Year of the Five Emperors

• 1. Introduction

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  The Year of the Five Emperors is the name given to AD 193. In that single year, five different men each claimed the same Roman throne. It started with the murder of the sitting emperor on New Year's Eve, an act carried out by men inside his own court. From there, the Roman world spiraled into a scramble that outside observers could barely follow. Guards decided who got to rule next. Rival commanders declared themselves emperor from opposite ends of the empire. One uneasy alliance was built purely to buy time. By the year's end, only one of the five men was still alive and still in power. How did the empire survive being fought over five times in a single year, and what kind of ruler was left holding it together?

• 2. The Fall of Commodus

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  Saoterus, a close friend of Commodus, died at some point in his reign, and something in the emperor unraveled afterward. Commodus began ordering summary executions of aristocrats, and he distanced himself from his role as ruler by resuming his birth name instead of the names his father had given him at his succession. His paranoia only deepened as the executions continued.

  On New Year's Eve AD 192, Commodus carried out a massacre in Rome large enough to leave himself as the empire's sole consul. Three nobles, Eclectus, Marcia, and Laetus, feared they would be next on his list. They had Commodus strangled before he could move against them, and the assassins immediately named Pertinax as the new Caesar.

  Pertinax himself drew suspicion as the murder's mastermind, since he was the one who ended up with power. Those accusations, however, traced back to his political enemies, who appear to have been attacking his reputation rather than reporting a known fact. Whoever gave the final order, the empire now had a new ruler pulled from the survivors of the massacre, and his first months in office would prove just as unstable as the year that had crowned him.

• 3. Three Months in Power

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  Pertinax reached the throne after rising steadily through the military ranks, eventually serving as proconsul of Africa, the first in a line of Roman emperors whose political careers began there. He inherited an emperorship few others wanted, surrounded by rumors of his own involvement in Commodus's death.

  Cleander, the Commodus associate whose earlier murder had first pushed the emperor toward paranoia, became one of the killings Pertinax now stood accused of as well. The treasury he inherited was already in poor condition, and his disciplined style stood in sharp contrast to Commodus's excesses. That same discipline is exactly what cost him support among the men who guarded him.

  The Praetorian Guard turned on Pertinax once he refused to pay their donativum, the customary cash reward, and began stripping away privileges they had enjoyed under Commodus. When the Guard confronted him, Pertinax tried to talk his way out of the mutiny and failed. He was killed after only three months on the throne. With no emperor left standing, the Praetorian Guard did something unprecedented. They put the throne itself up for auction to the highest bidder.

• 4. The Purchased Throne

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  Didius Julianus had just succeeded Pertinax as proconsul of Africa when the Praetorian Guard put the throne up for bidding, and he beat out Pertinax's own father-in-law, Sulpicianus, by promising the Guard even higher pay. Rumors immediately tied Julianus to Pertinax's murder as well, adding to the sense that the throne itself was cursed.

  Pescennius Niger, governor of Syria, and Septimius Severus both saw an opening in the public's anger at Julianus. Severus moved first, declaring himself emperor within days of Pertinax's death. Crowds hostile to Julianus wanted Niger to intervene, but Severus was stationed in Pannonia, much closer to Rome than Niger was in the east.

  Severus reached Rome before anyone else could act. He had Julianus executed on the 1st of June, barely two months after Pertinax's own death. The throne Julianus had purchased lasted him only a matter of weeks, and Rome now had its third ruler of the year, backed by an army that had already gotten there first.

• 5. The Eastern Rival

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  Niger governed Syria throughout 193, one of two men who saw an opening once Julianus's hold on the throne looked shaky. He declared himself emperor in outright rivalry with Severus, backed by allies across the eastern provinces.

  Niger raised an army and carried the fight against Severus across the breadth of the empire. Two years of war followed before his forces were finally broken. He lost the conflict in a battle fought near the city of Issus in 194, ending his claim on the throne for good. Severus, freed from that fight, could now turn his attention to the one rival still left standing.

• 6. The Uneasy Co-Caesar

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  Albinus first entered the contest for power in 193, when he was asked to take the throne after Commodus's death and turned the offer down. He later accepted the title of Caesar as Severus's second, governing the empire while Severus campaigned against Niger.

  Severus and Albinus were technically enemies, yet they struck a compact granting Albinus real administrative power alongside the Caesar title. Albinus already controlled Britain, and the new agreement handed him Gaul and Spain as well. Some sources argue Severus never actually gave up control and kept ultimate authority for himself throughout the arrangement.

  Albinus held the Caesar title for three years before war broke out between the two men. Severus defeated and killed him at the Battle of Lugdunum in 197, ending the last challenge to his rule and leaving him the empire's sole emperor.

• 7. The Sole Caesar

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  Ancient sources sometimes describe Severus and Pertinax as allies, an alliance that would explain how Severus gathered so much power during such a chaotic year. In practical terms, Severus was already running much of the empire once Pertinax had been assassinated. He had reportedly hoped to seize the throne himself right after Commodus's murder, but the plotters moved faster and named Pertinax emperor before Severus could act.

  Twelve days after Pertinax's assassination on the 28th of March, Severus declared himself ruler with the Senate's backing. He spent his early years in power tied down by the war against Niger in the east, which is why he offered Albinus the Caesar title without handing over any real military command.

  After defeating both Niger and Albinus, Severus purged their remaining supporters to secure his position as the empire's only Caesar. Historians still count Severus and Albinus as two separate emperors for the years they ruled side by side. Only Severus survived long enough to see the Severan dynasty he founded take hold, the one lasting outcome to emerge from AD 193's turmoil.