The future Emperor Septimius Severus, who would be the first Emperor of Rome of
African origins, was born Lucius Septimius Severus on the coast of what is now
Libya on April 11, 145 AD to Publius Septimius Geta. His family was a provincial
one with no immediate relatives holding very high positions and Severus grew up
to marry a local girl. He showed talent fairly early on and when he first came
to Rome at the age of 18 the Emperor Marcus Aurelius appointed him senator.
Other offices came after, helped in part by the commander of the Praetorian
Guard who was also from North Africa. He was serving as governor of Upper
Pannonia (the general area of modern Austria) when word reached him of the death
of the Emperor Commodus and his hour of destiny was upon him.
Two other
emperors rose and fell while the Danube legions hailed Septimius Severus as
emperor and he marched on Rome. Most came to his side or at least made way for
him and when he arrived at the Eternal City the senate quickly recognized which
way the wind was blowing and formally bestowed the offices and powers of Emperor
of Rome on him in 193. He executed all those who had been involved in the murder
of Emperor Pertinax (the successor of Commodus) and the rest were evicted from
Rome. In this way he was able to rid himself of the questionable loyalties of
the Praetorian Guard and replace them with soldiers he knew he could count on.
The following year he marched against Syria where the eastern legions had
proclaimed a rival emperor. He dealt with them swiftly and forcefully, smashed
them and then in 195 led a punitive expedition against the Parthians for their
support of the Syrian governor who had opposed him.
The Emperor was then
free to move against his next most serious opposition which came from Clodius
Albinus, ironically also from North Africa, who was the governor of Britain.
Severus had named him “Caesar” to get him on side during the Syrian rebellion
but once that was suppressed he named the seven-year-old boy Caracalla “Caesar”
and his future successor in a show of continuation from the Antonine dynasty.
Albinus was less than impressed and invaded Gaul with 40,000 men based around
the three British legions. Once his war was underway the Germania legion in
Spain also declared in support of him. While Septimius Severus was in Rome
securing his throne and dealing with legislative issues Albinus continued his
rampage, made Lyons his headquarters and came close to taking the Rhineland
throughout 196.
By the next year Severus was prepared to respond and
marched his legions into Gaul where he met Albinus outside Lyons on February 19,
197. The fighting was fierce and at one point Severus thought defeat was certain
and stripped himself of any outward signs of his rank. However, just in time,
his cavalry came charging to the rescue, turned the tide and utterly defeated
Albinus who shortly thereafter killed himself rather than be captured. Severus
showed no mercy to his defeated rival, disgracing his body, sending his head to
Rome as a trophy and throwing the corpse into the river along with his wife and
children. This is not surprising as Severus had a reputation for being a zealous
monarch, not highly educated but certainly intelligent, very generous towards
his friends (never forgetting a favor) but ruthless to enemies.
He showed
as little mercy to his political enemies back in Rome, systematically
eradicating anyone linked to the rebel forces. Because of this the senate feared
and distrusted him. The army, on the other hand, adored him as he allowed them
much greater freedom (giving them the right to marry and have families), raised
their pay and improved their standard of living. He held lavish celebrations to
win over the populace but he was soon off to war again with Rome’s longtime
rival in the east; the Parthians. He ultimately fought two wars against them
following Parthian interference in the affairs of Roman-allied states along the
border. The first resulted in a loss of territory which became a Roman province
but the second was more thorough and Septimius Severus captured the Parthian
capital and absorbed Mesopotamia into the empire. The victory was crushing,
total and severe.
After this victory the Emperor went on a little
sight-seeing tour, going to Egypt to visit the tomb of Alexander the Great and
the pyramids. His age was beginning to show and sickness becoming more frequent
yet he could not take life easy. Some years after returning to Rome and devoting
himself to civil legislation a group of centurions came forward with information
that the commander of the Praetorian Guard, Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, was
planning to kill the Emperor and his heir Caracalla to seize power for himself.
Was the plot real or engineered? This has been debated ever since but it was
especially alarming to Septimius Severus because Plautianus had been his close
friend. He had even forced Caracalla to marry Plautianus’ daughter though he had
no affection for the girl or her father. The result, in any event, was the swift
execution of Plautianus and the exile of his daughter.
Caracalla was glad
to be rid of both of them but it was a painful ordeal for the Emperor who, as
his health continued to decline, had to watch the peace of Rome be upset by the
growing feud between Caracalla and his brother Geta. Each had factions loyal to
them, minor troubles were constant, and it seemed everyone in Rome was either
for Geta or Caracalla. When trouble broke out in Britain Septimius Severus took
the opportunity to bring both brothers with him as he set out on campaign once
again with his legions. Yet, by this time the Emperor was so ill and riddled
with gout that he had to be carried in a litter. To deal with the British
problem Severus determined to start from scratch, reconquering the whole island.
Geta was put in charge of the civil administration and Caracalla was dispatched
across Hadrian’s Wall into Scotland with the army.
The campaign was going
well when the long suffering Emperor Septimius Severus finally died at York on
February 4, 211. Abandoning the conquest of Scotland, his sons cremated the
Emperor and carried his ashes back to Rome for burial in the Mausoleum of
Hadrian. The senate promptly voted him divine status. He was remembered as a
great warrior, a generous and attentive friend but an unforgiving and merciless
foe. He was tolerant, not overly sensitive of criticism, and as Cassius Dio
said, “a man of few words, though of many ideas”. He left behind many monuments
and magnificent buildings (few of which sadly remain) and the reputation of a
strong and shrewd monarch. Herodian said of him, “No one had ever before been so
successful in civil wars against rivals or in foreign wars against the
barbarians. For eighteen years he ruled, before making way for his young sons to
succeed, bequeathing to them greater wealth than any previous emperor and an
invincible army”.
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