Hello, and welcome to the history of Rome, episode 107, The Year of the Six Emperors.

As I've mentioned a few times now, the death of Alexander Severus marked the end not

just of the Severan dynasty, but also a whole epoch of Roman history.

The political, economic, and social bonds of the empire had been degrading for some

time, and when Alexander died, they seemed to snap completely.

For the next 50 years, the loyalty of the armies would turn on a dime.

Powerful imperial usurpers would pop up with alarming frequency.

Barbarian hordes would morade across the provinces, and the civilian population would be trapped

in the middle.

Those not ravaged by war would be ravaged by the disease, the famine, and the economic

depression that would accompany the crisis years of 235 to 284 AD.

During this period, everything that had represented the power, the prestige, the very legitimacy

of the Roman Empire was called into question.

No precedents were too ancient to violate, no assumptions were too deep to challenge,

no nightmares were too scary to come true.

To put it bluntly, Rome probably should have fallen right then.

We should be talking about how the assassination of Alexander Severus marked the end of the

Roman Empire, that the weight of internal division, external invasion, and economic catastrophe

was simply too much to bear.

There would have been no shame in it.

The empire had dominated the Mediterranean world for the last 400 years, at least.

Was this not a fair time to finally slip away?

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