The Crisis of the Third Century His/112 September 2 2011 The Crisis of the Third Century The Crisis of the Third Century was the era in which the Roman Empire almost collapsed under the many myriad of pressures including economic depression, civil war, plague and invasion. Because war was expensive, the Roman Empire had to increase taxes and this caused for many of the Romans to be upset and for the economy to be in a crisis. Revolts were also started because many of the civilians retaliated back because of such high taxes.
The Crisis began with the assassination of Alexander Severus and because his own troops killed him, for the next fifty years many claimants named as emperors tried to rule Rome entirely and rule the Imperial Rome. Although the Romans did create the largest and most successful political
...government, lack of working together and not knowing any kind of political information of the emperor selected at the time, also caused for their crisis to begin in a bad start. An additional definition is the act of deliberately killing someone especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons. Assassinations may be prompted by religious, ideological” (Ott, J). The Roman Empire was built by cities, the people, and their military, which at the beginning sounded smart, and later because of lack of teamwork the empire was at a near fall. Inflation and with a collapsed currency, only seemed to make things worse for the Roman Empire.
These are only some of the reasons that contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire and caused great changes to the roman people. “As Roman territory grew,
conquest continued to fuel further conquest, but this was not a pattern that could continue indefinitely” (Ott, J) P1. For the most part this common pattern was only the main beginning to tragedy for this empire. The three main key events for this empire to come to a fall were the economy, military and political issues. Many entries skillfully weave legend, fact, and perspective to clarify and elucidate historical happenings" (Becker, C. H. , J 2009) P86. Many pieces of evidence from this era prove to show that these are the main reason on why this empire became a nightmare in a short period of time. During this era more than 35 emperors served their roman government and that made it insecure for people to rely and too many changes at once along with wrong choices. Since politically wise the government wasn’t secure, more services had to be rendered to the Romans and more money was being spent. This also describes the factors such as economic instability, political divisiveness, and, most tellingly, military defeats and barbarian invasions that eventually tolled a death knell for one of history's longest-lived empires” (Pauli, D. N. 1998). The military was also at fault for this empire to fall because of the many small and big wars from the Germans and also the Persians. Emperors already had their hands full with other enemies for war and since the economy and taxes on the rise, Romans were battle ling each other and enemies took advantage of this to seize their moment for victory. My point of view of the ascendancy of Rome, is part of the general view about the rise
and fall of nations, which, in its turn, is part of my conviction about the providence of God” (Spilsbury, P. 2003). To some historians such as Spilsbury, religion also took some part in the effects of a bad managed government. The last crisis that really took a hard toll on Romans Empire was their economy. More war meant more money and a rise on taxes. The government once had a set agreement on much taxes would be paid and when, the many wars at random times caused higher taxes at the last minute. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, presents five reasons for the decay of that empire: a mounting love of show and luxury, a widening gap between rich and poor, obsession with sex, freakishness in the arts, masquerading as originality and enthusiasms pretending to be creativity, an increased desire to live off the state. Makes you think, doesn't it? ” (2011, Jul 15) The Star, pp. 18. Aside from taxes and government expenses, Romans had the urge for always being in luxury and over spending.
The last minute economical changes had taken a toll on their personal life’s to be able to enjoy art, sex and the luxuries of life, such as gold at that time. These selected events are the main reasons for a once successful empire to break down to its worst time ever and even cause their own people to go against each other. “Many historians have attributed the Western Empire's collapse to internal factors, such as a loss of fighting spirit produced by soft living or Christianity's pacifist ideology, or to economic dislocations and depopulation
caused by excessive taxation of the rural peasantry” (Gray, J.
M. 2007). By adding all of these three events together, we can analyze that if anything did ever go wrong it was because all three events were not managed correctly. The Roman Empire would have been more successful if the Romans would have paid attention to their leaders more rather than their personal life. Politics as well had a great impact on their life as we can read from the above paragraphs, emperors were too busy fighting their wars administrative work was always put aside and fixed too late causing damaging consequences.
The crisis of the third century is a great example that shows us that everything that eventually is good will always but, and with the right managing and teamwork these issues can be fixed. Being victorious is what really mattered to the emperors to win territory rather that put their people first and their government. Up to now many historians have different theories of other contributing factors of why this empire broke down. If Alexander Severus troops had not taken advantage of killing him, Romes Empire would have probably been stronger and less wars would have been created because of economic turmoil’s and political problems.
The third crisis century is lesson learned for any government and the tax payers not to take advantage of the government system and always getting to know your emperor before making a wise choice in selecting him for only a few good things he did rather than more than a few. Alexander SeverusAlexander Severus , also known as Severus Alexander, was Roman Emperor from 222 to 235. Alexander was the last
emperor of the Severan dynasty... References Ott, J. (2009). The decline and fall of the western roman empire. History).
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/304905256? accountid=35812 Becker, C. H. , J. (2009). The rise of the romans: The rise and fall of the roman empire, a chronology: V. 1: 753 BC-146 BC. Choice, 47(1), 86-86. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/225690417? accountid=35812 Pauli, D. N. (1998). The assyrian empire / the decline and fall of the roman empire. School Library Journal, 44(8), 180-180. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/211698315? accountid=35812 Spilsbury, P. 2003). Flavius josephus on the rise and fall of the roman empire. Journal of Theological Studies, 54(1), 1-1-24. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/203283076? accountid=35812 Lessons in logic from the fall of an empire. (2011, Jul 15). The Star, pp. 18. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/877043310? accountid=35812 Gray, J. M. (2007, The fall of the roman empire. MHQ : The Quarterly Journal of Military History, 20(1), 95-95. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/223686266? accounting
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