Simon Elliott, Pertinax (Greenhill, 2020)
In Pertinax, Simon Elliott brings us the life and times of arguably the most unique Emperor of Rome. The son of a manumitted slave, Pertinax rose through the ranks into the Roman aristocratic elite, and from there to the pinnacle of power. It is an almost perfect story, but there was a tragic catch at the end.
Elliott wastes no time in outlining Pertinax’s career and establishing his own credentials as Pertinax’s biographer along with the sources he used. After some housekeeping, laying the groundwork for us to understand what is to follow, Elliott sets out on Pertinax’s biography, which is interspersed with informative background details on Roman life, including slavery and patronage. Elliott works two lengthy background chapters in next, the first for the Principate Empire, the second on the Principate military complete with tables of legions and fleets and a section on the Praetorian Guard that would play such a major role in Pertinax’s rise and fall. He then returns to Pertinax’s military career. The rising star saw action in Syria and Britain where Elliott lingers for a while to describe Rome’s difficulties in the region. Moving along, Elliott narrates Pertinax’s meteoric rise through a series of postings, including fighting on the Danube, commanding a legion, then appointed as suffect consul, though not everyone supported his rise. Most of this was achieved under Marcus Aurelius, but when he died, Pertinax’s ascent continued under Commodus. In 185, Pertinax returned to an unruly Britain where he dealt with mutinous legions. A brief sojourn in Rome was followed by a proconsulship in prestigious Africa Proconsularis, then back to Rome where he spent the rest of his life. Elliott establishes the final stage of Pertinax’s career with descriptions of Rome and Commodus’s final descent into madness. When Commodus was assassinated, the Emperorship was offered to the level-headed Pertinax. The catch was that the new reform minded Emperor threatened the privileges of the Praetorian Guard, and a few months later, they killed him. Elliott concludes with the story of the year of the five emperors, 193 CE, Septimius Severus’s emergence as Emperor, and Pertinax’s legacy as an incredible man whose story should be more widely known.
Simon Elliott is correct that Pertinax needs a biographer because he was an extraordinary Roman. And Elliott fulfils that role well, narrating Pertinax’s rise and dramatic fall set against the dramatic backdrop of the 3rd Century Roman Empire. The text suffers from a lack of flow, disrupted by needless chapter introductions, bullet-point lists, and material that should be in footnotes incorporated into the main text. Nevertheless, Elliott includes a lot of pertinent information and his biography fills a hole in the historiography of one of the most turbulent periods in Roman history.
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