The Roman World
Conclusion: Change and Continuity
It was perhaps a similar lack of cohesion between the rich and poor sections of
the population in the western empire that led to the collapse of imperial
control and the end of the Roman Empire in the west. The Greek east, on
the other hand, was both financially and socially more stable, and
managed to survive under Roman control to become what is
known as the Byzantine Empire. Significantly, one important turning point was the reform of the base-metal
coinage after the chaos of the fourth and fifth centuries
by the emperor Anastasius (491-518). His rigorous financial control enabled him to die with a surplus of
320,000 Roman pounds of gold in the treasury, laying the foundations for a secure imperial future.
The structure of society in the western empire had changed radically in the third and fourth centuries AD.
Towns had gone into decline, and the rich retreated to their villas and estates in the countryside, seemingly
turning their backs on public life and the defense of the empire. Wealth and property became increasingly concentrated in
fewer hands, while the Christian Church also took a large slice of the available wealth away from the community,
as rich Christians preferred to endow churches and monasteries than to provide public buildings or
monetary largesse for their fellow-citizens. The abandonment of Roman civic
culture in the post-imperial kingdoms of the west, which we shall look at in the
next chapter, was anticipated before the actual fall of the western empire itself.
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