Late Antiquity: The Collapase of The Roman Empire

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The Crisis of the Third Century from A.D. 235-284 was a period of Military anarchy and witnessed the collapse of the Roman empire. The empire witnesses numerous crisis like military, political and economic in the form of barbarian invasions, civil wars and hyperinflation. It was primarily because of the settlement of Augustus that failed at establishing succession rule of the emperors. Hence, no emperor was able to hold the Imperial position. This period ended with Diocletian, the Roman emperor A.D. 284-305 who was able administrator during the crisis. Diocletian became the Roman Emperor after defeating Carinus. During Diocletian’s reign, the Roman empire was unified under Tetrarchy. There were several administrative changes from Diocletian to Constantine. These changes had however, started long before the reign of Diocletian. The Roman empire was comparatively at rest and peace despite the war for imperial succession and numerous civil wars. Augustus’s reign is also referred to as Pax Romana. The time period during reign of Diocletian witnessed imperial immortality and ancestry was turned into identity. Hence, ancestry was now seen as a dominating principal and Diocletian and Maximian were seen as equals before the common public (Nixon and Rodgers, 80) .The Edict of Caracalla in A.D. 212, marked the beginning of various administrative changes that took place in the Roman empire (Cameron, 50) .
In A.D. 212 the Edict of Carcalla was issued by Carcalla in the Roman Empire. The Edict declared that all the free men and women in the Roman empire were entitled to Roman citizenship. The Edict was a means to increase revenue and levy taxes. Before the Edict was issued, the Roman citizenship had been held in Italia. Hence, Carcalla was a...

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...yed the administrative security of the frontiers that were set by Diocletian (Cameron, 53). Diocletian’s reign strengthened the frontiers by participating in repair of building and forts. Diocletian was also able in keeping the Roman empire from collapsing by introducing Tetrarchy and dividing the empire into provinces to govern it properly. Diocletian’s rule was, therefore, a significant period when the Roman empire had been unified amidst all the political, military and economic crisis. There was a constant threat from civil wars that Diocletian was able to tackle with his able administrative policies. It was also a time when Roman empire migrated from Participate to Dominance. Constantine, however, focused his administrative policies keeping in mind the religious sentiments and the influence of the church in the matters of state further aggravated the issues.

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