Quintus Aemilius Laetus

Quintus Aemilius Laetus (* Thaenae , Africa ; † Rome , April / May 193 ) was an ancient Roman soldier who was prefect of the Praetorian Guard from 191 until his death . He served under the Roman emperors Commodus , Pertinax and Didius Julianus and was a key player in the turmoil of the second four-emperor year .

The gentile name Aemilius suggests that the ancestors of Laetus had received Roman citizenship at the time of the triumvir Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (after 43 BC). It was after the death of his predecessor Regillus and Julian used as praetorian prefect of Commodus and quickly became the actual ruler in the background. As Commodus' behavior became increasingly unpredictable in the early 190s, the prefect decided to get rid of the emperor in order to avoid the fate of his predecessors, who had fallen victim to incessant intrigues, and instead choose a candidate of his own Bring throne. On December 31, 192, Commodus was murdered with the participation of the imperial concubine Marcia and Cubicularius Eclectus. Laetus immediately ensured that the city ​​prefect of Pertinax was proclaimed the new emperor . Opinions differ on the question of whether Pertinax was involved in the attack. The sources do not allow a definite judgment.

The murder of Commodus turned out to be the prelude to a civil war . The new emperor, who refused to tolerate the indiscipline that had fallen under Commodus, quickly fell out of favor with the Praetorians. Their commander Laetus, who apparently wanted to continue pulling the strings in the background, was increasingly disloyal to him. The attempts of the Praetorians to proclaim Senator Maternus and shortly afterwards the Consul Falco as counter-emperors failed, but on March 28, 193 Pertinax was slain by mutinous guards soldiers. Apparently it was not a conspiracy or a planned uprising, just a chaotic action: when Laetus, allegedly on the orders of the emperor, had some Praetorians executed for offenses, the rest mutinied for fear of further punishment. About two hundred of them entered the palace without encountering any resistance.

After Pertinax's death, the wealthy senator Didius Julianus made the Praetorians a generous offer. After bitter haggling, the soldiers commanded by Laetus finally awarded Julianus the bid for 25,000 sesterces per soldier; the competitor Sulpicianus , the city prefect and father-in-law of Pertinax, came away empty-handed. The provincial armies very soon raised the opposing emperors Septimius Severus and Pescennius Niger . Fearing that they might overflow to Severus, Julianus ordered the execution of Laetus, Marcia and the other conspirators against Commodus.

swell

• Cassius Dio , Roman History , 73 , 22; 74 , 6−10 and 16.
• Herodian , History of the Empire according to Marc Aurel , 1, 16f. , 2, 1f. .
• Historia Augusta , Commodus 17 ; Pertinax 4f. and 10f. ; Didius Julianus 6 .

literature

• Anthony R. Birley : Septimius Severus. The African Emperor . 2nd Edition. Batsford, London 1988, ISBN 0-7134-5694-9 , pp. 81ff.
• Ernst Hohl : Emperor Pertinax and the accession to the throne of his successor in the light of Herodian criticism. In addition to an appendix: Herodian and the fall of Plautian (= session reports of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, class for philosophy, history, political science, law and economics. Volume 2, ISSN  0065-5155 ). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1956.
• Adolf Lippold : On the career of P. Helvius Pertinax . In: Johannes Straub (Ed.): Bonner Historia-Augusta Colloquium. 1979/1981 (= Antiquitas . Series 4: Contributions to Historia Augusta research . Volume 15). Habelt, Bonn 1983, ISBN 3-7749-1917-8 , pp. 173-191.
• Steve Pasek : Emperor Caesar Didius Iulianus Augustus. His reign and the usurpations of the provincial governors (193 AD) . AVM, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-86924-515-7 .
• Zeev Rubin: Civil War Propaganda and Historiography . Latomus, Brussels 1980, ISBN 2-87031-113-3 .
• Karl Strobel : Commodus and Pertinax. “Perversion of Power” and “Restoration of the Good”? In: Herbert Heftner , Kurt Tomaschitz (Ed.): Ad Fontes! Festschrift for Gerhard Dobesch on his 65th birthday. Self-published by the editors, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-200-00193-3 , pp. 519-532.