Even before this, Clodius Albinus, who commanded in Britain, had been on bad terms with Commodus. The offer which the latter had once made him of taking the title of Cæsar, in case any accident should happen to himself, he had declined; and, on the other hand, he seems, even before the death of the tyrant, to have shielded himself by means of his army against any of his attempts. As for Pertinax, he had neither acknowledged nor rejected him. After the death of Pertinax, the British and Gallic legions proclaimed Albinus; the German and Pannonian ones, Septimius Severus; and those of the East, Pescennius Niger. The senate, on the whole, was for Albinus; the people, and some of the senators, for Pescennius Niger; whilst Severus had in Rome a comparatively small number of partisans, and Julianus had every one against him: the senate could not abide him, because he had made himself dependent on the prætorians. Pescennius could not advance, as Severus was blocking up his way. The latter acted with indefatigable energy: three months after the death of Pertinax, he was at Terni. No one raised his hand to uphold Julianus, and the prætorians themselves scarcely made an attempt to defend their own creature: for they were now as cowardly and mutinous as the Janissaries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries down to the time of their destruction. The senate swore fealty to Severus, who entered Rome with his army: the populace was panic-struck; Julianus was put to death; and the prætorians were disarmed, and disbanded in disgrace. Upon this, Severus immediately turned himself towards the East.