ROMAN HISTORY

The dissolution of Principate

Middle 3rd Century to Middle 4th Century CE
According to E.R. Dodds: Age of Anxiety
-Maximinus Thrax was the first of a breed of soldier-emperors, or barrack-emperors
Political
Military
Economic
Spiritual
Political
-The emperor is head of the state, but was not legitimized by any means.
-It was fine before, but the situation deteriorated in the 3rd century.
-Usurpation is the seizure of the throne.
-The Emperor had to constantly fight off usurpers on different fronts.
Military
-To the North, Rome had to fight off the Alemany, and the Goth
-To the East, Rome had to fight off the Persians
-Palmyra and Gaul who ever heavily Romanized, both broke off
Roman Economy
-Roman Economy was never really healthy
-But this point, the Roman economy collapsed
-The Roman coinage became deluded.
-The inflation occurred in the Roman state
-Roman turned into natural economy, relied on barter
Spiritual
-Personal Salvation was important
-Civic Religion between as useless as Roman Coinage
-People turned to personal deities
-Regular people were devasted, since there was no one emperor to appeal to, but three.
-People had to hope to choice the choice emperor to back up.
-Rome turned into Anarchy-No Rule
-The Romans emperors seeing the world have shot to hell, they need to find some to
blame.
1. Historia Augusta-A collection of works of 6 separate author, even though it is actually
one person who wrote it in 4th century for shits and giggles.
2. Epitome- The sparksnotes of the day, summarizing Roman history in few sentences or
paragraphs.

-Maximinus was the tallest Roman Empeor. Historia Augusta claimed he was 86
-The senate describe him as an illiterate brute, who destroyed the Roman empire
-First time in a while, Roman army in a while had steadied up.
-Maximinus fought Alemani head on, even in the dead of spring.
-People of Roman North Africa, were fed up with the incoherent state of Rome, so they
proclaimed their leader Gordian I as emperor.
-Gordian was in his 80s, he made his son Gordian II as co-emperor.
-The senate supported Gordian, and sent an army to fight against Maximinus
-Both Gordians died, so the senate elected 2 of their own for imperial throne. Balbinus
and Pupienus
-By 238, there were four Emperors contending for the throne, Gordian III son of Gordian
II, Maximinus, Balbinus, and Pupienus.
-Maximinus was finding himself short of supplies, so he started taking Roman towns for
supplies
-This made him unpopular, and by April, Maximinus and his son was murdered.
-When Gordian III arrived in Rome, the Praetorian Guard fought against Gordians men
-Eventually Gordian on and Balbinus and Pupienus was murdered
-T Mistheus the Praetorian Prefect was similar to Surjanus, and he married his daughter
to the young emperor.
-It worked well in the beginning, as the Goth were driven out, and treaty was signed
between the Persians
-Soon after, the Persian decide to invade Rome again, but it is unclear why.
-In 243, T Mistheus died, and he was to be replaced. The job fell on M. Julius Philippus
-Philip the Arab was manipulating the situation
-Gordian wanted to compromise, and become Junior Emperor but Philip refused
-There were 4 version to the death of Gordian, 2 Roman, and 2 Persian
-In 244, Philip became Emperor
-He made peace treaty with Persia
-Philip commissioned the work of Asinius Quadratus
-He wrote the 1000years of History, which from beginning of Rome to then. Not a
sentence survived to present day.
Roman-Emperors.org
In 249, Decius was so excited with his victories, he claimed himself emperor, and
defeated Philip The Arab
-Decius became emperor, and he was a bit of a theorist. He believed the problems was
moral. As he made a social reform.
-In 250, with censorial power, he realized there was a large amount of Christians.
-He believed that, there is problem as long as there is religious freedom
-Every single Roman Citizien, had to show themselves to be a loyal member of Roman
State by taking a oath, or make a sacrifice to Emperor genius.
-Men can either become a Thurificatus, or Sacrificatus.

-After the men has done this, they would be issued a libellus, a receipt
-The Christians could not do this
-The Jews were exempt, as they pay a fiscus ludaicus, a tax that allow them to keep
their ancestral religion.
-Apostasy, a deliberate denounce of Christian religion
-Many Christians sent their slaves to perform a Thurificatus, or Sacrificatus.
-The third way was to buy themselves a libellus from a greedy magistrate.
-Decius went to meet the Goth, and him and his army was lost at the Swamp of Abrittus.
-After the Decian Persecution, there were many fallen.
-The next 2 emperors,. Gallus and Aemelian were both murdered by their army.
-While the Romans were murdering Romans, the plague was killing everyone else.
-Roman was suffering and the Persian Empire was loving it
-By October of 253, The emperor Valerian knew he had to deal with the Persian.
-Valerian knew the empire was too big. So Valerian made his son Gallienus rule the
Western portion of Rome.
-While fighting the Persians, he realized the problem was the lack of religious unity
-The Valerian Percecution went from 257 to 260, killed off Christian Priests, and
Christian Imperial Household was force slave labour.
-King Shapur I claimed he took many Roman Towns
-Valerian attempted to sue for peace, but he was tricked and dragged into Persia
-Valerian was used as a stepping boy, and when he died, he was used as a Scarecrow.
-Gallienus was able to put an halt to persecution of Christians.
-260-268, Gallienus was trying to fix any problems there had been
-He removed power from Senate to hold military powers.
-Postumus proclaimed Gallic Empire
-And Zenobia setup her son Vaballathus as emperor.
-Gallienus saw the usurpation more threatening in the west, he decide deal with it first.
-Claudius II, Gothicus, and Aurelian 2 of Gallienus men betrayed Gallienus, and
murdered him outside of Milan.
-While Claudius was fighting off the Gauls, Postumus and Zenobia was getting stronger.
-In 270, Claudius died of a plague, and Aurelian succeeded him.
-Aurelian attempted to consolidate power, so he abandon Dacia.
-By 272, Aurelian had killed Vaballathus, and captured Zenobia
-274, Postumus was killed and Gaul was taken back
-He was basically the first man to succeed I the imperial office
-He was known by 2 names: Manu ad Ferrum (with had to the sword), Restitutor Orbis
(restorer of the world)
-275, Aurelian was murdered.
-The next 10 years was absolute chaos.
-Carus became emperor, and he divided Roman Empire into 3. Him taking central power,
and the rest was given to his 2 sons, Carinus and Numerian.
-Carus went to east to fight the Persians, but he died, leaving Numerian to finishing the
campaign.

-Numerian became ill, and as he was falling back, all emperors duties were left to the
Praetorian Prefect Arrius Aper.
-But soon, the news of the death of the emperor was apparent, and instead of elected
Arrius Aper, a veteran Diocles was chosen, Arrius Aper was killed.
-285, Diocles went to fight Carinus, and Diocles won.
-Diocletian as he was also known, changed Rome forever.
285-476 was no longer age of Principate, it changed by Diocletian, and he fixed all the
problems of the Roman empire, especially the Religious Factor.
-He did not directly go to Rome, and he did not want Senate recognition.
-Diocletian wanted clemency.
-Diocletian faced the triple threats.
-Diocletian adopted his best friend as successor, he sent Maximian as a son not as a
general to deal with the triple threats.
-Diocletian divided the empire into 2, himself holding the east, and Maximian holding the
west
-Maximian had to go deal with the Gallic threat named Carausius
-Diocletian was constantly putting down threats, unable to help Maximinian.
-The only way to deal with the new Gaullic threat down to Italy, Diocletian started a
tetrarchy. 2 Senior Empeors (Augustus), and 2 Junior Emperors(Caesars)
-In the West, Maximian was the Augustus, and Constantius Chlorus was Caesar.
-In the East, Diocletian was Augustus, and Galerius was Caesar.
-All emperor had terms, creating the a political succession, rather than hereditary.
-Without realizing, Diocletian divided the Empire into two.
-The empire became a eastern form of kingship, in the shape of a triangle.
-The Emperor became unreachable, unlike the olden days.
-The emperor doesnt talk to his men, and when he appeared, it was very ceremonial.
-A bureaucracy emerges
-Military power were given to Duces and Comites
-Limitanei, Comitatense, Scholae
-The Praetorian Guard was disbanded and replaced by a more temporary guard.
-This ensured employment go up.
-The Agentes In Rebus, were the secret agents, their existence only known by the
emperor and magister officiorum, to ensure no rebellion occurs by snitching.
-The Come Reiprivatae were incharge of Roman finance.
-The Roman Imperial Household had a complex of staff. The Praepostitus Sacri
Cubiculi, was the person in charge of household. And he would be a constant companion
of the emperor.
-there was staff of 100s to take care of the emperor.
-The Magister Unguium was the person in charge of the emperors fingernails.
-Maximian and Constantius put down Carausius, and Diocletian and Galerius put down
the Persians in the east.
-By 290s, peace has come to Roman Empire

-Taxes were standardized, and it came in 2 forms, Iugum, and Caput, a land and head tax.
-First time in Roman history, Woman were counted as people, and were taxed.
-Diocletian imposed the Edictum De Pretiis, the edict on prices, regulated price on
everything.
-Wages were also fixed along with prices.
-In 302, in Nicomedia amongst the Tetrarchs that, Christianity should be suppressed, to
promote unity and national identity.
-The right of Christians to assemble were to be banned, and Churches burnt.
-Church leaders were arrested, and books burnt.
-Soon, being a Christian was a capital punishment
-The Great Persecution lasted 7 years.
-By 304, when Diocletian and Maximian celebrated their 20 years, they would say he
would retire.