The Crisis of the Third Century and the End I Civil War There are three people who claim to have the right to the throne Niger Albinius Severus The personal guard to the Emperor doesn t like that another civil war is coming about so they sell the kingdom and it is bought by a man and when Danube legion gets there they kill the guard and take the empire These civil wars lead to the weakening of the Empire A Niger Syrian Legions Gets killed by Severus because he wants total control over the Empire B Septimus Severus Danube Legions Got to the throne first and then kills of the guard and Severus names Albinus to take his place after he dies Kills Niger and then he turns his was to Albinus and attacks him Both armies meet and Severus defeats him and is now the most powerful man in Rome C Albinius Legions of Britannica Is named heir to the Empire and is adopted by Severus Later Severus attacks him and defeats him so he can have total control D Severan Emperors 1 Severus 193 211 Very good leader and expands the Empire defeats Germanic tribes and Carthagens and takes other land Had to son Geta oldest and Carcalla On his death bed he told his son to live in peace with each other and enrich the army and despise the rest of the world 2 Carcalla and Geta Two sons of Severus and were supposed to rule together Carcalla kills Geta and takes over as ruler he did this by paying the army and giving them lots of money The first this Carcalla did was he made anyone who lived in any part of Rome were now full citizens this means he can now tax them and he does and doubles all the taxes on them But this stills not enough money for the army so he devalues the Roman money which leads to mass inflation of the money These new coins were not worth the same but don t affect the soldiers pay He dies 217 CE is killed by the Pretorian Guard he has no heir to the throne the Guard then appoints the leader of the Guard Julia Massa comes out and says that the Guard has no power and her son has that power This means that her son will be emperor and this makes the legions revolt against the Guard and kills the leader Now Julia s son is emperor and the son s name is Albinus But it is later found out that the mom is running the show but it doesn t affect his leadership but later on he is killed by the guard after he names an heir to the throne The person named is Severus Alexander 3 Severus Alexander He is a young leader good control over the army and tries for peace on the boundaries and the Germanic Tribes The problem that occurs is that he wants to pay them off the legions don t want to stop fighting the so the legion commander kills him and takes the gold In 235 CE with the death of Severus this makes a crisis happen in the Empire II Third Century Crisis Had 70 Emperor s during the 50 years 4 things lead to this crisis A Causes 1 This was all caused by the death of Severus the military leaders didn t listen 2 to the Empire Invaders come in and take what they want because the legions are fighting with each other 3 Also the Roman money has no value now 4 All at the same time sickness sweeps over the empire and it weakens the whole empire which makes a lot of the people to move away III Diocletian Constantine and the Fall of the Western Empire A guy named Arleen comes about and tries to fix the Empire but he is killed by an outside force But this leads to Diaclease in 284 he is the Emperor and he came from low background and in his time he reforms the Empire He expands the empire he created the currency of Rome and he focused on frontier protections and also reformed the civil service This allowed the Empire to be broken down into easier portions that could be ruled easier named Dioceses But the most important thing he did was he dealt with the heir to the throne and established the Tetrarchy College of Four Last for 20 or more years There were Caesar Junior Leader and Augustus Head Leader that ruled over these lands He thought this would help out the Empire and for a time it did but it also didn t in the future When the top two leaders retired they were supposed to name their replacers but they didn t and this caused a struggle and lead to civil war Constenceniuos is appointed to Caesar after Maximum but dies later and he doesn t name an heir but has a son and the son of Maximum has a son that want to be Augustus This leads to civil war in west and as soon as Constenceniuos dies the Tetrarchy falls Then at the major battle Constantine win and he is the Emperor and he now allows Christianity is now allowed to take a role in the Empire This all boils down to this after 312 CE Christianity is now allowed to take a role in the Empire and blend into the Roman society When Constantine dies he leaves the Empire to 5 people but they do not get along this leads us to fall of the Empire and civil war There is no coming back after 20 years of civil war but Consentaneous 2nd but he doesn t last long Valtinien the first is the last one to rule over the Roman Empire and appoints his brother Valens co emperor in the west He allows two Germanic tribes to enter the Empire These two tribes where seeking shelter because they were running from the Huns and they were only let in because they could be taxed and the money could be used for the Empire but this doesn t go over well with the tribes and they revolt and battle from the inside out and did a lot of damage in Greece The Ostrogoth and Visigoths are paid to leave but the Visigoths go to the western part of the Empire and sack Rome The Empire in 375 CE has comes to an end a Emperors During the Third Century Crisis 1 Maximinus the Thracian 235 238 2 Gordian I 238 3 Gordian II 238 4 Balbinus 238 5 Pupienus 238 6 Gordian III 238 244 7 Philip the Arab 249 251 8 Decius 249 251 9 Gallus 251 253 10 Volusianus 251 253 11 Aemilianus the Moor 253 12 Valerian 253 260 13 Gallienus 253 268 14 Claudius II 268 270 15 Quintillus 270 16 Aurelian 270 275 17 Tacitus 275 276 18 Florian 276 19 Probus 276 282 20 Carus 282 283 21 Carinus 283 284 22 Numerian 283 284 Key Terms Diocletian The College of Four Tetrarchy Constantine Aurelian