The Crisis of the Third Century
Fifty years of civil war, plague, invasion and currency collapse nearly end the empire.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 49 years
- Known to
- ± 2 years
- Era
- Classical, Holocene
Between 235 and 284 CE the empire has more than twenty legitimate emperors and many more claimants, most dying violently. Persia captures an emperor alive; Gaul and Palmyra break away; the Cyprianic plague spreads; and the silver content of the denarius falls to almost nothing, producing severe inflation. The empire is reassembled by Aurelian and Diocletian, but in a different form — more bureaucratic, more militarised and more autocratic.