In part 25, emperor Commodus was assassinated by one of his lovers and the Roman Empire was auctioned off to the highest bidder. Marcus Didius Julianus paid 300 million sesterces, only to be killed one and a half month later by Septimius Severus, who had the support of the military – and during his rule, he gave the Roman army a more dominant role. Severus also established ‘medical licenses’ to make sure physicians were controlled and could only practice if they followed the established doctrine – the same system we see today with the corrupted and fake Rockefeller-Carnegie Western Modern Medicine.
In early 200 AD, Rome reached a population of more than 1.5 million, of which 400,000 people were slaves, managing the city.
We also touched on the importance of olive oil as being used for lamps, due to its content of phosphorus, and as it was symbolic to Lucifer the Lightbringer.
In Brittania the Scottish tribes turned to Guerilla warfare and successfully kept the Roman forces at bay. As a response, Severus sent his son Caracalla and his best agents to wipe out and torture the leaders and highest-ranked Scots into submission. These missions shaped the psyche of Caracalla who became a very cruel leader, and when he succeeded his father as emperor, he had his brother Geta killed in a scheme with his mother, to become the sole ruler.
Caracalla took to the military life and left Rome to fight battles, leaving his mother to rule in his place.
He tricked the Parthians into a peace-treaty by marriage, only to have them all killed during the wedding. And by 216 AD, he attacked Artabanus V of Parthia by crossing the Tigris and destroying several towns within Armenia.
In 217 AD, Caracalla was based at Edessa during the ongoing hostilities against Parthia. In April, on his way to a temple, he was assassinated by one of his soldiers who had been refused the position of Centurion. The soldier who already held a grudge, had been approached, persuaded, and promised advancement for killing Caracalla by Macrinus Opellius Macrinus, the head of the Praetorian Guard.
Only a few months later, the new emperor Macrinus and his army was defeated by the Parthians at Nisibis, in the province of Mesopotamia. This led to King Artabanus V signing a peace treaty with Rome after he received a compensation of 200 million sesterces for the rebuilding of towns destroyed during the war in Parthia.
Meanwhile in Rome, Empress Julia, wife of Septimius Severus and mother of Caracalla and Geta, received the news of Caracalla’s death and committed suicide.
In Brittania, during 217 AD, according to some historians, the earliest recorded game of association football (soccer) took place in Derby as a celebration on Shrove Tuesday.
In 218 AD, Julia Maesa, an aunt of assassinated Caracalla, was banished to her home in Syria by the self-proclaimed emperor Macrinus. In her refuge, Julia declared her grandson Elagabalus, age 14, emperor of Rome.
A month later, at the Battle of Antioch, the young proclaimed Emperor Elagabalus together with General Gannys and the support of the Syrian legions, defeated the forces of Macrinus. Macrinus fled, but was later captured near Chalcedon and then executed in Cappadocia.
The treasury of Rome continued to be drained and the silver content of the currency was yet again lowered to only 43 percent, down from the previous 50 during the reign of Severus, and from 70 only a mere 100 years earlier.
In 219 AD, the new Emperor Elagabalus, age 15, was initiated into the worship of the Phrygian/Anatolian goddess Cybele and her consort Attis (the priestesses of Cybele mounted an hallucinogen-laced wooden staff in their vagina as part of their rituals, hence the legend of the broomstick witches ride on, as discussed in part 13.)
In 220 AD, the Goths, who had been migrating and settling to the south for years, invaded Asia Minor (Turkey) and the Balkans.
In Rome, due to his new religious beliefs, Emperor Elagabalus divorced his wife and married Aquilia Severa, a Vestal Virgin. As discussed in part 17, the Vesta’s acolytes vowed to serve for at least thirty years and to maintain their chastity throughout. Thus, the wedding caused an enormous controversy – as traditionally, the punishment for breaking celibacy was death by being buried alive while their sexual partner was publicly beaten to death.
In China, The Wei dynasty gives official recognition to Taoism as its religious sect, and by the end of the century, most of the powerful families in northern China had subscribed to the Taoist principles.
In 221 AD, Elagabalus was forced to divorce Aquilia Severa, and married his third wife Annia Faustina. However, after five months he returned to Severa, and claimed that the original divorce was invalid. While the Roman upper class often participated in orgies and debauchery, Elagabalus openly claims to be bisexual and that the third marriage was only symbolic for his position. According to the historian Cassius Dio, Elagabalus had a relationship with his chariot driver, the slave Hierocles.
In early 222 AD, due to his openness and wickedness, Emperor Elagabalus was assassinated along with his mother, Julia Soaemias, by the Praetorian Guard. Their mutilated bodies were dragged through the streets of Rome before being thrown into the river Tiber.
Alexander Severus succeeds Elagabalus. At the time, he was only 13 years old and his mother, Julia Avita Mamaea, governed the Roman Empire with the help of Domitius Ulpianus and a council of 16 senators.
The silver content of the Roman denarius falls to 35 percent under emperor Alexander Severus, down from 43 percent under Elagabalus.
In 225 AD, the first Christian paintings appear in Rome, decorating the Catacombs, where the Christian refugees had been hiding and slowly increased in numbers.
Meanwhile, the capitol Ctesiphon, of the Parthian Empire, fell into the hands of the Sasanian Empire, who also made it their capital, after putting an end to the Parthian Dynasty in Iran.
In Ireland, around 227 AD, it was said that the rule of High King Cormac mac Airt began, also known as Cormac ua Cuinn, as in the legends of the bloodline of Quain/Cain. According to lore, he is said to have ruled from Tara, the seat of the High Kings of Ireland, for forty years, and under his rule, Tara flourished.
In 228 AD, King Ardashir I of the Sasanian Empire completed his conquest of Parthia, which became the Sassanid Persian Empire.
In 230 AD, King Ardashir I invades the Roman province of Mesopotamia, but is unsuccessful in his besiege of the fortress town of Nisibis (Turkey).
The new threat from the Sassanid Persian Empire forces Emperor Alexander Severus to increase taxes in order to strengthen the Roman defenses. He then attempts a diplomatic solution, but the Sassanid Persians decline and choose war.
In 232 AD, the Roman-Persian War causes heavy losses for both sides and the Romans are forced to withdraw to Syria. The result is a status quo, and ultimately a truce is signed.
In 233 AD, Emperor Alexander Severus returned to Rome where he celebrated the truce as a victory over the Sassanid Persians, when in reality, his armies suffered a humiliating defeat and the truce were signed due to a stalemate.
However, his celebrations were short-lived, as the Alamanni, a confederation of Germanic tribes, recognized the weakened Roman borders and invaded what is now modern-day Swabia of southwestern Germany.
In 234 AD, due to the Alamanni invasion, Emperor Alexander Severus and his mother Julia Mamaea move to Moguntiacum (modern Mainz,) the capital of Germania Superior. While his generals prepare a military offensive and built a bridge across the Rhine, Alexander negotiate for peace by buying off the Alemanni, which further drained the treasury of Rome. This sheepish act outraged the Roman legions and he lost the trust of his troops.
In early 235 AD, Emperor Severus Alexander and his mother were murdered by their own soldiers. The soldiers then proclaimed Maximinus Thrax as emperor. This marked the end of the Severan dynasty and the beginning of what was historically known as the ‘Crisis of the Third Century.’
With Maximinus as the new Emperor, Pope Pontian resigns as he and Hippolytus, the church leader of Rome, are exiled to the mines of Sardinia. Once again, Maximinus steps up the persecution of Christians.
In 237 AD, Emperor Maximinus Thrax continued with military campaigns on the rivers Danube and Rhine in Germania, defeating the Alemanni. He never visited Rome, but was accepted by the Roman Senate. However, Maximinus taxed the rich aristocracy heavily, enraging them to such hostility that they began to plot against him.
Meanwhile, King Ardashir I of the Sassanid Persians renewed his attacks on the Roman province of Mesopotamia.
In 238 AD, Emperor Maximinus Thrax campaigns against the Carpians on the Danube but failed to evict the Goths and the Germanic tribes.
The Senate outlaws Maximinus after being persuaded by the aristocracy and nominates two of its members, Pupienus and Balbinus, to the throne. This outraged Maximinus and he besieged the town of Aquileia in northern Italy. During the siege, soldiers of Legio II Parthica kill him and his son in their tent. Their corpses are decapitated and their heads carried to Rome.
The assassination of Maximinus did not sit well with the Praetorian Guard who stormed the palace and captured Pupienus and Balbinus. They were dragged naked through the streets of Rome and later executed. On the same day Gordian III, age 13, was proclaimed the new emperor. The military officer Timesitheus became his tutor and advisor.
Meanwhile, around this time in Alexandria, the Christian scholar, ascetic (a lifestyle of abstinence from sensory pleasures,) and theologian Origen published the Old Testament in five languages.