The Roman Economy of the Second Century CE

The Roman Empire of the first two centuries CE was a marvel by practically any metric from political stability to population size. That all came grinding to a halt in the third century, but more so in some places than others. But following the reforms of Diocletian and his immediate predecessors, something much different emerged. The monetary system changed. A new aristocracy of bureaucratic officeholders emerged. New patterns of trade came to be. This is exactly what we see in the fourth century, a drastic uptick in exchange across the entire Mediterranean in both volume and value.