Julius Caesar against Pompey, Augustus/Octavian/Julius Caesar against Marc Antony and Cleopatra or Hannibal, who fought against the whole of Rome - big names, big confrontations. Pop culture is all too happy to reduce antiquity to household names and their similarly monumental opponents. In 193, the stage for the opponents was similarly large: the challenger Septimius Severus on one side, Didius Julianus - who had been reigning emperor since March 193 - on the other. But this duel was definitely not one of these monumental confrontations. Rarely have the fronts in this ancient political thriller, which took place in the first days of June 193, been so clearly defined and the chances of victory more clearly distributed.
Here is a brief history: After Emperor Pertinax was killed by an angry mob of the imperial bodyguard - the so-called Praetorians - on March 28, a unique situation arose: the imperial dignity was auctioned off on the outskirts of Rome. The Praetorians themselves swung the auction hammer under their prefect Emilius Laetus. The winning bidder was Didius Julianus, who had by then made a career as a senator with a remarkable career in office and now outdid his rival Sulpicianus Flavius at enormous financial expense. The author and politician Cassius Dio speaks of a total sum of 25,000 sestertii for each praetorian. In general, Cassius was not particularly pleased about the fact that the imperial title was up for sale. He describes the events as "disgraceful" and "unworthy of Rome". Nevertheless, Didius Julianus was now emperor and thus de jure the most powerful person in the Imperium Romanum. No sooner had months of uncertainty and violence in Rome finally been answered by a certain superficial stability than the troop contingents in the provinces were thrown into turmoil. Three high-ranking politicians in the provinces were proclaimed emperors. The Pannonian troops raised their governor Septimius Severus to the shield on April 9, thus launching an open revolt against Didius Julianus. In the weeks that followed, Septimius already had the majority of the legions on the Danube and Rhine and the armies of the provinces of Africa and Spain behind him. He decided to take advantage of the opportunity and from then on moved towards Rome. He crossed the Alps with his troops. The Senate countered the obvious attempt at usurpation by proclaiming Septimius an enemy of the state. However, it reversed its decision on June 1st before the former enemy had even reached Rome. They even recognized Septimius as emperor. With a superior military force marching inexorably towards Rome, this decision meant at least short-term security for the senators. They only dropped one player: Didius Julianus, their own emperor. He had now lost all basis for power. From his point of view, almost all the troops were behind one of the three traitors, one of whom could reach Rome at any moment with thousands of legionaries in tow, and the Senate had turned to Septimius. To make matters worse, his own life was in acute danger. It took exactly one day for this to manifest itself in physical violence against Julianus. On June 2, Didius Julianus was murdered in the imperial palace.
However, the way was not yet clear for Septimius Severus. Securing his sole rule continued until 197. Nevertheless, he did not miss the opportunity to triumphantly enter Rome just one week after Julianus' death. In contrast, Julianus was not even able to use his 66-day term of office to pursue his own policies. All these events clearly do not testify to an epic duel between two protagonists for the imperial title. Such a duel would probably have already been filmed anyway - even if only halfway true to the facts. Nevertheless, the almost three-month-long and, above all, deadly game for power shows that, apart from the legendary personalities mentioned at the beginning, in some cases everything was thrown into the balance in order to place themselves at the head of the Roman Empire. But the winners and the losers always have one thing in common: both sides always find their place in research.
Alexander Pracht
Photo: AI-generated
