The Year of the Six Emperors was a period of political instability in ancient Rome. This was a year where a total of six emperors jockeyed for power, and often through brutal means.

Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus was a commoner who rose through the ranks as a soldier. Historians believe he had a complex about his commoner origins, which led him to massacre nobles out of his own sense of inferiority.

To replace Maximinus, a group of nobles convinced Gordian I (his official name being Marcus Antonius Gordianus Sempronianus Romanus Africanus) to replace Maximinus.

Gordian I was around 80 years old at the time, so he suggested a joint rule with his son Gordian II. When Gordian II lost the Battle of Carthage in 238 AD, Gordian II was killed and Gordian I hung himself to death.

After the Gordians died, the Senate elected two senators named Marcus Clodius Pupienus Maximus (pictured first) and Decimus Caelius Calvinus Balbinus (pictured second). Pupienus’s soldiers killed Maximinus and thus ended Maximinus’s reign.

However, both Pupienus and Balbinus were assassinated by their bodyguards, who resented the senate appointed emperors. Gordian III, whose grandfather was Gordian I, was hastily appointed as Emperor by the Senate. The Gordians had a favorable reputation among the Roman public, so Gordian III became the sixth and final emperor within a year.