1. A critical century -- 2. The principal author of the decline and fall -- 3. The legacies of Septimius Severus -- 4. Law, citizenship and Antonine revolution -- 5. The empire and its neighbors: Maximinus to Philip -- 6. Religion -- 7. Failure and fragmentation: from the accession of Decius to the death of Gallienus -- 8. Government and governmentality -- 9. Reconquest and recidivism, 268-84 -- 10. Conclusion