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Publius Helvius Pertinax ( ; 1 August 126 – 28 March 193) was Roman emperor for the first three months of 193. He succeeded Commodus to become the first emperor during the tumultuous Year of the Five Emperors.
Born to the son of a freed slave, Pertinax became an officer in the army. He fought in the Roman–Parthian War of 161–166, where his success led to higher positions in both the military and political spheres. He achieved the rank of Roman governor and urban prefect. He was a member of the Roman Senate, serving at the same time as the historian Cassius Dio.
Following the death of Commodus, Pertinax was proclaimed emperor. He instituted several short-lived reform measures, including the restoration of discipline among the Praetorian Guard. This led to resistance that culminated in Pertinax's assassination by the Guard. Pertinax would later be deified by the emperor Septimius Severus. His historical reputation has been largely positive, in line with Cassius Dio's assessment.
In the Parthian War that followed,Historia Augusta, Pertinax, 2:1 he distinguished himself, which resulted in a string of promotions, and after postings in Roman Britain (as military tribune of the Legio VI Victrix) and along the Danube, he served as a procurator in Roman Dacia.Historia Augusta, Pertinax, 2:4 He suffered a setback as a victim of court intrigues during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, but shortly afterwards, he was recalled to assist Claudius Pompeianus in the Marcomannic Wars. In 175, he received the honour of a Roman consul and until 185, Pertinax was governor of the provinces of Upper and Lower Moesia, Roman Dacia, Syria, and finally governor of Britain.
During the 180s, Pertinax took a pivotal role in the Roman Senate until the praetorian prefect Sextus Tigidius Perennis forced him out of public life.Historia Augusta, Pertinax, 3:3 He was recalled after three years to Britain, where the Roman army was in a state of mutiny.Dio, 74:4 He tried to quell the unruly soldiers there but one legion attacked his bodyguard, leaving Pertinax for dead. When he was forced to resign in 187, the reason given was that the legions had grown hostile to him because of his harsh rule.Historia Augusta, Pertinax, 3:10
He served as proconsul of Africa from 188 to 189,Historia Augusta, Pertinax, 4:1 and followed this term of service with a term as the urban prefect of Rome,Victor, 18:2 and a second consulship as ordinarius with the emperor Commodus as his colleague.
Ancient writers detail how the Praetorian Guard expected a generous donativum on his ascension, and when they were disappointed, agitated until he produced the money, selling off Commodus' property, including the concubines and youths Commodus kept for his sexual pleasures.Dio, 74:5Historia Augusta, Pertinax, 7:8 He reformed the Roman currency dramatically, increasing the silver purity of the denarius from 74% to 87% – the actual silver weight increasing from 2.22 grams to 2.75 grams.
Pertinax attempted to impose stricter military discipline upon the pampered Praetorians.Zosimus, 1:8 In early March he narrowly averted one conspiracy by a group to replace him with the consul Quintus Sosius Falco while he was in Ostia Antica inspecting the arrangements for grain shipments.Dio, 74:8 The plot was betrayed; Falco himself was pardoned but several of the officers behind the coup were executed.Historia Augusta, Pertinax, 10:4
On 28 March 193, Pertinax was at his palace when, according to the Historia Augusta, a contingent of some three hundred soldiers of the Praetorian Guard rushed the gatesHistoria Augusta, Pertinax, 11:1 (two hundred according to Cassius Dio).Dio, 74:9 Ancient sources suggest that they had received only half their promised pay. Neither the guards on duty nor the palace officials chose to resist them. Pertinax sent Laetus to meet them, but he chose to side with the insurgents instead and deserted the emperor.Historia Augusta, Pertinax, 11:7
Although advised to flee, Pertinax then attempted to reason with the insurgents and was almost successful before being struck down by one of the soldiers.Dio, 74:10 Pertinax must have been aware of the danger he faced by assuming Tyrian purple, for he refused to use imperial titles for either his wife or son, thereby protecting them from the aftermath of his own assassination.
Pertinax is discussed in The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli. Discussing the importance of a prince not being hated, Machiavelli provides Pertinax as an example of how it is as easy for a ruler to be hated for good actions as for bad ones. Though describing him as a good man, Machiavelli considered Pertinax's attempt to reform a soldiery that had become "accustomed to live licentiously" a mistake, as it inspired their hatred of him, which led to his overthrow and death.Machiavelli – The Prince, Ch. XIX. Pertinax, Marcus Aurelius and Severus Alexander are described as "men of modest life, lovers of justice, enemies to cruelty, humane, and benignant". However, Machiavelli considers that Roman soldiers, "being accustomed to live licentiously under Commodus, could not endure the honest life to which Pertinax wished to reduce them".
Pertinax is described in David Hume's essay Of the Original Contract as an "excellent prince" possessing an implied modesty when, on the arrival of soldiers who had come to proclaim him emperor, he believed that Commodus had ordered his death.Hume – Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary, II.XII.41
During the debate over ratification of the US Constitution, Virginia politician John Dawson, at his state's ratifying convention in 1788, spoke of the "atrocious murder" of Pertinax by the Praetorian Guard as an example of the danger of establishing a standing army.
In Romanitas, a fictional alternate history novel by Sophia McDougall, Pertinax's reign is the point of divergence. In the history as established by the novel, the plot against Pertinax was thwarted, and Pertinax introduced a series of reforms that would consolidate the Roman Empire to such a degree that it would still be a major power in the 21st century.
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