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The Imperial Crisis
The Imperial Crisis began in 235 CE after the assassination of Severus Alexander by his troops after what they saw as his failure to maintain military power in a show of strength. Instead, his mother had attempted to reach a compromise, and the enraged army set upon the Emperor and set up their own general in his place.
As Augustus had set up a shaky system of inheritance, this coup led to a 50-year crisis wherein there were 26 claimants for Emperor from within the ranks of the imperial family as well as populist generals of the army. Each of the 26 was accepted by the Senate in a desire to maintain the unity of the Empire. But legitimacy did not create peace. Due to competing claims, the Empire became split into three separate independent states. Aurelian would reunite the Empire in 270, but the crisis would continue until Diocletian became Emperor in 284 and set about establishing austerity measures.
The crisis had been brewing for some time before Severus Alexander’s assassination as subsequent emperors debased the currency, and the Empire’s borders were tested through invasion, migration, and its very expansiveness. These factors led to the continued debasement of the currency to fund the military. Climate change adversely affected neighboring cultures in the borderlands leading to an increase in raids and immigration. The Antonine Plague further taxed the military ranks and economy.
During the crisis, the Cyprian Plague caused further devastation as the Nile Delta, the breadbasket of the Empire, lost nearly two-thirds of its population. Massive loss of life in all sectors also left a shortage of agricultural personnel, and climate change caused flooding in Germania and extensive droughts along the Mediterranean. Barbarians overran the army strongholds at every point of the compass — out of desperation or easy booty in the face of the weakened border security.
The impact was felt even in the Northern region surrounding Traiectum ad Mosam. Flooding North along the Maas created a massive sea inlet which displaced tribal populations and cratered Roman seaside defenses, thus affecting safe trade. And the Salian Franks sacked Traiectum ad Mosam in 275 before being allowed by the Romans to relocated to the region. Once settled, they created alliances with their new neighbors, the Batavii. However, due to the presence of so many provincial Roman elite, as evidenced in the numerous Roman-styled villae of the area, these Germanic tribes were Romanized to an extent. And the Salian Franks became treasured recruits of the Roman army.
Several coin hoards, a symptom of an economic crisis, have been discovered in the modern Low Countries, including in the Maastricht environs. These hoards represent the uncertainty of financial security and personal safety during the crisis along the Via Belgica.
There also appears to be a stagnation of the city population and an increase in self-sufficient estates based on the dating of architectural remains. In survival mode, affiliating oneself with these estates established a stronger localized network of self-protection in the case of the shortened reach of the power of Rome to defend its frontiers. It was also around this time that the border soldiers were legally allowed to marry locally from among the tribes. This change in the law led to an increased affinity between the army and the locals rather than with the capital of Rome. A greater blending of cultures in the northern provinces would remain in place beyond the final collapse of the western empire.
The Arrival of Christianity
Saint Servatius arrived in Maastricht at the start of what would be called The Great Migration, wherein, over the next two hundred years, the Batavii and other smaller Germanii tribes would either become absorbed or migrate into further Northern Celtic areas of Britannia. The Salian Franks would remain in the area to be joined by the Saxons and Frisians. It is uncertain what caused these migrations, but it is known that the Great Migration took place in areas where the Western Roman Empire, in its death throes, had evacuated its armies, and trade was reduced to local networks. There was also a warming trend in Europe which led to greater incidences of displacement, leading to raids, leading to more displacement.
The Franks became the powerful attainers of Christianity in the area between the Maas and the Rhine after their king, Chlodovech, mandated their conversion. This conversion occurred less than a generation after the death of St. Servatius. As a result, the Tongeren-Maastricht-Liège diocese helped to centralize both the Frankish power and the establishment of Christianity in the region.
St. Servatius (Sint Servaas)
Servatius was an Armenia by birth, and bishop based in Tongeren. He was known as a great debater and diplomat, and he was called upon by a succession of Emperors to represent their arguments against the heretical Arianism. His movements are known from various correspondence and church documents, but his life was written posthumously by Gregory of Tours in the late 6th Century CE, with great inaccuracies. However, it was this biography that reinforced his popularity in the region.
Servatius was an ardent prosecutor of Arianism: a popular heretical belief that denies the concept of the Trinity, and asserted that Jesus Christ is the son of God but not equal to nor another aspect of God. After successfully debating against the Arians in the Eastern Empire, he was assigned the diocese of Tongerenwhich was beginning to establish Christianity in the region. It is believed that, in his capacity as bishop of Tongeren, he founded several churches in the diocese, including at Traiectum ad Mosam. Fourth Century CE church foundations were unearthed in the 1980s under the Onze Lieve Vrouwbasiliek in Maastricht, which supports the claim that the church was founded by Servatius.
Servatius died in 384 CE in Traiectum ad Mosam while on a mission to bring the relics of his Tongeren predecessors to the village. He was buried along the Via Belgica just outside the town near the bridge and castellum. His grave soon became a site of pilgrimage, and it was believed that proximity to his relics would cure diseases. Servatius is now the patron saint of the city, and his tomb continues to be a pilgrimage destination; the procession of his relics occurs every seven years.
Also in Maastricht, the Sint Servaas Basiliek holds the foundations of a 6th Century CE church which had been built by Bishop Monulph in order to contain the new tomb of St. Servatius. It is conjectured that this basilica was built on the site of the original Servatius tomb as it was the Late Antique Christian practice to establish churches on sites of burials or martyrdom of saints. During excavations of the crypt, several Roman graves contemporary to Servatius were uncovered.
