Rome's Crisis of the Third Century
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2025
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What happens when emperors are murdered more often than they die of natural causes? Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr. David Gwynn to unravel the Crisis of the Third Century, a pivotal, turbulent era in Roman history that served as a turning point between the classical and early medieval worlds. It was a time where soldiers like Maximinus Thrax rose to power, only to face rapid turnover and murder.
Tristan and David discuss the complex web of civil wars, external threats from formidable foes like the Sassanians, Franks, and Goths, and the ultimate capture and grotesque end of Emperor Valerian. This is the time of ancient Rome's economic collapse, devastating plagues, and the dramatic rise of Christianity.
Presented by Tristan Hughes. The audio editor and producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.
Theme music from Motion Array, all other music from Epidemic Sounds
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Tristan Hughes, and if you would like the ancient ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit. |
| 0:08.1 | With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, including my recent documentary all about Petra and the Nabatans, and enjoy a new release every week. |
| 0:19.3 | Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe. |
| 0:23.1 | This podcast is brought to you by Exodus Adventure Travels. Now, I've always loved to |
| 0:28.4 | explore new places and I'm lucky enough to travel quite a bit with my job. Shout out to our |
| 0:33.1 | production team who make that possible. In my free time, however, I am a big fan of adventure holidays, |
| 0:39.5 | going to see a new place in the world and the amazing archaeology that they have there. |
| 0:44.5 | For adventure holidays, no one does it better than Exodus. Exodus provide high-quality small group |
| 0:50.3 | trips across 90 different countries that span all seven continents, including Antarctica. |
| 0:56.7 | There are plenty of ancient history tours in there too. One that caught my eye is a tour of Jordan |
| 1:01.5 | and its big historical sites, including, of course, Petra. Exodus is great for both solo travellers |
| 1:08.6 | and if you're wanting to go on an adventure with a friend or partner. |
| 1:12.8 | So if you want a great itinerary and ensure magic moments you'll remember forever, |
| 1:17.1 | well, Exodus are the people to piece that together. |
| 1:20.8 | To find your next adventure, visit exodus.co.uk. It's the Anciance on History Hit. |
| 1:39.3 | I'm Tristan Hughes, your host. |
| 1:41.3 | Today we're covering one of the most important yet complicated and catastrophic periods |
| 1:46.8 | in Roman history, all in one episode, the third century crisis. |
| 1:53.7 | The third century AD is regularly seen as a period of great turmoil and transformation |
| 1:59.0 | in the Roman Empire, particularly between the years |
| 2:02.2 | 235 and 285 AD. During that half century, more than 25 emperors rose and fell, almost always |
| 2:13.0 | meeting a sticky end. There was plague, there was economic collapse, there was massive conflict both from |
... |
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