Sextus Tigidius Perennis (died 185) was a prefect

Praetorian prefect

Praetorian prefect was the title of a high office in the Roman Empire. Originating as the commander of the Praetorian Guard, the office gradually acquired extensive legal and administrative functions, with its holders becoming the Emperor's chief aides...

 of the Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 imperial bodyguard

Bodyguard

A bodyguard is a type of security operative or government agent who protects a person—usually a famous, wealthy, or politically important figure—from assault, kidnapping, assassination, stalking, loss of confidential information, terrorist attack or other threats.Most important public figures such...

, known as the Praetorian Guard

Praetorian Guard

The Praetorian Guard was a force of bodyguards used by Roman Emperors. The title was already used during the Roman Republic for the guards of Roman generals, at least since the rise to prominence of the Scipio family around 275 BC...

, during the reigns of the emperors

Roman Emperor

The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...

 Marcus Aurelius and Commodus

Commodus

Commodus , was Roman Emperor from 180 to 192. He also ruled as co-emperor with his father Marcus Aurelius from 177 until his father's death in 180. His name changed throughout his reign; see changes of name for earlier and later forms. His accession as emperor was the first time a son had succeeded...

. Under the latter, Perennis was the man who exercised the chief responsibilities of government in the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

. In 185 however, Perennis was implicated in a plot to overthrow the emperor by his political rival Marcus Aurelius Cleander, and executed under orders of Commodus.

Family

He was the son of Gnaeus Cornelius Tegidus and married Domnia The Dobrogean in 180 AD. They had Papiria Celena Verch Gurdomnus that year and Septimus Tigidius afterwards.

Rise to power

Perennis was appointed Praetorian Prefect after the execution of the incumbent Prefect Paternus, who had displeased Commodus by ordering without consent the death of the Emperor's lover and friend Saoterus

Saoterus

Saoterus was a Bithynian Greek freedman who served as the Roman Emperor Commodus's palace chamberlain . His career is sketched by Herodian, Dio Cassius and the Historia Augusta...

 for his questionable involvement in an assassination plot headed by Lucilla

Lucilla

Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla or Lucilla was the second daughter and third child of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and Roman Empress Faustina the Younger and an elder sister to future Roman Emperor Commodus....

 and Marcus Ummidius Quadratus Annianus

Marcus Ummidius Quadratus Annianus

Marcus Ummidius Quadratus Annianus was a wealthy Roman Politician and the nephew of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius.Quadratus was the son of Marcus Aurelius’ sister, Annia Cornificia Faustina and the Roman Senator who served as a suffect consul in 146, Gaius Ummidius Quadratus Annianus Verus....

. Perennis himself was influential in the instigation of his predecessor Paternus's punishment.

Political career

Herodian

Herodian

Herodian or Herodianus of Syria was a minor Roman civil servant who wrote a colourful history in Greek titled History of the Empire from the Death of Marcus in eight books covering the years 180 to 238. His work is not entirely reliable although his relatively unbiased account of Elagabalus is...

 describes how Perennis capitalised on Commodus's distrust of the Roman Senate

Roman Senate

The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...

 (following the aforementioned assassination attempt to which the Senate was linked) by destroying many powerful Senators and claiming their wealth as his own. So too was Perennis thought to have held ambitions of military power: soldiers were given lavish gifts in an attempt to seduce them to his cause, and his sons were appointed to commanding army roles. The Augustan History

Augustan History

The Augustan History is a late Roman collection of biographies, in Latin, of the Roman Emperors, their junior colleagues and usurpers of the period 117 to 284...

 suggests Perennis also persuaded Commodus to allow him political control, freeing the Emperor for his more hedonistic personal pursuits.

Downfall

Commodus was warned both by his friends and his soldiers of the rising influence of Perennis, and the Praetorian Prefect was soon, in 185, executed on these grounds. Instrumental in Perennis's downfall was Marcus Aurelius Cleander, who would go on to fulfill a similar role in the next period of Commodus's reign.