The year 193 opens in Rome with the murder of Emperor Commodus on New Year's Eve, December 31, 192 and the proclamation on New Year's Day of the City Prefect Pertinax as Emperor.

Pertinax is assassinated on March 28, 193, by the Praetorian Guard.

Didius Julianus outmaneuvers Titus Flavius Sulpicianus (Pertinax's father-in-law and also the new City Prefect) later that day for the title of Emperor.

Flavius Sulpicianus offers to pay each soldier twenty thousand sestertii to buy their loyalty (eight times their annual salary; also the same amount offered by Marcus Aurelius to secure their favors in 161).

Didius Julianus, however, offers twenty-five thousand to each soldier to win the auction and is proclaimed Emperor by the Roman Senate on March 28.

Three other prominent Romans also challenge for the throne: Pescennius Niger in Syria, Clodius Albinus in Britain, and Septimius Severus in Pannonia.

Septimius Severus marches on Rome to oust Didius Julianus and has him decapitated on June 1, 193, then dismisses the Praetorian Guard and executes the soldiers who had killed Pertinax.

Consolidating his power, Septimius Severus battles Pescennius Niger at Cyzicus and Nicaea in 193 and in 194 decisively defeats him at Issus.

Clodius Albinus initially supports Septimius Severus, believing that he will succeed him.

When he realizes in 195 that Severus has other intentions, Albinus has himself declared Emperor.