Dashed left edge = started before this timeline ·
Dashed right edge = still ongoing
Events in the 190s 2
180 – 192Commodus — the gladiator emperorCommodus, Marcus Aurelius's son and biological successor, abandons his father's serious governance for games, vanity and cruelty. He renames Rome "Colonia Commodiana," renames the months after himself, and fights in the arena as a gladiator — a mortal insult to senatorial dignity. He kills hundreds of animals in the Colosseum and bills the treasury for each appearance. He is strangled in his bath on 31 December 192 AD by a palace conspiracy. His death triggers the Year of the Five Emperors (193 AD) and opens the age of military chaos.
193Year of Five EmperorsIn 193 AD — the Year of the Five Emperors — Pertinax, Didius Julianus (who buys the throne at a Praetorian auction), Pescennius Niger, Clodius Albinus and Septimius Severus all claim the throne. Pertinax is murdered after 86 days; Julianus is executed after 66 days; Niger and Albinus are defeated by Severus in civil wars. Severus, a North African from what is now Libya, establishes the Severan dynasty and pointedly honours the memory of Commodus — signalling to the Senate that he despises their opinion.