Editing 3rd century (section)

==Roman Empire==
After the death of [[Commodus]] in the late previous century the Roman Empire was plunged into a civil war. When the dust settled, [[Septimius Severus]] emerged as emperor, establishing the [[Severan]] dynasty. Unlike previous emperors, he openly used the army to back his authority, and paid them well to do so. The regime he created is known as the [[Military]] [[Monarchy]] as a result. The system fell apart in the [[230]]s, giving way to a fifty-year period known as the Military Anarchy or the [[Crisis of the Third Century]], following the assassination of the 28-year-old emperor [[Severus Alexander]] (the last emperor of the Severan dynasty), where no fewer than twenty emperors held the reins of power, most for only a few months. The majority of these men were assassinated, or killed in battle, and the empire almost collapsed under the weight of the political upheaval, as well as the growing [[Sassanid Empire|Persian]] threat in the east. Under its new Sassanid rulers, Persia had grown into a rival superpower, and the Romans would have to make drastic reforms in order to better prepare their state for a confrontation. These reforms were finally realized late in the century under the reign of [[Diocletian]], one of them being to divide the empire into an eastern and western half, and have a separate ruler for each.