How did Rome go from being the center of the empire to being

>>2749882
Depopulation through plagues and being cut off from food supplying provinces.

The crisis of the third century showed how poorly placed Rome was from a strategic standpoint, and the constant raids meant the Emperors had to be near the borders a lot more

>>2749891
I believe alot of that was after it had already lost a degree of importance.
>>2749892
This really nails it on the head. The Emporers became more militeristic and they had to stay nearer to the Armies. Rome was to far from the frontiers to serve as a good base of operations. It was not very defensible and having to treck all the way up the Italy and then across the alps was a difficult task.
Making Milan the effective capital was an offensive move by the Emporers. It was better suited for operations and it was good for taking the war to the frontier tribes. Ravena was the perfect defensive capital. You could survive wave upon was of invaders in your swamp city.

>>2749882
Depopulation and poor location leading to the emperors choosing other locations to hold court.

>>2749916
Even before that, Rome started losing its significance. Diocletian preferred to hold court in Nicomedia, went to Rome once and said fuck this I'm out.

>>2749938
I think if you wanted to push it. You could say that the roots of it came from Hadrian and his remoldenling of empire. His constant movement from frontier to frontier showed that the location of the Emporer was more important than the city of Rome.

>>2749948
Agreed. I was going to mention that as well. Hadrian was the first to sort of show Rome's insignificance on the grand scale.

It was a cultural symbol and nothing more.

Still Hadrian cared enough to continue public works in the city.

>>2749977
And to be fare the next emperor spent twenty years in Rome, but it was Rome that needed the Emporers for power not the other way around. (To an extent)