The Sixth Good Emperor: A Pertinax TL

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Bust of Caesar Publius Helvius Pertinax Augustus, 19th Roman Emperor (193 - 197 AD).

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"At times, it appears that the debate concerning historiography of the emperor Pertinax, infamous for practically destroying the same Praetorian Guard which brought him to power following their assassination of Commodus, unfortunately overshadows that of any actual facts of his reign, mainly within debates over minutiae which historians are so wont to engage.

"Is it to be considered a continuation of the successes of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty, much as Machiavelli implies in The Prince, given that his heir hailed from a branch of the same family and his adoption thereof also followed the same tradition, or had that dynasty been truly well and buried after the excesses of Commodus? Is he instead the founder of the 'Pertinacian' dynasty, which carried Rome peaceably into the next century? Or, as some historians suggest, are these two epochs simply aspects of a greater 'Nerva-Antonine-Pertinacian' dynasty?

"To what extent do these issues of nomenclature actually matter, especially when compared to the next major debate: was he, indeed, a 'good' emperor, in the mold of his predecessors Nerva and Hadrian which he aimed to emulate, much as later sources tend to vindicate his rule, or a 'bad' emperor, such as those criticising him as a 'second Domitian', or worse yet, a 'second Tiberius', due to the purges of the military early in his reign?

"Though his reign lasted a mere four years, due primarily to his already advanced age, the reforms of Pertinax, as further enforced by his successors, undeniably reshaped the Roman Empire. Whether these by themselves would have enough to prevent its eventual fall is indubitably the realm of the counterfactual; what we can say with certainty is that the old grammarian succeeded beyond the expectations of many, if not most."

- Excerpt from Preface to Pertinax and the Praetorians by Prof. Thomas Colton (2015).

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OKAY, WHAT?
Ease on the all-caps, bro!

JVST BE GLAD I'M NOT DISPENSING WITH SPACES TOO.
See, now everyone thinks you're just mimicking Death from Discworld.

BVT ME EFFECTIO THE "U" SVBSTITVTION TOO!
I think you're overthinking this - you're trying to replicate dog latin but you're just sounding like Bizarro. Just get on with it and mock me, all right?

AREN'T VOS SVPPOSED TO BE WORKING ON "GERMANIA WEBERAE", TL VOSTRVM?
I'm taking a break from that until October, so I'm spending it on...writing another timeline. Huh.

DO VOS EVEN KNOW ANYTHING ABOVT ANCIENT ROMA?
Its greatest hits, yeah. I've also got the Historia Augusta, Roman History by Cassius Dio, Epitome de Caesaribus, New History by Zosimus, this, and, of course, Vicipaedia.

JVPITER ELEISON NOS. FVRTHERMORE, HAVEN'T OTHERS TRIED THIS BEFORE, IN PRINT?
Can you try and be a bit supportive of my first pre-1900 TL? Also, that other one had Rome surviving until the present day. Come on!

OH, FINE. AVE LECTOR, MORITVRI TE SALVTANT.
Oh, fvccant off.


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Well, this is my crack at extending the lifespan of the man who died pretty much from trying to do the right thing at the wrong time. I don't expect to continue this to the present day, but I hope at least to generate a few interesting short-term butterflies for the Roman Empire. I also don't know exactly how this'll end, but I reckon avoiding the Year of the Five Emperors and/or the Crisis of the Third Century ought to be "good enough". :eek:

Feedback and advice on other sources would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for dropping by! :D
 
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OOoooh. I rather look forwards to this. Anything which avoids the title of emperor being sold by the Praetorians can only be a good thing.
 

Deleted member 67076

I always love a good Principate timeline. Sign me up.
 
OOoooh. I rather look forwards to this. Anything which avoids the title of emperor being sold by the Praetorians can only be a good thing.
Thank you! Yeah, the Praetorians kind of ruin everything. Pertinax was known as a disciplinarian during his military tours, so he might've been the guy to sort them out once and for all - as he was allegedly on the verge of doing when they came to kill him, until that one guy decided he had enough and shanked him.

I always love a good Principate timeline. Sign me up.
Glad to have you on board! :D

Color me interested, amicus.

Does this spell the death of that TLIOAM with the four emperors and no WWI?
Sadly, it does. It was kind of too loosely-framed with no clear direction from the outset. This will be somewhat more focused, with a cutoff of late September or early October.

I'm making another call for resources concerning the Nerva-Antonine emperors and Pertinax's family, along with general information concerning Rome towards the end of the 2nd century (or the 2nd century as a whole, really) - I'm aware Pertinax had a son and a daughter (and a wife, obviously) and he made his father-in-law prefect, but none of the sources are telling me his children's names or what they were like.

First update should be later this week. :)
 
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*Starts prepping up knowledge about possible Sol-Invictus/Gnostic Christian/Mithraic domination this timeline around*

I would also heavily recommend looking at that Aurelius ATL if attempting to save the pax romana is your focus.
 
*Starts prepping up knowledge about possible Sol-Invictus/Gnostic Christian/Mithraic domination this timeline around*

I would also heavily recommend looking at that Aurelius ATL if attempting to save the pax romana is your focus.

Goodness, thank you so much for doing a TL on Pertinax! I've always felt that his survival would make for a great TL.
 
I shall be watching this with great interest!
Pertinax, huh?

Definitely in.
Goodness, thank you so much for doing a TL on Pertinax! I've always felt that his survival would make for a great TL.

Thank you! I hope to live up to your expectations - Pertinax probably represents one of the bigger "what ifs" in the late Principate, and he seems to generally had his head screwed on right until the Praetorians unscrewed it and paraded it around. :p

Always interested in a new and innovative TL, about the survival of the Roman Empire.

Well, I don't know if it's enough to make it last, but maybe a shot in the arm. Glad to have you on board, nonetheless. :cool:

*Starts prepping up knowledge about possible Sol-Invictus/Gnostic Christian/Mithraic domination this timeline around*

I would also heavily recommend looking at that Aurelius ATL if attempting to save the pax romana is your focus.

Interesting points! May I have a link to that Aurelius TL? :)
 
PERTINAX

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Woodcut of Pertinax, Middle Ages.

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EARLY LIFE

The humble beginnings of the man elevated to the Principate by the killers of Commodus are well-documented; Publius Helvetius Pertinax was born to Helvius Successus and Lolliana Camilla [1], made freedmen by Lollianus Avitus, once consul, at Alba Pompeia (modern-day Alba) in the Alps, near modern Tarrino; a new imperial settlement was built after his reign to expand the town into “Alba Pertinax”, famed for its amphitheatre [2]. His name refers to the “pertinacity” with his Helvius Successus conducted his woodworking trade, although the term has since gained authoritation – or even draconian – connotations in addition to those of steadfastness and stubbornness due to his actions as Emperor. Pertinax was educated in arithmetic and the languages, the latter by a Greek teacher – that this fact is noted in the Historia Augusta does not seem significant except perhaps to imply influences for his neo-Hadrianism, although Pertinax was never as inclined to philihellenism as his predecessor – his intelligence in administration did not encompass classical philosophy wisdom to any great extent. Nonetheless, Pertinax’s instruction in such matters appears to have directly guided his initial decision to take up instruction of grammar. Reports of his teaching sadly do not exist, but if his record in the military is anything to go by, it would appear that he was a strict tutor.

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Roman fresco from a villa in Alba Pertinax, with the detail of the carpenter after the style seen in Pompeii identifying the house as that of Helvetius Successus.

Apparently dissatisfied with this, Pertinax pursued a career in the military, which unbeknownst to him would forever shape the nature of his rule and that of his successors. His military record during the reign of Marcus Aurelius is also well-documented, with campaigns in Syria, against the Parthians, and a naval career in the German fleet in his record. However, his career would nearly have stalled in Dacia had it not been for the intervention of the emperor’s trusted general and son-in-law Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus, with whom Pertinax would form a life-long bond. Following his accession to the Roman Senate as a novus homo (“new man”, the first in his family to serve in the Senate), Pertinax continued his string of successes, eventually rising to governor of the Moesias and Dacia. Pertinax continued his prominence in the Senate under Marcus Aurelius and his successor Commodus until he was forced out of public life by the praetorian prefect Sextus Tigidius Perennis, and made to retire on his father’s estates, where Pertinax would expand his wealth. Perennis himself fell foul to the infamous Cleander’s machinations, and Commodus restored Pertinax to the military, whereupon he took up the governorship of Britain. It would appear that his fervent rejection of the Praetorian Guard and Commodus were products of his reign, as he conducted himself with cautious respect to both upon his return to the public sphere.

It was in Britain that his reputation as a harsh disciplinarian emerged, and one which he would carry with him to his grave in his violent rebuke of the Praetorian Guard during his rule. Much of the same strands can be seen in his response to both mutinies; he was only able to survive that of his troops in Britain due to their belief that he had been killed in the ambuscade. When he was able to reassert control of his legion, he had it decimated, a punishment which appears to have increased dissatisfaction among his soldiers to the extent that he asked to be removed from the governorship. Following this, he was appointed proconsul in Africa, and eventually came to serve alongside Commodus as consul just prior to Commodus’s decline and excesses. Here there is further no suggestion of his later rejection of Commodus, although he was at least partially aware of the various assassination plots against the increasingly megalomaniacal emperor. An anecdote by Cassius Dio recalls a race – the last in the year – where Commodus had backed a horse coincidentally named Pertinax, and when it won that dissenters muttered that Pertinax the man would have been infinitely preferable. Pertinax was administrating as urban prefect at the time of Commodus’s assassination by praetorian prefect Quintus Aemilius Laetus acting in concert with Commodus’s mistress, Marcia, and chamberlain, Ecletus. It is probable that Pertinax’s former treatment by Perennis had informed him well of the duplicity of praetorian prefects, and he initially responded to the sight of the Praetorian Guard with the assumption that they were there to kill him. Pertinax attempted to convince Claudius Pompeianus to accept the throne, which he rejected, citing his usual excuses of old age and eye problems. To Laetus, the appointment of Pertinax must have seemed like that of Nerva following the assassination of Domitian; here, history would indeed repeat, but not quite in the way he predicted.

[0] Changed as per swaggy's suggestion.
[1] Speculation, name generated from freedman naming conventions.
[2] Pertinax actually being of importance beyond brevity of reign permits his successors to memoralise him more than Septimus Severus did.

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Sorry this first update is so short, but it's about as much I can squeeze out succinctly from what we know about OTL, primarily from Historia Augusta and Cassius Dio. The changes, if any, are simply examples of how later events can change our perception of the same past events.

The next update will cover the bit we've all been waiting to see, and I'll need to do more research to see what Pertinax does with his new lease on life, but the strands of his policies are already set even with this update.
 
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Great start. I'm not sure any of the sources mention anything about Pertinax's son at all, which wouldn't be surprising since he was only a stopgap in the grand scheme of things to the year of five emperors.
 
Alright, calling some bullshit right now.

Machiavelli and The Prince would be butterflied completely, as would the name Turin (alt name Tarrino?) and a bunch of other things in "modern day".

Keep in mind that almost everything otl will be butterflied away. If you're aiming for a "Rome survives tl", then don't use modern names for places.
 
Here is the link to that Marcus Aurelius TL I mentioned earlier Tom.

Also I would recommend messaging Shevek for tons of in-depth analysis.
 
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