The reign of Marcus Didius Severus Julianus is largely insignificant and unremarkable except for the nature in which it began, and its direct influence on the outbreak of civil war. It was Didius Julianus who bought the throne from the very same praetorians who assassinated Pertinax, his imperial predecessor.
Didius Julianus was born January 29, AD 137 likely in Mediolanum (Milan) into a prominent political family of the era. He was raised in the house of Domitia Lucilla (the mother of Marcus Aurelius) and enjoyed her support, as well as her son?s, throughout his early career. As such, Didius Julianus rose steadily through the ranks of the cursus honorum reaching the post of quaestor a year before the ?legal? age (such legalities were often overlooked for the immediate court of the imperial family). After a term as aedile and as praetor, Marcus Aurelius appointed him to the command of Legio XXII Primigenia in Germania, and then served as governor of Belgica where he defended the province from incursions of the Germanic Chauci. This command earned him the consulship and he went on to govern with distinction in Dalmatia and Germania Superior and to serve as praefectus alimentorum in Italy (responsible for grants of money and welfare to the poor).
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