19 Facts About Helvius Pertinax

Publius Helvius Pertinax was Roman emperor for the first three months of 193.

Helvius Pertinax succeeded Commodus to become the first emperor during the tumultuous Year of the Five Emperors.

Helvius Pertinax achieved the rank of provincial governor and urban prefect.

Helvius Pertinax was a member of the Roman Senate, serving at the same time as the historian Cassius Dio.

Helvius Pertinax attempted to institute several reform measures, although the short duration of his reign as emperor prevented the success of those attempts.

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Helvius Pertinax 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 honor of a suffect consulship and until 185, Helvius Pertinax was governor of the provinces of Upper and Lower Moesia, Dacia, Syria, and finally governor of Britain.

Helvius Pertinax was recalled after three years to Britain, where the Roman army was in a state of mutiny.

Helvius Pertinax tried to quell the unruly soldiers there but one legion attacked his bodyguard, leaving Pertinax for dead.

Helvius Pertinax's short reign of 87 days was an uneasy one.

Helvius Pertinax attempted to emulate the restrained practices of Marcus Aurelius and made an effort to reform the alimenta, but he faced antagonism from many quarters.

Helvius Pertinax attempted to impose stricter military discipline upon the pampered Praetorians.

Helvius Pertinax sent Laetus to meet them, but he chose to side with the insurgents instead and deserted the emperor.

Helvius Pertinax must have been aware of the danger he faced by assuming the purple, for he refused to use imperial titles for either his wife or son, thereby protecting them from the aftermath of his own assassination.

Helvius Pertinax's historical reputation is largely a positive one, beginning with the assessment of Cassius Dio, a historian and senator who was a colleague of Helvius Pertinax.

Helvius Pertinax acknowledges that while some would call Pertinax's decision to confront the soldiers that would wind up killing him "noble", others would call it "senseless".

Helvius Pertinax is critical of Pertinax's judgment when it came to the speed with which he tried to reform the excesses of the reign of Commodus by suggesting that a more tempered approach would have been less likely to result in his murder.

Helvius Pertinax is described by 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.

Helvius Pertinax was the pseudonym of the French journalist Andre Geraud .