Julian II (the Apostate) and his policies

[geala]

Jaime, this was not abbout any military causes, but the political ones - dynastic instability became one of the curses of the Late Roman state, especially during the 5th c. when ther emperor became virtually powerless.

Military I'd say you are right.

Still, I think I have to differ with you even within those parameters. Politically, the post-Tetriarchic Empire was far more stable than in the third century. The third century was a more threatening time to Empire's survival when there were unchecked incurssions occuring simultaneously by both barbarians and Persians, coupled with internal political chaos.

By the end of the Tetriarchy the Empire's borders were secure and it was politcally less fragmented (i.e. West vs. East). Earlier the Empire had been fractured into three or four pieces with many more rebellious generals running amok.

As for dynastic instablility : I just don't see it. The only reason the Emperors became powerless was because Theodosius died suddenly leaving his children to suceed him.

At that point the damage from Adrianople had metastasized to an almost fatal degree for the Empire, IMO. So, I think the decline of the West can only be attributed to military causes and not religious, moral, or politcal ones.

~Theo

A dynastic succession alone is not a guarantee for stability. If you have a child as leader, the quarrel among the advisors can easily lead to disaster. This happened quite often in the medieval times too. Ok, that is the problem with all non-electional forms of rule. The problem was that the Roman emperors could not easily refer to some of the reasons which may make a monarchy more stable (being a God, Gods vice governor on earth or with Gods will at least for example). The Christian propaganda needed some time to come to effect.

In my opinion military, political, economical and social factors can not be seen isolated. A military disaster like Adrianopel can be disastrous for a state only if it has also tremendous political, economical and social problems. And an emotional problem: if enough late Romans would have had a positive attitude towards the state the history would have been different. Rome had seen enough disasters worse than Adrianopel before and she was able to manage.