Eastern Roman Empire through their distinct Arian tradition. This was challenged by the Eastern Roman incursions into the Italian frontier during the Gothic Wars, and while the Byzantine pyrrhic victory eventually led to the fragmentation of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, their state religion facilitated their endurance in the face of a monolithic enemy. This thesis shall demonstrate that religion played a vital role in strengthening the militaries of Rome’s rivals on the frontiers of the Late Roman Empire.