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 (AD 235–285), a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressures of foreign invasions and migrations into the Roman territory, plagues, 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 final victory of Diocletian and his implementation of reforms in 285.
The Year of the Six Emperors may be called the Year of the Seven Emperors if Gaius Julius Verus Maximus, the son of Maximinus Thrax is counted. He bore the title caesar but not augustus. Edward Gibbon, in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, includes Maximus when he notes how "in the space of a few months, six princes had been cut off by the sword", before Gordian III became sole emperor.
