By the late 3rd century AD, the Roman Empire was a shadow of its former self. Beleaguered by mass migration and invasions across its frontiers, vast resources had been poured into fighting off the invaders, while at the same time, endless civil wars had created an ongoing crisis of leadership. Rampant inflation had destroyed the currency. The solution came in the form of a vastly more complex state under the emperor Diocletian (AD 284–305). A ballooning bureaucracy presided over a welter of new laws that, among others, tried to fix prices, lock workers into their occupations and prevent movement, while levying crippling taxes.
With an already huge proportion of the city of Rome’s population dependent on state benefits – something that harked back over 400 years to when the wealthy had stolen land from free peasants, recently returned from war service, who then fled to the city in search of work and security – self-reliance and resilience had long been sapped.