In the turbulent aftermath of Commodus's assassination, Rome cycled through rival emperors in a single chaotic year. By late February 193, the general Septimius Severus, backed by the Danube legions, was marching on Rome to unseat Didius Julianus, who had scandalously purchased the throne at auction from the Praetorian Guard weeks earlier.
The crisis began when the tyrannical emperor Commodus was strangled in his bath on the last day of 192, ending the Antonine dynasty that had ruled since Marcus Aurelius. His successor Pertinax lasted less than three months before the Praetorian Guard, unhappy with his discipline and reforms, murdered him too.
What followed was one of Rome's most shameful episodes: the Praetorian Guard literally auctioned the imperial throne to the highest bidder, and wealthy senator Didius Julianus won by promising each guardsman a fortune. The Roman public despised him openly, jeering him in the streets and pelting him with refuse.
Meanwhile, three provincial governors commanding powerful legions, Septimius Severus in Pannonia, Pescennius Niger in Syria, and Clodius Albinus in Britain, each declared themselves emperor. Severus moved fastest, marching his Danube legions toward Italy through the harsh winter. By late February, his approach to Rome was unstoppable, and the Senate, sensing which way power was shifting, condemned Julianus to death; he was executed in his palace by early June. Severus would go on to found a new dynasty, but 193 was remembered as the Year of the Five Emperors, a stark demonstration of how thoroughly military force had eclipsed constitutional legitimacy in the late Roman state.
Key people: Septimius Severus, Didius Julianus, Pescennius Niger