The Crisis of the Third Century (Encore)

The following is an encore presentation of Everything Everywhere Daily. The Roman Empire at its height was a juggernaut. However, during the third century, almost everything fell apart. In fact, for a brief period of time, it arguably did. It suffered from invasions, plagues, a collapsing economy, lower agricultural productivity, and numerous, numerous political assassinations. They eventually solved their problems, but in the process, the entire empire was changed forever. Learn more about the crisis of the third century, and how the Roman empire almost collapsed on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Smithsonian Magazine covers history, science, and culture in the way only we can through rich reporting sparked by our editors insatiable curiosity. On our podcast, there's more to that. Meet the magazine's journalists and hear what they think about the biggest issues of our time. How can Renaissance art help us understand climate change? Why are the northern lights suddenly so visible everywhere? What are the unexpected roots of the American Revolution? Subscribe to There's More to That today and find out how much more there is to almost everything wherever you get your podcasts. As a podcaster, I'm often asked what podcasts I listen to. One of the shows I subscribe to and listen to every week is The Jordan Harbinger Show. The Jordan Harbinger Show is a top podcast that was named best of Apple in 2018. One of my recent favorite episodes from this summer was the interview he did with Atasa Araxa Abrahhemian, who explained how wealthy people can buy second passports overseas. On the show, Jordan dives into the minds of fascinating people, including everyone from athletes, authors, scientists, mobsters, spies, and hostage negotiators. If you like this podcast, you'll probably like the variety and in-depth interviews on the Jordan Harbinger Show. You can't go wrong with adding the Jordan Harbinger Show to your rotation. It's incredibly interesting, and there's never a dull show. Search for The Jordan Harbinger Show. That's h a r, b as in boy, I n as in Nancy, g e r, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Before I start this episode, let me give you fair warning. This period in Roman history had a lot of imperial turnover, and most of the emperors were not ones that you have heard of before. Most of them had unusually short tenures, came to power through their predecessors assassination, and were assassinated themselves. Other than getting some coins made with their faces on them, few of them had any lasting impact on Roman civilization or world history. Historians have dubbed the period in Roman history from the years February to February, a forty nine year span that saw the empire almost fall apart, the crisis of the third century. Before this period kicked off, several macro level problems paved the way for the crisis, and some of which continued to take place during the crisis, which made this period so bad. The first was the …