Crisis of the Third Century
Half a century of civil wars, invasions, plague and economic collapse after the murder of Severus Alexander brought the empire close to disintegration, until Aurelian and Diocletian restored it.
- Date
- March 235 – 20 November 284start: month known; end: exact date · duration: ≈ 50 years
- Place
- Rometoday: Rome, Italy · Western and Central Europe
- Participants
- Roman Empire, Sasanian Empire, Goths, Decius, Aurelian, Diocletian
- Threads
- Europe in the Roman age (1st–5th c.)
- Also known as
- Imperial Crisis; Military Anarchy; Кризис Римской империи III века; Военная анархия
The crisis began in March 235, when Severus Alexander was murdered by his own troops near Mogontiacum (Mainz). Over the next fifty years more than fifty men claimed the title of emperor, about half of them with some claim to legitimacy, and most died violently. Goths and other peoples raided the Balkans and Asia Minor, Franks and Alamanni crossed the Rhine, and in 260 the Persian king Shapur I captured the emperor Valerian. The West broke away as the Gallic Empire (260–274), the East came under Palmyra, the Plague of Cyprian (249–262) ravaged the cities, and the debased silver coinage became almost worthless.
Soldier-emperors from the Danubian provinces — Claudius II, Aurelian, Probus — turned the tide. Aurelian reunited the empire in 272–274, and Diocletian, proclaimed at Nicomedia on 20 November 284, rebuilt the state on new foundations. Historians date the end of the crisis to 284 or to his final victory over Carinus in 285.
Connections
Consequences
- Establishment of the Tetrarchy1 March 293 · Western and Central Europe
Includes
- Battle of Abritusbetween June and August 251 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Aurelian Walls271–275 · Western and Central Europe
Same participants
- Kyiv culturec. 200 – between 400 and 430 · Eastern Europevia Goths
- Avar–Persian siege of Constantinople29 June – 7 August 626 · Balkans and Anatoliavia Sasanian Empire
Same place
- Great Fire of Rome19 July 64 – c. 27 July 64 · Western and Central Europe
- Inauguration of the Colosseum80 · Western and Central Europe
- Antonine Plague165–180 · Western and Central Europe
- Constitutio Antoniniana212 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of the Milvian Bridge28 October 312 · Western and Central Europe
- Sack of Rome by the Visigoths24–27 August 410 · Western and Central Europe
- Vandal sack of Rome2–16 June 455 · Western and Central Europe
- Gothic War (535–554)535–554 · Western and Central Europe
- Coronation of Charlemagne25 December 800 · Western and Central Europe
- Imperial coronation of Otto I2 February 962 · Western and Central Europe
- Fourth Council of the Lateran11–30 November 1215 · Western and Central Europe
- “Summa Theologica” by Thomas Aquinas1265–1274 · Western and Central Europe
- Sack of Rome (1527)6 May 1527 · Western and Central Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Eastern Europe
- Kyiv culturec. 200 – between 400 and 430
- The Goths settle in Oiumc. 180 – c. 230
- Chernyakhov culturebetween 200 and 250 – between 400 and 430
Balkans and Anatolia
- Battle of Abritusbetween June and August 251
- Great Persecution24 February 303 – 313
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Crisis of the Third Century
- Wikipedia (Russian): Кризис Римской империи III века
- Southern P. The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine. — London: Routledge, 2001.
- Штаерман Е. М. Кризис рабовладельческого строя в западных провинциях Римской империи. — М.: Изд-во АН СССР, 1957.
- Wikidata: Q329838