Pescennius Niger

Pescennius Niger was proclaimed emperor by the eastern legions in 193 and was destroyed within a year by Septimius Severus. He came from an equestrian family in Italy and rose slowly, reaching the Senate late and holding a consulship around 190. He was governor of Syria when Pertinax was murdered and the Praetorian Guard auctioned the throne to Didius Julianus. Three commanders refused to accept the sale. Niger was proclaimed in Antioch by the Syrian legions, Septimius Severus in Pannonia, and Clodius Albinus in Britain. Niger had the popular case — riots in Rome had called for him by name — and nine legions, the wealth of the eastern provinces and the support of the cities. What he did not have was speed or the shortest road to Italy. Severus had sixteen legions and a hard-marching Danubian army three weeks from Rome. He neutralised Albinus by offering him the title of Caesar and the succession, took Rome, executed Julianus, and turned east. Niger held the passes. He was beaten at Cyzicus, then at Nicaea, and decisively at Issus in 194 — on the same ground where Alexander had beaten Darius — when a storm broke in the faces of his troops during the fighting. He fled towards Parthia and was caught near Antioch and beheaded, his head sent to Byzantium to persuade the city to surrender. Byzantium held out another two years and was destroyed for it. Severus then turned on Albinus, and the arrangement of 193 was revealed for what it was. Nothing he wrote survives, and everything known of him comes from sources written for the man who beat him.

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