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"1. INTRODUCTION: ROMAN AND GREEK

We may begin with an apology, addressed by Theodosios II, writing from Constantinople, to his younger co-Emperor, Valentinian III, ruling in Italy. The year was 447; a decade had passed since the first-ever official collection of Roman laws, the Codex Theodosianus, had been completed in Constantinople, and nine years since it had been formally presented to the Senate in Rome. By its very nature, beginning with the legislation of the first Christian Emperor, Constantine, and incorporating laws issued in both East and West, all of them in Latin, the Codex had been intended to symbolize and embody the unity of the Christian Roman empire. Practice, however, had fallen far behind theory. In principle, all legislation, whether generated in East or West, should be communicated to the other half of the Empire, and promulgated there. In reality it seems clear, Theodosios had sent nothing. And he apologises profusely:

"Because, therefore, various causes have emerged and the necessity of circumstances that have arisen has persuaded Us to issue, during the interval of time that has elapsed, other laws which We have not been able to bring to the knowledge of Your Majesty, since We have been engrossed in the continuous duties of the State, We consider it necessary that now at least all the laws should be transmitted to Your Serenity, with the subscription of Our Majesty. Thus they may become formally known to your subjects, provinces, and peoples, and their tenor may begin to be observed in the western part of the Empire also."

This letter is one sign among many demonstrations that, for the real, and very significant, commitment to the unity of the Roman Empire, the reality was that, not of two separate Empires, but of twin Empires, in one of which, that which Theodosius ruled from Constantinople, the normal language of the vast majority of the population was Greek. It is this “Greek Roman Empire” which is the subject of this book. There were indeed many senses in which it was still unambiguously Roman; but there were more, and more fundamental, senses in which it was Greek – in its culture and literature, in the language spoken in the street, in the language in which individuals and groups addressed the Senate and its agents, and above all in the language of the Church. These latter two aspects come together in the major controversies over the nature, or natures, of Christ which led to the two councils of Ephesos in 431 and 449, and to that of Chalkedon, held a year after Theodosios’ death in 450.

The crucial next step, the division into twin Empires, had come about, as its seems, almost by accident. Theodosios I (379-95) had ruled a unified Empire, with his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, sharing the Imperial name “Augustus” with him. But on his death, the elder, Arcadius, ruled from Constantinople until his death in 408; while the younger, Honorius, ruled from Italy until his death in 423.

No one seems to have intended a permanent division, and certainly no one could have anticipated at the time how important this parting of the ways was to be: in the fifth century the Greek words “orthodox” and “catholic” were both used of the same Church – but the roots of the conflict over precedence between Rome and Constantinople were already visible. So also, and indeed much more clearly, was the complete linguistic divide between the Latin-speaking Church of the West and the Greek-speaking Church of the East."

Fergus Millar (Author)

Track: Con Spirito
Artist: C.J. Bolland (Christian Jay Bolland)
Album: Electronic Highway
Label: R&S Records
Release Date: 1995