Commodus mounted the throne after a pretty long succession of excellent emperors, who had acquired their title, not by birth or public election, but by the fictitious rite of adoption. That bloody debauchee being murdered by a conspiracy suddenly formed between his wench and her gallant, who happened at that time to be Prætorian Prefect, these immediately deliberated about choosing a master to humankind, to speak in the style of those ages; and they cast their eyes on Pertinax. Before the tyrant’s death was known the Prefect went silently to that senator, who, on the appearance of the soldiers, imagined that his execution had been ordered by Commodus. He was immediately saluted Emperor by the officer and his attendants; cheerfully proclaimed by the populace; unwillingly submitted to by the guards; formally recognised by the senate; and passively received by the provinces and armies of the Empire. The discontent of the Prætorian bands soon broke out in a sudden sedition, which occasioned the murder of that excellent prince; and the world being now without a master and without government, the guards thought proper to set the Empire formally to sale. Julian, the purchaser, was proclaimed by the soldiers, recognized by the senate, and submitted to by the people, and must also have been submitted to by the provinces had not the envy of the legions begot opposition and resistance. Pescennius Niger in Syria elected himself Emperor, gained the tumultuary consent of his army, and was attended with the secret good-will of the senate and people of Rome. Albinus in Britain found an equal right to set up his claim; but Severus, who governed Pannonia, prevailed in the end above both of them. That able politician and warrior, finding his own birth and dignity too much inferior to the imperial crown, professed at first an intention only of revenging the death of Pertinax. He marched as general into Italy, defeated Julian, and without our being able to fix any precise commencement even of the soldiers’ consent, he was from necessity acknowledged Emperor by the senate and people, and fully established in his violent authority by subduing Niger and Albinus. “Inter hæc Gordianus Cæsar,” says Capitolinus, speaking of another period, “sublatus a militibus, Imperator, est appellatus, quia non erat alius in præsenti.” It is to be remarked that Gordian was a boy of fourteen years of age.