The Praetorian Guard Auctions the Empire — Crisis of 193 CE
Didius Julianus bought the Roman Empire at auction in March 193 and held it for sixty-six days. Pertinax had been murdered by the praetorian guard after eighty-seven days, having tried to restore discipline and pay them less than they believed they had been promised. What the guard did next had no precedent. They shut themselves in their camp and announced from the walls that the empire would go to whoever offered the most, and two men bid: Sulpicianus, Pertinax's father-in-law and city prefect, who was already inside, and Julianus, a wealthy senator who had held the consulship and a series of governorships and who arrived at the gates and shouted his offers up. Julianus won at 25,000 sesterces a man, roughly five years' pay, by adding that he would restore the memory of Commodus. He was escorted to the senate house by soldiers and confirmed, and was hated in the streets from the first afternoon; crowds called for Pescennius Niger in the Circus. Three provincial governors were proclaimed by their armies within weeks — Niger in Syria, Clodius Albinus in Britain, Septimius Severus on the Danube. Severus was closest and moved fastest, marching on Italy without waiting. Julianus tried to have him declared an enemy, sent assassins, offered to share the throne, and had elephants brought out to train for war. The senate condemned him on 1 June, and a soldier killed him in the palace as he asked what he had done wrong. The auction is the most cited single incident in the decline literature, and its practical lesson was learned immediately. Severus disbanded the praetorian guard entirely and replaced it with legionaries from his own Danubian army, on the reasoning that a bodyguard which sells the throne should not exist.
- Year: 193 CE
- Category: Political
