The
Crisis of the Third Century, also known as
Military Anarchy or the
Imperial Crisis, (AD 235–284) was a period in which the
Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressures of
invasion,
civil war,
plague, and
economic depression. The Crisis began with the
assassination of Emperor
Severus Alexander at the hands of his own troops in 235, initiating a fifty-year period in which there were at least 26 claimants to the title of Emperor, mostly prominent
Roman army generals, assuming imperial power over all or part of the Empire. Twenty-six men were officially accepted by the
Roman Senate as emperor during this period, and thus became legitimate emperors.