en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didius_Julianus
1 correction found
After seizing the ringleaders and killing them, the soldiers reported what they had done to Marcus Silius Messala
Cassius Dio says the praetorians only arrested Pertinax’s killers before reporting to Silius Messalla; their execution came later under Septimius Severus.
Full reasoning
The sequence here is wrong.
Cassius Dio’s account of the fall of Didius Julianus says the praetorians "arrested the men who had killed Pertinax, and announced this fact to Silius Messalla"; only after that did the Senate condemn Julianus and proclaim Severus emperor. In other words, they reported an arrest, not an already completed killing.
Dio then explains in the next book that after Severus became emperor, he "inflicted the death penalty on the Pretorians who had taken part in the slaying of Pertinax." That places the executions later, under Severus, not before the report to Messalla.
Herodian’s narrative likewise puts the punishment of Pertinax’s murderers after Julianus’ death, when Severus trapped the praetorians and punished/dismissed them.
So the article’s wording that the soldiers had already "seiz[ed] the ringleaders and kill[ed] them" before reporting to Messalla does not match the ancient sources’ chronology.
3 sources
- Cassius Dio - Epitome of Book 74
"the soldiers... arrested the men who had killed Pertinax, and announced this fact to Silius Messalla... We thereupon sentenced Julianus to death, named Severus emperor"
- Cassius Dio - Epitome of Book 75
"Severus, on becoming emperor... inflicted the death penalty on the Pretorians who had taken part in the slaying of Pertinax"
- Herodian 2.13 - Livius
"When he learned of the Senate's action and the death of Julianus, Severus... used a trick to seize and hold prisoner the Praetorian Guard, the murderers of Pertinax."