​NIGER, GAIUS PESCENNIUS, governor of Syria under the emperor Commodus. On the death of Pertinax (A.D. 193), he was saluted emperor by the troops at Antioch, but unaccountably delayed marching on Rome until he learned that Septimius Severus, one of the rival claimants, had assumed the offensive. He then strongly garrisoned Byzantium and the principal towns of Asia Minor, but after his legate Aemilianus had been defeated and slain near Cyzicus he himself was driven from Nicaea and routed near the Cilician Gates. Having failed in an effort to escape towards the Euphrates, he was brought back and put to death in 194.