ABSTRACT
This chapter describes about the armies, who defended and policed the empire, the emperors, who were, on occasion, persecutors and, after Constantine, promoters of the Christian faith, and the administrators who ran a system that was, by modern standards, amateur, yet surprisingly effective. Most Roman legions were stationed on the frontiers of the empire. In mainland Europe, the main frontiers were the Rhine and the Danube. In the east, the wide lands between Roman Syria and the great Parthian empire, with their rich mix of cultures and peoples, formed a zone within which the two great powers struggled, expensively and indecisively, for dominance. Emperors were commanders-in-chief of the armed forces (Campbell 1983). With the rise of Christianity, imperial women acquired a new prominence. Constantinople evolved in the fourth century as a serious second capital, with its own self-confident bureaucracy composed of members of the eastern elite drawn from the cities of the east.
