The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire: The Crisis of The Third Century

We’ve already covered some territory on what lead to the decline and eventual fall of the Roman Empire, mainly having to do with the rise of the Sassanid Persians and the propelling of non-Italians to positions of power within the Roman state. Usually, we hear of the (Western, really) Roman Empire falling in the 5th century but its drama really began in the 3rd century. The events of the 3rd century AD, including a period of nonstop civil war between 235, when Sepitimus Alexander was assassinated and the rise of Diocletian in 284, when he became emperor and for the first time, moved the capital of the Roman Empire…away from the city of Rome itself.

During this “dark age” of the Roman Empire, serious changes were brought about: reforms within the military and the economy, the growth of Christianity, plague, barbarian invasions, the Goths and Franks enter history, usurpers, the rise of the Sassanid Persians, the increasing number of Illyrian and Thracian emperors coming from the Balkans and not Italy, chaos, the splitting of the empire into 4 sections, and even climate change. We’ll cover this topic more in depth over the coming days but we should be amazed that despite all these calamities and extreme changes, the Roman Empire managed to survive. It was these events of the 3rd century that would give us Diocletian (the infamous last persecuter of the Christians but it was really his co-emperor, Galerius, who initiated it, but we’ll cover that later), Constantine, the Christianization of the Roman Empire, power being shifted to the East, and laying the economic foundation of medieval Europe.

Any thoughts?