ffensive in the following year. The details of his
campaign are uncertain, but at any rate Mesopotamia was recovered and
Alexander celebrated a triumph over the Persians in Rome (233 A. D.).

*The Germanic campaign and death of Severus Alexander.* But the northern
frontier was threatened by the attacks of Germanic tribes, and in 234
Alexander assumed the conduct of operations on the Rhine, with his
headquarters at Mainz. The barbarians were induced to make peace, but only
by the payment of subsidies, and this cost Alexander the respect of the
army, who were disgruntled at his policy of retrenchment and his
subservience to his mother. A mutiny broke out, led by Gaius Julius Verus
Maximinus, a Thracian of peasant origin who had risen from the ranks to
high command. Alexander and Julia Mamaea were put to death, and Maximinus
was proclaimed Augustus (March, 235 A. D.). With his accession began a
half century of confusion and anarchy.

VI. THE DISSOLUTION AND RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE: 235-285 A. D.

*The end of the pax Romana.* The period of fifty years from 235 to 285
A. D. is a prolonged repetition of the shorter epochs of civil war of
68-69 and 193-197 A. D. During this interval twenty-six Augusti, including
such as were colleagues in the _imperium_, obtained recognition in Rome
and of these only one escaped a violent death. In addition, there were
numerous usurpers or "tyrants," as candidates who failed to make good
their claims to the principate were called. Almost all of these emperors
were the nominees of the soldiery, and at least possessed military
qualifications that were above the average. In general they
conscientiously devoted themselves to the task of restoring order in the
empire, but their efforts were in the main nullified by the treachery of
their own troops and the rise of rival emperors.

*The mutiny of the army.* The main cause of this disorganization lay in
the fact that the professional army had lost all sense of loyalty to the
empire, an attitude already frequently evidenced by the praetorians, and
by the legions also under Caracalla and his successors. Recruited, as the
latter now were, almost entirely from the frontiers of the Roman world,
they felt no community of interest with the inhabitants of the peaceful
provinces and turned upon them, like unfaithful sheep dogs upon the flocks
whom it was their duty to guard. The sole object of the troops was to
enrich themselves by plunder and