Philip The Arab (AD 244-9), one of a new breed of soldier Emperors who came to the fore in the third century. Their portraits express a new spirit of
uncompromising ruthlessness appropriate to an age of civil wars, assassinations, and virtual anarchy. The board-like band across the chest belongs to a
third-century style of wearing the toga.
Unfortunately ancient culture had never rid itself of its uneasy companion, warfare. In the end this aspect came to be dominant. There came a time when
scribes were soldiers, bishops were soldiers, local governors were soldiers, the Emperor was a soldier. At that point the end of the ancient world was in
sight. It is therefore again no coincidence that the first great crisis of Roman rule and the cultural desert of the third century came together, even if it would
be too simple to say that either brought about the other.
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