How (And When) Gold Could Reach $10,000

By James Hickman, Schiff Sovereign

The Persian Sasanian Empire– also known as the Empire of the Iranians– had become a major problem for Rome by the middle of the 3rd century AD.

The Iranians were ruled by an extremely aggressive king named Shapur I who had little respect for the Roman Empire’s grandeur and authority. And with limited Roman presence in the Middle East, Shapur saw an opportunity to pounce.

From their capital in southwestern Iran, the Sasanids invaded west into Roman lands (modern day Syria and Turkey). And Rome’s 13-year-old emperor, Gordian III, personally led an army to repel his new enemy. But the Romans were vanquished, and Gordian was killed.

His successor, Philip the Arab, sued for peace and offered Shapur a tremendous amount of money to stop fighting. Needless to say, Shapur took the money… but continued the war.

By the year 260, the war was going very badly for Rome; their forces were depleted, their treasury exhausted, their supplies running thin. And at the Battle of Edesssa that summer, the Roman Emperor himself was captured by Iranian forces… and marched back to Persia as a captive.

This wasn’t necessarily THE singular moment that shook up the ancient world. Rome was already in deep trouble at that point– and everyone knew it.

The Roman economy was weak. Inflation was kicking in to high gear. Political corruption was rampant. The once great empire that built extraordinary works of architecture and engineering couldn’t manage to get anything right anymore. It was embarrassing.

So, when news of the Roman Emperor’s humiliating defeat, capture, and forced march back to Iran spread across the ancient world, people probably just shrugged their shoulders and thought, “well that figures…”

Even just a century before, such news would have been met with disbelief. But by the third century, Rome’s extreme failures and incompetence had become normalized… almost expected.

One key impact was that...(READ THIS FULL POST, 100% FREE, HERE).