HIST 2905 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Diocletian, Carinus, Claudius Gothicus
8 Mar 2016
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Part 1- what caused the crisis: military. If they can"t keep security, everything goes wrong. Constant war = dead taxpayers, destroyed farmland, etc. Rome has a lot of enemies in the east and west. Difficult for romans to handle both fronts. Ma did pretty well using cassius in the east. No rear defenses or reserves except sort of what septimius severus did. Competence of emperors in military is questioned. Emperor can"t fight, dies, or is murdered, another just comes in. Trade routes fall apart, troops are busy dying, destruction everywhere. Some pay using a portion of their agricultural goods. But farms are destroyed so they can"t pay. Drops off after a while: spiritual: questioning themselves. If you sign this, we won"t kill you. Sort of had to give up their religion. Macrianus (minister of finance) did most of the persecuting. Someone got skinned and it got hung on a wall.
