Crisis of the Third Century
The Crisis of the Third Century (235-284 CE) nearly destroyed the Roman Empire: within fifty years, more than fifty individuals claimed or held the imperial title, the empire briefly fragmented into three separate polities, plague killed millions, barbarian raids penetrated deep into the empire's interior, and the economic system contracted severely. The crisis began when the Emperor Maximinus Thrax, the first emperor of purely barbarian origin, was murdered by his troops; the following decades saw emperors raised and killed by their own armies with terrifying regularity. The Persian Sassanid dynasty, which had replaced the Parthians in 224 CE, seized Roman Mesopotamia and captured the Emperor Valerian in 260 CE — the first Roman emperor to fall prisoner to a foreign enemy. The empire's recovery under Aurelian and Diocletian required fundamental restructuring of the army, taxation, and imperial office itself.
- Category: Political
