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4.3 The Crisis of the Third Century and Constantine

Hi, everybody. This is the third part of chapter four: The Crisis of the Third Century and Constantine.

1. The Year of the Five Emperors 193AD

We talked about the last time, Commodus was assassinated in 192 and this marked the end of the 200-year Pax Romana. The next year 193 AD a new civil war started. Within one year five emperors claimed to be the Roman Emperor. The first one was Pertinax, a son of a freed slave; the first emperor was not from the patrician family. He first worked as a school teacher, later abandoned his career and joined the army. Less than three months Pertinax was murdered by his own soldiers.

The Severan Dynasty

The last of the five emperors was Severus, another powerful general who restored the order and founded the Severan Dynasty. This dynasty had experienced power struggles within the imperial family and constant political turmoil. It had 6 emperors, ruled 43 years until the last emperor Severus Alexander was assassinated by his own troops in 235. It was the last dynasty of the Roman Empire before the Crisis of the Third Century.

2. The Crisis of the Third Century (235–284AD) also known as the Imperial Crisis and Military Anarchy was a period in the history of the Roman Empire. The Crisis lasted for 50 years started from the assassination of Severus Alexander in 235 to 284 when Diocletian became emperor. The Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined crises including barbarian invasions, civil wars, plague, and economic disasters. During these 50 years, at least 26 people claimed themselves the title of emperor, most of them powerful army generals; they controlled all or part of the Empire. At the same time 26 were accepted by the Roman Senate as legitimate emperors. 17 of these legitimate emperors were assassinated or killed in civil war.

By 268, the empire had broken into three parts: first the Gallic Empire to the west, including provinces of Germania, and Gaul, and sometime Hispania, and Britannia; second the Palmyrene Empire, including the eastern provinces of Syria Palaestina, Arabia, Egypt and large parts of Asia Minor. Palmyra is in today’s Syria. And in the middle was the independent Roman Empire.

3. External Threats came from all directions. Berbers, an ethnic group indigenous to North Africa harassed the southern frontiers. To the east in today’s Iran there was a constant threat to the Roman Empire, Sasanian Empire. The Sasanian Empire from 224 to 651 was the Persian Empire before the rise of Islam. But the biggest threat was from north and west, the Germanic peoples (日耳曼人). "Germania" was the Roman term for the region in north-central Europe, located to the north and east of the Gaul, an area extended from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea and from the Rhine River to the Vistula River in Poland. "Germanic peoples" referred to the tribes lived in Germania. They were considered barbarians by Romans, less civilized and more physically hardened.

4. Germanic peoples originally lived in the southern region of Scandinavia. From around 500BC they started migration to the south and southeast, finally became the threat of the Roman frontiers. We can see the migration of the Germanic peoples from this map.

5. The Germanic people in the west were the Franks on the Lower and Middle Rhine River area. To the east the Goths, they played an important role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The western branch of the Goths called Visigoths and the eastern branch of Goths called Ostrogoths. The Vandals were another East Germanic inhabiting present-day southern Poland.

6. Today’s Germanic peoples are those who speak Germanic languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family. The West Germanic languages including English, German and Dutch. The North Germanic languages are Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish. We should know the difference between the Germanic peoples (日耳曼人), and Germans. "Germen" has three meanings, first (德意志人) all people who speaks German, the Germanic ethnic group including Germans in Germany and other counties, mainly Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. Second (德国人) the people of the county of Germany. Third, German is a language spoken by all Germans (德语). The other two important languages in Europe are Romance and Slavic language. The Romance languages also called the Latin languages including Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Romanian and so on. The Slavic languages including Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech and Slovak and so on.

7. Aurelian 270 to 275

Aurelian was the emperor ruled the Empire from 270 to 275. He was a great military commander. He stabilized the frontiers by defeating several Germanic tribes and conquered the Gallic Empire in the west and Palmyrene Empire in the east. He united the whole Empire. The city of Orléans "city of Aurelian" in France is named after Aurelian.

8. Diocletian (284-305) was a successful Soldier-Emperor who finally restored and stabilized the Empire and finally finished the Crisis of the Third Century.

The Tetrarchy. Diocletian received the title of Iovius or Jupiter thus was treated like a living god. Diocletian created a new form of government Tetrarchy; the term Tetrarchy was used by historians in the 19^th century to describe the new form of government. It was from a Greek term meaning "leadership of four people". Diocletian divided the Empire into eastern and western parts and each part ruled by a senior emperor called Augustus and a junior emperor called Caesar. Caesar was younger, who would be adopted by the Augustus as son and heir and marry the daughter of Augustus and in the future to succeed Augusta. From this map, we can see the empire were ruled by the four emperors. In the east, Diocletian was Augustus, he ruled this area, and Caesar was Galerius; in the west the Augustus Maximian ruled this area, and the Caesar Constantius lived in this area. Thus the empire was divided into four districts.

Great Persecution. One day in 299, Diocletian took part in a ceremony of sacrifice aimed to predict the future. But the Roman priests were unable to obtain the desired omens. They blamed this failure to the presence of the Christians. This led to the Great Persecution from 303- 313. Diocletian issued four "Edict against the Christians" ordered the destruction of Christian scriptures and places of worship across the empire, and prohibited Christians from assembling for worship. Many Christians have been executed.

9. Saint Constantine 306-337

Constantine was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. We know Diocletian created a new form of government Tetrarchy. In the East Diocletian was Augustus, Caesar was Galerius; in the west Maximian was Augustus, and the Caesar was Constantius. Constantine was the son of Constantius, the junior or deputy emperor called Caesar, his mother Helena was Greek. In 305 the two emperors Diocletian in the east and Maximian in the west both abdicated, giving up being emperor. This action was intended to promote the two Caesars to be Augustus. But in the west the sons of senior and junior emperor started fighting each other. In 312 at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge outside Rome, Constantine defeated and killed his enemy Maxentius, the son of the former Augustus Maximian. The night before the battle, Constantine was told in a dream to mark his shield with a sign called Chi – Rho, a cross formed by the first two letters of the Greek word for "Christ." He followed it and won the battle. He was the first emperor baptized and converted to Christianity. He became the sole ruler of both west and east by 324. He established his capital in Byzantium, called it New Rome, later known as Constantinople. He began to transform the Roman Empire into a Christian state and Christianity into a state religion of the Roman Empire.

10.This is the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. We can see Cristian symbol Chi – Rho from the side of Constantine’s army.

11.These are the key Words: the Crisis of the Third Century, Germanic peoples, Tetrarchy，Constantine, Constantinople.

This is the third part of the 4th chapter the Crisis of the Third Century and Constantine.