The Crisis of the 3rd Century

The youthful Roman Emperor Alexander Severus was killed by his soldiers in 235 A.D. while on an expedition along the Rhine. The timing of the coup was terrible. Increased attacks by barbarian tribes were already placing a strain on Rome, and the sudden political unrest sparked a period of civil war that almost brought the Empire to its knees.

The Roman crown was usurped during the course of the following 35 years by a rotating cast of several dozen generals and usurpers, almost all of whom perished in conflicts with their foes or were murdered by their own troops. The internal strife coincided with a horrifying plague epidemic, rising Goth, Persian, and other external threats, and made circumstances worse.

The Empire momentarily split into three states as the chaos increased. Emperor Aurelian later drove Rome's adversaries beyond the frontier and recaptured its lost lands, restoring unity, but after his death, things returned to turmoil. The dilemma wouldn't be entirely resolved until Diocletian implemented a series of revolutionary reforms that separated Rome into an Eastern and Western Empire, each of which was governed by a tetrarchy of four leaders - two senior "Augusti" and two lesser-ranking "Caesars".