AD69 Emperors, Armies & Anarchy

With the death of the Emperor Nero by his own shaky hand, the ill-starred Julio-Claudian dynasty came to an ignominious end, and Rome was up for the taking. AD 69, known as the ‘Year of the Four Emperors’, was one of Rome’s worst. Nero’s death threw up a critical question for the Empire. How could a new man occupy the vacant throne in Rome and establish a new dynasty? This situation had never arisen before, but the psychotic and paranoid Nero had done away with any eligible relatives. And how might a new emperor secure his legal position and authority with the Senate, the army, and the Praetorian Guard? The upshot saw ambitious and unscrupulous generals of the empire fall into a bloody power struggle for the right to wear the imperial purple.

The great Roman historian Tacitus remarks that ‘one of the secrets of ruling had been revealed: an emperor could be created outside Rome’. This was because imperial authority was ultimately based on control of the military. To gain and retain power in this game of thrones, a player had to cement control over the legions on the far flung fringes of the empire. It was to take a tumultuous year of civil war, and the death of three imperial candidates before a fourth candidate came out on top, and established a new dynasty. Nic Fields tells the tale of this short but bloody year.

Written by Nic Fields. Published by Pen & Sword Books. Softcover