Emperors of Rome | Civil War and Septimius Severus (Lecture 25)

Lecture 25: Commodus’s assassination left a vacuum, temporarily filled by the aging senator Pertinax, whose reign lasted not three months. After he was assassinated by his own bodyguard, one of the most disgraceful events in imperial history took place in the Praetorian camp, where the guard auctioned off the emperorship to the highest bidder. The winner, the wealthy Didius Julianus, was murdered after 10 weeks in power. Septimius Severus, general of the eastern legions, had been proclaimed by his troops. Severus fought off two challengers and ushered in a naked military autocracy that would set the tone for the rest of imperial history. From now on, the emperor would be a military man, occupied with keeping external enemies at bay and staving off internal threats. In this lecture, we survey the main events of Severus’s reign and examine his relationship to what came before and would come after.

Essential Reading:
Cassius Dio, Roman History, books 74–77.
Herodian, History of the Empire, books 2–3.
Augustan History (HA), Pertinax, Niger, Albinus, Severus.
Birley, Septimius Severus.

Supplementary Reading:
DIR, “Pertinax,” “Severus.”