The 200s (200-299), the third century after Christ, was a troubled time in the Roman Empire. Emperor after emperor was overthrown by the army or murdered. Cities began to build walls round themselves. Even Rome itself built a wall for the first time since the empire began.
In 268 the empire began to break up but Claudius II was able to hold the empire together and Aurelian to take back the parts that had broken away, like Palmyra in the east under queen Zenobia. But Dacia (now called Romania) and Armenia were lost for good.
In these troubled time three religions from the east spread across the empire:
- Mithraism had many followers in the army, but it did not allow women to join, and so many children were brought up in Christianity, not Mithraism. Their “Day of the Sun” holiday on December 25th later became the date for Christmas.
- Manichaeism was founded in the 200s by the prophet Mani from Babylon. He said the world is a battlefield between a good god and an evil god.
- Christianity had a large following among the poor in the cities. The government killed thousands of Chrisians and burned down their churches: they would not bend their knee to the emperor and say he was a god. Those who died for their faith became martyrs – heroes of the faith – and only made faith stronger. The Christians also took much better care of their sick during plagues, which helped their numbers to grow.
Gnosticism was at its height in these years, especially among the rich. It said that Christ did not die for our sins, but told us a secret way to heaven.
Alexandria of the 200s produced two great thinkers: Origen and the Greek philosopher Plotinus. They pointed men along two different roads to the truth: Christianity and Neoplatonism.
Alexandria also produced the last great figure in Greek mathematics: Diophantus, who wrote the first book on algebra.
The Library of Alexandria was burned down in 270 and the Olympic games died out by 300.
From the north Rome fought the Germans, especially the Goths, who took Dacia and crossed the Danube river. Rome took back Dacia, but later gave it up as being too hard to defend.
Parthia became Persia once more under the Persian Sassanian kings. It was the beginning of a golden age for Persia. In the 200s it took Armenia from Rome and even marched its armies through Asia Minor.
In India nothing of note took place.
China broke up into the Three Kingdoms. This ended more than 400 years of Han rule. This period is well known to people in East Asia through the book written by Luo Guanzhong in the 1300s called the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”, which is based on stories and histories from that time.
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See also:
- 100s
- people:
- places:
- inventions:
- Christianity
- Gnosticism
- Olympic games
- Library of Alexandria