19.6. The Decay of the Muncipal Institutions
An important chapter in the history of the decline and fall of the Empire is constituted by the gradual decay of municipal institutions The ancient world took a long time to exchange its organisation of free cities for that of a great power, governed by a centralised bureaucracy.
Even after the conquest of its provinces the Roman commonwealth remained substantially a confederation of cities, and municipal autonomy prospered for a long while. We see the cities of the first and second centuries vying one with the other in local patriotism, in the munificence of leading citizens, in generous contributions of private men towards the welfare of poorer classes, public health, and order The economic progress brought about by the establishment of the Empire made itself felt primarily in the increased activity and prosperity of city life. But threatening symptoms begin to appear even in the second century AD. Municipal self-government, bereft of its political significance, restricted to the sphere of local interests and local ambitions, is apt to degenerate into corrupt and spendthrift practices: the wealthier provincial citizens ruin themselves by lavish expenditure on pageants and distributions, municipal enterprise in matters of building and philanthropy often turns out to be extravagant and inefficient.
The emperors find no other means of remedying such defects than the institution of curators of different kinds — curatores rei publicae, curatores kedendarii, commissioners for the correction of the condition of free cities (ad corrigendum statum liberarum civitatum). In the correspondence between Pliny and Trajan the imperial commissioner is already seen to interfere in the most minute questions of city administration and at the same time, he is constantly applying for direction to his imperial master. The ideal of centralisation is clearly expressed in this intimate intercourse of two well-meaning and talented statesmen: the Emperor appears in the light of an omniscient and all-powerful Providence watching over all the dealings and doings of his innumerable subjects. In order to embody such an ideal the central power had to surround itself with helpers and executive officers, and Hadrian laid the foundations of a Civil Service more comprehensive and better organised than the rudimentary administrative institutions of the Commonwealth and of the early Empire. Later on Diocletian and Constantine multiplied the number of bureaucratic organs and combined them into one whole by the bands of constant supervision and iron discipline
But even before this ultimate completion of bureaucracy in the fourth century, in the very beginnings of the system of central tutelage, a kind of vicious circle formed itself: central authority was called upon to interfere on account of the deplorable defects of municipal administration, while municipal life was disturbed and atrophied by constant interference from above. It is impossible to say precisely what was cause and what was effect in this case: the process was, as it happens in many diseases, a constant flow of action and reaction. The jurists of the third century find already a characteristic formula for corporative town organisation in an analogy with the condition of a minor under tutelage, and this analogy is followed up into all sorts of particulars as to rights and duties. No wonder that for many citizens municipal life loses its interest, that they try to eschew the burdens of unremunerated and costly local administration, and that as early as the time of the Seven compulsion has sometimes to be used to bring together a sufficient number of unwilling magistrates and members of municipal senates.
A circumstance which in itself would have hardly been sufficient to overthrow municipal organisation, certainly contributed to divert people's minds from the customary trend of local patriotism and to make the performance of certain duties difficult — I mean the spread of Christianity. Municipal institutions were intertwined with cults of Roman and local gods, including religious devotion to the Deity of the Emperors.
The new faith, on the other hand, did not admit of sacrifices or prayer to the false gods of heathendom: hence a conflict which did not admit of a ready solution. Let us listen to the somewhat exaggerated statement of Tertullian — "We concede," he says, "that a Christian may without endangering salvation assume the honour and title of public functions — if he does not offer sacrifices nor authorise sacrifices, if he does not furnish victims, if he does not entrust anybody with the upkeep of temples, if he does not take part in the management of their income, if he does not give games either at his own or at the public expense, if he does not preside at them, if he does not announce or arrange any festival, if he avoids all kinds of oath and abstains, while exercising power, from giving sentence in regard to the life or the honour of men, decisions as to money matters being excepted, if he does not proclaim edicts, nor act as a judge, nor put people into prison or inflict torture on them. But is all this possible ?"
As a matter of fact the heathen State did certainly not go out of its way to make all these exceptions possible, and conflicts between law and religious conviction arose every day. On many occasions Christians of a softer mould submitted to what they considered to be inevitable, and performed most of the duties challenged by the fiery African. The Church had to work out a penitentiary code for those among its members who had sullied themselves by heathen practices (see e.g. the canons of the Synod of Elvira in Spain) Sometimes again the more firm among the Christians made a stubborn stand and were martyrised for their protest as enemies of the Roman State. Altogether there can be no doubt that the inherent contradiction between Christian religion and the pagan practices of municipal life did put an extra strain on the latter and could not but increase the disorder which was setting in.
The bold step taken by Constantine in recognising Christianity as a state religion saved the situation to some extent, but it could not do away at a stroke with all the pagan elements of municipal life the strife between religions assumed a new aspect, and as the vital connexion between local self-government and local cults was never restored, that unity of conception which marked antiquity when at its best had to be replaced by a deep dualism tending towards new solutions of political and moral problems. The greatest representative of conquering Christianity, St Augustine, recognises the defeat of the material world of antiquity and has to fashion his ideals according to a scheme of two cities in which only the heavenly one appeals to his devotion and energy.
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