3rd century

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Millennium: 1st millennium
Centuries: 2nd century · 3rd century · 4th century
Decades: 200s 210s 220s 230s 240s
250s 260s 270s 280s 290s
Categories: Births – Deaths
Establishments – Disestablishments
Eastern Hemisphere at the beginning of the 2nd century AD.
Eastern Hemisphere at the beginning of the 2nd century AD.
Map of the world in AD 250.
Map of the world in AD 250.
Eastern Hemisphere at the end of the 3rd century AD.
Eastern Hemisphere at the end of the 3rd century AD.

The 3rd century is the period from 201 to 300 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era.

Contents

[edit] Overview

After the death of Commodus in the previous century the Roman Empire was plunged into a civil war. When the dust settled, Septimius Severus emerged as emperor, establishing the Severan dynasty. Unlike previous emperors, he openly used the army to back his authority, and paid them well to do so. The regime he created is known as the Military Monarchy as a result. The system fell apart in the 230s, giving way to a fifty-year period known as the Military Anarchy or the Crisis of the Third Century, where no fewer than twenty emperors held the reins of power, most for only a few months. The majority of these men were assassinated, or killed in battle, and the empire almost collapsed under the weight of the political upheaval, as well as the growing Persian threat in the east. Under its new Sassanid rulers, Persia had grown into a rival superpower, and the Romans would have to make drastic reforms in order to better prepare their state for a confrontation. These reforms were finally realized late in the century under the reign of Diocletian, one of them being to divide the empire into an eastern and western half, and have a separate ruler for each.

[edit] Events

The Baths of Caracalla, in 2003
The Baths of Caracalla, in 2003

[edit] Significant persons

[edit] Inventions, discoveries, introductions

[edit] Decades and years

v • d • e
Decades and years
v • d • e
Centuries and millennia