Diocletian and his Reforms after the Crisis of the Third Century
With over 1.7 million square miles of land, the Roman Empire reigned for over a thousand years. As with every empire and dynasty, the Roman Empire faced many challenges. These challenges lead the empire into a crisis during the third century: problems with succession, population, and the frontiers. It wasn’t until Diocletian came to power the empire started to recover from the crisis. Diocletian made the government into a Tetrarchy, improved tax efficiency, and increased the size of the army which became the reason the Roman Empire overcame the Crisis of the Third Century.
The problem of succession, population, frontiers, and other minor causes almost the lead to the destruction …show more content…
This strategy showed enemies the weakness of the empire, and that it could easily be taken over by a large army. Paul Freedman lectures that this succession problem also made it hard for current rulers to trust anyone, because most emperors had been killed by their own troops. The generals mostly consisted of poor men without a proper education. These men were only skilled in battle and were not equipped to efficiently rule a massive empire. With almost two million square miles of land, the emperors had trouble protecting the frontiers. Persia, an old enemy of the empire, invaded frequently to the east. However, the most damaging invasions were the Sassanid’s. “The Sassanid Dynasty was a group of very aggressive people who prodded the frontier along the Armenian and Mesopotamian border” (Paul Freedman). Barbarians also invaded the empire. The Danube and the Rhine rivers acted as natural frontiers. The rivers …show more content…
He knew if he increased the size of the army the chances of revolts against the government would increase, however, he thought protecting the frontiers from intruders was more of a necessity than protecting his throne. He decided to first expand the army and then find ways to keep them from revolting. He nearly doubled the size of the army and stationed most of the men to the east. Diocletian also expanded the navy’s size by almost 20,000 men. “Since there were simultaneous threats on several frontiers, Diocletian also split this army into two parts: stationary frontier militia who could stop small invasions and slow down big ones, and mobile legions, increasingly made of cavalry, that could rush to any trouble spots that the militia could not handle.” (FlowofHistory.com) In order to protect his throne, he controlled the mobile legions and decreased the amount of soldiers per general. Per province he appointed a civil governor and a military general. This way if the generals planned a revolt, they would have to go through the trouble of getting along with the civil governor to provide for the army’s needs (FlowofHistory.com). By increasing the army, he now could efficiently protect the frontiers from the
With over 1.7 million square miles of land, the Roman Empire reigned for over a thousand years. As with every empire and dynasty, the Roman Empire faced many challenges. These challenges lead the empire into a crisis during the third century: problems with succession, population, and the frontiers. It wasn’t until Diocletian came to power the empire started to recover from the crisis. Diocletian made the government into a Tetrarchy, improved tax efficiency, and increased the size of the army which became the reason the Roman Empire overcame the Crisis of the Third Century.
The problem of succession, population, frontiers, and other minor causes almost the lead to the destruction …show more content…
This strategy showed enemies the weakness of the empire, and that it could easily be taken over by a large army. Paul Freedman lectures that this succession problem also made it hard for current rulers to trust anyone, because most emperors had been killed by their own troops. The generals mostly consisted of poor men without a proper education. These men were only skilled in battle and were not equipped to efficiently rule a massive empire. With almost two million square miles of land, the emperors had trouble protecting the frontiers. Persia, an old enemy of the empire, invaded frequently to the east. However, the most damaging invasions were the Sassanid’s. “The Sassanid Dynasty was a group of very aggressive people who prodded the frontier along the Armenian and Mesopotamian border” (Paul Freedman). Barbarians also invaded the empire. The Danube and the Rhine rivers acted as natural frontiers. The rivers …show more content…
He knew if he increased the size of the army the chances of revolts against the government would increase, however, he thought protecting the frontiers from intruders was more of a necessity than protecting his throne. He decided to first expand the army and then find ways to keep them from revolting. He nearly doubled the size of the army and stationed most of the men to the east. Diocletian also expanded the navy’s size by almost 20,000 men. “Since there were simultaneous threats on several frontiers, Diocletian also split this army into two parts: stationary frontier militia who could stop small invasions and slow down big ones, and mobile legions, increasingly made of cavalry, that could rush to any trouble spots that the militia could not handle.” (FlowofHistory.com) In order to protect his throne, he controlled the mobile legions and decreased the amount of soldiers per general. Per province he appointed a civil governor and a military general. This way if the generals planned a revolt, they would have to go through the trouble of getting along with the civil governor to provide for the army’s needs (FlowofHistory.com). By increasing the army, he now could efficiently protect the frontiers from the