Palatines And Borderers: The Shirkers And The Workers

The historian Edward Gibbon, in his monumental Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, discourses at length in the second volume of his history on the corruption of the Roman army’s fighting abilities during the principate of Constantine (A.D. 306-337). More and more, Gibbon observes, officers came to view their personal advancement as more important than the security of the state.
Commands became spoils to be handed out to political favorites, rather than offices earned through combat experience. Speaking the truth to the imperial purple was a hazard to one’s career, an invitation to the most vigorous persecution, and finally a Read More

Source: Return of Kings