Editing Constantine the Great (section)

==== Administrative reforms ====
[[File:Gold coin pendant BM.JPG|thumb|right|Hexagonal gold pendant with double [[Solidus (coin)|solidus]] of Constantine the Great in the centre, AD&nbsp;321, now in the [[British Museum]]]]
Beginning in the mid-3rd century, the emperors began to favour members of the [[Equites|equestrian order]] over senators, who had a monopoly on the most important offices of the state. Senators were stripped of the command of legions and most provincial governorships, as it was felt that they lacked the specialised military upbringing needed in an age of acute defense needs;<ref>Christol & Nony, ''Rome et son Empire'', 241.</ref> such posts were given to equestrians by Diocletian and his colleagues, following a practice enforced piecemeal by their predecessors. The emperors, however, still needed the talents and the help of the very rich, who were relied on to maintain social order and cohesion by means of a web of powerful influence and contacts at all levels. Exclusion of the old senatorial aristocracy threatened this arrangement.

In 326 Constantine reversed this pro-equestrian trend, raising many administrative positions to senatorial rank and thus opening these offices to the old aristocracy; at the same time, he elevated the rank of existing equestrian office-holders to senator, degrading the equestrian order in the process (at least as a bureaucratic rank).<ref>As equestrian ''order'' refers to people of equestrian ''census'' that had an actual position in the state bureaucracy, thousands of whom had no state function; cf. [[Claude Lepelley]], "Fine delle' ordine equestre: le tappe delle'unificazione dela classe dirigente romana nel IV secolo", IN Giardina, ed., ''Società romana e impero tardoantico'', Bari: Laterza, 1986, V. 1, quoted by Carrié & Rouselle, p. 660.</ref> The title of ''perfectissimus'' was granted only to mid- or low-level officials by the end of the 4th century.

By the new Constantinian arrangement, one could become a senator by being elected [[praetor]] or by fulfilling a function of senatorial rank.<ref>Christol & Nony, ''Rome et son Empire'', 247; Carrié & Rousselle ''L'Empire Romain'', 658.</ref> From then on, holding actual power and social status were melded together into a joint imperial hierarchy. Constantine gained the support of the old nobility with this,<ref>Carrié & Rousselle ''L'Empire Romain'', 658–59.</ref> as the Senate was allowed to elect praetors and [[quaestor]]s in place of the usual practice of the emperors directly creating magistrates (''adlectio''). An inscription in honour of [[Praefectus urbi|city prefect]] [[Ceionius Rufius Albinus|Ceionius Rufus Albinus]] states that Constantine had restored the Senate "the ''[[auctoritas]]'' it had lost at Caesar's time".<ref>{{citation |title=Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae |url=http://oracle-vm.ku-eichstaett.de:8888/epigr/epieinzel_de?p_belegstelle%3DCIL%2B06%252C%2B01708%26r_sortierung%3DBelegstelle |access-date=5 February 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120720213655/http://oracle-vm.ku-eichstaett.de:8888/epigr/epieinzel_de?p_belegstelle=CIL%2B06%2C%2B01708&r_sortierung=Belegstelle |archive-date=20 July 2012}}; {{citation |author=Carrié & Rousselle |title=L'Empire Romain |page=659}}</ref>

The Senate as a body remained devoid of any significant power; nevertheless, the senators had been marginalised as potential holders of imperial functions during the 3rd century but could dispute such positions alongside more upstart bureaucrats.<ref>Carrié & Rousselle, ''L'Empire Romain'', 660.</ref> Some modern historians see in those administrative reforms an attempt by Constantine at reintegrating the senatorial order into the imperial administrative elite to counter the possibility of alienating pagan senators from a Christianised imperial rule;<ref>Cf. Arnhein, ''The Senatorial Aristocracy in the Later Roman Empire'', quoted by Perry Anderson, ''Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism'', 101.</ref> however, such an interpretation remains conjectural, given the fact that we do not have the precise numbers about pre-Constantine conversions to Christianity in the old senatorial milieu. Some historians suggest that early conversions among the old aristocracy were more numerous than previously supposed.<ref>Carrié & Rousselle, p.657 citing T.D. Barnes, "Statistics and the Conversion of the Roman Aristocracy", ''Journal of Roman Studies'', 85, 1995.</ref>

Constantine's reforms had to do only with the civilian administration. The military chiefs had risen from the ranks since the [[Crisis of the Third Century]]<ref>Cf. Paul Veyne, ''L'Empire Gréco-Romain'', 49.</ref> but remained outside the Senate, in which they were included only by Constantine's children.<ref>Christol & Nony, ''Rome et son Empire'', 247.</ref>