Editing Clodius Albinus (section)

===Alliance with Septimius Severus===
[[File:Aureus-Clodius Albinus-RIC 0009b.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Coin of Clodius Albinus{{Efn|This coin celebrates ''Saeculum Frugiferum'', the embodiment of a "fruitful era", probably [[Baal Hammon]], a [[Phoenicia]]n divinity worshipped in North Africa, where Clodius came from.}}]]
After Pertinax was [[assassination|assassinated]], the [[Praetorian Guard|praetorian prefect]] [[Quintus Aemilius Laetus|Aemilius Laetus]] and his men, who had arranged the murder, "sold" the imperial throne to wealthy senator [[Didius Julianus]], effectively crowning him emperor. A string of mutinies by the troops in the provinces, however, meant the next emperor was far from decided. [[Pescennius Niger]] was proclaimed emperor by the legions in [[Syria (Roman province)|Syria]]; [[Septimius Severus]] by the troops in [[Illyricum (Roman province)|Illyricum]] and [[Pannonia]]; and Albinus by the armies in Britain and Gaul.

In the civil war that followed, Albinus was initially allied with Septimius Severus, who had captured Rome. Albinus added the name Septimius to his own, and accepted the title of [[Caesar (title)|Caesar]] from him; the two shared a [[Roman consul|consulship]] in 194. Albinus remained effective ruler of much of the western part of the Empire, with support from three British legions and one Spanish.{{Efn|The British legions were [[Legio II Augusta|II ''Augusta'']], [[Legio VI Victrix|VI ''Victrix'']], and [[Legio XX Valeria Victrix|XX ''Valeria Victrix'']], the Spanish legion was the [[legio VII Gemina|VII ''Gemina'']].}} When Didius Julianus was put to death by order of the Senate, who dreaded the power of Septimius Severus, the latter turned his arms against Pescennius Niger. After the defeat and death of Niger in 194, and the complete discomfiture of his adherents, especially after the fall of [[Byzantium]] in 196, Severus resolved to make himself the absolute master of the Roman Empire. Albinus, seeing the danger of his position, prepared for resistance. He narrowly escaped being assassinated by a messenger of Severus, after which he put himself at the head of his army, which is said to have consisted of 150,000 men.<ref name="cap"/>
{{Year of Five Emperors}}