Usurper Nepotianus Enters Rome: Gladiators and Imperial Ambition
Gladiators stormed the gates of Rome — and for 28 days, that was actually enough. Nepotianus, nephew of Constantine the Great, had no army, no treasury, no real plan. Just a mob of fighters and a famous name. He seized the city, had coins minted with his own face, and called himself Augustus. But the legitimate emperor Magnentius sent a general named Marcellinus, who crushed him fast. Nepotianus was beheaded. His mother executed alongside him. A dynasty built on conquest, ended by a gladiator's gamble that almost worked.
June 3, 350
1676 years ago
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