The Roman Empire by H. Stuart Jones

Author:H. Stuart Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ozymandias Press

VII. THE DYNASTY OF THE SEVERI

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THE MURDERERS OF COMMODUS LOST no time in filling the vacant throne. Their choice rested on P. Helvius Pertinax, who had risen from an obscure station to the highest military commands by his soldierly qualities and strict maintenance of discipline. It is improbable that he was privy to the assassination of Commodus, but he showed no hesitation when Lætus, who, as commandant of the guards, controlled the situation in Rome, invited him to assume the government. The choice of the prætorians was ratified by the Senate, which Pertinax treated with marked deference, reaping therefor a harvest of popularity with the order so long flouted and persecuted by Commodus. But nothing could restore to the Senate the power which had passed into other hands: only the support of the army could give the princeps security for the tenure of his power. Now Pertinax had provoked murmurs amongst the legions under his command by the severity of his discipline, and the prætorians, whom Commodus had pampered, soon found him intolerable. Economy, even parsimony, was needed to restore the solvency of the treasury, which the costly follies of the preceding reign had beggared; and the sale of Commodus’ effects barely enabled Pertinax to pay to the guards one half of their promised donative. It was no matter for surprise that they should lend an ear to the specious promises of pretenders. One of these, the consul Sosius Falco, was within an ace of securing the throne by a pronunciamiento ; but Pertinax, who was absent from Rome, returned in haste, and was in time to save Falco from condemnation by the Senate. Then Lætus, who had been secretly intriguing against the Emperor, provoked an émeute of the guards, who invaded the Palatine and murdered Pertinax on March 28th, after a reign of less than three months. The events which followed are variously narrated by the historians: the most dramatic version is that which tells how the Empire was formally put up to auction in the prætorian camp and sold to the highest bidder. This was M. Didius Severus Julianus, a senator of at least sixty years of age, whose belated ambition was not justified by any conspicuous talents or successes. It was easy for him to overcome the pretensions of his rival, Flavius Sulpicianus, the father-in-law of Pertinax, not only by outbidding his offers, but also by pointing to the vengeance which Sulpicianus would assuredly exact from the murderers of his son-in-law; and the terrified Senate hastened to acquiesce in the choice of the soldiery. But the guards were sadly mistaken when they supposed that their act would suffice to bring back the golden days of Commodus. As it had been on the fall of Nero, so it was now: the last word rested with the legions. Since A.D. 68, moreover, the preponderance of the army of the Danube had become firmly established. Not only was it the strongest in numbers and the most inured to warfare, but it was within striking distance of Italy, which must inevitably fall a prey to its advance.

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