Kulikowski Michael. The Tragedy of Empire: From Constantine to the Destruction of Roman Italy

Harvard University Press, 2023. — 424 p.One hundred years before the reign of Julian, the last non-Christian emperor of Rome, Diocletian had come to the conclusion that an empire stretching from the Rhine to the Euphrates could not effectively be governed by one man. He had devised a new system of governance to respond to the vastness of the Roman Empire, its new rivals, and the changing face of its citizenry. Michael Kulikowski traces two hundred years of Roman history―from the late fourth century to the end of the sixth―during which the Western Empire ceased to exist while the Eastern Empire remained politically strong and culturally vibrant. He captures the changing structure of imperial rule, the rise of new elites, foreign invasions, the erosion of Roman and Greek religions, and the establishment of Christianity as the state religion.