|
The German and Sarmatian campaigns of Constantine were fought by the Roman Emperor Constantine I against the neighbouring Germanic peoples, including the Franks, Alemanni and Goths, as well as the Sarmatian Iazyges, along the whole Roman northern defensive system to protect the empire's borders, between 306 and 336. After becoming controller of the western provinces along the Rhine ''limes'' (in 306) following the death of his father Constantius Chlorus (Augustus of the west) in 306, Constantine initially concentrated his forces on defending this area of the frontier against the Franks and Alemanni, making Augusta Treverorum his first capital for this purpose. Having defeated the usurper Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312,〔Eutropius, ''Breviarium ab Urbe condita'', 10.4.〕 all Italia passed under Constantine's control and he thus became the sole Augustus of the West. In February 313, Constantine (who had spent the winter in Rome) formed an alliance with the Emperor of the East, Licinius, reinforced by Licinius' marriage to Constantine's sister, Flavia Julia Constantia.〔Zosimus, ''New History'', 2.17.2.〕 However, this alliance survived for only a few years, before the two Augusti came into conflict in 316. Constantine defeated Licinius, who was forced to cede Illyricum to Constantine,〔 but not Thrace.〔 Constantine advanced ever further east with his territorial acquisitions, now having to defend the important strategic region of the ''limes sarmaticus'' (from 317). In the following years, Constantine mostly occupied himself in the central section of the Danubian ''limes'', mostly fighting against the Sarmatians in Pannonia,〔 residing at Sirmium almost continuously until 324 (when he moved against Licinius once more), making it his capital〔 along with Serdica.〔 At this time Constantine also demonstrated a very active military bent, travelling along the whole of the ''limites'' of his newly acquired territory. From 320 he appointed his eldest son, Crispus, Praetorian prefect, with military command of Gaul. When he learnt that an army of Goths〔 had crossed the Danube to raid Roman territory in Moesia Inferior and Thrace, which belonged to Emperor Licinius,〔 he left his general headquarters in Thessalonica〔 and marched against them (323). The fact that he had trespassed into a part of the empire which was not under his control unleashed the final phase of the Civil wars of the Tetrarchy, which ended with the complete defeat of Licinius and the consecration of Constantine as the sole Roman Emperor.〔 The final period of Constantine's reign, until his death (337), saw the Christian Emperor consolidate the entire defensive system on the Rhine and Danube and obtain important military successes which brought "control" of a large part of the territory that the Romans had been abbandoned by Gallienus and Aurelian: the Agri Decumates from the Alemanni, the area south of the Tisza from the Sarmatians, as well as Oltenia and Wallachia from the Goths. Even in this period, Constantine continued to have his preferred Imperial residences at Serdica, Sirmium and Thessalonica, rather than Diocletian's Nicomedia. ==Historical context == With the death of Emperor Numerian in November 284 (who had been entrusted with Eastern Roman empire by his father Carus) and the refusal of the eastern troops to recognise Carus' eldest son Carinus as his successor, a proven general of Illyrian origins, Diocletian, was raised to the purple. At the end of the civil war which followed, Diocletian was victorious and in 285 he named Maximian as his deputy (or Caesar) and then a few months later elevated him to the rank of Augustus (1 April 286), thereby forming a diarchy, in which two emperors divided the government of the empire on geographic lines. This also entailed the division of responsibility for the defense of the northern frontier from Germanic and Sarmatian incursions.〔Grant, p. 265.〕〔Scarre, p. 197-198.〕 Given the increasing difficulty of containing the internal revolts and those along the borders, a further territorial division was executed in 293 to facilitate military operations: Diocletian named Galerius as his Caesar in the east, while Maximian chose Constantius Chlorus in the west.〔Cameron, p. 46.〕 However, this tetrarchy fell into crisis only a year after the abdication of the two Augusti in 305, beginning a new Civil War (306-324), permitting new breaches along the Roman external border, with populations attempting to settle within Roman territory. It was only with Constantine's accession to the throne, becoming sole Augustus of the West after the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 and later still defeating Licinius and reuniting the Empire under a single emperor (324) that the northern frontiers were adequately defended once more. It is no coincidence that Constantine is attributed the responsibility for perfecting the military reforms of Diocletian and also for the reconquest or vassalisation of all the territory which Trajan had controlled.〔Julian, ''De Caesaribus'', 329c.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「German and Sarmatian campaigns of Constantine」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|