Coping with the Tyrant’s FactionCivil-War Amnesties and Christian Discourses in the Fourth Century ad

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Abstract The fourth century was a century of civil wars that took an extremely high toll in blood and partly crippled the defense of the frontiers. Civil war can also be considered the most extreme form of disintegration: the army, which embodied the empire and—if one considers the elevation of emperors—the Roman people, turned on itself. This disintegration entailed an enormous loss of resources, since an emperor had only a part of the Roman army at his disposal, which was already difficult to replenish.