Publius Helvius Pertinax
(Rijksmuseum van oudheden, Leiden)
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2.4: Pertinax' policy
[January 193]  When Pertinax' speech to the Senate
and his letters to the people were made public, all the Romans gave
thanks, hoping that he would be for them not so much an emperor as a
mild and pious ruler and father. He ordered the praetorians to curb
their arrogant treatment of the people; he forbade them to carry axes
or strike anyone they chanced to meet. He tried to manage everything
with decency and discipline, and in his judicial duties he was mild and
moderate.
 By his consistent and
deliberate imitation of Marcus' reign, he delighted the older people,
and won the good will of the others without difficulty, released as
they were from savage and oppressive tyranny to lead a well-ordered
life, free from care. When the mildness of his rule became known
everywhere, all nations subject to Roman rule or friendly to the
Romans, and all the armies in the field as well, came to regard his
reign as that of a god.
 And indeed, the
barbarians who were formerly restless and rebellious, mindful of his
brilliant achievements in his previous campaigns, feared him and
willingly submitted to him. They put their trust in his reputation for
never purposely doing an injustice and always treating every man
according to his deserts; improper conduct and savage violence were
completely foreign to his nature. Embassies from all countries came to
him, and everyone delighted in the rule of the Romans under Pertinax.
 All, both publicly and privately, were pleased by the order
and the moderation of his reign. But what pleased all the
rest only galled the soldiers of the imperial bodyguard stationed in
Rome. Now forbidden to loot and act with insolence, the praetorians
were directed to return to an orderly and disciplined way of life.
Since they considered the mild and moderate rule of Pertinax an insult
and disgrace to them, as well as a diminution of their unlimited power,
they refused
to tolerate his well-ordered reign any longer.
 At
the beginning, they had obeyed his orders reluctantly and mutinously.
But after he had been emperor for less than two months, during which he
had put into effect in a short time many moderate and practical
measures, and his subjects were just beginning to entertain high hopes
for the future, a wretched turn of fortune upset the situation and
ruined everything, preventing a number of excellent projects useful to
his subjects from being carried to completion.
 To begin with,
Pertinax assigned all the land in Italy and the rest of the provinces
not under cultivation to anyone willing to care for it and farm it, to
be his own private property; he gave to each man as much land as he
wished and was able to manage, even if the land were imperial property.[1]
To these farmers he granted exemption from all taxes for ten
years and freedom from government duties as well.
 He
refused to allow his name to be stamped on imperial property, stating
that these effects were not the emperor's personal property but the
common and public possessions of the Roman empire. Finally, he removed
the tolls previously levied during the tyranny as an easy method of
raising revenue, the fees collected at the banks of rivers, the harbors
of cities, and the crossroads, restoring to all these their ancient
freedom.
 It is obvious that
he would have done even more to benefit his subjects, as his general
policy makes plain, for he banished informers from the city and ordered
them to be persecuted elsewhere; he took
precautions to prevent anyone from being threatened by informers or
being embroiled in their false charges. Then the Senate particularly,
but all other men too, seemed to be living in a blessed state of
security.
 Pertinax was so modest
and unassuming that he did not bring his own son, then a young man,
into the imperial palace. The youth remained in his father's house and
continued to attend his regular school and gymnasium; in his education,
as in all his activities, he was an ordinary Roman citizen, and
displayed none of the imperial pomp and arrogance.
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