After the Pax Romana, came a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressures of invasion, civil war, plague, and economic depression.
Pax Romana ended following the death of Marcus Aurelius, who broke with recent tradition by anointing his son Commodus as his successor. Plagued by decadence and incompetence, the reign of Commodus ended in 192 A.D. with his assassination, which sparked a civil war that brought an end to a golden age of Roman history.
