Monday 1 March
6 PM GMT
7 PM CET
With Dr Simon Elliott
Pertinax, the first emperor in the Year of the Five Emperors in AD 193, was the son of a former slave who proved that no matter how lowly your birth, you could rise to the very top. Born in AD 126, he made a late career change from working as a grammar teacher to a position in the army. As he moved up the ranks and further along the aristocratic cursus honorum, he took on many of the most important postings in the Empire, from senior military roles in fractious Britain, the Marcomannic Wars on the Danube, to the Parthian Wars in the east.
In this lecture, based on his recently published book on the subject, Dr Simon Elliott brings this previously untold story about a fascinating and important figure out of the shadows.