What stories does HearLore have on Crisis of the Third Century?

HearLore has every story worth knowing on Crisis of the Third Century, narrated and connected to a hundred more. Start with any one and follow the thread to the next rabbit hole.

Is there narrated audio for Crisis of the Third Century?

Yes. Every Crisis of the Third Century story on HearLore is narrated. The story is free to read, and listening is a membership that starts with 7 days free.

Are Crisis of the Third Century stories on HearLore free?

Every Crisis of the Third Century story is free to read on HearLore, all the way through. Listening is a membership. The first 7 days are free, then $3.99 a month or $24.99 a year.

Curated category

Crisis of the Third Century

Gordian IGordian I held power over the Roman Empire for exactly 22 days. That figure alone sets the stage for one of the strangest episodes in Roman history, a year…
BalbinusBalbinus ruled the Roman Empire for just three months in 238 AD, a year so chaotic it earned the name the Year of the Six Emperors.
Battle of NaissusThe Battle of Naissus was fought in either 268 or 269. A Roman army met a huge coalition of Gothic and allied tribes near the town of Naissus, known today as…
Claudius GothicusMarcus Aurelius Claudius, remembered today as Claudius Gothicus, once knocked out a horse's teeth with a single punch, or so an ancient legend claims.
Gordian IIGordian II held the Roman imperial throne for about 22 days in the spring of 238 AD. That figure alone sets him apart from every other emperor in Roman…
DiocletianDiocletian retired from the most powerful office in the world and went home to grow cabbages. When rivals begged him to return to the throne in 308, he wrote…
Maximinus ThraxMaximinus Thrax became Roman emperor in 235 without ever having sat in the Senate, without ever having governed a province, and without any of the social…
AurelianAurelian earned a title that no Roman emperor had ever held before: Restitutor Orbis, Restorer of the World. He was born around 214, the son of a tenant…
Gallic EmpireIn 260, a Roman general named Postumus besieged his own emperor's son inside the city of Colonia Agrippina, had the boy and his guardian put to death, and…
Palmyrene EmpireThe Palmyrene Empire lasted only three years, yet in that time a single queen conquered Egypt, swept through much of Asia Minor, and forced the most powerful…
Plague of CyprianThe Plague of Cyprian killed five thousand people a day in Rome at its peak. That figure, staggering even by modern standards, comes from observers who lived…
Crisis of the Third CenturyThe Crisis of the Third Century brought the Roman Empire to the edge of extinction. In the year 235, a group of Roman soldiers murdered their own emperor…
ZenobiaZenobia was a third-century queen who built an empire stretching from central Anatolia to Upper Egypt, and she did it in less than two years.
Historia AugustaThe Historia Augusta is a collection of biographies of Roman emperors written in Latin, covering a span of rulers from 117 to 284.
TetrarchyThe Tetrarchy was Diocletian's answer to a Roman Empire that had spent decades tearing itself apart. In place of one emperor struggling to hold three…
Gordian IIIGordian III became Roman emperor at the age of thirteen, making him the second-youngest sole ruler the unified empire had ever seen.
Severus AlexanderSeverus Alexander was born on the 1st of October 208 in Arca Caesarea, Phoenicia, and by the age of thirteen he was ruling the Roman Empire alone.