Pescennius Niger (135-194) was a usurper of the Roman Empire from 9 April 193 to May 194, succeeding Didius Julianus and preceding Septimius Severus.
Biography[]
Gaius Pescennius Niger was born to an old Italian equestrian family, and he was the first member of his family to serve in the Roman Senate. He held an administrative position in Egypt and served in a military command in Dacia during the reign of the Roman emperor Commodus, and he and Didius Julianus emerged as two of Commodus' most loyal supporters in the Senate, opposing Gaius Livius and the faction supportive of the reforms of Commodus' late father Marcus Aurelius. He served as suffect consul during the late 180s AD and became imperial legate of Syria in 191 AD. After the assassination of Pertinax in 193 and the auctioning of the throne off to Julianus, the people of Rome clamored for the well-regarded Niger to claim the imperial throne for himself. The eastern legions proclaimed Niger their emperor in April of 193 AD; that same month, Septimius Severus also made a claim to the throne. Severus entered Rome in June 193 after preventing Niger's messengers from entering the city and proclaiming him emperor, and Severus had the prefect of the watch Gaius Fulvius Plautianus take Niger's children as hostages. Meanwhile, Niger secured control of the eastern provinces from Bithynia to Egypt, but Severus had command of the 16 Danubian legions to Niger's 6 Eastern legions. In spite of some early successes against Severus' armies, Niger was defeated at Nicaea in December 193 and forced to retreat to Antioch. Laodicea and Tyre switched their allegiance to Severus, followed by Egypt in February 194. In May 194, Niger was decisively defeated at Issus, and he was captured while attempting to flee to Parthia, before being executed by beheading. His wife and children were also put to death, and his estates were confiscated.
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