Crisis of the Third Century: Encyclopedia II - Crisis of the Third Century - History

Crisis of the Third Century - History

The troubles began in 235, when the emperor Alexander Severus was murdered by soldiers at the age of 27 after Roman legions were defeated in a campaign against Sassanid Persia. As general after general squabbled over control of the empire, the frontiers were neglected and subjected to frequent raids by Carpians, Goths, Vandals and Alamanni, and outright attacks from aggressive Sassanids in the east.

Finally, by 258, the attacks were coming from within, when the Empire broke up in to three separate competing states. The Roman provinces of Gaul, Britain and Hispania broke off to form the Gallic Empire, and two years later in 260, the eastern provinces of Syria, Palestine and Aegyptus became independent as the Palmyrene Empire (with Sassanid backing), leaving the remaining Italian centered Roman empire proper in the middle.

An invasion by a vast host of Goths was beaten back at the Battle of Naissus in 268. This victory was significant as the turning point of the crisis, when a series of tough energetic soldier emperors took power. Victories by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus over the next two years drove back the Alamanni and recovered Hispania from the Gallic Empire. When Claudius died in 270 of the plague, Aurelian, who had commanded the cavalry at Naissus, succeeded him as emperor and continued the restoration of the empire.

Aurelian brought the empire through the worst of the crisis during his reign (270-275) by hammering, in succession, the Vandals, Visigoths, Palmyrenes (see Queen Zenobia), Persians, and then the remainder of the Gallic Empire. By late 274, the Roman Empire was reunited, and the frontier troops back in place. More than a century would pass before Rome again lost the upper hand on its external enemies.

Finally, although Aurelian had played a significant role in restoring the Empire's borders for the moment from external threat, more fundamental problems remained that had caused the crisis to begin with. In particular the right of succession had never been clearly defined in the Roman Empire leading to continuous civil wars as competing factions in the military, senate and other parties put forward their favoured candidate for Emperor. Another problem was the sheer size of the Empire making it difficult for a single autocratic ruler to effectively manage multiple threats at the same time. All of these continuing problems would be radically addressed by Diocletian allowing the Empire to continue for at least another 100 years, and in the east, for another thousand years.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki