Over the past few weeks, I have begun compiling information and resources, as well regularly posting my findings in order to ensure some structure is put in place in the early stages of the historical investigation process. Essentially, I have targeted a few key components to keep everything simple and develop a strong foundation for my subsequent essay. These components have included a general understanding of my focus area (which is the Crisis of the Third Century in Rome) and why it appealed to me; the development of my possible essay questions and decision on the final one; my plans for answering the question, the sources I intend to use and their reliability, and the way I am hoping to structure my essay.
Firstly, I had to explore the many areas of ancient history before I decided on the one I would investigate. Things that I initially considered ranged from the historicity of Homer’s Iliad, the myth of Atlantis, the bridge between classical and late antiquity, Celtic culture and Egyptian civilization. Eventually, I chose the Crisis of the Third Century in Rome, also known as the “Military Anarchy” or the “Imperial Crisis”, which are all commonly applied names referring to the crumbling and near collapse of the Roman Empire between 235 and 284 caused by three simultaneous issues: external invasion, internal civil war, and economic collapse. The changes in the Roman world’s institutions, society, economic life and eventually religion were so profound and fundamental, that in historical periodization, the “Crisis of the Third Century” is increasingly seen as the watershed marking the difference between the classical world and the world of late antiquity, so that the end of the crisis seen as the accession of Diocletian is used as the Epoch event dividing the two periods. The epoch beginning it was the assassination of the emperor Alexander Severus. The external borders were beset by foreign powers and due to internal strife within the empire, intrusions by foreigners were not dealt with properly, resulting in defeats which were a cause for further internal strife.
I realised that this topic would enable me the freedom to decide on what I found to be interesting without being either restricted or spoilt for choice, such as would be the case in a study involving whole civilizations or very large, or even very short, periods of time. Additionally, other students had already taken some of the aforementioned areas of learning, and I sought a different challenge in something that I knew very little about. It appealed to me because of the number of angles that it could be looked upon from and portions of time that it would be broken up into; the terminology of “crisis” and whether it was something that the people of the time viewed as a threat or simply a modern interpretation, the factors leading to the crisis, the role that certain people played in resolving the issue and why the Empire collapsed less than a century later in spite of the reformations. My questions for consideration more or less covered these points, such as the role of Aurelian’s reign (270 275), and the economic impact of the Crisis. These were all things that could be explored in depth with a range of reliable sources on both the web and in print, but my final essay question is: “Outline the perceived issues facing the Roman Empire during the Crisis of the Third Century and assess the effectiveness of Diocletian’s response.”
By breaking up the question into two key parts, outline and assess, I was able to shape my whole investigation around deconstruction and rebuilding. I could have chosen to analyse it solely, but I can now answer it through three simple steps; identifying and explaining the contributing factors to the Crisis, putting the role of Diocletian in place and then assessing the effectiveness of his reforms for the future regarding what he saw as the fundamental problems facing the Empire when he inherited it in 284 AD, just as it had become stable again. With the structure of my essay, I will not be looking to complicate things too much, planning so far to, obviously, to start with an introduction which immediately addresses the question and highlights my main points with reasonable depth, followed by a couple of pages of body paragraphs which support my response through effective argument and justification, with a concise conclusion recapping everything and re-iterating my interpretation of the question. Additionally, I hope to have my own voice heard within the factual account, which is something I will find more about soon.
So far, I have come across several informative Internet sources, which I have briefly assessed for relevance and reliability on my word press page regarding Diocletian and the Crisis itself, as you can see here. They range from good background tools to in- depth analyses of the topic area, and offer differing takes that I can include in my essay. Books that I have come across by modern authors include The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine, by Pat Southern, which tracks the time period of the Crisis perfectly and discusses cause and effect relating to prior and resulting events, and Rome in the East; the transformation of an empire, by Warwick Ball, which extends on this. I have found it difficult to locate many ancient authors, but as my investigation continues and I have more time, I plan to look for them in some more wide ranging libraries, but because of the nature of the crisis, at this stage I doubt there will be too many clear cut first hand accounts.
In summary, I believe the progress in approaching this historical investigation that I have made has been steady over the last couple of weeks, and that I have a solid blueprint for building a good essay with regards to structure and in the other key areas that I have researched and worked on up until this stage.
By Benjamin French
