Germanic Invasions During the Crisis of the Third Century
The Roman Empire nearly fell apart in the middle of the third century, and the year 260 is the worst of it. The emperor Valerian was captured alive by the Persian king Shapur I at Edessa — the only Roman emperor ever taken prisoner by a foreign enemy — and spent the rest of his life in captivity, reportedly used as a mounting block. Shapur carved the scene on a cliff at Naqsh-e Rostam, where it is still visible. Within months the empire split into three. Postumus set up a Gallic empire covering Gaul, Britain and Spain, with its own senate and consuls; Palmyra under Odaenathus and then Zenobia took the east as far as Egypt; and Gallienus held the middle. The pressure on the Rhine and Danube was continuous. Alamanni and Juthungi raided into Italy and reached Milan; the Franks got into Spain; Goths raided by sea into the Aegean and sacked Athens in 267. Behind it lay a currency that had been debased until the silver coin was a copper token with a wash, a plague that killed at a rate the sources compare to an army, and an army that made and unmade emperors — some twenty-six claimants in fifty years, most dying violently. Rome began building walls round its cities again, including round Rome itself. Aurelian reunited the whole thing between 270 and 274 and was assassinated by his own officers over a clerk's forgery. Diocletian's reorganisation from 284 is the settlement, and it produced a very different empire.
- Year: 260 CE
- Category: Military
