Military mourners took over the Roman Empire in the third century. The Senate, the administrative elite of the Roman Empire, stood by and watched. That is the view of NWO researcher Inge Mennen. She investigated the balance of power in the Roman Empire during the 'crisis of the third century'. The senators lost their military power, but retained their status. Meanwhile, the soldier emperors ruled the empire.
Inge Mennen studied the lives of the most prominent men of the turbulent third century in order to discover how the balance of power in the Roman Empire shifted. Intellectuals and elites, both from the Order of the Senators and the Order of the Knights, were gradually replaced by military professionals who started as simple soldiers but rose to the highest ranks. In the end they even managed to seize imperial power.
For a long time, power in the Roman Empire was in the hands of the senators. These men came from a limited group of wealthy families. They had status and the network to exert influence. Military experience came second. The senate was also the training ground for future emperors:only men from the ordo senatorius could wear the imperial crown. Until the third century AD. Then these senators are rudely set aside by men of a completely different kind:soldier emperors from the knighthood. At the end of the third century, the Roman Empire has changed almost beyond recognition:Emperor Diocletian carries out large-scale reforms. He reorganizes the army and shares power with his chief general. Thus the empire is practically divided in two. How could the Roman Empire change so much in one century?
Elite
In the third century, the Roman borders were under pressure. Inge Mennen shows that the emperors occupied themselves longer and more often with the outer areas of the empire and the increasing threat of war there. The senators, with limited military experience, were increasingly overshadowed by military personnel. But Inge Mennen's research shows that some senators managed to use the situation to their advantage. They maintained their high social position and quietly expanded their power in the peaceful areas of the empire. They lost military power but thrived in legal, administrative and financial positions. Appointments to the senate went through the emperor, who was able to pay tribute to the wealthy elite of Rome and at the same time legitimize his own power.
Knights
Meanwhile, the men of the knighthood were slowly expelled from Rome at the beginning of the tumultuous crisis century. For a long time they mainly held advisory positions at the imperial court. But with the departure of the emperor to the war zones, and the increasing power of the devious senators, this group became obsolete. That left the knights with one alternative:a military career. Many professional soldiers also saw the opportunity to rise to the knighthood through a career in the army. That's how its face changed. The Roman Empire at war took advantage of the growing army of soldiers:they advised the emperor and controlled the border areas. The knights who had made their mark in the Roman army even rose to the rank of emperor, an honor until then reserved for the senators.
Emperors
The senators held the reins in Rome, the empire's ancient center of power, while the knighthood took hold of the empire's periphery more and more. Precisely in that periphery the priority came to lie, in the areas of the empire that had to be fought over. To keep those areas under control, the emperors needed a military background. They also spent an increasing amount of their day on military affairs. As a result, they were often forced to abandon other tasks. During an all-time low, emperors were even forced to divest parts of the empire.
The old imperial dynasties were not restored in the third century. Instead came the soldier emperors:powerful generals who, with the support of their troops, took over the emperorship for a short time. Until the next ambitious general. Military and civilian duties passed into the hands of two completely different groups until they were formally separated by Emperor Diocletian. According to Inge Mennen, this emperor's reforms are not as radical as they seem at first glance. The way of life of the powerful men of the third century shows that many changes had been set in motion well over a century earlier. Diocletian put them on paper, but his ideas were not completely innovative.