Editing Roman usurper (section)

==Practical effects==

The usurpation mania of the 3rd century had profound effects in the empire's bureaucratic and military organisation. Fear of potential rivals was to be the main driving force for the evolution of the Roman world from the early to the late Empire.

One of the most striking changes was the division and multiplication of the [[Roman provinces]]. Provinces were ruled by a governor, whether a [[proconsul]], [[propraetor]] or [[procurator (Roman)|procurator]], and were ascribed a certain number of legions, according to the degree of pacification that they required. Thus, the governors of, for instance, [[Moesia]] or [[Pannonia]] in the [[Danubian provinces|Danubian border]] had huge military contingents on their hands. The greater the number of legions a provincial governor had, the greater the temptation to make a bid to the throne. And indeed, most usurpation attempts came from the Asian province of Syria, and the Rhine and Danube provinces, frontier provinces with large military presence. Thus, provinces were slowly divided into smaller units to avoid concentration of power and military capacity in the hands of one man. Syria is a perfect example: a single province in AD 14, it was in the mid-3rd century divided into four different administrative regions: Tres Daciae, Cappadocia, Syria Coele and Syria Palestina. Similarly, Moesia and Pannonia were divided into Superior and Inferior (Upper and Lower) halves; Dardania was later separated from Moesia and Pannonia was further divided into Prima, Valeria, Savia and Secunda.

As the fear of civil war increased, the emperor felt the need of legions permanently in his reach to be deployed against possible internal threats. That caused the geographic division of the army into ''limitanei'' legions, which remained in the borders, and ''comitatenses'', which were stationed in strategic points within the empire. [[Legio II Parthica]], which was garrisoned in the [[Alban mountains]] outside Rome from the time of Septimius Severus, was among the first ''comitatenses'' created.

Men had to be removed from the frontier garrisons to create the internal legions. A smaller number of border legions meant less-secure borders and eventually, raids from the Germanic and Gothic tribes against the Rhine and the Danube became more frequent. In the East, the [[Sassanid dynasty|Persian Empire]] grew bolder in its attacks on the Roman communities. Moreover, since individual initiative was a common way to assume the imperial purple, the giving of important commands to competent generals was asking for trouble. Jealousy and fear often prevented the presence of the right man to deal with a specific threat, and so marginal provinces were often raided, sacked or conquered.