The Army takes power in Ancient Rome

After the murder of the Emperor Commodus in 193, the Senate voted to make the famously well-educated retired soldier Publius Helvius Pertinax the new emperor. Pertinax agreed and was installed in power.

When Pertinax tried to reduce the excessive wages and bonuses paid to the army, he was murdered by the Praetorian Guard. The Praetorians then appointed Marcus Didius Julianus to be emperor.

Julianus lavished gifts on the Praetorians, which alienated the fighting legions stationed on the frontiers. The 16 legions of the Rhine-Danube frontier appointed the general Lucius Septimius Severus to be emperor.

Septimius Severus marched an army to Rome. As the troops approached, the Senate declared that Julianus was deposed and that Severus was the new emperor. They sent a small group of men to kill Julianus.

Although the official start of the rule of Septimius Severus came with the vote in the Senate that gave him the powers and wealth of an emperor, it was clear that the Senate had passed the motion only because of the approaching army.

The commander Maximinus Thrax was proclaimed emperor by the army in 235, but he waited until the Senate had passed a motion acclaiming him before assuming the title. However, when a group of senators objected, Maximinius had them executed without trial.

In 238 the Senate once again tried to assert itself. The Senate appointed two highly respected senators, Decius Balbinus and Marcus Pupienus, to be joint emperors. But these men lacked support outside the Senate and were murdered by the Praetorians.

The army rallied around Gordian III, who came to Rome to accept a vote of the Senate that made him emperor. After this, the Senate never again tried to appoint an emperor. They always waited to see who the army supported first.

The army rarely supported an emperor for long. If a ruler did not win military victories quickly, or failed to give the soldiers a share of the wealth of the emperor, he was quickly murdered and a new commander appointed in his place.

Even the successful emperors such as Diocletian (see page 38) and Constantine (see page 40) managed to stay in power only because they kept the soldiers content.