Year of the Six Emperors

The six emperors. Top row: Gordian I and Gordian II.
Middle row: Pupienus and Balbinus.
Bottom row: Maximinus Thrax and Gordian III.

The Year of the Six Emperors was the year AD 238, during which six men made claims to be emperors of Rome. This was an early symptom of what historians now call the Crisis of the Third Century, also known as Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis (AD 235–284), a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressures of foreign invasions and migrations into the Roman territory, civil wars, peasant rebellions, political instability (with multiple usurpers competing for power), Roman reliance on (and growing influence of) foreign mercenaries known as foederati and commanders nominally working for Rome (but increasingly independent), the devastating social and economic effects of the plague, debasement of currency, and economic depression. The crisis ended with the ascension of Diocletian and his implementation of reforms in 284.