Why You Don't Kill an Emperor

Pertinax was 66 years old and had ruled the empire for 86 days. Pertinax faced down the 300 praetor ans who were standing over his bloody body, trying to figure out who to replace him with. The pretorians decided they would auction off the job to the highest bidder. No self respecting senator was going to get into a bidding war to win the honor of becoming the pretorian's puppet. But then again, if only morally ambiguous men entered in the bidding, then maybe it was the duty of a self respecting senator to step in and outbid the bad seeds. In the end, events moved so quickly that the bidding cam down to two men who were