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What were the causes of the 3rd century crisis in the Roman Empire

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[[File: 3rd century AD 2.jpg |200px|thumb|left| Emperor Decius who was defeated and killed by the Goths]]

==Barbarian Invasions==

In the reign of Alexander Severus, there was a sudden rise in the number of raids by German and other barbarians. These raids were a part of life for Rome’s frontier population but by the 230s, they became more intense and frequent <ref> Southern, Pat. The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine (London, Routledge, 2015), p 356</ref>. German tribes became better organized and formed into confederations such as the Franks. The emergence of the Goths who created a large state in modern Ukraine created a major challenge for the Balkan and Black Sea provinces. They were militarily powerful and were especially proficient in cavalry and even took to the sea to launch piratical attacks in the 250 AD. The ferocity of the barbarian attacks can be attributed to two factors. The Romans were weakened by constant war, especially bloody civil wars and this meant that the legions could not defeat raids and invasions <ref>Heckster, p 113</ref>. The barbarians were often desperate. Climate change and rising sea levels had impacted on their food supply and they were forced to raid deeper and deeper into Imperial Roman territories to secure resources and in hopes of seizing arable lands. The continuous barbarian invasion thus weakened the Empire, and this encouraged further raiding by tribal confederations beyond the Rhine and Danube.

==The Rise of Sassanian Persia==

In 224 AD, Ardashir, the ruler of Fars in modern Iran, defeated and killed the last of the Parthian kings and this is seen as the beginning of the Sassanian Empire. Its Emperors or ‘King of Kings’ portrayed themselves as the heirs of the Great Persian Empire of Xerxes <ref> Heckster, p 139</ref>. It was a much more formidable state that the Parthian and within two decades, the Sassanians ruled an area much larger than anything governed by their predecessors. The neo-Persian Empire was a centralized state and had a regular army. From the 220s it began raiding Roman Syria and Asia Minor under the capable and ruthless Shapur I. The emergence of a new power in the east was a very serious challenge for the legions. It seemed that the army was overstretched as they were forced to fight Germans in Europe and Persians in the Near East. In consequence, the legions could not defend the frontiers. This, in turn, led to the rise of local warlords and ultimately the rise of the Palmyrene Empire, which for a time ruled almost all of the near East and even Egypt. The foundation of the Sassanian Empire, under a series of able rulers, was one of the most significant factors in the Third Century Crisis.

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