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On August 1, 126 A.D. Publius Helvius Pertinax was born in Ligurian town of Alba Pompeia, which was roughly thirty-five mile southeast of Turin in the northwest part of Italy. Helvius Successus, his father, was a freed slave. It is believed that his father named him Pertinax to show his own success in the wool or timber trade. While Pertinax was a young man he was able to gain a foothold in the Roman society through his education and erudition. This was possible due to Helvius’ wealth. He left for Rome as a student of Sulpicius Apollianris and later became a grammar teacher himself. After teaching until he was thirty-five, he decided that he had enough of teaching and decided to pursue a career in the military field.
In 161 A.D. Pertinax had joined the military. They realized he was a highly educated man, and they placed him as commander of the conort of Gallic soldiers in Syria. Very quickly he made great achievements, and he was promoted to the military tribune rank. He continued to excel when he went over to the VI Legion ‘Victrix’ in Eburacum in Britain. He had made himself quite a name. He left the military and became a civilian in order to leave himself open so that he could join office. Once he was in office he acted as procurator of equestrian rank in Italy. He was in charge of the alimenta, which was the welfare of the poor, along the Via Aemilia. He did this later for the province of Dacia.
Pertinax went back into the military to serve in the Marais Aurelius’ wars along with the Danube. He became the commander of vexillationes, which was a troop of men detached from their legion that operated in a separate unit inside Pannonia. From being in close contact with the Germans, he was once again promoted. This time the promotion was to the senatorial rank, and he acted as praetor in Ratia where he had the command of the legion. From 174 to 175 A.D. Pertinax had won the goodwill of Marcus Aurelius and had become consul.
Later in 175 A.D. he played a key role in stopping the revolt of Cassius in Syria. He also was serving governor for Upper Moesia, Lower Moesia, and Dacia. Later in 181 A.D. he governed Syria. Pertinax had managed to fall from grace because of the relationships with some conspirators. Yet when the military needed an experienced and reliable commander, they recalled upon him. He stayed in this position from 185 to 187 A.D. This action had rebuilt the trust of the emperor, and allowed him to have the post of proconsul to province of Africa in 188 A.D. Because he had shown the ability to keep difficult situations under control, he was made city perfect of Rome in 189 A.D. This was followed by winning a second consulship. It is believed that it is highly unlikely that Pertinax was unaware of the plot to kill Commodus; therefore he was also unaware of the conspirator’s ideals of him to succeed as emperor. Laetus, who had planned the assignation, asked Pertinax if he would accept the throne. After hearing this Pertinax went to the praetorian camp where he offered the guards 12’000 seesterces per man as a bonus. Then he went to meet with the senators, who were happy to greet the man who would become the new emperor.
The first thing Pertinax saw he needed to fix as emperor was the imperial treasury. This was due to large sums of money that was wasted on games and luxuries by Commodus. Trying to fix this in such a quick manner made many enemies for Pertinax. Another mistake that had been made by the new emperor at the beginning of his reign was cutting some of the praetorian’s privileges and only paying them half of the bonuses he previously promised. Just as quickly as he was changing things did the attitudes of the people change. The praetorians started looking for a new replacement. While, Pertinax had gone away to Ostia, where he was overseeing the arrangements for some grain shipments, the praetorians tried to set up one of their consuls, Quintus Sosius Falco to overthrow him. However, there was a slave who gave their plans away. While Pertinax was gone Falco had been condemned by the senate, and several praetorians had been executed. Pertinax ended up pardoning Falco.
March 28 193 A.D. the praetorians revolted. The palace gates were forced open by over 300 me because none of the guards bothered to help restrain them. The emperor was even abandoned by his own helper, Laetus. Knowing his fate, Pertinax did not try and run but waited with his chamberlain Eclectus. When he was found by the praetorians, they found a man who thought he could convince them to throw down their weapons and surrender. These actions stalled his death for a while, but unable to convince them, the brave leader stepped forward. In the end Pertinax fell to the ground with a spear in the chest. Eclectus who had been by his side fought for him, yet also died. Pertinax was beheaded and placed on a spear to be paraded through the streets of Rome.
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