Changes

The Third Century Crisis is sometimes known as the ‘Military Anarchy’ Anarchy.’<ref>Scarre, Chris, Chronicle of the Roman Emperors: the reign-by-reign record of the rulers of Imperial Rome, (London, Thames & Hudson, 1995), p 198</ref>. In other words, the army was not controlled by any unified authority. The different legions sought to have their general become Emperor, because of the prestige and the monetary rewards that they would secure upon his accession. As a result, the legions in the Balkans would fight those from the Western provinces in order to determine who should become the ruler of the Roman World.  The root cause of the civil wars and endless usurpations was the fact that Rome had not developed a formal succession process even though it was a de-facto monarchy. As a result, any general with an army could intimidate the Senate to recognize his right to become the legitimate Emperor. This led to a profoundly unstable system and for almost fifty years there was rarely a strong government. Because as Gibbon noted ‘the soldiery had become aware of their power’, they disregarded any authority that was not aligned with their interests .<ref> Gibbon, I, Chp. 7</ref>. The result was endless civil wars that depleted the ranks of the legions and meant that they could not defend the Imperial provinces. It was only when the army was brought under the control of Diocletian and his reformed administration that the civil wars ended, and the legions could once again protect the Empire.