The Roman Empire In Crisis 248 260

Download or read book The Roman Empire in Crisis, 248–260 written by Paul N. Pearson and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2022-05-05 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A clear, brisk writer, Pearson is also quite thorough, taking a holistic attitude to the many facets of a confused, turbulent period.” —NYMAS Review This book is a narrative history of a dozen years of turmoil that begins with Rome’s millennium celebrations of 248 CE and ends with the capture of the emperor Valerian by the Persians in 260. It was a period of almost unremitting disaster for Rome, involving a series of civil wars, several major invasions by Goths and Persians, economic crisis, and an empire-wide pandemic, the “plague of Cyprian.” There was also sustained persecution of the Christians. A central theme of the book is that this was a period of moral and spiritual crisis in which the traditional state religion suffered greatly in prestige, paving the way for the eventual triumph of Christianity. The sensational recent discovery of extensive fragments of the lost Scythica of Dexippus sheds much new light on the Gothic Wars of the period. The author has used this new evidence in combination with in-depth investigations in the field to develop a revised account of events surrounding the great Battle of Abritus, in which the army of the emperor Decius was annihilated by Cniva’s Goths. The Roman Empire in Crisis, 248-260 sheds new light on a period that is pivotal for understanding the transition between Classical civilization and the period known as Late Antiquity.

Download or read book The Roman Empire in Crisis, 248-260: When the Gods Abandoned Rome written by Paul N. Pearson and published by Pen & Sword Military. This book was released on 2022-05-30 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a narrative history of a dozen years of turmoil that begins with Rome's millennium celebrations of 248 CE and ends with the capture of the emperor Valerian by the Persians in 260. It was a period of almost unremitting disaster for Rome, involving a series of civil wars, several major invasions by Goths and Persians, economic crisis, and an empire-wide pandemic, the 'plague of Cyprian'. There was sustained persecution of the Christians. A central theme of the book is that this was a period of moral and spiritual crisis in which the traditional state religion suffered greatly in prestige, paving the way for the eventual triumph of Christianity.The sensational recent discovery of extensive fragments of the lost Scythica of Dexippus sheds much new light on the Gothic Wars of the period. The author has used this new evidence in combination with in-depth investigations in the field to develop a revised account of events surrounding the great Battle of Abritus where the army of the emperor Decius was annihilated by Cniva's Goths. New light is shed on a period which is pivotal for understanding the transition between Classical civilisation and the period known as Late Antiquity.

Download or read book The Roman Emperor Aurelian written by John F. White and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2015-11-30 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The leader who helped keep the Dark Ages at bay: “An excellent picture of the Crisis of the Third Century and the life and work of Aurelian” (StrategyPage). The ancient Sibylline prophecies had foretold that the Roman Empire would last for one thousand years. As the time for the expected dissolution approached in the middle of the third century AD, the empire was lapsing into chaos, with seemingly interminable civil wars over the imperial succession. The western empire had seceded under a rebel emperor, and the eastern empire was controlled by another usurper. Barbarians took advantage of the anarchy to kill and plunder all over the provinces. Yet within the space of just five years, the general, and later emperor, Aurelian had expelled all the barbarians from within the Roman frontiers, reunited the entire empire, and inaugurated major reforms of the currency, pagan religion, and civil administration. His accomplishments have been hailed by classical scholars as those of a superman, yet Aurelian himself remains little known to a wider audience. His achievements enabled the Roman Empire to survive for another two centuries, ensuring a lasting legacy of Roman civilization for the successor European states. Without Aurelian, the Dark Ages would probably have lasted centuries longer.

Download or read book Hadrian written by Thorsten Opper and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Hadrian, a Roman emperor, the builder of Hadrian's Wall in the north of England, a restless and ambitious man who was interested in architecture and was passionate about Greece and Greek culture. Is this the common image today of the ruler of one of the greatest powers of the ancient world?" "Published to complement a major exhibition at the British Museum, this wide-ranging book rediscovers Hadrian. The sharp contradictions in his personality are examined, previous concepts are questioned and myths that surround him are exploded." --Book Jacket.

Download or read book Evicted from Eternity written by Michael Herzfeld and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-08-01 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern Rome is a city rife with contradictions. Once the seat of ancient glory, it is now often the object of national contempt. It plays a significant part on the world stage, but the concerns of its residents are often deeply parochial. And while they live in the seat of a world religion, Romans can be vehemently anticlerical. These tensions between the past and the present, the global and the local, make Rome fertile ground to study urban social life, the construction of the past, the role of religion in daily life, and how a capital city relates to the rest of the nation. Michael Herzfeld focuses on Rome’s historic Monti district and the wrenching dislocation caused by rapid economical, political, and social change. Evicted from Eternity tells the story of the gentrification of Monti—once the architecturally stunning home of a community of artisans and shopkeepers now displaced by an invasion of rapacious real estate speculators, corrupt officials, dithering politicians, deceptive clerics, and shady thugs. As Herzfeld picks apart the messy story of Monti’s transformation, he ranges widely over many aspects of life there and in the rest of the city, richly depicting the uniquely local landscape of globalization in Rome.

Download or read book Germanicus written by Lindsay Powell and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2013-09-25 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The story of a Roman Emperor that might have been” (Fighting Times). Germanicus was regarded by many Romans as a hero in the mold of Alexander the Great. His untimely death, in suspicious circumstances, ended the possibility of a return to a more open republic. This, the first modern biography of Germanicus, is in parts a growing-up story, a history of war, a tale of political intrigue, and a murder mystery. In this highly readable, fast paced account, historical detective Lindsay Powell details Germanicus’s campaigns and battles in Illyricum and Germania; tracks him on his epic tour of the Eastern Mediterranean to Armenia and down the Nile; evaluates the possible causes of his death; and reports on the cruel fate his wife, Agrippina, and their children suffered at the hands of Praetorian Guard commander, and Tiberius’s infamous deputy, Aelius Sejanus.

Download or read book The Roman Imperial Succession written by John D. Grainger and published by Pen and Sword History. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An investigation of how a man could become a Roman emperor, and the failure to create an enduring, consistent system for selecting the next emperor. John D. Grainger analyses the Roman imperial succession, demonstrating that the empire organized by Augustus was fundamentally flawed in the method it used to find emperors. Augustus’s system was a mixture of heredity, senatorial, and military influences, and these were generally antagonistic. Consequently, the Empire went through a series of crises, in which the succession to a previous, usually dead, emperor was the main issue. The infamous “Year of the Four Emperors,” AD 69, is only the most famous of these crises, which often involved bouts of bloody and destructive civil war, assassinations and purges. These were followed by a period, usually relatively short, in which the victor in the “crisis” established a new system, juggling the three basic elements identified by Augustus, but which was as fragile and short lived as its predecessor; these “consequences” of each crisis are discussed. The lucid and erudite text is supported by over 22 genealogical tables and 100 images illustrating the Emperors. Praise of The Roman Imperial Succession “For a general introduction to the question of how one becomes a Roman emperor, Grainger has provided a sound guide.” —Bryn Mawr Classical Review