ThirdCentury CE Crises and Diocletians Tetrarchy

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Third-Century CE Crises and Diocletians
Tetrarchy

• Our history now plunges from a kingdom of gold
  to one of iron and rust
• Dio Cassius, Roman History, 71.36, on the period
  following the death of the last Good Emperor,
  Marcus Aurelius (180 CE)

2
Rust Internal Crises

• A Military Society
• Brutalization of the Civilian Population by the
  Soldiery
• Increasing Barbarization of the Army one of
  Gibbons prime causal factors for the Decline
  and Fall of the Roman Empire
• Escalating Soldiers Pay and Donatives (Dio
  Cassius, 74.11)
• Soldier-Emperors (26 from 235-284 CE)

3
Increasing Burdens on the Landed Aristocracy

• Demands of Service on Local Councils
• Curiales, or local aristocracies, slowly becoming
  hereditary castes
• Impoverishment of curiales through public
  benefaction
• Disappearance of spontaneous euergetism
• Roman Senate evolving into a town council

4
Polarization Honestiores and Humiliores

• Local Protection (but this is a matter of degree,
  as Roman society had always been a self-help
  society)
• Origins of Medieval Feudal Society in Europe
  (Colonate)?
• Constitutio Antoniniana (212 CE) Blanket Grant
  of Roman Citizenship to Virtually All Free
  Inhabitants in the Empire

5
Depopulation of Towns and Rural Areas

• Aquileia was in even earlier times a very big
  city with a large population of its
  own.consisting not only of citizens but also of
  foreigners and merchants. At this time ca. 238
  CE, however, the population was even further
  increased by all the crowds streaming in from the
  countryside, leaving the neighboring towns and
  villages to seek safety inside the great city and
  its surrounding wall. The ancient wall had been
  for the most part demolished earlier, since after
  the advent of Roman rule the cities of Italy no
  longer needed walls or weapons, for they enjoyed,
  in place of wars, profound peace and association
  in Roman citizenship. But now necessity drove
  them to restore the wall, rebuild its ruins, and
  raise towers and battlements. The army of
  Maximinus crossed over and marched against the
  city. Finding the houses of the suburbs deserted,
  they cut down all the vines and trees, set some
  on fire, and made a shambles of the once-thriving
  countryside.After destroying all this to the
  root, the army pressed on to the wallsand strove
  to demolish at least some part of the wall, so
  that they might break in and sack everything,
  razing the city and leaving the land a deserted
  pasturage.
• Herodian, History 8.2.3-4.8

6
Economic Crises Rampant Inflation Counterfeit
Currency

• From Aurelius Ptolemaeusstrategus of the
  Oxyrhynchite nome. Whereas the public officials
  have assembled and have accused the bankers of
  the exchange banks of having closed them because
  of their unwillingness to accept the divine coin
  of the emperors, it has become necessary to issue
  an order to all the owners of the banks to open
  them and to accept and exchange all coin except
  the absolutely spurious and counterfeitknowing
  full well that if they disobey this order they
  will experience the penalties already ordained
  for them in the past bythe Prefect.
• Oxyrhynchus Papyrus no. 1.411 (260 CE)

7
Economic Crises Debasement of Currency as an
Imperial Fiscal Remedy

• Dionysius to Apio, greeting. The divine fortune
  of our masters has given orders that the Italian
  coinage be reduced to half a nummus. Make haste
  therefore to spend all the Italian money you have
  and purchase for me all kinds of goods at
  whatever price you find them.
• Rylands Papyrus no. 607 (ca. 300 CE)

8
Iron New External Threats

• Indispensability of the Legions E.N. Luttwaks
  Defense-in-Depth System.
• Multiple Fronts NorthGerman, Dacian, and Gothic
  tribes EastSassanid Persia.
• Cash Payments for Non-Aggression
  (proto-Danegeld).
• It would be best for you to make peace and
  obtain the advantages accruing from harmony, and
  to come to a settlement with us over the issues
  of warit is just that we should get what we used
  to receive from you regularly in gifts of coined
  and uncoined gold and silver to guarantee
  friendship.
• Dexippus, fragment 6 (Juthungians to Aurelian,
  later 3rd c. CE)

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Detail of Cuirass, Prima Porta Statue
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Shapur I and Valerian ca. 260 CE
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Invasions and Frontiers, 3rd century CE
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Coin of Aurelian (270-275 CE)
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Aurelians Wall at Rome (reign 270-5 CE)
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Principate to Dominate Diocletians
Reign (284-305 CE)

• Oriental Autocracy (the divine living emperor)
  the emperor is above the laws (Ulpian, early
  3rd c. CE, in Digest 1.3.31).
• Tetrarchy Two Augusti Two Caesari.
  Defense--empire divided into four military zones.
• Regimentation of the Roman Economy
• land and poll tax (iugum and caput) in kind.
• Edict on Maximum Prices, 301 CE
• Provincial Reorganization 12 dioceses,
  subdivided into about 100 provinces.

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Coin of Diocletian (284-305 CE)
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The Roman Empire under Diocletian
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Diocletians Prefectures, Dioceses, and Provinces
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Diocletians Palace at Split (Yugoslavia)
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The Tetrarchs
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Diocletians Edict on Maximum Prices (301 CE)

• We hastento apply the remedies long demanded by
  the situation, satisfied that no one can complain
  that our intervention with regulations is
  untimely or unnecessary, trivial or unimportant.
  These measures are directed against the
  unscrupulous, who have perceived in our silence
  of so many years a lesson in restraint but have
  been unwilling to imitate it. For who is so
  insensitive and so devoid of human feeling that
  he can be unaware or has not perceived that
  uncontrolled prices are widespread in the sales
  taking place in the markets and in the daily life
  of the cities? Nor is the uncurbed passion for
  profiteering lessened either by abundant supplies
  or by fruitful years.It is our pleasure,
  therefore, that the prices listed in the
  subjoined schedule be held in observance in the
  whole of our Empire.