The assassination of Emperor Severus set off the Crisis of the Century in Rome. This crisis is know as the Crisis of the Thrid Century, Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis and began with the assassination of Emperor Severus Alexander by his own troops in 235 kicking off a 50-year period during which 26 people claimed the tittle of emperor. That crisis represented a period in which the the Roman Empire was on the brink of collapse under the combined pressures of invasion, civil war,plague, and economic depression.