The Crisis of the Third Century

In fifty years several dozen emperors pass over the empire, nearly all proclaimed by the armies and by the armies killed. Pressure comes from outside at the same time: the Goths cross the Danube, the Persian Sasanians take the emperor Valerian captive, the Germans stir beyond the Rhine. The state pays the army ever more, the silver in the coin grows ever less, prices climb, the cities wall themselves in, long-distance trade withers. For a time the empire splits into three parts — Gallic, Palmyrene and central — and only toward the century's end is it gathered together again, under a different order of power.