From Antonines to Severans

Antonine Dynasty
 Marcus Aurelius (161-180)
 Commodus (176-192)

Pertinax (193)
Didius Julianus (193)

Severan Dynasty
 Septimius Severus (193-211)
 Caracalla (198-217)
 [Macrinus] (217-218)
 Elagabalus [or Heliogabalus] (218-222)
 Alexander Severus (222-235)

Historia Augusta
o Fictionalized imperial biography
o Pretence of multiple authorship
o c. 395 (vs. ostensible date in early 4th c.)
o Sole source for 235-284

The Third Century Crisis

"Barracks" Emperors
 Maximinus (235-238)
 Gordian I (238)
 Gordian II (238)
 Balbinus (238)
 Pupienus (238)
 Gordian III (238-244)
 Philip the Arab (244-249)
 Decius (249-251)
 Valerian (253-260): captured by Shapur I
 Gallienus (253-268)
 Claudius (268-270)
 Aurelian (270-275)
 Tacitus (275-276)
 Probus (276-282)
 Carus (282-283)

Currency crisis (adulterated coinage)
Plagues
External pressures (Germans, Sassanids)

An "Age of Anxiety"?

E.R. Dodds, Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety (1965)

Christianity
o Persecutions under Decius, Valerian
o Asceticism: self-denying lifestyle

Gnosticism
o Gnosis = knowledge (cf. Eng. 'agnostic')
o Dualism: Good/Evil - Light/Darkness
o Texts from Nag Hammadi, Egypt

Manichaeanism
o Founded by Mani (216-276)
o Mixture of Christianity, Gnosticism

Neoplatonism
o Plotinus (205-c. 269/70)
o Porphyry (234-c. 305): disciple of Plotinus
o Chaldaean Oracles
o Theurgy: attempt to control divine