Given that Donald Trump is not the most popular president the USA has ever seen, even among his own party, it is salutary to be reminded what induction ceremonies can be like for those who devised imaginative routes to power.
Pertinax, who started life as a schoolmaster, was a governor of Britain and a highly respected consul before succeeding the ghastly Commodus as emperor on 30 December AD 192. But the military did not appreciate his immediate attempts to restore discipline and financial stability, and he was assassinated three months later. There then followed an auction: the assassins put the office up for sale to the highest bidder, and Didius Julianus, ‘an insatiable money-maker and outrageous spendthrift’, won it with an offer equal to 20 times a soldier’s annual salary.
The senators were appalled, especially those who had supported Pertinax or acted against Julianus in trials, even more so when Julianus rushed to the senate house to be inducted, surrounded by heavily armed troops.
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