Editing Pertinax (section)

==Historical reputation==
Pertinax's historical reputation is largely a positive one, beginning with the assessment of Cassius Dio, a historian and senator who was a colleague of Pertinax. Dio refers to him as "an excellent and upright man"<ref>Dio, 74:1</ref> who displayed "not only humaneness and integrity in the imperial administrations, but also the most economical management and the most careful consideration for the public welfare".<ref name="dio 74:5"/>
[[File:Gold Aureus of Pertinax.jpg|thumb|200x200px|Gold Aureus of Pertinax]]
Dio's approval is not unqualified, however. He acknowledges that while some would call Pertinax's decision to confront the soldiers that would wind up killing him "noble", others would call it "senseless".<ref name="dio 74:9"/> He is also critical of Pertinax's judgment when it came to the speed with which he tried to reform the excesses of the reign of Commodus by suggesting that a more tempered approach would have been less likely to result in his murder.<ref>Dio, 74:10. "He failed to comprehend, though a man of wide practical experience, that one cannot with safety reform everything at once, and that the restoration of a state, in particular, requires both time and wisdom".</ref>

Pertinax is discussed in ''[[The Prince]]'' by [[Niccolò Machiavelli]]. Discussing the importance of a prince not being hated, Machiavelli provides Pertinax as an example of how it is as easy for a ruler to be hated for good actions as for bad ones. Though describing him as a good man, Machiavelli considered Pertinax's attempt to reform a soldiery that had become "accustomed to live licentiously" a mistake, as it inspired their hatred of him, which led to his overthrow and death.<ref>Machiavelli – ''The Prince'', Ch. XIX. Pertinax, [[Marcus Aurelius]] and [[Severus Alexander]] are described as "men of modest life, lovers of justice, enemies to cruelty, humane, and benignant". However, Machiavelli considers that Roman soldiers, "being accustomed to live licentiously under Commodus, could not endure the honest life to which Pertinax wished to reduce them".</ref>

Pertinax is described in [[David Hume]]'s essay ''Of the Original Contract'' as an "excellent prince" possessing an implied modesty when, on the arrival of soldiers who had come to proclaim him emperor, he believed that Commodus had ordered his death.<ref>Hume – ''[[Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary]]'', II.XII.41</ref>

During the debate over ratification of the [[US Constitution|United States Constitution]], [[Virginia]] politician [[John Dawson (U.S. politician)|John Dawson]], at his [[Virginia Ratifying Convention|state's ratifying convention]] in 1788, spoke of the "atrocious murder" of Pertinax by the Praetorian Guard as an example of the danger of establishing a [[standing army]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Graham |first=John Remington |date=2009 |title=Free, Sovereign, and Independent States: The Intended Meaning of the American Constitution |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7fOeMT99m44C&q=%22John+Dawson%22+Pertinax&pg=PA139 |location=United States |publisher=Pelican Publishing |page=139 |isbn=9781589805897}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Richard |first=Carl J. |date=1994 |title=The Founders and the Classics: Greece, Rome, and the American Enlightenment |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uSEIrw6QryoC&q=%22John+Dawson%22+Pertinax&pg=PA103 |location=United States |publisher=Harvard University Press |page=103 |isbn=0-674-31426-3}}</ref>