ABSTRACT
The fifty years 235–85 are presented by writers, ancient and modern, as bringing the Roman Empire close to destruction through a combination of invasion by Persians and Goths, internal political upheaval involving a rapid and violent turnover of Emperors, and economic decline, including uncontrolled inflation. Certainly these were years in which troubles came thickest, fastest, and in most striking forms – the capture of the Emperor Valerian by the Persians, for example. But allowances have to be made for the tone taken by ancient writers (see Alföldy 1974); the archaeological evidence does not tally with the black picture they paint (see King and Henig 1981). Further, the problems had been long in building up; and they were not all solved when the period came to an end.
