WI: No Crisis of the Third Century?

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What if the crisis of the third century never occurred and instead was a continued Pax Romana? What would be needed to prevent a situation like the crisis from occurring? What reforms would be needed to prevent this? What effect would this have on Roman culture? The Roman military? Could this allow for increased Roman expansion in say, Arabia or Ireland?
 
Could this allow for increased Roman expansion in say, Arabia or Ireland?
If the Romans were prepared to give up southern Scotland, Mesopotamia and Dacia, they would not be prepared to try and control lands like Ireland and Arabia. A lot of treasure in, little or none out.
 
If the Romans were prepared to give up southern Scotland, Mesopotamia and Dacia, they would not be prepared to try and control lands like Ireland and Arabia. A lot of treasure in, little or none out.

Well there was a Roman expedition into Arabia during Augustus' time, and Agricola also may have had an interest in bringing Roman rule to Ireland, so it's not impossible for the Romans to seriously attempt it. It just depends on who's ruling Rome.

Also, an important part of understanding what happens next is why doesn't the third century crisis occur? I mean, you can easily butterfly the worst of the crisis, or at least make it significantly less destructive, such as the Antonine Plague, the reign of the Severans, and the break-up of the empire into the Gallic and Palmyrene Empires. There's still the problem of the Sassanids (though you could nip them in the bud too) and the agricultural problems Rome is facing.
 
What if the crisis of the third century never occurred and instead was a continued Pax Romana? What would be needed to prevent a situation like the crisis from occurring?

You basically need to stop the states on the borders of Rome from being influenced by Rome, which is obviously pretty much impossible.

The Third Century Crisis happened largely because Rome's neighbours (principally the Iranians, but others too) had begun to acquire, through generations of interaction with Rome, the necessary tools for dealing with the Empire. In the case of Iran it was the emergence of a powerful centralised monarchy in the house of Sasan, elsewhere it was economic development brought on by the trade and foreign aid policies of the Empire.

Developments that had been ongoing since Augustus' day are always chronologically likely to come to a head in the third century, in my view. Now, you can have Rome deal with them better by having a strong dynasty in place between 200 and 300, and butterflying the various contemporary plagues, but after 200 Rome in any TL is always going to face a difficult period, in my view.

The whole political/strategic basis of the Principate rested on overwhelming military superiority on all frontiers, and it's not going to be possible to keep this up indefinitely.
 
You basically need to stop the states on the borders of Rome from being influenced by Rome, which is obviously pretty much impossible.

The Third Century Crisis happened largely because Rome's neighbours (principally the Iranians, but others too) had begun to acquire, through generations of interaction with Rome, the necessary tools for dealing with the Empire. In the case of Iran it was the emergence of a powerful centralised monarchy in the house of Sasan, elsewhere it was economic development brought on by the trade and foreign aid policies of the Empire.

Developments that had been ongoing since Augustus' day are always chronologically likely to come to a head in the third century, in my view. Now, you can have Rome deal with them better by having a strong dynasty in place between 200 and 300, and butterflying the various contemporary plagues, but after 200 Rome in any TL is always going to face a difficult period, in my view.

The whole political/strategic basis of the Principate rested on overwhelming military superiority on all frontiers, and it's not going to be possible to keep this up indefinitely.

Agreed. I do wonder though, what effect having a strong and stable dynasty during this period ruling Rome would have on Rome's future. It was the instability of the third century that lead to the discarding of the principate and creation of the dominate and tetrarchy after all.
 
Agreed. I do wonder though, what effect having a strong and stable dynasty during this period ruling Rome would have on Rome's future. It was the instability of the third century that lead to the discarding of the principate and creation of the dominate and tetrarchy after all.

I suspect a Dominate-ish structure's quite likely to emerge at some point anyway: it's not as any Princeps was anything other than an autocrat, and nobody's going to seriously want to give power back to the Roman Senate. All of the trends that led to the late-antique Empire can already been seen in Hadrian's day, after all.

I'll even say that I think it's much more likely than not with a POD after 200ish that Rome is going to end up as an eastern-centred Empire with a primarily monotheistic eastern cult ending up dominant. But that does make me sound like the sort of dull determinist I usually deplore, so if somebody has some good ideas to avert the broad pattern of "destiny" that I see for Rome's Empire after 200 then I'd love to hear them!
 
I'll even say that I think it's much more likely than not with a POD after 200ish that Rome is going to end up as an eastern-centred Empire with a primarily monotheistic eastern cult ending up dominant. But that does make me sound like the sort of dull determinist I usually deplore, so if somebody has some good ideas to avert the broad pattern of "destiny" that I see for Rome's Empire after 200 then I'd love to hear them!

Well I think keeping a decentralized and relatively tame Parthian state on the border with the Romans would be enough to allow emperors to continue to focus their attention on the west, which meanwhile will be blowing up on the Germanic frontiers with the Goths and other Germanic confederations rising and the beginning of the Saxon Shore.
 
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