Between the principate (I-II centuries) and the dominant (IV-V centuries) lies the period of Roman history, qualified in science as the crisis of the III century. Occurring in 193-284, it represents a crisis of the slave-owning mode of production. This time was filled with revolts of peasants, the urban poor and slaves, rebellions of soldiers, invasions of the empire's neighboring tribes and was characterized by economic and political turmoil.

The second century seemed to Roman authors from the ruling class, and after them to many later Western historians, the "golden age". The internal and external wars that had plagued Rome for centuries had now ceased. The last major war of Emperor Trajan (98-117) with the Dacians, who threatened the Danubian possessions of the Romans, ended with the capture of huge booty and the formation of the province of Dacia, rich in gold and fertile lands. It was here that colonists from all over the empire flocked. Rome's eternal rival Parthia, defeated by Trajan, did not break the peace. The provincial nobility, which often led revolts against Rome in the first century, became reconciled to Roman rule. Its representatives received Roman citizenship, were included in the upper classes of senators and horsemen, and held high positions in the army and in the administration of the empire. Throughout the Roman Empire, many cities, municipalities and colonies appeared, sometimes rebuilt, and sometimes appearing on the site of old, native settlements. Land for new cities was taken from local residents, mostly peasants, who were pushed back to the worst places. If some of them even stayed within the boundaries of a particular city, they did not become citizens of it, but were obliged to pay various taxes and duties to the city.

In terms of their social structure and appearance, the cities founded by the Romans were generally of the same type, reproducing the structure of Rome itself, as it was when it was not yet the capital of a world power, but a city-state, an ancient civil community. Part of the land allotted to the city went to the allotments of the townspeople, the other remained the property of the city. Public gardens and squares were laid out on it, as well as common land - pastures, meadows, forests, estates (villas) that were used to replenish the city treasury, and plots that were rented out in short and long-term leases. When dividing the land from north to south and from west to east, the main streets and parallel streets intersected at right angles. Temples of Roman gods and deified emperors, markets, and covered colonnades were built in the central forum square. Water pipes, baths, circuses, theaters, libraries were built in cities, small and large craft and trade enterprises were opened, professional and religious corporations were formed - colleges.

The highest urban class were the decurions, who were the third" noble " class in the empire. From among them, magistrates and the city council were chosen, who were in charge of urban economy and city affairs. To become a magistrate and enter the decurion class, it was necessary to have an estate of 200-300 yugers (50-75 ha) on the territory of the city and sufficient monetary property, since the elected magistrate, firstly, had to pay a certain amount to the city treasury for the honor rendered to him; secondly, to make a deposit in the amount of ensuring the fair management of city property, finally, spend part of the funds in favor of the city and fellow citizens: build a public building, pave a road somewhere, conduct water, arrange gladiatorial games or a feast for citizens with the distribution of gifts. Custom required that not only the magistrates, but also the rich people should pay their taxes.-

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quite often very large sums were given for the same gifts to cities. Some donated money to cover the arrears of taxes due from the city; others, in case of crop failures and high prices, bought bread, butter, and wine for their fellow citizens; others established or replenished so-called alimony funds, that is, amounts from which interest was given subsidies to the children of the poor. In return, the donors received from their fellow citizens statues erected to them in the forum with inscriptions of gratitude listing their merits. All this was dictated by the need to preserve the city as a civil community with at least visible equality of its members, to prevent acute conflicts between the poor and the haves of citizens, since only within such a community could production function based on the labor of slaves who were outside any norms and institutions of civil society at that time.

The spread of urban, otherwise municipal, organization was inextricably linked with the development of the slave-owning mode of production. Small and medium-sized estates created the best conditions for this. In such a villa with one or two dozen slaves, it was possible to carefully calculate the production rates, use all the advantages of simple cooperation and division of labor, improve the skills and specialization of slaves, taking into account the technical culture that the estate supplied to the market. Slaves and female slaves could also be recruited to serve those directly involved in production - artisans who repaired inventory, weavers, seamstresses, cooks, nurses of slave children; during the lull in agricultural work, free slaves could be employed in the pottery, wool weaving, and cloth workshops created on the estates. Finally, in such small estates, effective supervision of slaves was most often established, which was of paramount importance. All these advantages of a slave villa over a small peasant farm were provided in the II century BC-I century AD. agriculture flourished in Italy itself, and in the next two centuries, as cities and slave villas spread, so did the provinces. The upper class of urban landowners and slave owners, the decurion class, was a solid social base of the empire. In the provinces, they received Roman citizenship, sometimes the dignity of a horseman, and joined the middle command staff in the army.

A similar economic system gave rise to a similar way of life. Roman life and Greco-Roman culture dominated the entire Mediterranean. The provincials not only perceived ancient culture, but also made a rich contribution to it. So, the philosopher Seneca and the poet Martial came from Spain, the satirical writer Lucian-from Syria, the author of the famous "Metamorphoses" Apuleius - from Africa, the historians Appian - from Egypt, Dion Cassius - from Asia Minor. The development of trade, which connected various regions of the empire with each other and with the outside world - Parthia, India, Arabia, and China-also contributed to this apparent leveling. Merchants made a lot of money by trading imported spices, incense, ivory, precious stones, and silk. Caravan trade went mainly through the city of Palmyra, located on the border of Syria and Arabia. Sea trade was particularly well established .1 In the largest coastal cities, harbors were built in which many vessels equal in tonnage to the later ships of the XVII and even XVIII centuries were simultaneously berthed, loaded, unloaded, and repaired. They were served by corporations of movers, divers, boatmen, carriers, sailors, and other persons of various specialties. In the ports, buildings were built for the administration, for the conclusion of large trade transactions, hotels, inns. Not only merchants, but also decurions, horsemen, and senators participated in trade operations through trusted agents - slaves and freedmen. Grain, oil, wine, fish, metal, textile, leather goods, ceramics, luxury goods, books, and slaves were imported and exported. The development of money circulation reached the highest level for the ancient world. Taxes were collected in money, and land, houses, and workshops were rented out for money. Trade stimulated the development of handicrafts, especially in Italy, Asia Minor, Syria, and Gaul.

1 J. Rouge. Recherches sur l'organisation du commerce maritime en Mediterranees sous l'Empire Romaine. P. 1966.

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The craft was mostly small and specialized. In large craft centers, craftsmen are known who made only one type of footwear, weapons, and jewelry. Both freemen, freedmen, and slaves were employed in the craft. Often, the master assigned a trusted slave a workshop with slaves and equipment, so that he would give part of the income to the master, and keep the other part for himself. This increased the interest of the slaves, and, according to Seneca, the slaves "daily" invented something new: the manufacture of glass tiles, pipes to transfer heat and maintain an even temperature, improved methods for polishing marble and blowing thin glass .2 Artisan slaves were often rented out, leaving them a portion of their earnings. Such slaves were drawn close to the free artisans and the free working poor, and were included with them in the same professional, religious colleges and so-called "little people's" colleges, which were created in order to provide them with joint meals on holidays and decent burial on the contributions of their fellow members. The relative development of the social division of labor led to the strengthening of economic ties between different parts of the empire and, accordingly, a relatively loyal government policy.

The apparent prosperity of the empire was attributed by the ruling classes to the wisdom of the second-century Antonine emperors, to whom, in addition to Trajan, belonged Hadrian (117-138), Antoninus Pius (138-161), and Marcus Aurelius (161-180). They were contrasted with the "tyrant" dynasties of Julius Claudius and Flavius the First century, when relations between the emperors and the senatorial aristocracy, who did not want to compromise the position they occupied under the republic, were extremely hostile. The latter responded to the opposition of the Senate and conspiracies against the emperors with repressions, executions, confiscations, and the persecution of writers and philosophers close to the opposition. Under the Antonines, relations between the emperors and the Senate improved. There were few descendants of the Republican aristocracy left in the Senate. Most of them came from Italian cities and provinces that had benefited from the establishment of the empire and refused to restore the republic. For their part, the Antonins also made concessions. They began to bequeath their power not to their sons, but to people approved by the Senate (their monarchy was like an elective one), stopped confiscating property, widely supported cities, did not restrict freedom of opinion to some extent (of course, within the limits of loyalty), patronized cultural figures. They themselves were highly educated people, especially Hadrian, who was called "Philellinus", that is, the friend of Greek education, and Marcus Aurelius, one of the three (he, Seneca, and Epictetus) most famous Roman Stoic philosophers of the empire. Among the ruling classes, the Antonines were popular. Statues of the reigning emperors were erected everywhere, as well as temples of the dead and deified emperors and their deified virtues-Prudence, Wisdom, Justice, Valor, Generosity, and Mercy. The dominant ideology was stoicism, which taught a virtuous life corresponding to the laws of nature and the world mind, inner freedom and independence, while strictly fulfilling the duty towards that great and perfect whole (the world, the cosmos and its reflection - the earthly human society and the state), of which man is an organic part.

All of a sudden, all this apparent prosperity collapsed with surprising rapidity. A few decades after the death of the "philosopher on the throne" Marcus Aurelius, the empire was in a state of severe crisis. Invasions of peoples from almost all the borders of the empire, and especially from the north; continuous civil wars between different claimants to the imperial throne, of which few were able to hold on to power for more than a few months and almost all were killed; revolts in provinces that fell away from Rome and put forward their own rulers; violence against civilians; executions and confiscation of the property of those who were in opposition to this or that emperor; desolation of land, crop failures, famine, epidemics, depreciation of money, impoverishment of a huge number of people; decline of cities, crafts and trade; people's disgust for former ideological values and fever-

2 Sen. Epislol. ad Lucil., 90.

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the constant search for new ideas to build on - these are the symptoms of this crisis.

Not only ancient historians, but also noble-bourgeois historians, sometimes found it an unsolvable riddle .3 Many saw it as caused by the personal qualities of the emperors who succeeded the Antonines. Marcus Aurelius, they argued, had made the fatal mistake of bequeathing the throne, not to the Senate's elect, but to his son Commodus (180 - 192), a dissolute and self-willed man who often fell under the influence of bad people and was so filled with a sense of his own greatness that he identified himself with the god Hercules. He ignored the senators ' opinions, sought popularity only in the army, was rumored to be planning to take away senators and distribute all the land to soldiers, performed in the circus as a gladiator, and finally was killed by his freedmen and mistress. With Commodato and began a series of" bad " emperors, who were due to certain circumstances on the Roman throne. All these people, according to sources coming from senatorial circles, were most often poorly educated, well-served military men, promoted by soldiers, sometimes almost "barbarians", like the Thracian Maximius (235-238), or the Arab sheikh Philip (244-249), or provincial Africans Septimius Severus (193-211 years), the Syrian Elagabalus (218-222), a native of the remote Danubian village of Aurelianus (270-275). Roman customs were alien to them. They didn't honor the Roman gods. For example, Elagabalus brought a black stone representing his god from Emesa to Rome and forced the Romans to perform what they considered strange and immoral rites. Only a few of these emperors, according to the same sources, were "decent" people who were considered with the Senate, but the soldiers who disbanded under their proteges did not tolerate them and killed them.

All the events of the third century were interpreted by contemporaries as a struggle between "soldier" and "senate" emperors. Many bourgeois historians took the same view, ignoring the fact that the personality of the head of state, with all his role, still cannot explain significant historical movements, and the soldiers and the senate were not forces isolated from society, but represented the interests of certain classes. Some authors saw the cause of all the calamities in the decline of military discipline, in the greed of soldiers who profited from civil wars and were not courageous enough in the fight against the Germans, Sarmatians, Persians, Arabs, and Moors advancing from outside the empire. This reasoning is also groundless: the state of the army is the result of the general situation in the state. Other authors, following the bourgeois historian of antiquity M. I. Rostovtsev, consider the "soldier" emperors to be the leaders of the peasants who rebelled against the "urban bourgeoisie". However, the actions of these emperors did not correspond to the interests of the peasants and did not improve their situation.

In reality, the causes of the crisis were more profound. Its first symptoms appeared already under the cover of the well-being of the" golden age " of the Antonins. The urbanisation and romanisation of the empire was not nearly as complete as it might have seemed at first glance. In many of its regions, there were still quite a few peasant communities and" eximated " large land holdings, that is, those that were not part of urban territories and were cultivated by small - scale landholders who were obliged to pay in-kind (fixed or bonded) and working rent-colonists. These were mostly the possessions of wealthy senators and emperors, the largest landowners in the empire. True, both of them owned many slaves, but most of them were artisans, servants, business agents, and members of the local administration. The main ate workers on earth were colonists. The peasants and colonists were increasingly exploited by landowners and the State. Their petitions to the emperors have reached us from various provinces, complaining of the unbearable burden of taxes and duties, poverty, violence and injustice. Already in the second century. here and there peasant unrest broke out. Particularly significant was the revolt of the so-called "bucols" in Egypt. Owners of "eximated" domains, stewards and tenants of imperial estates often came into conflict with cities, diverting their population to their lands, arranging various events.

3 Points of view on the causes of the crisis, see: R. Remondon. La crise de I'Euipire Romaine de Marc-Aurele a Anastase. P. 1964.

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there were workshops and markets on their estates that competed with the city's. But while the slave-owning mode of production was on the rise, these conflicts only rarely came to the surface. Gradually, however, this method of production began to decline.

By the beginning of the second century, Italy's previously flourishing agriculture was declining. Labor-intensive, but profitable crops-grapes, olives, and fruit trees-were replaced by less whimsical crops. The quality of handicraft products declined, and cities became poorer. In the second half of the second and early third centuries, the same process gradually spread to the provinces. Hadrian already had to forgive the cities 900 million sesterces of arrears, but their debt continued to grow. The city economy was falling into decline, and despite the opposition of the emperors, the city lands were seized by private individuals. Gradually, it became difficult to find people who wanted to fill the previously coveted positions of city magistrates and bear the costs associated with them. The decurions were less able to spend their money on helping the urban poor, who grew increasingly resentful as their situation worsened. The upper classes of the empire increasingly despised people engaged in manual labor. The old visible equality of citizens was disappearing. Persons who did not belong to the three "noble" classes were ranked among the "lower", to the "common people". Now they, like the slaves, could be tortured, subjected to punishments previously applied only to slaves. Every year the slave farms of the city owners brought in less income than was required to cover both their own and the city's needs.

So, the slave villa contributed to the development of agriculture to a certain extent. But these limits were comparatively narrow. The slave economy proved to be profitable as long as it used relatively simple methods and slaves could be forced to perform not particularly complex operations. But with the accumulation of experience, the introduction of a number of improvements in the cultivation of more whimsical crops, there was a need for highly qualified, and most importantly initiative workers. The slaves were taught; but it was impossible to force them to work to the full extent of their skill. And the masters themselves were constantly afraid that knowledgeable, intelligent slaves would turn out to be rebellious. Agronomist Columella (I century) advised not to skimp to pay 8 thousand sesterces (that is, as much as 2 hectares of land cost) for a well-trained viticulturist. But at the same time, he noted that since the profession of a viticulturist requires knowledge and a lively mind, viticulturists usually showed obstinacy and had to be kept in a home prison (ergastula) and sent out to work chained. And, of course, it is not surprising, according to Columella, that neither he nor other gentlemen could get the winegrowers to carefully sort the vines for planting. Agronomist of the fourth century Palladius wrote that he preferred stupid slaves to efficient ones, since stupidity is closer to submission, and quickness of mind is closer to"villainy." No wonder there was an aphorism in use: it is dangerous for a person who is placed low on the class ladder to surpass others in knowledge and art. Naturally, the productivity of slaves grew slowly, if at all; the estates became less profitable day by day. Many contemporaries believed that it was more profitable to move to the cultivation of simple crops, to extensive farming, which required less costs.

In handicrafts, where it is necessary to produce high-quality products designed for the buyer, this contradiction began to show itself especially early, and the ruling class tried to interest the most qualified craftsmen by allocating workshops to them, paying them for their work, and opening up the prospect of getting a free letter and starting their own business. In agriculture, such incentives began to be received first by the managers of estates, sometimes becoming their tenants. For ordinary slaves, religious colleges were organized in the villas, in which they held elected positions, and the most diligent of them were even awarded. From the first years of the second century, slaves were allocated land plots, from which they, like the colonists, had to give part of the harvest. Instead of the old ideas about the need to keep slaves in constant fear, the ideas of a meek, merciful attitude towards slaves, first founded by Seneca, began to spread.

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There were widespread stories of devoted slaves who saved their masters, sometimes at the cost of their own lives, during times of civil wars and repression. However, all attempts to mitigate the contradictions between the slaves and the "noble" classes did not lead to anything. The authors of the stories themselves admitted that, as a rule, slaves hate their masters and that such hatred lies "in the nature of things." Despite a law passed under the Emperor Augustus, according to which, in the event of the murder of a master, all slaves who were under the same roof with him were tortured and executed, slaves often killed their masters. As Seneca wrote, "more people died from the wrath of slaves than from the wrath of kings." 4 A constant phenomenon was the escape of slaves. Often they joined the bands of robbers. Some robber chieftains were very popular among the people, for example, Bull Felix, which was active in Italy at the end of the second and beginning of the third centuries. According to the stories, he robbed the rich and gave gifts to the poor, with extreme dexterity was able to deceive the soldiers sent to catch him, and when he was captured, he showed courage and resourcefulness at the trial.

They, like the working poor, responded to attempts to inspire their slaves with love and loyalty to their masters with an increasing departure from official ideology and hostility to those in power. They considered rich and noble people to be rapists, who, posing as friends of "little people", seek only to separate and enslave them; they valued spiritual freedom, charity, simplicity of heart, willingness to help in trouble, hardworking and modest poverty. They worshipped their idols of Hercules and Silvanus, who had become gods for their work for the benefit of people and at the same time powerful lords of the cosmos, before whose power the power of earthly lords and rulers pales. Among the slaves and the poor, Christianity spread more and more, which then most fully met their aspirations. Although the first and second centuries did not see slave uprisings like those of the second and first centuries BC, the opposition of the slaves frightened the upper classes, and the " slave issue "became extremely acute. 5
The emperors of the second century, fearing the possible actions of slaves, issued a number of laws that limited the arbitrariness of the masters. The owners lost the right to kill the slave, hand him over to the gladiators or send him to the mines (now only the court could sentence him to such punishments), and keep him in chains forever. Ergastuli, private prisons for slaves, were eliminated. Slaves, in the event of mistreatment by their masters, were given the right, under the protection of the "sacred" imperial images, to ask the imperial officials in charge of such matters to forcibly sell them to more humane owners. Although these laws reflected the interests of slave owners, it became increasingly difficult to force slaves to work, and incentive measures had to be strengthened, which increased the share of necessities and reduced the share of surplus product appropriated by slave owners. Villa owners were getting poorer. Their land, as well as the land of the cities, passed into the hands of rich owners. Large estates appeared - latifundia. It was much more difficult to organize masses of slaves in latifundia than in small farms. It was necessary to maintain a large administrative apparatus, on which a substantial part of the surplus product was spent. In addition, the ruling elite was afraid of the accumulation of slaves in one place. Gradually, the estates began to be divided into small plots, renting them out for a part of the harvest to free tenants and slaves and freedmen planted on the land. So kolonat was increasingly strengthened.

Large slave-owning manufactories that sometimes appeared in handicraft production also gradually turned out to be unviable. They either ceased to exist or were also divided into separate production units, which were rented out to persons of different social status. The incompatibility of slave labor with large-scale production made it impossible to apply complex cooperation and mechanization involving more or less large-scale production. And without them, it was impossible to increase the productivity of slave labor so much that it corresponded to the growing need for money for state and city duties, the purchase of goods on the market, etc. The situation of municipal owners became particularly difficult. Their estates were not-

4 Sen. Epistol. ad Lucil., 107.

5 For more information about slavery in this period, see E. M. Shtaerman and M. K. Trofimova, Slaveholding Relations in the Early ROMAN Empire, Moscow, 1971.

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They were large enough to pass entirely to the sharecropping colonnade, which was profitable only where a large number of colonnades provided a considerable amount of rent in kind. Large-scale land ownership was growing stronger, while small and medium-sized ones were withering away. Accordingly, we can speak of the decline of the mode of production based on slavery, and of the development of the mode of production, which, although not yet feudal, already contained one of the most essential elements of the latter: the combination of large-scale land ownership with the labor of small, rent-bound landholders.

All this affected the combat effectiveness of the army, the main parts of which-the legions-were recruited from citizens who had Roman citizenship. When they retired, legionnaires were granted land grants, tax exemptions, and the rank of Decurion. But with the impoverishment of this class, the awards received by veterans ceased to atone for the severity of 20 years of service. They were reluctant to join the army, and cases of desertion became more frequent. Hadrian had already stopped trying to expand the empire further and started building border defenses. When the wars with Parthia and the Trans-Danubian tribes of the Quadi and Marcomanni began under Marcus Aurelius, the latter were repulsed only with extreme exertion of forces. Under Commodus, the legions in Britain mutinied. And the deserter Mattern, gathering his own kind, as well as peasants and slaves, ravaged Spain, Gaul and northern Italy, attacking estates and small towns. He planned to kill the emperor by sneaking into Rome in disguise, but was extradited and executed.

Conflicts between municipal circles and large owners became more and more acute. The former wanted the emperors to support the cities, grant them (primarily the urban elite) some self-government and independence, not restrict a certain freedom of thought, conduct a peaceful policy, curb the greed and self-will of the rich, forcing them to donate part of their wealth to public needs, and at the same time keep the common people and "demagogues"in check. The program of large proprietors from the senatorial class was different. One of them, a native of Asia Minor, Dion Cassius, called on the emperors to destroy urban autonomy and all costs of maintaining cities, equate them with villages and only consider Rome a city. The emperor is called upon to rely only on the most noble and rich people, to have a strong army capable of keeping the rebellious "rabble"at bay. Subjects are obliged to obey the government implicitly, to honor only the gods recognized by the state. All religious and philosophical pursuits must be severely suppressed. The nobles of the western provinces, on the other hand, believed that the emperors elected by the Senate could only be supreme commanders, maintain the army by selling their lands and spoils of war, without burdening the provinces with taxes. It is their duty to fight, to seize new lands and prisoners, which they then turn into colonists, and in peacetime to force the soldiers to work, not to interfere in the affairs of the provinces, and to leave all government to the Senate, in other words, to the land magnates. The army wanted a strong imperial power independent of the Senate, able to limit the claims of large landowners, increase the privileges of soldiers and veterans, whose land allocation could once again revive small and medium-sized land ownership and slavery as the mainstay of the empire.

All these contradictions broke out when, after the assassination of Commodus and Pertinax, who briefly reigned after him, war broke out at once between three claimants to the throne: nominated by the urban strata and soldiers of the eastern provinces and supported by Parthia Pescennius Niger, a protege of the Gallic landed nobility Clodismus Albina and proclaimed Emperor Septimius Severus by the Danube army. When the latter won, he executed a number of senators (whom he later distrusted), carried out massive land confiscations in Gaul and Spain, where there were also supporters of Albinus, distributed part of these lands to veterans, almost doubled the salaries of the military, allowed soldiers to start families, acquire land, manage farms and various businesses. It removed the previous restrictions that allowed only senators and horsemen to hold the highest command positions in the army. Now a simple soldier was promised to rise to a high position and receive equestrian dignity. Septimius Severus, his son and heir Caracalla (211 - 217) tried to protect the property

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However, since it was no longer possible to revive them, they began to recruit soldiers mainly from the Rhine and especially the Danube regions, where numerous villages still remained and the decline caused by the crisis of the slave-owning mode of production was not felt. These villages were often inhabited by veterans who received land and purchased slaves there. They formed the core of the local rural elite, grew rich and began to exploit the peasants, whose situation began to deteriorate in these areas as well.

The senators did not approve of Septimius Severus ' policies. With him, they were reconciled only by successful wars with Parthia and cruel measures taken against the common people. Special police detachments (hospitals) were stationed in different regions of the empire to fight the so-called robbers. Cruel laws were enforced, even to the point of burning at the stake, against preachers of new religions and teachings that "stir the souls of the common people with the hope of something," against magicians and sorcerers who were turned to by slaves, against seditious instigators. Organizing collegiums that were not permitted by the Government was equivalent to an armed seizure of a public building. The Eastern cults of solar deities were intensively planted under the auspices of the government, which exalted the power of the emperors as descendants and representatives on Earth of the most powerful god-the Sun. This was in line with the common desire of Septimius Severus and Earacalla to strengthen the emperor's power, finally pushing the Senate into the background. Accordingly, the bureaucracy was strengthened, headed by prominent lawyers with the rank of Praetorian prefects and recruited mainly from the military. Officials received large salaries, which, like the increase in spending on the army, led to an increase in the tax burden.

Septimus Severus seemed to have managed to stabilize the situation somewhat. But after his death and Caracalla's murder, things in the empire began to deteriorate rapidly. The government, increasingly in need of money, resorted to issuing substandard coins, mixing copper with silver, which caused an increase in prices and led to the beginning of naturalization of the economy. But only large estates managed to do this. Small and medium-sized businesses were hit again by inflation. In addition, the responsibility for collecting taxes from the city's territory was assigned to the decurions, and collecting these taxes was becoming increasingly difficult. Ruined decurions abandoned their lands and left the cities, but they were returned and forced to pay their dues. The big proprietors further oppressed the colonists, making them more and more dependent on themselves, and enslaved the surrounding peasants, entangling them in debts, seizing the lands of the communes and peasant plots. As the bishop of Carthage, Cyprian, wrote, the rich, adding to their estates others, infinitely expand their possessions at the expense of poor neighbors; citizens suffer more from their evil deeds than from "barbarians". Everywhere they scurry, rob, grab. A person has nowhere to look for protection. A stronger person can easily bribe a judge and turn the law in their favor. Loss of property has become a massive phenomenon. The need is compounded by the fact that every crop increase is taken away, and prices continue to rise. Rich people collect gold and silver, spend their time playing games, and don't share their possessions with anyone .6
Meanwhile, the offensive of neighboring peoples against the empire was intensifying. In Parthia, the Sassanid dynasty came to power, immediately entering into hostilities with Rome. Across the Rhine, the Danube, and the borders of Roman Africa, powerful tribal alliances emerged, attacking and ravaging the provinces of the empire. Slaves, colonists, and peasants often went over to the side of the "barbarians" and served as their guides on Roman soil. At the same time, the emperors tried to exert more and more moral pressure on their subjects, demanding that they be called "eternal", "invincible", to celebrate the happiness that they allegedly brought to people. In the guide to composing speeches of the rhetorician of the third century. Menander advised every word addressed to the emperor to begin with his praise, saying that during his time the golden age reigned on Earth. Even the colonists and peasants of the third century, in their petitions to one or another emperor, first of all claimed that under him all people were happy, and only they were somehow unhappy. The Stoic philosophy with its call for sacrifice in the name of

6 Cypr. Ad Donat., 12; Ad Demetr., 10.

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the name of the beautiful and perfect whole, that is, the empire, has lost its power over minds. People now sought solace in the teachings that explained the presence of evil in the world and were intended to reveal to their adherents the secrets that freed the soul from the cruel fate that reigned on Earth and ensured it after death bliss in the aboveground spheres. Christianity spread more and more widely, not only among the poor and slaves, but even in the middle and upper classes, which were experiencing a crisis in one way or another. Ecclesiastical communities were transformed into strong organizations headed by bishops who demanded unconditional obedience and declared dissenters "heretics."

The senatorial nobility, oppressed by the first Severans, tried to take revenge under Alexander Severus, whose government was actually headed by his mother, the Syrian Mammea, and the famous lawyer Ulpian. The latter responded to the infringement of the interests and privileges of veterans and soldiers with mutinies, during which Ulpian was killed first, and then the emperor and his mother. Maximinus, known as the Thracian, was elevated to the throne, and the senators compared him to Spartacus, telling wonders about his gigantic stature, enormous strength, and monstrous bloodthirstiness, and paying tribute to his energetic actions in the wars against the "barbarians". In provincial cities, as in the army, it was popular. The new emperor earned the hatred of the Senate for his decisive actions directed against the senators (numerous executions and confiscations). The harsh law issued by the emperor also applied to organizations of" young men", led by young people from aristocratic families, who often rampaged in the cities. Modestinus, the prefect of the Praetorium, ordered that robbers caught in the act should be hanged without trial, and that slaves who were plotting against their masters should be burned. In response to such reprisals, several noble "young men"from the African city of Tizdra, armed the colonists who were sitting on their lands, rebelled and proclaimed the governor of Africa, the richest and most distinguished Senator Gordianus, as emperor. The revolt was easily suppressed by soldiers stationed in Africa, supported by the citizens of Carthage, but Maximinus, who was declared deposed by the senators, was soon killed.

After his death, a continuous succession of emperors begins, proclaimed either by the army or the senate. All of them ruled for too short a time and were completely absorbed in the wars with the ever-increasing onslaught of the "barbarians". There is no need to talk about their implementation of any specific policy. The general devastation in the empire was getting worse and worse. It culminated in the reigns of Valerian (253-260) and his son Gallienus (253-268), the former of whom belonged to the "senatorial "and the latter to the" anti - senatorial " emperors. At this time, the tribes of the Goths, Franks, Alemanni, Carpi, and others were ravaging Gaul, the Danubian regions, and even Greece. The Persians captured a number of areas in the east, and in the war with them, the emperor Valerian himself was captured, whom the Persian ruler Shapur, when sitting in the saddle, forced to hold his stirrup. The Empire had never known such disgrace before. The confusion was intensified by the persecution of Christians initiated by Valerian's predecessor Decius (249-251) and continued under Valerian, who were punished by confiscation of property, exile to the mines, and execution. The poor held firm; the rich Christians abdicated and hurried to the altars of the old gods to show their loyalty. A split has begun in Christian communities.

After Valerian's capture, Gallienus, who had previously been his father's co-ruler, remained the sole head of the empire. Unlike many of his predecessors and successors, Gallienus was not a native of provincial soldiers, but a descendant of an ancient senatorial family originating from Etruria, a highly educated man who dreamed of reviving the Roman culture of the Augustan era, a patron and admirer of the last major philosopher of antiquity, the founder of the Neo-Platonic school Plotinus. He tried to support the cities (city life and the activities of the collegiums were somewhat revived during his time), tried to limit the abuse of officials and somewhat moderate the exploitation of colonials. Under him, the persecution of Christians was abolished, and broad religious tolerance was observed, which gained Gallienus popularity among municipal circles and intellectuals close to them. He made some reforms in the army, of which the most important was the reform of the cavalry: formerly small, independent or attached to the legions of mounted detachments.-

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li are connected in large parts under the command of one commander. Since the main force of the empire's enemies was cavalry, the reform of Gallienus strengthened the combat capability of the Roman army, and this was largely due to the victories won then over the "barbarians". At the same time, he tried to make an alliance with some leaders of the "barbarians": the leader of the heruli Nabolot, who granted him the dignity of senator, the king of the Marcomanni Attalus, whose daughter Pipa became his second wife.

Gallienus, who led the military operations on various fronts, enjoyed the love of the soldiers, especially strengthened by the fact that he forbade senators to serve in the army and destroyed the class partitions in it. The Senate, on the other hand, particularly hated Platius Gallienus. The senators reproached the emperor with effeminacy, laziness, and a tendency to idle amusements, for which he forgot the desperate situation of the state and the disgrace of his father. Gallienus, occupied on other fronts, really could not stop the Persian offensive. This was done by Odenathus, who came from a powerful family in Palmyra. At first, he negotiated an alliance with Shapur, but finding the terms offered to him unfavorable, he gathered an army and drove the Persians across the Euphrates, acting as an ally of Rome. Gallienus, realizing that in the current state of affairs he would not be able to control the eastern provinces, where there were many discontented people who were ready to prefer the power of the Persians or nominate their own rulers, recognized Odenathus as the "Augustus of the East", handing over to him the army stationed there. This act, considered by many to be reasonable, met with a storm of indignation and ridicule in the Senate .7
Soon the big provincial proprietors moved from words to deeds and began to raise rebellions, nominating their own emperors. Some of them did not last very long, being defeated by Gallienus ' loyal troops. But Gaul, Britain, and Spain, which fell away from Rome, formed an independent Gallic Empire that lasted 15 years. Its first emperor was Postumus (258-268). A representative of the native nobility, this fighter against the" tyrant " Gallienus was not recognized for a long time by the legions stationed on the Rhine, had to resort to recruiting mercenaries from the Germans and with their help not only defended himself from the Roman troops, but also repelled the tribes advancing from across the Rhine. Postumus seems to have tried to establish an alliance with Gallienus 'opponents in the East, and then with Gallienus' cavalry commander Aureolus, who rebelled against the emperor and later died in an internecine war. Postumus, who was opposed by the Rhenish legions, was soon killed. They proclaimed Lelianus and Marius, a simple blacksmith, as their emperors.

In Rome, Gallienus was succeeded by the emperor Claudius II, called the Gothic (268-270). He had succeeded in halting the Gothic advance on the Danube, but pacification was still a long way off. Mysteriously, either through the machinations of Persian agents or at the instigation of his wife Zenobia, Odenathus was killed while hunting. Zenobia became regent to his two young sons. Contemporaries told wonders about her beauty, education, and ambition. At her court, she gathered philosophers and writers who had left Rome after the death of Gallienus, and received the Christian Bishop Paul of Samosata. Under her leadership, the anti-Roman, pro-Persian party of Palmyra gained a decisive advantage. Zenobia broke with Rome, formed an alliance with the Persians, and conquered Syria and Egypt, depriving Rome of almost all its eastern possessions. In the Gallic Empire, Postumus was succeeded for a short time by Victorinus (268-270), recognized by the Rhenish legions, whose mother, the powerful and energetic noblewoman Victoria, was rumored to want to form an alliance with Zenobia in order to divide the empire between the two rulers. When Victorinus was killed in another soldier's mutiny, Victoria helped bring to power the richest landowner Tetricus (270-273), the governor of Aquitaine, where especially! the landowning nobility was strong. Only for a lot of money did the soldiers agree to recognize it. However, those areas of Gaul and Spain where the urban strata had not yet lost their significance began to fall away from it. The city of Augustodunus, populated by artisans and small landowners, revolted, calling on the help of the Roman emperor. Only after a seven-month siege did Tetricus manage to take the city.

7 For more information, see: I. A. Stuchevsky. Palmyra. Voprosy Istorii, 1970, No. 2.

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At the same time, the revolt of peasants, colonists, and slaves, who called themselves Bagaudas (fighters), began in Gaul, which was even more formidable for the nobility. They attacked the estates of large proprietors and seized them, driving out the owners. The Bagaudas also attacked cities. Perhaps their allies were the rebels of Augustodun, from which the nobles and rich people fled. At that time, as one nobleman wrote, "the ignorant farmers became addicted to the military way of life, the ploughman became like an infantryman, the shepherd like a horseman, the villager who became a desolator of his own fields like a barbarian."8 Frightened, Tetricus secretly sent a letter to the Emperor Aurelianus, who succeeded Claudius, calling for help. "Deliver me, O invincible one, from these evils," he concluded with a quote from Virgil. Thus, in the face of a sharp class struggle, contradictions among the ruling classes were extinguished. Aurelianus and his army entered Gaul and easily defeated the army of Tetricus. The Gallic Empire returned to Roman rule. However, the Bagaud movement did not stop. On the contrary, after 10 years, it took on an even broader scale. The Bagaud managed to create a well-armed army and chose their emperors Elian and Amand, who even minted coins. Their main stronghold was flanked on three sides by the river, and on the fourth-a moated fortress, located at the confluence of the Marne and Seine.

A few years earlier, a mass movement of peasants and colonists, who used the invasion of the province of Moorish tribes, began in Africa. The tribal leaders of the Moors, forming an alliance, crossed the borders of Mauretania and Numidia, where they were joined by the Quinquegentaneae and Phraxine tribes living there, led by Faraxenus, as well as colonies of imperial and private estates, many of which also belonged to native tribes. The Roman detachments sent against them could not stop the advance of the rebels. Cities had to organize self-defense, as there were not enough regular army soldiers partially sent to the Danube border. The main role in this defense was played by detachments of "noble young men". However, some cities were still taken by the rebels, who imposed tribute on the rich owners.

The writings of the Christian poet Eommodianus, who, according to a convincing assumption of some researchers, was a bishop of some "heretical" African sect in the middle of the third century, give some idea of the ideology of the African rebels. The persecution of Decius and Valerian sharpened the division between rich and poor in Christian communities. Many of the latter renounced their faith, but when the persecution subsided, they asked to be forgiven and accepted back into the community. Bishops, such as Cyprian of Carthage, were ready to meet them halfway, hoping to strengthen their influence among the rich and high-born Christians. The poor, dissatisfied with the increasing power of bishops and the disappearance of the old democracy in Christian communities, believed that the sin of renunciation could not be forgiven. Bishops declared dissenters "heretics", deprived them of the church's allowance, and expelled them from their communities. In this way, the growing class struggle also affected numerous Christian communities already in the middle of the third century. The "heretics" formed their own associations, one of which may have been headed by Commodian. He wrote his works in the language intended for the common people; he denounced rich Christians who were cowardly during the persecution, were ready to make peace with the persecutors in order to preserve their wealth, and argued that they could only be saved by dividing their property with the poor and working hard.

But its main pathos was directed against all the rich and powerful, against Rome, its dominion, its cities and those who exercise its power. All of them, according to Commodian, belong to the kingdom of the Antichrist, who will soon come to earth and gather his army. The "righteous" - that is, poor people in alliance with the "barbarians" - will fight against it. They will be victorious over Rome, and " many of the senators, captured and defeated by the barbarians, will weep and curse God." The "barbarians" will support the Christians, and the vicious Senate will be held captive "under the yoke". All Christians who remained faithful during the persecution will rise up to fight. As they approach, the soldiers of the unholy Roman emperor

8 "Panegyrici lalini", V, 4, 1.

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they will flee, and he will be thrown into hell. The "righteous" will advance fearlessly like lions, laying waste to everything in their path. They will level cities, destroy colonies, and take large amounts of loot, thus restoring justice. The nobles, the rulers, the governors of the provinces, for their wrongs, will become the slaves of the" righteous " and their former slaves for a thousand years, when, after the judgment of men, the golden age will come for all the good ones. In a thousand years, those of the wicked who do not repent will be cast into hell forever .9
Commodian's poems reflect the intense hatred of the agricultural population for large landowners and the Roman government. In the face of this hatred, the land nobility was ready to forget their dissatisfaction with the government's policy and come to terms with it. The African aristocracy made no serious attempt to break away from Rome at all, although there were also some dissatisfied with Gallienus, since popular movements began here earlier than in Gaul, and the Bahaudian revolt forced Tetricus to summon Aurelian. The latter restored to the empire not only Gaul, but also the kingdom of Palmyra and the eastern provinces captured by Zenobia, and the queen herself was led in chains through Rome during the triumphal procession of Aurelian.

Under the immediate successors of Gallienus, who came from the Danubian armies, the Romans gradually began to stop the invading peoples and win victories over them, which was greatly facilitated by Gallienus ' military reforms. In their domestic policy, the emperors tried to achieve reconciliation between the various strata of the ruling class and find a compromise necessary in view of the extreme aggravation of the class struggle. Thus, Aurelian, in order to satisfy the claims of the Eastern nobility, who wanted strong power, began to call himself "god and master", wore a diadem depicting the sun's rays, and declared the Invincible Sun to be the supreme god of the empire. To the great landowners of the West, he distributed prisoners who were converted into colonists. It was rumored that he intended to settle the prisoners on the empty lands of Italy, imposing a natural tax on them, but his advisers considered this measure dangerous, since the prisoners could revolt and march on Rome.

The desolation of land due to the impoverishment of municipal owners due to external and internal wars took on an increasingly catastrophic character. Many small and medium-sized villas were destroyed, their owners died or fled. Aurelianus issued a decree by which the decurions were to be responsible for the cultivation of abandoned land on the territory of the city and for the receipt of taxes due from them. If the decurions of a certain city were very weak, then the abandoned land and the corresponding duties had to be distributed among neighboring cities and estates. This was a new blow for the urban communities, but it also benefited the large proprietors, who were able to put their own colonies of slaves, freedmen, prisoners, enslaved and impoverished peasants on the lands attached to their estates.

Even under Aurelian, social unrest continued unabated, although he was known for his ruthlessness in suppressing all discontent. In Rome, slaves and employees of coin shops rebelled, and discontent in the army grew. Its command staff received large salaries in money, in kind, and vast land holdings, thus becoming part of the provincial land magnates. Ordinary soldiers, on the other hand, experienced the effects of the crisis, were opposed to making concessions to the senatorial class, and resented the actions of the emperors who made such concessions, although the command staff was ready to approve these concessions. Aurelianus, Tacitus, who briefly ruled the Senate, and Probus, who succeeded him, fell victim to the soldiers ' opposition. The latter, having won a series of victories over the "barbarians" and liberated 60 cities captured by the Franks in Gaul alone, was popular among the nobility. There were legends about his special destiny: to conquer all the lands, destroy or capture all the "barbarians", turning them into farmers on Roman lands, so that wars, soldiers, taxes and even the imperial power itself would become unnecessary, universal abundance, happiness and a golden age would come. Probus allowed the Senate to approve the laws issued by the emperor and appoint provincial governors, settled there

9 Comm. Carmen apoiogeticum, 880 - 990; Instructiones, II.

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many prisoners (according to sources, in Thrace alone, he settled 100 thousand of them), recruited soldiers from barbarian tribes, opposing them to the regular army, forced soldiers to drain swamps, clear forests, and gave veterans remote, useless lands.

However, the provincial nobility or some part of it still did not consider themselves satisfied. In Gaul, Britain, and Spain, new attempts were made with the help of detachments recruited from the Germans to fall away from the empire and proclaim their emperors. But these movements were short-lived, as it was precisely at that time that popular uprisings became particularly formidable. In Africa, the rebels and their Moorish allies reach all the way to Carthage. In Gaul, the Bagaudi attack increasingly remote estates and towns. Some Germanic tribes settled on Roman lands also rebelled. They managed to get close to the sea, took possession of the ships and continuously attacked the coastal areas. In Asia Minor, the warlike Isaurians who lived in the Taurus Mountains rose up and ravaged the surrounding areas. As a result of mass popular unrest and external invasions, Dacia was freed from Roman rule. The provincial nobility fully realized that without the help of a strong central government, they would not be able to cope with the exploited masses.

This government was granted when Diocletian was proclaimed emperor after the death of Probus, who was killed by soldiers, and his short-lived successors Carus, Carinus, and Numerian. The son of a Dalmatian freedman, he began his military service as a common soldier and rose to the rank of chief of the Imperial personal guard. According to sources, he stubbornly sought supreme power, and when he became emperor and was intimidated by widespread popular uprisings, he made his fellow soldier Maximian his co-ruler, sending him to suppress the rebels in Africa, then in Gaul. The struggle in Africa was difficult. The rebels, protected by hard-to-reach mountain ranges, put up a desperate resistance. Despite the help he received from local landowners, Maximian was able to put down the uprising only a few years later. Significant military forces had to be assembled for the war with the Bagaud. It is believed that one of the legions brought to Gaul refused to move against the Bagaudians, and then, on Maximian's orders, was surrounded and exterminated by other military units .10 Maximian also exterminated peasants suspected of sympathizing with the Bagaudas. He defeated the armies of Elian and Amand, drove them back to the Bagaud fortress, and laid siege to them. The taken fortress was destroyed, and a merciless reprisal was inflicted on the rebels. A series of laws against "robbers" was supposed to terrorize the peasants and colonists. "Robbers" were either executed without trial, or together with their family members were given into slavery so that they would never get their freedom.

The Gallic nobles greeted Maximian enthusiastically. In the eulogies of Diocletian and Maximian, the Gaulish orators honored them as Jupiter and Hercules, who had once defeated the monstrous Giants who had rebelled against the Olympian gods of the sons of Earth, and by which they now seemed to mean the Bagaudae. The nobility's loyalty to Diocletian and Maximian was strengthened by their successful wars with neighboring nations, which brought in many colonized prisoners, which was supposed to reduce the acutely felt shortage of labor caused by uprisings and wars. The authors of the" panegyrics " also thanked for the fact that the peoples who had previously devastated the land now cultivate it with their own hands. Diocletian ordered the governors of the provinces to ensure that the colonies were strictly levied all taxes in favor of landowners. The colonists became more and more dependent on the owners of the land, from which they were forbidden to leave until they had paid all that they owed to the master, both on rent, and on all the loans taken from him in a difficult moment, and on the land and poll taxes imposed by Diocletian, for the receipt of which the landowner was now responsible. And when Diocletian's successor, Emperor Constantine, issued a decree on

10 A. D. Dmitriev. The Bagaud movement. "Bulletin of Ancient History", 1940, N 3-4.

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In fact, there was nothing new or unexpected about the return to the estates of the colonists who had fled from there, that is, he finally attached the colonists to the land.

The land magnates emerged victorious from the crisis of the third century. Archaeological excavations show that from the end of the X - beginning of the IV century, along with the decline of cities and slave villas, large-scale land ownership expanded and flourished. Huge manors appear everywhere, often fortified, surrounded by colonized settlements. The mosaics that decorated the master's dwellings depicted the master hunting, feasting, or overseeing agricultural work, receiving gifts from the colonists; his wife-in front of a mirror, surrounded by slaves engaged in her toilet. Constantine ranked all large landowners in the senatorial class, making out their final break with the cities. Craft workshops were now concentrated in large estates and villages; only the largest of the cities remained craft centers. Trade was losing its former importance. Instead of the large ships that sailed all over the Mediterranean, small boats began to predominate, plying along the coast, from one harbor to another. And although the emperors (Aurelian, Diocletian, Constantine) tried to improve the quality of the coin and its value, the economy took on an increasingly natural character. Taxes were collected in kind, and the salaries of imperial officials were also paid. Depending on the position they held, they received a certain amount of food, clothing, utensils, slave servants, and even slave concubines. In order to supply the bureaucracy and the army, urban artisans had to hand over a certain amount of their products to the state.

To ensure that the supply of all this went smoothly, artisans were attached to their professional colleges. They did not have the right to move to another place, change their occupation, and were obliged to pass on their trade to their sons, who also belonged to the college. This freed artisans from the city's increasingly burdensome duties. Many decurions, now called curials, in order to get rid of their duties, tried to get a job in the civil service, fit into the craft college, become colonists, but they were strictly returned to their native cities. Anyone who had more than 6 hectares was assigned to the kurialas. They lost their former privileges of the "noble" class. Curials who did not perform their duties and did not ensure the receipt of the tax due from the city were flogged as ordinary Plebeians and imprisoned. So the cities finally lost their character of civil communities. Small towns fell into disrepair, while larger ones existed as trade, crafts, administrative, and cultural centers, where a small group of families managed to maintain and even increase their wealth during the general devastation. The common people left the cities for the countryside, often in search of the patronage of some rich and noble person. Many people had to take jobs, and employees were now treated almost like slaves. Roman law once strictly prohibited the enslavement of free citizens. In the third century, the right of their self - sale into slavery was recognized, and in the fourth century-and sale into slavery by parents of their children. Even the grandsons of the decurion have been known to be enslaved. The Antonine laws that somewhat protected slaves were severely curtailed. Constantine forbade the prosecution of masters who flogged slaves to death, citing the fact that the master has the right to" correct " his slave as he sees fit.

All this was in the interests of large landowners, whose power over the people dependent on them was noticeably strengthened. To prevent further uprisings, they also needed a strong imperial government to prevent the collapse of the empire, which was now almost not united by economic ties. From the time of Diocletian, the emperor and all things pertaining to him were considered sacred; those admitted to his presence were required to prostrate themselves. He appeared in a tiara and in special clothes assigned only to him. The Senate finally lost the right to vote in the administration of the state, and matters were decided in the imperial council-the consistory. The huge staff of officials was divided strictly according to rank, each of which was entitled to special insignia and titles - "most serene"," most illustrious","most excellent". The Roman Empire of that time was little poho-

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similar to the empire of Augustus and the Antonines, it is not without reason that it is called "dominat" (from dominus-"lord", "sovereign", as the emperor was now called), in contrast to the early empire - "principate", when the head of state called himself princeps - "first among equals". The principate was a state of landowners and slaveholders united in urban communities, the dominant was a state of a non-urban landowning senatorial class that exploited dependent farmers.

At first, it seemed that Diocletian and Constantine, who carried out a series of reforms of military and civil administration, managed to strengthen the empire. External enemies were repulsed, popular movements were suppressed, and provincial uprisings ceased. But this "pacification" achieved at such a high price did not last more than half a century, and then the events that took place during the crisis of the third century began to repeat themselves again on an even more formidable scale for the central government. In Gaul and Spain, the Bagaudian movement began again, which the emperors could not control until the very end of their rule over these provinces. In Africa, the defeated Quincus-Vegentanei were replaced by agonists ("fighters") who fought alongside peasants, colonists, slaves, and"heretics" rejected by the official church. The urban and rural plebs of the eastern provinces rebelled. The land nobility, especially in the west of the empire, having strengthened their positions and created their own fortresses and armed detachments, again began to see in the emperors only useless applicants for a part of the surplus product of their colonies, which is why they preferred an alliance with the "barbarian"leaders who had again begun to attack the empire. One western province after another passed into the hands of the latter, until finally, in 476, the Western Roman Empire ceased to exist.

Events of the third century they were, as it were, a prologue to its fall, for even then the processes and forces that caused the demise of the empire, generated by the crisis of the slave-owning mode of production and contributed to the emergence of new, early feudal relations, were identified.

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