Meanwhile Pescennius Niger rose up in the East with a large army and took the field against Severus.

But my father was not the man to hesitate.

Within a few months of the obsequies of Pertinax his opponent was a headless corpse.
"There was yet another obstacle to be removed.

You have heard of Clodius Albinus.

My father had adopted him and raised him to share his throne.
But Severus could not divide the rule with any man.
"When I was nine years old I saw, after the battle of Lugdunum, the dead face of Albinus's head; it was set up in front of the Curia on a lance.
"I now was the second personage in the empire, next to my father; the first among the youth of the whole world, and the future emperor.