The
resentment of an unarmed mob, however, soon ceased to be of foremost
importance; this resentment extended rapidly to all the frontiers of the
empire, where the armies felt that the praetorian cohorts had no exclusive
title to give away the throne, and their leaders felt, that, in a contest
of this nature, their own claims were incomparably superior to those of
the present occupant. Three great candidates therefore started forward--
Septimius Severus, who commanded the armies in Illyria, Pescennius Niger
in Syria, and Albinus in Britain. Severus, as the nearest to Rome, marched
and possessed himself of that city. Vengeance followed upon all parties
concerned in the late murder. Julianus, unable to complete his bargain,
had already been put to death, as a deprecatory offering to the
approaching army. Severus himself inflicted death upon Laetus, and
dismissed the praetorian cohorts. Thence marching against his Syrian
rival, Niger, who had formerly been his friend, and who was not wanting in
military skill, he overthrew him in three great battles. Niger fled to
Antioch, the seat of his late government, and was there decapitated.
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