Crisis of the Third Century The Crisis of the Third Century , also known as Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis , ( AD 235 – 284 ) was a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressures of invasion , civil war , plague , and economic depression . The Crisis began with the assassination of Emperor Alexander Severus at the hands of his own troops , initiating a fifty - year period in which 20 – 25 claimants to the title of Emperor , mostly prominent Roman army general s , assumed imperial power over all or part of the Empire . By 258 – 260 , the Empire split into three competing states : the Gallic Empire , including the Roman provinces of Gaul , Britannia and ( briefly ) Hispania ; the Palmyrene Empire , including the eastern provinces of Syria Palaestina and Aegyptus ; and the Italian - centered and independent Roman Empire , proper , between them . Later , Aurelian ( 270 – 275 ) reunited the empire ; the Crisis ended with the ascension and reforms of Diocletian in 284 . The Crisis resulted in such profound changes in the Empire ' s institutions , society , economic life and , eventually , religion , that it is increasingly seen by most historians as defining the transition between the historical periods of classical antiquity and late antiquity . History . The situation of the Roman Empire became dire in AD 235 , when the emperor Alexander Severus was murdered by his own troops . Many Roman legion s had been defeated during a campaign against Germanic peoples raiding across the borders , while the emperor was focused primarily on the dangers from the Sassanid Persian Empire . Leading his troops personally , Alexander Severus resorted to diplomacy and paying tribute in an attempt to pacify the Germanic chieftain s quickly . According to Herodian this cost him the respect of his troops , who may have felt they should be punishing the tribes who were intruding on Rome ' s territory . In the years following the emperor ' s death , generals of the Roman army fought each other for control of the Empire and neglected their duties in preventing invasions from foreigners . Provincials became victims of frequent raids by foreign tribes , such as the Carpians , Goths , Vandals , and Alamanni , along the Rhine and Danube Rivers in the western part of the Empire , as well as attacks from Sassanids in the eastern part of the Empire . Additionally , in 251 , the Plague of Cyprian ( possibly smallpox ) , broke out , causing large - scale mortality which may have seriously affected the ability of the Empire to defend itself . By 258 , the Roman Empire broke up into three competing states . The Roman provinces of Gaul , Britain and Hispania broke off to form the Gallic Empire and , two years later in 260 , the eastern provinces of Syria , Palestine and Aegyptus became independent as the Palmyrene Empire , leaving the remaining Italian - centered Roman Empire - proper in the middle . An invasion by a vast host of Goths was beaten back at the Battle of Naissus in 269 . This victory was significant as the turning point of the crisis , when a series of tough , energetic soldier - emperors took power . Victories by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus over the next two years drove back the Alamanni and recovered Hispania from the Gallic Empire . When Claudius died in 270 of the plague , Aurelian , who had commanded the cavalry at Naissus , succeeded him as the emperor and continued the restoration of the Empire . Aurelian reigned ( 270 – 275 ) through the worst of the crisis , defeating the Vandals , the Visigoths , the Palmyrenes , the Persians , and then the remainder of the Gallic Empire . By late 274 , the Roman Empire was reunited into a single entity , and the frontier troops were back in place . More than a century passed before Rome again lost military ascendancy over its external enemies . However , dozens of formerly thriving cities , especially in the Western Empire , had been ruined , their populations dispersed and , with the breakdown of the economic system , could not be rebuilt . Major cities and towns , even Rome itself , had not needed fortifications for many centuries ; many now surrounded themselves with thick walls . Finally , although Aurelian had played a significant role in restoring the Empire ' s borders from external threat , more fundamental problems remained . In particular , the right of succession had never been clearly defined in the Roman Empire , leading to continuous civil wars as competing factions in the military , Senate and other parties put forward their favoured candidate for emperor . Another issue was the sheer size of the Empire , which made it difficult for a single autocratic ruler to effectively manage multiple threats at the same time . These continuing problems would be radically addressed by Diocletian , allowing the Empire to survive in the West for over a century , and in the East for over a millennium . Economic impact . Internally , the empire faced hyperinflation caused by years of coinage devaluation . This had started earlier under the Severan emperors who enlarged the army by one quarter and doubled the legionaries ' base pay . As each of the short - lived emperors took power , he needed ways to raise money quickly to pay the military ' s " accession bonus " and the easiest way to do so was by simply cutting the silver in coins and adding less valuable metals like bronze or copper . This had the predictable effect of causing runaway inflation , and by the time Diocletian came to power , the old coinage of the Roman Empire had nearly collapsed . Some taxes were collected in kind and values were often notional in bullion or bronze coinage . Real values continued to be figured in gold coinage , but the silver coin , the denarius , used for 300 years , was gone ( 1 pound of gold = 40 gold aurei = 1000 denarii = 4000 sestertii ) . This currency had almost no value by the end of the third century , and trade was carried out without retail coinage . One of the most profound and lasting effects of the Crisis of the Third Century was the disruption of Rome ' s extensive internal trade network . Ever since the Pax Romana , starting with Augustus , the empire ' s economy had depended in large part on trade between Mediterranean ports and across the extensive road systems to the Empire ' s interior . Merchants could travel from one end of the empire to the other in relative safety within a few weeks , moving agricultural goods produced in the provinces to the cities , and manufactured goods produced by the great cities of the East to the more rural provinces . Large estates produced cash crops for export , and used the resulting revenues to import food and urban manufactured goods . This resulted in a great deal of economic interdependence between the empire ’ s inhabitants . The historian Henry Moss describes the situation as it stood before the crisis : Breakdown of internal trade network . With the onset of the Crisis of the Third Century , however , this vast internal trade network broke down . The widespread civil unrest made it no longer safe for merchants to travel as they once had , and the financial crisis that struck made exchange very difficult with the debased currency . This produced profound changes that , in many ways , would foreshadow the very decentralized economic character of the coming Middle Ages . Large landowners , no longer able to successfully export their crops over long distances , began producing food for subsistence and local barter . Rather than import manufactured goods from the empire ' s great urban areas , they began to manufacture many goods locally , often on their own estates , thus beginning the self - sufficient " house economy " that would become commonplace in later centuries , reaching its final form in the Middle Ages ' manorialism . The common free people of the Roman cities , meanwhile , began to move out into the countryside in search of food and better protection . Made desperate by economic necessity , many of these former city dwellers , as well as many small farmers , were forced to give up hard - earned basic civil rights in order to receive protection from large land - holders . In doing so , they became a half - free class of Roman citizen known as " coloni " . They were tied to the land , and in later Imperial law their status was made hereditary . This provided an early model for serfdom , the origins of medieval feudal society and of the medieval peasantry . Even the Roman cities themselves began to change in character . The large , open cities of classical antiquity slowly gave way to the smaller , walled cities that were common in the Middle Ages . These changes were not restricted to the third century , but took place slowly over a long period , and were punctuated with many temporary reversals . However , in spite of extensive reforms by later emperors , the Roman trade network was never able to fully recover to what it had been during the Pax Romana ( 27 BC – AD 180 ) of the first century AD . This economic decline was far more noticeable and important in the western part of the empire , which was also invaded several times during the century . Hence , the balance of power clearly shifted eastward during this period , as evidenced by the choice of Diocletian to rule from Nicomedia in Asia minor , putting his second in command Maximian in Milan . This would have considerable impact on the later development of the empire with a richer , more stable eastern empire surviving the end of Roman rule in the west . While Imperial revenues fell , Imperial expenses rose sharply . More soldiers , greater proportions of cavalry , and the ruinous expense of walling in cities all added to the toll . Goods and services previously paid for by the government were now demanded in addition to monetary taxes . The steady exodus of both rich and poor from the cities and now - unremunerative professions forced Diocletian to use compulsion ; most trades were made hereditary , and workers could not legally leave their jobs or travel elsewhere to seek better - paying ones . Increased localism . The decline in commerce between the Imperial provinces put them on a path towards increased insularity . Large landowners , who had become more self - sufficient , became less mindful of Rome ’ s central authority , particularly in the Western Empire , and were downright hostile towards its tax collectors . The measure of wealth at this time began to have less to do with wielding urban civil authority and more to do with controlling large agricultural estates in rural regions , since this guaranteed access to the only economic resource of real value — agricultural land and the crops it produced . The common people of the Empire lost economic and political status to the land - holding nobility , and the commercial middle classes waned along with their trade - derived livelihoods . The Crisis of the Third Century thus marked the beginning of a long gradual process that would transform the ancient world of Classical antiquity into the medieval one of the Early Middle Ages .