ALBINUS, DECIMUS CLODIUS SEPTIMIUS

died AD 197 Roman general, a candidate for the imperial title in the years 193197. He represented the aristocracy of the Latin-speaking West, in contrast to Pescennius Niger, candidate of the Greek-speaking East, and to Lucius Septimius Severus, candidate of the army and of the Balkan region. Originally from Hadrumetum in Roman Africa (now Sousse, Tur.), Albinus became a senator, evidently in the last years of the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Soon after 180 Albinus distinguished himself in a campaign somewhere north of Dacia (now in Romania). He was consul in the late 180s and commanded armies on the Rhine and (about 191) in Britain. Early in 193, after the murder of the emperor Pertinax, the guards in Rome proclaimed M. Didius Salvius Julianus emperor; evidence suggests that Albinus may have encouraged Didius. The armies of the Danube and of Syria, however, proclaimed imperial power for their respective commanders, Severus and Niger. Didius was murdered, and Severus, entering Rome as emperor, concluded with Albinus an agreement that acknowledged him as caesar and heir. After Niger was destroyed by Severus, a rupture between the two remaining rivals was inevitable. In 197, Albinus, now proclaimed emperor, entered Gaul and advanced toward Rome with the army of Britain. Severus marched through southern Germany and defeated and killed Albinus in a two-day battle that took place outside modern Lyon, Fr.