Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Didius Julianus: The Man Who Bought An Empire

Episode Date: September 10, 2022

Throughout the history of the Roman Empire, there were 96 men who are considered to have been Roman Emperors, from Augustus to Romulus Augustulus. Most of them came to power via being appointed by their predecessor, through military conquest, or through good old-fashioned scheming and treachery. However, there was one man who ascended to the title of emperor in a totally unique way. Learn more about Didius Julianus and how he became the Roman Emperor in an auction on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Darcy Adams Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Thor Thomsen   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Search Past Episodes at fathom.fm Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EverythingEverywhere Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ Everything Everywhere is an Airwave Media podcast." or "Everything Everywhere is part of the Airwave Media podcast network Please contact [e-mail] to advertise on Everything Everywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The following is an encore presentation of Everything Everywhere Daily. Throughout the history of the Roman Empire, there were 96 men who were considered to have been Roman emperors, from Augustus to Romulus Augustulus. Most of them came to power via being appointed by the predecessor, or through military conquest, or through good old-fashioned scheming and treachery. However, there was one man who ascended to the title of emperor in a totally unique way. Learn more about Didius Giulianus and how he became Roman emperor in an auction on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. If you've never heard of Didius Giulianus, I wouldn't work. too much about it. In the big scheme of things, his impact on history was pretty minor. He didn't conquer any territories. He didn't reform the Roman state. He didn't even commit heinous acts to be known

as a bad emperor. Even if he wanted to do any of those things, he wasn't able to because his reign was so short. In fact, the only reason why anyone really remembers him is because of how he became emperor. So who was Didius Giulianus, and what were the circumstances which allowed him to come to power. Didius Julianus had a pretty privileged upbringing. He was born around the year 133 in what was in the city of Mediolanum, which is the modern-day city of Milan. His family was extremely wealthy, which is the one thing about him you probably need to know. Two of his ancestors on his mother's side were consuls, which was a very big deal in Rome. It gave him and his family a great deal of prestige. He was raised in the household of a woman named Domitia Calwilia,

who was the mother of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. With her support, he began his career in public service and began to climb the Curses Honorum. And here I'll refer you to my previous episode all about the Curses Honorum and the various offices that someone could hold. He became a quaestor and then an eight-isle, and then he was appointed as Preator in the year 162. He was then appointed the head of the 22nd Legion, where by all accounts, he performed quite well. In the year 170, he was appointed the governor of the province of Gallia Belgica, which is centered around modern-day Belgium, France, and Luxembourg. While he was there, he was noted for fighting off the Germanic Chalki tribe. In 175, after his governorship, he was appointed consul,

which is the apex of almost any Roman political career. He was later appointed governor of the provinces of Dalmatia and Germania Inferior. So Didius Giulianus had a pretty good career going at this point, and he had esteemed himself as a Roman. He was then appointed by the Emperor Commodus to distribute money to the poor in Milan. And this is considered by most historians to have been a demotion, probably because he was accumulating too much power, so the Emperor wanted to knock him down a notch. And he was eventually put on trial, having been accused of taking part in a plot to kill Commodus.

Just as an aside, if there was one emperor who probably deserved to be killed, it would have been Comedus, who was unquestionably one of the worst emperors in Roman history. If you've ever seen the movie Gladiator, Joaquin Phoenix plays Commodus. And this will probably be the topic of a future episode. Anyway, Didius Giulianus ended up being acquitted and was later appointed as the governor of Bethinia, which is today the northern coast of Turkey, as well as serving as pro-consul of North Africa. Eventually, someone did kill Comedus. He was killed on December 31st, 192. With the start of the new year on January 1st, the new emperor was a guy named pertinacs. The year 193 became

known as the year of five emperors, which I previously did an episode on. And here I need to point out the power and influence of a group known as the Praetorian Guard. The Praetorian Guard was the personal guard of the emperor and also served as a police force within Rome. Starting with the Emperor Claudius, they began to take a role in determining who the Emperor was going to be. When someone became Emperor, it was common to give the Praetorian Guard a bonus, which was basically a glorified bribe. When Comedus was killed, the Praetorian Guard marched across Rome and grabbed a guy named Pertnax, who was serving as the urban prefect, which was kind of like the mayor of Rome. They brought him back to their barracks and named him emperor. To be

fair, pertinax didn't do a horrible job, and he tried to bring back things to the days of Marcus Aurelius, who was the emperor before Commodus, and Marcus Aurelius was generally considered to be a good emperor. The problem was that pertinax did not give the Praetorian Guard their bonus. He eventually sold off a bunch of properties owned by Commodus to pay them, but he didn't make any friends in the process. Moreover, he tried to reform the Praetorian Guards to make them subject to more discipline, which also didn't go over well. Eventually, on March 28th, a group of 300 Pretorian guards stormed the Imperial Palace and killed Pertnax. He was emperor for only 87 days. The death of Pertnax created a power vacuum, as there was no obvious person who would become

emperor. What happened next was one of the most ridiculous and absurd scenes in all of Roman history. Pertanx's father-in-law, Titus Flavius Claudius Sopichianus, who was the prefect of Rome, went to the Praetorian camp. Supposedly, he went there to quell the disturbance with the Pretorians. However, while he was there, he began to make an offer to have himself declared it as emperor. Many of the Praetorians had misgivings at first, thinking that Sulpichianus probably wanted to get revenge for the death of his son-in-law. They led him into the camp where he began to make his case for being emperor. While this was happening, Didius Giulianus showed up at the camp. With Slypichianus inside the camp making his case, Julianus was on the outside of the camp, shouting,

his case. The real thing that the Pretorian Guard cared about, of course, was money, and it eventually became a bidding war between Sulpicius and Julianus. This went on for several hours, with Sulpicius eventually making a bid of 20,000 silver cistercies per Praetorian. Julianess, fearing he would lose the throne, made a bid of 25,000 cistercies to each Praetorian. There were about 8,000 members of the Praetorian Guard, which meant a payment of about 200 million cistercies. Piccianus couldn't match the bid, and so Didius Giulianus was proclaimed emperor by the Praetorian Guard. It's very difficult to try to make comparisons between ancient and modern finances. However, we do know that 25,000 cisterci's was about the equivalent of 10-year

salary for the average member of the Praetorian Guard, or equivalently the value of 10 horses. I've seen modern conversions of a cisterci that would put the total amount bid by Didius Julianus, somewhere between about a quarter billion to one billion contemporary U.S. dollars. Pretty much from the moment he purchased the imperial throne, things began going downhill for Julianus. For starters, absolutely no one respected him. Earning the title of emperor on the field of battle or through birth or even by appointment was something the average Roman could respect. Buying it outright in an auction was something that everyone looked down on. The Senate declared him emperor, which is why he's on the list of Roman emperors, but they only

did that because of the threat of violence by the Praetorian Guard. Whenever he went out of the palace, crowds would gather to insult him, and they would often throw stones at him. They would call him a robber and a thief. It wasn't just the fact that he purchased the throne either. What little he did proved to be extremely unpopular. After Cometus died, the Senate issued a Demadio Memoride decree against him, requiring that his name be erased from history. And I'll reference you to my episode on that subject here. Didius Giulianus was going to reverse the decree because Cometus was popular with the Praetorian Guard, even if everyone else hated him. During the brief time, Pertanax was Emperor, he tried to reverse Cominus' debasing of coinage.

Julianus reversed the reversal, making the coins less valuable once again. Word of Julianus' buying the Emperor's ship spread. Three different generals across the Empire were acclaimed Emperor by their legions. Pescinius Niger in Syria, Septimius Severus in the province of Pannonia on the Danube River, and Clodius Albinius in Britannia. Julianus's lack of popularity, and the rise of three different claimants to the throne wasn't his biggest problem, however. His biggest problem was a lack of money. Turns out that he didn't have as much money as he had promised the Praetorian Guard, and there also wasn't that much in the Treasury.

The Pretorian Guard may have been the military force in the city of Rome, but the truth was they really weren't that good at fighting battles. Because their job was guarding and policing, they were no match for a real Roman Legion out in the frontiers of the Empire. Empire. Septimius Severus, who had the largest number of legions, was also closest to Rome of the three claimants. He immediately began to march on Rome with his men. It isn't known if he crushed the Praetorian Guard in battle, or if the Praetorians just defected in mass to Septimius Severus. Either way, they quickly became a non-factor in imperial politics. When Septimius Severus entered Rome, the Senate quickly and gladly turned on Didius Giulianus. They declared Septimius Severus Emperor, deified pertinacs, and sentenced Julianus to death.

With everyone having abandoned him, a team of Severus's soldiers entered the Imperial Palace and killed Didius Julianus. Last words were, quote, But what evil have I done? Whom have I killed? Unquote. He served as Emperor for a grand total of 66 days. After his death, the Senate passed a resolution of Damnatio Memorial against him. He died at the age of 57. Septimius Severus dissolved the Praetorian Guard for obvious reasons, ended up establishing the Severin dynasty. Didius Giulianus ended up becoming a footnote to Roman history. Other than how he obtained the imperial throne, there really wasn't anything about him that was noteworthy.

Had he not bought the imperial throne, he probably would have been well respected and would have lived a much longer life. However, had he done that, I probably also wouldn't have been doing a podcast episode about him. Everything Everywhere Daily is an Airwave Media podcast. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. If you'd like to support the show, you can do so over at patreon.com. And remember, if you leave a review or send in a question, you two can have it read on the show.