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By Root 333 0

regard one particular Goth, Athanaric, as the sole leader of the Tervingi, even though they refer to him as iudex, ‘judge’, rather than as king. Other sources, however, demonstrate quite clearly that Athanaric was not the only Tervingian leader: we meet royal figures – a queen Gaatha, and others unnamed – who act in opposition to the iudex Athanaric, who is also called iudex regum, ‘judge of kings’, in one, admittedly highly rhetorical, source.[89] Thus, although a judge was clearly superior to a king, the substantive distinctions between them are altogether unclear, despite reams of scholarly speculation. Our Graeco-Roman sources were translating a genuine distinction between the Gothic word for king, reiks, a cognate of the Latin rex, and the Gothic word for judge, thiudans. The fact that thiudans was used to translate the Greek basileús, ‘emperor’, in a Gothic martyrial calendar is a significant clue to the importance of the rank, but how much authority a Tervingian judge wielded over a Tervingian reiks, and how permanent it was, will always elude us.[90]

Constantine’s Death and Its Aftermath

Regardless, the short-term consequence of Constantine’s Gothic victory was merely to shift the focus of confrontation to a new set of barbarian enemies. In 334, Constantine campaigned against the Sarmatians, probably those who had asked for his help against the Goths in the first place. We are told that the servile population of the Sarmatian lands rebelled against their masters, and that many Sarmatians – 30,000 according to one source – fled into Roman service. Once inside Roman territory, they were divided among the Balkan and Italian provinces.[91] Whatever the shadowy events that had preceded the Gothic war, it is clear that the whole structure of the Danubian barbaricum had been deeply disturbed, as old hierarchies of power were overturned. After the 334 campaign, Constantine took the victory title Sarmaticus Maximus to accompany his multiple acclamations as Gothicus Maximus. He also took the title Dacicus Maximus, which probably represents a claim to have restored Trajan’s province of Dacia. The Carpathian lands of the old province were certainly not reannexed and subjected to Roman administration, but new garrisons in trans-Danubian quadriburgia and other small forts probably justified the claims. Nevertheless, Constantine was a familiar and frightening force beyond the limes, as is illustrated by the large number of barbarian ambassadors present in 335 at the celebration of his tricennalia, his thirtieth anniversary on the throne, which is described to us by Eusebius, an eyewitness.[92]

The extent of Constantine’s prestige is illustrated by the immediate aftermath of his death in 337: for almost two years, we have no record of any campaigns against northern barbarians, an unheard of stability given that barbarian neighbours almost inevitably seized the opportunity provided by imperial successions to raid the Roman provinces. In the year of his death, Constantine had been preparing for a massive invasion of Persia, perhaps meant as the culmination of his world-conquering career. His death bequeathed a legacy of instability on the Persian frontier to his successors, and their own competition made matters worse. Constantine was succeeded by three sons and two nephews, the latter of whom died in a massacre of nearly all Constantine’s male relatives which was organized in order to ensure his sons a firm hold on the throne. But those sons – Constantinus, Constantius Ⅱ, and Constans – soon came to blows themselves. The eldest son, Constantinus, was displeased with his share in the division of the empire. He attacked his younger brother Constans in 340, but died in the war that followed. Thereafter, Constantius and Constans cohabited more or less peaceably for a decade, having probably campaigned together against the Sarmatians shortly before their elder brother’s death.[93] When Constans was overthrown by an army coup in 350, Constantius waged a bitter war against the usurper Magnentius. In the midst of this civil strife,