230-249 Murder, Mayhem & Christian Persecution Starts

In this 20 year period the Roman Emperor Alexander (pictured), a Syrian, was murdered in 235 and succeeded by Maximinus who, in turn, was murdered in 238 and was succeeded by Gordian who, in 244, was also murdered.

Gordian was succeeded by Philippus who died in 248 and was succeeded by Decius who was responsible for the persecution of Christians in 249

Alexander's mother had engineered by murder the accession of her son, and when she lost power after engineering the marriage of her son into a prominent senator's family, she had the senator murdered and exiled her son's wife.

In 230 news reached Rome that Ardashir, the King of the Persians, had defeated the Parthians and established rule. The Romans invaded by three routes, were defeated and forced to retreat to Syria - Alexander's birthplace - where troops had to be given large sums of money in order to retain their loyalty.

In 234 Alexander was back in Rome, finding that the Germans had formed a confederacy he also gave them large sums of money in order to buy peace.

After Alexander and his mother were murdered in 235, Maximinus, a general, a trainer of recruits - born to peasants in Thrace, formerly a shepherd, drafted and rose through the ranks - was proclaimed Emperor. He never appeared in Rome as the emperor. He was campaigning in the North the whole time, and then in 237 he had trouble in Africa with the Governer, Gordian, proclaiming himself and son, emperor.

Maximinus crushed the African revolt with the help of the Governor of Numidia, but the Senate was in favour of the Gordian dynasty and when Maximinus was killed in 238 the remaining Gordian - the young grandson - was proclaimed Emperor.

By an engineered marriage to the daughter of a prefect, Gordian was controlled by his father in law.

He faced much conflict in the East as well as revolts in Germany and Africa. King Ardashir was succeeded by Shapur in 241 who defeated the Romans after 3 years of battle.

In the meantime, Gordian's father in law had died in 243 and two prefects - brothers, one of which was Philippus - took over control in Rome and when Gordian was killed by his troops in 244 Philippus became emperor.

Philippus was an Arab, probably a brigand, coming from a village in the south-eastern border desert of Syria, he spoke Greek and was conversant in Latin. He bought peace from Shapur and put his relatives in positions of power.

In 248 there was a revolt in the Danube area, the prefect Decius was sent to suppress it, he was proclaimed emperor by the troops, then marched to Italy where he faced Philippus in battle and killed him.

When Decius came to power in 248 he wanted a return to the good old days of Roman law and order and glory. First, he had to make a concerted effort to suppress Christianity. In 249 he issued a decree demanding sacrifice to the traditional gods from all citizens of the Empire. This enraged the Christians and by 249 his decree was a failure.

210-229 Six Roman Emperors!

In this twenty year period there were six Roman Emperors, one of which was the colorful Syrian, Elagabalus (pictured), who was murdered by his aunt.

The period started with the rule of the Roman Emperor Severus, an aristocrac from the Punic city of Lepcis Magna in Africa, who died in York in 211 while restoring military order in the north of England. He was succeeded by his sons Antoninus and Geta; then by the usurpers Macrinas and Elagabalus in 217; and then finally Alexander in 221.

Antoninus had Geta murdered in 212. He preferred the life of the common soldier to one of leisure and likened himself to Alexander the Great. He took up residence in Antioch, Syria, then Alexandria in Egypt (where he sacked the city because of imagined slights and then returned to Syria resolved to conquer the Parthian Empire.

He marched his troops beyond the Tigris, met no enemy, lost prestige among his men and a conspiracy of officers assassinated him in 217

Antoninus left a legacy for the Empire by issuing an edict by which all free inhabitants of the Empire were entitled to become Roman citizens.

Macrinas was a lawyer, he made peace with the Parthians by paying them off, but was executed following the proclamation in Syria that Antoninus had a son by the niece of Severus' Syrian wife.

It was a lie, but the priestly Syrian family of Severus' deceased wife was fabulously wealthy and accordingly influential, and as they had acquired Roman citizenship the boy, Elagabalus became Emperor in 217, arriving in Rome in 219 wearing the colorful robes of his priestly office, building a temple for the god that bears his name, marrying the Chief of the Vestal Virgins to create a divine marriage, naming his cousin as successor, and filling the administration with Syrians.

His cousin, Alexander, was better accepted by the Romans and as such Alexander's mother engineered in 221 the death of Elagabalus and his mother - her sister - and installed her son as emperor with her pulling the strings.