Third Century Crisis of the Roman Empire

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• 1. Rising threats
• 2. Northern frontiers
• 3. Eastern frontiers
• 4. Internal strife
• 5. Empire restored
• 6. Different world
• 7. Find out more
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Rising threats

Contemporaries who lived through the third century upheavals looked back on the previous age as one of peace and prosperity, but in reality it could be said that Rome had lurched from crisis to crisis ever since its foundation in 753 BC.

'Rome had lurched from crisis to crisis ever since its foundation.'

There had always been famines and plagues, military disasters, civil wars, attempts to seize supreme power, rebellions within the provinces, raids and invasions from beyond the frontier, and migrating tribes pressing on the edges of the Roman world.

The Romans had dealt with all of these in the past and survived. The trouble was that in the third century many problems surfaced at the same time, some of them on a grander scale than ever before, and they proved more difficult to eradicate.

Two of the most serious threats to the empire in the third century were the developments taking place among the tribes of the northern frontiers beyond the Rhine and Danube, and the growth of a formidable centralising power in the east.

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Published: 2006-09-08