For 150 years, the Roman Empire was ruled by people born in our region who influenced the fate of Europe

Did you know that the majority Roman emperors during the III and IV centuries AD came from the territory today's Serbia, or from the wider Balkans, and that in the dramatic changes that hit the Roman Empire, these people played a key role and determined not only the future the Empire, but also the fate of Christianity and later of the whole of Europe?

The book "Purple from the Empire" (Serbian: "Purur Imperije") by Dusko Lopandic, our former ambassador to the European Union and Portugal, talks about that.

In his book, Lopandic recalls Emperor Constantine the Great, who was only one of about 20 Roman emperors born in our region, with others such as Galerius, Probus, Constantius II, Maximillian, Aurelian, Licinius, Gratian, Jovian and more.

"This is a historical fact that is well known to experts, it is sometimes mentioned in the media, but it has not entered into our historical identity or culture of remembrance. This area was important and played a key role, not only for our region, but also for the history of civilization. We are talking about the period of the late Roman Empire when the Roman civilization, i.e., the state entered a crisis, and when thanks to the actions of those rulers the crisis was overcome and Rome turned from ancient Rome into what Europe became," Lopandic told Telegraf.rs in an interview.

The book begins with the story of the death of the great philosopher and emperor Marcus Aurelius, who died in Sirmium, today's Sremska Mitrovica, at a time when the Roman Empire entered a crisis called "the military anarchy."

"There was a period of half a century when 17-18 rulers changed. They all died a violent death. It was a very dangerous profession, to become the Roman emperor at that time," said Lopandic and explained that at that time the legionnaires were the ones choosing rulers from among their compatriots.

As he explained, the legions on the Danube were the most powerful in numbers and strength, and this is the reasons why people from this area became emperors.

Lopandic said that Aurelian was the first reformer, then Diocletian who introduced a new system of division of power, Maximillian, Constans, Galerius...

"Each was from the Balkans and that lasted for 150 years. After that, the emperors were elected in various ways. The last in that series was Constantius III, who ruled before the end of the Roman Empire," said Lopandic.

Asked if they had a common character trait, Lopandic said that they were all strong enough to maintain the empire, and in fact this is a story about how the human will can change history.

"In two or three generations, they managed to maintain that empire and completely transform it, from an ancient state into a Christian one," Lopandic explained.

Asked what Europe would look like today without their influence, Lopandic said that the history of Europe is inconceivable without that period, which is little spoken about because history is learned from the classical Roman Empire.

There were rulers like Diocletian or Galerius who persecuted Christians and their names, he says, are written in black letters in Christian chronicles, although, according to him, they were great rulers.

"They wanted to restore the influence of pagan gods, which was impossible, and then came Constantine, who was more modern in that sense. He was a man who understood the importance of Christianity and was the first emperor to become a Christian," said Lopandic, who in the book also talks about church councils that were held in Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica)."

Today, Serbia is in a challenging political moment, when it is expected to make a choice, and when asked how much we should be guided by the fact that we are part of the European civilization, Lopandic said that he agrees that we should be aware that our European roots deep, and that (our) history does not begin only with the Middle Ages or the arrival of the Slavs.

"Even in some ethnic-genetic sense, nations do not disappear completely, but merge. Among the Romanians, Latin prevailed, so that was the greater influence, among our peoples in the Balkans, that Slavic influence is greater, but that does not mean that the old peoples have completely disappeared. They just took over a part of that (new) culture. I think that we should use that part of our heritage in conveying the messages we are sending to Europe," he said.

Speaking about the present day, Lopandic notes that a policy of force in present in Ukraine of another empire that has found itself in a kind of crisis, especially economic and social.

"Unfortunately, we are again in a period of epochal changes that are not positive. Sometimes the changes are positive, sometimes they are not. In this case, these are generational events. On February 29 (24), we entered a new era to which we need to adjust, since this is a time when the division between Russia and the rest of Europe, i.e., the West, has deepened. It is necessary for us to decide a little more firmly in some way and to feel that spirit of history that has somehow passed us by. In the 1990s, our political leaders did not feel where history was going and it would not be good for that to repeat," said Lopandic.

He concluded that the message of the book is that everything is up to man, and that even in the most difficult periods, history can be redirected if there is the strength of people.

(Telegraf.rs)