Didius Julianus

Pertinax is actually killed by Pr- Praetorian Guard, and then the Praetorian Guard auction off the empire to the highest bidder.

So there's a man named Did- Didius Julianus that offers 25,000 sesterces per Praetorian Guard member for the empire, so he becomes emperor.

There's a general out in North Africa named Septimius Severus that gets word of this, so he actually comes into Rome with a legion, kills Didius Julianus, and he creates the pattern that emperors after him will emulate.

He doubles the size of the legions and doubles their pay, and he also disbands the Praetorian Guard and fills it with his loyal men.

So emperors after him are going to enlarge the legions, enlarge their pay, and that's where this debasement process really starts to kick in.

The guard murdered the Emperor Pertinax, who had tried to impose discipline after 86 days, and announced that the empire was for sale.

Didius Julianus won it.

He promised each guardsman 25,000 sesterces, outbidding the city prefect who was already standing inside the camp.

He had bought a throne he could not keep.

He starts to pull back some of the pay that's promised to the Praetorians, which is something you just don't really do, so the Praetorians kill him And they actually take the empire and put it up for auction.

And the man that ends up winning has one of the best names in Roman history, which is Didius Julianus, and he bids 25,000 sesterces per man, per, per guard member, and he becomes the new emperor.

Now, there is a politician who's not really a general yet, but he will become one in North Africa, uh, in, from an area named Lep- Leptus Magna, and his name is Septimius Severus.

He's actually gonna come with a legion from North Africa into Italy, have Didius Julianus killed, and then place himself upon the throne.

He's going to remove those guys from the Praetorian Guard that have been a problem, replace them with his own men, and what he does after that is this kind of key thing to what causes the debasement of currency.

So what he's going to do is double legionary pay.

So Constantine's gonna realize, "This is a real problem.

I've seen how many emperors they killed.